Hospital Update #2

Sheridan is still at CNMC...her counts are too low for her to be at home. With very few white cells she is not able to fight off infection right now and very vulnerable to catching something. Her counts are slowly climbing, but slowly is the key word in that statement. She will be here and stay on IV antibiotics until they are high enough for her to be home safely. She still just has a cold, the antibiotics are preventative at this point. Her cough is a little better today.

We did have a little bit of a scary situation Thursday night when she started having some bleeding from her right ear. Her platelet count (platelets help your blood clot) was very low so they gave her some platelets to stop the bleeding and it worked. Her ENT, who is awesome--I emailed him when I got up Friday a.m. and he was in the room 15 minutes later, came by and checked her out. He said it is nothing to be too concerned over. He prescribed antibiotic drops for a week and said he will see her again then. It is possible that pressure built up and she perferated her ear drum, but it will heal and all will be fine. She is not in any pain :)

Sheridan is in great spirits despite the fact that she is confined to her room. She has been doing art projects and playing with Sam everyday. We hope that she will be able to come home sometime during the coming week, but we will keep you posted. Talk to you soon...

Hospital Update

Hi again :) Sheridan was admitted to CNMC late Tuesday night/Wed a.m. She had a fever and her counts are very low. She tested positive for Rhino virus which is just a cold but is still on I.V. antibiotics for 48hrs while they wait for the blood cultures to come back and rule out an infection as well. She is feeling pretty good this morning, just has an annoying cough. We will keep you posted on when we are getting discharged but for now we are staying put until her counts start to come up a little. Talk to you soon...

Update

Hi everyone :) Sheridan and I went downtown today for chemo...it was supposed to be a short day of counts and chemo but her hemoglobin was low so she needed a transfusion. The transfusion takes 3 hours and they were not able to start it till almost 3:00 because they were waiting on the bloodbank. We got there at 9...so we spent a lot of time in the Art Room today :) She will get her chemo at home for the next three days just like last week. Her white counts were still good today, but probably by the end of the week will be pretty low. Germ precautions are extremely important over the next few weeks. She will be very vulnerable as her counts bottom out. We will keep you posted on how things are going. Talk to you soon.

A Spoonful of Sugar

Jenn went to see Mary Poppins the musical and look at what she brought me...so cool!!!

Update

Hi again :) Sheridan and I went downtown Monday for day 28 of this phase...we were there for about 9 hours. Everything went as planned but it was a long infusion day with required fluids to accompany some of the meds. It was fun chasing her around with the iv pole she was connected too the whole time :) We got home around 6:15 and after she went to bed she developed a fever...so we headed down to Shady Grove ER around 11:30. We were able to start the antibiotics there and come home but didn't get home till 5 a.m. so Monday was a VERY long day! When the nurse came to the house Tuesday afternoon to give her chemo (she came T, W, Th) she taught us how to give the antibiotic and we were able to stay home for the 48hrs instead of being cooped up in the hospital...so the long day Monday was all worth it.

She finished up Thursday with both the antibiotic and the chemo and is deaccessed for the weekend and free to play. She will go back Monday (but not for the long day) and get the same med again at home T, W, Th. Her counts are on the way down so anyone who comes to visit or play will need to be very healthy and wash hands frequently.

Last night we made J.B. dinner for his birthday--Happy Birthday J.B. and Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad. Happy Birthday to Kevin on Sunday! I will post again next week to let you know how things are going.

The Zoo

We went to the Baltimore Zoo last Tuesday for a little famly get away :) J.B. met us there and we had a great day! They have a new train to ride and it is very kid friendly. The kids even got to feed a giraffe!

Update

Hi everyone :) Sheridan went for chemo yesterday, it was day 14 of this phase. So far, knock on wood, she is handling it very well. They are expecting her counts to start falling off from here on out though. She has a 2 week break from going downtown now and we will start up again on day 28 (Aug. 9th) with a new med. She will have chemo 4 days in a row (M-Th) for two weeks. The rest of this phase is the toughest part so we are hoping that she continues to be comfortable. She is taking a steroid that makes her very hungry...we wonder where she is putting all the food she is eating :)

Last week we went to a kick off event for the Light the Night walk. We went to the Westin with Madeline and Ethan and had a fun night. There were fundraising ideas, games and a live band, so ofcourse Sheridan was dancing. They had a photobooth too so I put our pics below. Sheridan is wearing a red feather boa as the Honored Hero for Montgomery County. She looked so adorable!

We will keep you posted on how things are going and I will try to get some new pics up of the fun things we have been doing to keep busy this summer. Talk to you soon :)