The First 24 Hours are Over

12:16AM
The first 24 hours are over.
We have received the second of the anti-cancer drugs, vincristine, another real winner, (more happy fun time reading at http://www.chemocare.com/bio/vincristine.asp) and the “rescue” drug, Leucovorin, which counteracts the methotrexate. It’s also called a “chemoprotectant.” http://www.chemocare.com/bio/leucovorin.asp See all the new things you’re learning? The vincristine is one of those hair-fall-out drugs so we'll see.
Aunt B (Becky) came relatively early on and gave me the flexibility to be occasionally useless which I was. Sleep was hard to come by last night so I was exhausted most of the day. I did get a nice nap while a couple nurses took CJ into the bathroom and gave her a real bath. Another great crew of nurses. I haven’t given out any new nicknames this time around. (So far!)
Dr. Kahn came by just before Becky got here this morning and addressed the catheter situation. Since the purpose was to keep her urine away from her skin and it wasn’t really working and was actually giving her a great deal of discomfort, Dr. Kahn recommended we just take it out and deal with the skin issue by changing diapers often and applying large amounts of cream every time. It seems to have worked and as soon as the catheter came out, she was a much happier girl. The unfortunate thing is that CJ now associates diaper changes with the pain of her catheter so I taught her to answer the question, “Where’s the catheter?” by saying, “It’s in the trash.”
With release from the catheter came the freedom to go for walks/rides around the floor. We went out and about 4 times visiting some her former nurses in the PACU and PICU and meeting folks in the lounge. There’s one family here from North Carolina who got into a car accident coming back from a ski vacation. Their daughter, Leah, was seriously injured and is in the PICU. They have a tremendously upbeat attitude and are handling it as well as anyone could be expected to. They don’t have a caringbridge site but they will be starting a similar page soon. I’ll try to get that info.
So ya hear the one about the guy who got drunk and lost his two toddler girls in a snowstorm? I did. I really shouldn’t hear stories like that. It gets me so riled. I kind of get beside myself. It completely astounds me how people can get so screwed up that they shuffle what should be the absolutely most important thing in their universe, the care and welfare of their children, to somewhere below getting drunk, doing drugs, taking a dump (which is pretty much what they’re doing to their kids). Talk about another illness that needs a cure yesterday.
OK enough of that, The Rock is hosting SNL, I’m now able to go to Dre McLaughlin’s senior recital at Randolph-Macon College tomorrow at 4pm (gonna be awesome!), and I think Rachel and I are actually going to get another date in after that. Crazy, man!
Need rest too.


11:15AM Update

Good morning,
Not too bad a night for Charlotte except she threw up at about 4am. The anti-nausea drug was due to be re-administered at about 4:30 so they just gave it to her immediately after we cleaned her up. She's been up since but is in pretty good spirits.
On a very nice note, Nurse Princess (her real name) form the PACU down the hall came by and visited a while this morning although CJ was brainfrying on the Micky Mouse Playhouse.
We met another family of a boy caught in a trailer fire a week or so ago. He was burnt over 70% of his body and is in the PICU getting some amazing treatment. Here's an article about it.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/FIREGAT031_20090303-134405/220517/CJ is fussing. Gotta change a diapey