On Monday, it was clear that Ellie's body was not accepting the platelets. Early that morning around 5am, she woke up coughing. She had some really hard coughs before finally coughing up mucous and blood. In the moment, that was a little scary, but it ended up not actually being that worrisome. Her platelet count had gone back down to 11, so that little bit of coughing was enough up burst some blood vessels and have it come up.
Just like last time, Ellie did not respond to the regular platelets. The doctors are not exactly sure why, but think that perhaps there is something in the plasma that is mixed with the platelets that her body is rejecting. Last time Ellie was in the hospital, she finally responded to matched or typed platelets (at the time we thought that they were volume reduced or washed, but we were incorrect). So this time, we started looking again for the matched platelets, but in the meantime opted for the volume reduced platelets. They are stripped of everything in the blood that is not a platelet. This worked! Ellie received the transfusion on Monday afternoon and her counts jumped to 41! Now, they just needed to hold. Ellie had no fever, a high ANC and was eating well, so the only concern was her platelet count.
 |
| Sleeping after getting the platelets. Since her allergic reaction several weeks ago, she is now pre-medicated with every transfusion. This includes Benadryl, which naturally makes her sleepy. |
One good thing about this hospital visit was that Ellie was overall feeling much better than previous visits. Since she was not on contact restriction, she was able to leave her room which made the visit a lot more bearable.
 |
| Miss Sabine came up from the infusion center to see Ellie. |
 |
| Playing with her dolls from home. |
 |
| Playing with play-doh downstairs with the volunteers. |
 |
| Chillin' on the couch, watching a movie and being hand fed dinner. |
The next morning Ellie's platelets were at 37! They were holding enough to go home. This was such great news! We don't know why Ellie's platelets dropped while nothing else did, but we are grateful that it was a quick turnaround for her. Praise be to our Heavenly Father!
 |
| Her port has been de-accessed and she is ready to go home! |
Ellie will return to the hospital on Friday. She is supposed to receive another round of chemo at that time, but it is unlikely that she will be strong enough to continue with treatment so soon. So, we will go, have her blood counts checked and decide what to do then. Worst case scenario is that this one is skipped, and she picks back up with treatment when her body has recovered.
Strangely enough, any delays do not affect her end date for treatment. We were under the impression that a week delay now meant a week added to the end of treatment. That's not how it works. I do not understand it, but I trust her doctors and the care she is receiving. With that said, we know when Ellie will be done with her treatment.
June 9, 2018
It seems so weird knowing this date. I started crying when the nurse told me. Knowing a concrete day when she will be done with all of this...well, I don't know how to explain it. It's such an odd feeling. A good feeling, but strange nonetheless.
Please continue to pray for Ellie's complete and permanent healing.
Pray for no long term or short term side effects from her treatment.
Pray for comfort, peace and understanding for Eva and Nora.
Pray for strength for Mike and I, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally and financially.
By the way, today was Nora's 5th birthday. All of us were so happy to be home together to celebrate!
 |
| Opening gifts from her sisters this morning. |
No comments:
Post a Comment