Thursday, January 20th

Michellie awoke today with a sore throat and she couldn't swallow much.  The doctor sent for more drugs and warned us that we could be staying another night.  We were devastated.  Michellie was so tired of more drugs, more tests and more pains.  We had a little cry and held onto some pity for a moment, then we wiped our eyes and aimed for better.  After another round of drugs, the throat was better.  She still couldn't drink much or eat, but she was gaining color and strength.  Yahoo!  By midafternoon they decided to let us go!  We sprang from there as fast as we could.

Michellie's blood counts are down again, so we will have a quiet and protective weekend until the counts go back up.  That's ok, Michellie is now happy as a clam to be home and is busy programming her ipod with more exciting music to carry her through.  Thank goodness for the electronics of today!

David and I are sitting with the big bag of meds and trying to get the schedule organized so we don't miss anything.  For those of you who knew us with only aspirin and cough medicine in the cabinet, we are now very knowledgeable and stocked up.  Right next to the herbs and such...crazy!

PS  David was at emergency this afternoon to have his finger looked at and the attachment took.  The doctor was very pleased with how it was healing.  The stitches were removed, and a CLEAN bandage was added.  David even had some sensations while the stitches were removed, so he was happy about that.  I'm still on dish duty for a few more weeks, but that's ok if David's mousing hand will work at the computer.

Wednesday, January 19th

Today Michellie had her 8^th day of chemo for Round 2.  It was supposed to be an “easy” day – that is what they all begin like.  On the first Round and on Day 8, she had an allergic reaction to the chemo. It was a horrifying 24 hours bringing her out of her drug induced stupor afterwards and then the nausea – there wasn’t supposed to be nausea on this day.

So, today, when Michellie awoke from the end of the Benedryl cycle and the chemo drugs, she should have just woken up and begun gaining energy and enthusiasm. Not today.  Today she developed “Thrush”, or a yeast infection, as a result of the chemo.  Her throat which was a little sore in the morning moved to excruciating by the time she was fully conscious and they had moved us from the oncology ward to pediatrics where she would stay overnight.  Pounding her head, punching the bed, pinching her hands and crying inconsolably, it was an excruciating 45 minutes before they could get her prescription from the doctor, through the pharmacy and to the nurse and then into an IV and finally to have an effect on her throat.  Through this I was rubbing feet, holding pressure points, talking, crying, anything to keep her from hurting herself.  And then, the nurse said it was 3:30 pm.  That meant there was still a bit of Oprah on.  Perhaps there would be something interesting that could divert my daughter’s attention. 

We turned on the television to see Oprah and Gayle climbing the top of the bridge in Brisbane:  “Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure”.  We had seen the seasons opening show when the audience was given the trip.  This was exciting. Michellie stopped pounding her head.  We watched Gayle try to take the last 10 steps to the top and Michellie counted with her.  Then, the helicopter ran out of gas and we waited as Oprah stated that this would make the show and they would never forget this moment.  Well, neither would we.  This whole scene had me laughing off of my seat and Michellie beginning to smile and giggle herself.  Even all the intense planning that such a trip would take for Oprah’s crew could have a glitch, and we remember many performances we did with similar difficulties.  But on the top of  the bridge and people afraid of heights!?  What was an incident in Oprah’s life and all the other participants breaking the world record, was our incident of breakthrough in pain. 

This one incident might have been the end of the story, but then Oprah began showing all the adventures that they were on with the trip.  Michellie’s dream and passion is to swim with dolphins.  She has snorkeled once, and was intently watching the man who learned how to swim so he could go snorkeling on the trip.  Then, Oprah showed all the sails on the boats in the harbor.  She exclaimed that coming from a little dirt road in the south of the USA, where there were no key chains or name tags with “Oprah” on them, there was a bigger gift waiting for her name.  Oprah exclaimed “There was a Regatta with her name on it”.  Michellie’s grin was huge.  Her name is not a common one and she is always called by the wrong name, especially here by the nurses.  She could so identify with Oprah.  So, as the show came to an end, Michellie had found a way to cope, we had laughed intently through one of her darkest cancer moments, and she even had a vision of the future to think about – the day when treatment would be over and she could take a trip like Oprah’s to chase her own dreams.  Thanks Oprah!