October 17, 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Now to get everyone up to speed. We got Lynn home last Friday evening. From the time she got home, she steadily improved. I'd have to say that she was pretty much back to normal by Sunday. She was still taking the Lasik, so she was getting up during the night, but the length of time she spent sleeping got longer and longer as the week went on. We even managed to make it to church on Sunday, which lent an air of normalcy to our otherwise abnormal lives! Gary and Sharon dropped by during the day and helped out with getting the kids to school, some housework, and made some meals. I was also confident enough to take Mac to his first Cub Scout meeting on Monday night.

In general, she has been getting better and better. The persistent cough that she had that kept her up at night is now completely gone. Her endurance has also improved...before, she had to take the stairs to the second floor in two phases, resting at the landing. Well, not now. She makes it in one single trip. Her attitude is much better too - generally very positive, which is really important when it comes to overcoming cancer. We know for sure that she is going to lose her hair, so she decided to get it trimmed up now, before it all falls out. When Heidi trimmed it, it really looked good. She said that she might want to stay with that style when the whole cancer thing has run its course, and her hair comes back. This whole hair loss situation has been a lot less traumatic than last time - after all, we have already been down this road before!

Well, things were going swimmingly up until last night, that is, Friday night. It was then that Carlee developed a high fever, and could not gt back to sleep. I ran out and got some children's Tylenol, along with a thermometer (all ours were AWOL or non-working), and checked her out. It was at 102.9. However, the Tylenol managed to knock it down. Next morning, when the Tylenol ran out, the temperature started climbing again. Lynn arranged to line up an appointment at the pediatrician to see what the problem was. Susan and Amy dropped by, and Susan went with her to the doctor's.

I guess that 2009 still has some surprises in store for us, despite the fact that we thought we had seen it all. Turns out, Carlee has H1N1...yes, swine flu. And Lynn, with her severely depleted immune system, had been exposed to her continually since she got it.

On the plus side, Carlee does not seem to have a terrible case of the flu. She has the high temperature, and she has the sore throat, but the body aches, nausea, runny nose, sneezing and so on do not appear to be a problem. Also, I am here at home and can take care of her today and tomorrow, the days she is most likely to be the most ill. On the negative side, there is a really good chance that Lynn will develop a case of the flu. There is really nothing we can do about it. She had been in line to get one of the first vials of the vaccine, but if she has it already, there isn't much she can do about it. I just hope that it doesn't affect the next phase of the chemo. H1N1 runs in a 7 day cycle, and I cannot imagine that her doctors will allow her to start part 2 if she is still suffering from the flu.

If things turn out OK, the next phase of chemo will begin on Monday, October 26th. Her oncologist has set up a four day hospital stay for her for that phase. He also is working on handling the Ifex issue, and it looks like it will not be as severe next time.