Port Time!

 
I'm pretty sure this week was actually 2 weeks smooshed into one, it seemed like a long one! Monday went well - we went to the infusion room to get her labs drawn and then met with the oncologist. We got our schedule for the next two months and were happy to see that we don't have to give any chemo at home! She just will have to do her antiobiotic every weekend like she always does, so that's not bad. It was also great to hear that her counts went back up, they had been pretty low, but her ANC (her ability to fight infection) was a high number again, so that was awesome. Starting this next Tuesday though, she will go in for chemo every 10 days. It is the kind that made her legs hurt in the past, so I'm hoping that it won't affect her in that way again. We ended up just kind of hanging out in the building after that appointment and then met the surgeons at 1:00. They explained the procedure for taking out her broviak and putting in the port. You could tell it was very routine and no big deal for them, but the idea of it made me nervous because she had to be put under anathesia more deeply than she is for her spinal taps because the surgery takes longer. After that appointment, we went to the golf course to meet up with the rest of the kids for their junior golf and then had dinner at my parents' house. Tuesday we stayed home to get ready for our good friends who came to visit for a couple days from Texas. Mike Coolbaugh and Mike (Frank) played on a few teams together in baseball and became best friends. After Mike was killed by a foul ball in 2007, we helped organize a golf tournament in San Antonio to honor his life and help his family. It is so great to see the Coolbaughs every year and Braden especially loves it because the boys all just play baseball together constantly. You can go to www.coolbaughmemorial.com to learn more about the tournament. Thursday morning, we had to be to the hospital by 8:00 for Brooklyn's surgery at 10:00. She was tired and a little mad that we wouldn't give her anything to drink, but in pretty good spirits. We went back to the pre-op area and she was making all the nurses laugh, taking pictures of them with my phone and playing hide and seek in her bed. It was hard when they wheeled her away, because I usually go with her into the operating room when she gets her spinal taps. The surgery took about an hour and sitting in the waiting room with all the other anxious parents made me again realize how crazy it is that there are parents waiting for kids going through surgery every day, that I never even thought about before being one of them. I am thankful for the doctors and surgeons who do such amazing things every day, but it is hard to be waiting in that room to hear how things went with your child. Brooklyn's surgery went great. They were able to use the same tubes inside her body to hook up to the port, which was great because it meant they didn't have to do another incision to put more tubes in. She woke up happy and was anxious to get home to have petaroni pizza, apple juice, milk and "those little balls" (Kix). She is pretty sore from the surgery so we just had a day at home yesterday which was nice. She woke up a few times last night because she was in pain, but she should be feeling better today. She has to keep the incisions dry for about a week, but is very excited because, as she says, "now I can go wimming wheneder I want." :) We are excited too; it will make everyday stuff so much easier for her. She won't have to get her dressing changed, we won't have to flush her lines every night and we won't have to worry about her shirt getting wet all the time. She is also excited to tell people her hair is growing back. :) She is such an amazing little girl.