Visitors Badge (temporary)

Well...


It is momma and daddy-o.


Most things are following the course and along that line, nothing is ever "easy".  Likewise, we don't sit around too much and have had zero time to keep up with posts.


As brief as we are able, we can share that Em did a nice job recovering from her June 11 doses of chemotherapy.  She attended PT with Melissa and was doing well. She received an invite from Greg and his family to go to their lake house and did.   While there, she did well, ironically, Greg did not.   With a houseful of family and activity, he asked if Em could take him to the hospital.  Turns out, Greg had acute appendix -itis.... Strongly recommended that his appendix comes out.    So, being in a remote location is not typically known to have the best hospital care.  Em managed to negotiate the next steps with docs and Greg's parents on the phone.  She drove him directly from med center to the Cleveland Clinic ... about a two hour ride.  They checked in on Friday night, he had laproscopic surgery and Emily got to wear a CLEVELAND CLINIC VISITORS badge.  By all standards, it was her badge of honor.  While in the waiting room at 11 pm on Friday night, she had the true pleasure of seeing Dr. Joyce AND Dr. Wuerz walk by on separate occasions.  They were both taken back by seeing her, as were we, since this was a new part of the Clinic at a strange time and under strange circumstances.  Bravo to that team, winding down their day that began at 5:00 am with a stack full of medical files in tow.   Greg was discharged on Sunday and rest was had by all.


In the midst of all this action, baseball rolls on for Joe and Mackenzie had a wonderful Storad tour of Italy for 10 days.  She is so fortunate to have a teacher like him and had great pictures and stories to share with us about her Italy adventures.  Pretty sure there were at least 14 trips for Gelato.... among the ancient ruins, hills of Tuscany and along the shore of Lake Garda.  We are so pleased to have provided this to her, especially since being around home at the moment is no picnic.


Em had to trade in her VISITORS BADGE for an admission bracelet on Tuesday (yesterday) at 4:30 am.  She had a fever that just reached the threshold of "concern" so we made the fateful call to the doctor on call in the middle of the night.  What a complete bummer.  This was supposed to be "week off" .  We knew that from her visit to the clinic on Monday, her blood counts are low, as predicted.... but that combined with a fever, sets a potential scenario for trouble.  Off we went... here we are.


Since admission at the Cleveland Clinic, we have realized how busy things can get here.  Every bed is full and there are new admitted patients on Emily's floor over stretched staff.  They manage to get it all done, but they are at capacity.. just like us.  Emily had broad antibiotics and the fever quickly stayed below 99.something and is gone.  Since her counts are low, they gave her a "booster" of "G" which helps jump start white blood cell production.  Good to have, painful to live through.  By 7:00 pm last night, Em was in about the highest level of pain that she has had through the whole "little c" ride.  We agree, Em has a pretty high threshold for pain, and the lower back pain at the base of her tailbone was so uncomfortable... a little morphine + a little oxycodone + a little morphine and more oxycodone.... that is a lot for Em, but finally got comfortable enough to sleep.


Good news just came in the door... along with Dr. Carl.... she has one more dose of antibiotic and then she gets to go HOME!  She will report back  to the clinic tomorrow to check her blood levels.... she needs to be in the position to restart and get going with chemo on Monday... yippee... other folks can wear the VISITORS BADGE again soon.