Thursday, February 19, 2009

"Whew, that was close!"

(post by Tammy)

Yesterday was a pretty rough day for Natalie. Her counts are really low so they had to give her a blood transfusion and platelets transfusion. It still surprises me how strong chemo is. Eventhough Natalie started this round with more platelets than the other two rounds ( she had over 1 million), the chemo knocked them all down to only 10,000 .She pretty much napped most of the day. By evening, the transfusion kicked in and she had a ravenous appetite and energy. She devoured allmost a whole banana nut muffin, some cheetos, some roasted seaweed, some rice crackers, and some madeline cookies.

Around 10 pm, her nurse noticed that Natalie needed a dressing change for the dressing around her broviac site. As they were changing it, they noticed that Natalie's sutres around the opening of the site had slid way down her line. They were worried about her broviac line being shifted from the central location and had imaging come up to take a chest xray at 11pm. Natalie and I were both scared. After we prayed together, she fell asleep. I was too racked up with worry to sleep at all so it was a bad night for me. I wanted to call Grant, but it was past midnight. I ended up emailing some friends to please pray for Natalie.

Thanks to some special prayers, today was a much better day! Natalie woke up happy that it was Thursday Bingo. She loves Thursday Bingo day. Although we were both still worried about the outcome of her xray, it couldn't take away her excitement about Bingo. To make things better, she got one of her favorite nurses today. It was a pleasant surprise because Robin does not normally work on Thursdays.

The doctors finally made their rounds at 10:30 am, and delivered good news as well. Since Natalie's line is still in the central area, the line is still good. No need for another surgical procedure to fix it! We were happy. Natalie was relieved. In her own words, "Whew, that was close." They sent a surgeon up around 3:30 pm to confirm it was okay. No more wrestling with Sean for Natalie though. We do have to be more careful with the line until her treatment is completely over and pray it doesn't move any further away from the central area where it was placed.

Natalie also got another special surprise today. Robin surprised Natalie by making a special visit to Bingo while it was being aired live. Natalie was focusing really hard playing Bingo from the tv in her room when Robin popped up on tv and called out, "N is for nurse and for Natalie". That put a really big smile on Natalie's face.

Natalie's Bingo prize? Another stuffed elephant. And it sings, flaps its ear, and moves its mouth. She named it Elloso. So, she now has twelve elephants: Elley, Ello, Eleanor, Elleyina, Ellojo, Ellloro, Ellatina, Ellafuss, Ellaney, Eloise, and I can't rember the last one. She loves elephants. Who wouldn't? They are so wise, brave, and hardworkers. There is a story behind how she got each one, but I'll save it for another day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tammy, you can call me at midnight...ANYTIME!!!
We made 54 cranes for Natalie yesterday! Autumn, Donna Mendelssohn (Caitlynn's grammy), Rosemary, Shuko and all of our kids helped. We talked about your courage and strength and how all of us are praying for your continued progress. Love to you, and elephant kisses for Natalie~ Lisa

Anonymous said...

Natalie, Tammy, Sean and Grant. Dinh told me that Natalie and you guys had a blog, but I hadn't seen anything till she forwarded this to me. It's cool to be able to read and see what's going on and I'm glad that the broviac tube didn't cause too much trouble. Dinh and I are still planning on visiting for Spring Break, so tell the cafeteria to get some grilled cheese and chicken soup ready for me! Dinh saw a bunch of neat craft stuff at the art supply store, so Natalie will probably get some of that when we visit this time. Things are good in Houston, I have an interview at a school that needs a substitute teacher and should get the results of my certification test soon, that means I can interview for a real position next year. Dinh got "Cooking w/ Mama" on the Wii, but it's way harder than on the DS. That's about it, we'll see you guys in a month, so till then, we'll keep you in our prayers,
Jason