Blood Donors Needed

Several people have asked me this week for more information about donating blood. Childrens has their own blood donor center at the hospital. If you donate directly at CNMC then your donation will go to a child in need at the hospital. The link below has all the info you will need to make an appointment. There is a pdf on the page that you can read with the donor eligibility information. Because the blood goes directly to children their guidelines are a little bit more strict than the Red Cross. Be sure to read them so you don't drive to D.C. only to find out you cannot donate. Children's also now has a mobile unit. If you have enough people in one location you can set up a blood drive and they will come to you.

A little more info:

On average, each month 248 patients receive red blood cells transfusions and 191 patients receive platelets. Many patients receiving blood products have cancer, blood diseases, are undergoing surgery and organ transplantation, or were in accidents. Children needing cardiac surgery require fresh blood less than 7 days old.

Sheridan received a red cells transfusion last Monday. The people who donate make it possible for her and other kids to have the blood products they need as soon as then need them.

They are in need of all blood types right now, but in particular O and B and platelets because of open heart surgeries and other patient needs.

If this is something you have time for it truly does make a huge difference everyday!!!

Copy and paste this link:
http://www.childrensnational.org/DepartmentsandPrograms/default.aspx?Id=309&Type=Program&Name=Blood%20Donor%20Center

We escaped!

Sheridan was released from the hospital this afternoon :) She is very excited to be home! She is going to stay on an antibiotic for a few more days and hopefully we can stay out of the hospital for a while.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for a snow day tomorrow so we can all be home together because Tuesdays Patrick is home too :) Think snow!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a fun Christmas morning...Sheridan & Sam came down to find that Santa came and ate all of his snacks! They were so excited! Santa left some awesome new toys for each of them and a new kitchen to share :) Later in the day we went to Mimi & Papa's and the Rubacky's joined us for dinner. Unfortunately I forgot to pick up my camera the rest of the day...so I don't have pics. It was so nice to be home and enjoy relaxing with family. We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did!

A long week

I haven't gotten to post until tonight, but Sheridan has been in the hospital since Monday. We came down because she needed to have her counts checked (they were low when she came for chemo on the 3rd). She needed red blood cells, which we were not surprised by because she had been very tired the week before. While we were waiting for the blood bank to get her transfusion ready she spiked a fever.

We spent the first night on the 5th floor in a surgical care unit because the 4th floor was full. They were able to move us back down to the 4th floor late on Tuesday night. Both Tues. & Wed. my dad came down during the day to hang with Sheridan while I went to work. Both Patrick and my mom had bad colds so we were trying to keep them out of here and not use up all of my leave. Sheridan had a great time with Papa! Wednesday night Mimi took over so Sam could get some Mommy time. I stayed with him and she stayed with Sheridan and I worked during the day. We went down for a visit on Thursday night and brought dinner from Beale Street :)

This afternoon I switched with my mom and will be here for the weekend...Sam will come down with Patrick to visit tomorrow (Sat.) during the day. It has been a lot going on but we made it work.

Tonight Jenn helped me set up Skype on my computer. Tiffany lent me her aircard so we can get on the internet in the room this weekend :) We talked to Jenn, Ryan, Abby and even the dogs, then Jeannie & Billy and ended the evening with Papa. Sheridan loved it! If you want to Skype with us send me a text :)

Sheridan is stuck for the moment because her counts have continued to drop since she was admitted. She also spiked new fevers both last night and tonight. They have continued the antibiotic all week to make sure they cover her since her immune system so compromised right now. They also do blood cultures everytime she spikes a new fever, but as of now everything has come back clear. So...she needs to stay fever free and her counts need to recover before we can go home. That will most likely be some time next week. We are hoping for sooner rather than later. This is very similar to what happened in the end of August when she was here for 2 weeks. Say some prayers that it is a shorter stay this time :) We'll keep you posted.

Xmas Eve

Last year Beth and Bill started a tradition of having lunch together at Beale Street on Christmas Eve. We had a great time! Everyone can relax, hang out and eat. We followed it up with mass at Visitation before going back to our house. Our own tradition is to have dinner at our house...I make stuffed shells :) This year we were missing Kevin and Patrick at dinner because the restaurant was still open. We had a nice night though and Patrick made it home in time to leave cookies & milk for Santa and snacks for the reindeer. We were out of carrots this year so Sam suggested dog food...they liked it!