Gainesville Take Two

We are back in Gainesville for another try at harvesting Jael's stem cells. This time its just Jael and I; Erik and Heidi stayed home. We got in yesterday and started out in the hospital getting bloodwork done and waiting endlessly for the doctor (she apologized profusely, which is nice and rare). Her counts were where they had expected them. They scheduled us to come in tomorrow (Sunday) for a blood transfusion to hopefully have her set up to harvest as early as Monday. Could also be as late as Wednesday.

She has been complaining of a headache since the last day of her chemo treatments last week. She has been pretty consistently pointing to the bottom of her main scar when asked where it hurts. Yesterday she started saying it hurt at the top of her head. That is worrisome because it could indicate fluid on the brain. From everything I've read online it looks like the only fix is a shunt in her head that would then drain into her abdomen. Let me be clear that the doctors don't think that this is the problem - but is something that has been mentioned as a possibility. Praying against that. We go back again on Monday to get bloodwork and hopefully get on the machine. We will see the doctor that day so if her headaches are still in full force I will be asking for a "quick" MRI that the doctor mentioned would be able to see fluid.

Last night was the first night I had to give her a shot. Erik has been in charge of that since day 1 and I've been so grateful. Well since she and I came to Gainesville by ourselves it was entirely up to me. Oh wait...the first shot was on Thursday night so that I could do it while Erik was around the first time. Can I just say how much I hate it? I just gave Jael her shot and she was so brave, but it just sucks. Hopefully in a few days we can stop. Once her white blood counts go up we don't have to do the shot anymore.

We had a great day today! We played at the park twice...

This park is stinkin awesome. So many fun things to climb on, a merry-go-round, teeter totters, and tons of swings. Makes the rainbow park look LAME. ;-) It was great fun and wore her out wonderfully both times. Now we are chillin' out for the night. Here is a picture of her watching her new Dora movie (thanks Baby P) in her new Spongebob shirt.