Thursday 6/24

Thursday was another good day for Lisa. All in all this week has been surprisingly “good”. Good being the relative word of course. As you’ve read earlier in the blog, Lisa wasn’t even able to sit up on her own last week due to the pain. This week however she’s been getting up and down just fine and even managed a hop or two. (That would have been a feat 6 months ago) I suspect that her increased ability this week is in large part due to the cycle that began months ago where her difficulties would come and go every 3 or 4 weeks. The pain medication she’s on now is prescribed for every 4 – 6 hours but she seems to be comfortable with only 2 doses per day. Her biggest discomfort at the moment is the urinary tract infection (UTI) which was most likely introduced when, or after, the stint placed in the tube that connects her kidney to her bladder.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lisa’s chemotherapy treatments, they begin with hydration (saline solution) via IV for up to two hours, followed by meds to ward off nausea, followed by the chemo drugs, antibiotics for her UTI, followed by more hydration. In total the treatments are about 6-8 hours long. Then we hook her up to her portable IV pump and take a bag of saline solution, four hours worth, to go. Add all that fluid up and you’ve got a 3.5 year old having to pee an awful lot.

The staff at UofM Motts and the Pediatric Cancer Center is first class. They really cater to the kids and try to make the best of a bad situation as Linda pointed out so thank you UofM. Lisa does appear to be charming them her crazy curls and silly antics that only 3-4 year olds can do. Other people that I’d like to thank are my uncle Tony Fiorello, My cousin Dr. Larry McMaster, and good friend and godfather to Lisa - Matt Holowicki, RN for attending the meeting on 6/18 to help determine the best possible treatment for Lisa. At the request and advisement of Uncle Tony, second opinions have been received (thanks Larry) and the consensus has been unanimous that the treatment path we’ve taken is the best choice available to us and furthermore we are in one of the best facilities with some of the most capable doctors for this type of cancer. So we have that going for us as well as all of you praying for her. Please keep it up.