An Unexpected Respite!

At the time of Faye's diagnosis, the doctors said that going home between chemo rounds was unlikely. They must have been trying to not get their hopes up in case she wasn't able, because today they were told that her counts are good enough to leave for a short time if they chose to. Nick and Stacey's first reaction was 'No. It's not worth the risk.' But after great hesitation and a lot of thought and prayer, they decided to take this opportunity!

Her ANC counts are around 300 and they need to get up to 1000 before she can start Round 2. Although the doctor admits there is a risk taking her home, as there is with everything, her ANC counts when she first arrived at the hospital were only 30, so it seems she should have a better time fighting off sickness now then the last time she was home.

Faye will be so so happy to be home. Although at first it was hard for her to be excited. Since she was scheduled for her bone marrow biopsy today, she couldn't eat or drink and was therefore, grouchy. She also was upset that her "arm tubes" (PICC line) won't be coming out. She thought that when she got to go home, her "arm tubes" would be history! :( But, after she woke up from the biopsy and especially after Stacey and Mitchell showed up, she was REALLY excited!

During her bone marrow biopsy today, she also had a shot of chemo into her spinal fluid. She did ok during the procedure. She wasn't as upset after waking up from the anesthesia and she didn't throw up, like the other times she's had been under. It was kinda scary for Nick, however, because they told him they'd be back for him in no longer than 30 minutes and then 40 minutes goes by and then 50 and then an hour. But everything was fine. They are hoping to get the results from the biopsy Monday when Faye has to go back to the hospital to get some labs done and possibly another platelet transfusion. But after that, she gets to go back home again and stay until either Thursday or Friday!

Hopefully Faye will be able to cope ok when it is time to go back. And hopefully she'll pick up where she left off on her more outgoing and friendly self. She has really taken a liking to Nurse Katie. She sometimes calls her "Aunt Katie" because she has an aunt Katie here in Utah. Well, the other day Faye was able to be unplugged from her IV tower again and she was speeding along the halls on her trike and whenever she rounded the corner where Nurse Katie was at, she'd yell "Hey Katie!!" really loud and Nurse Katie would reach her hand out and give her five as she passed. Needless to say, the other nurses were all very jealous as they try very hard to make friends with Faye.

Pictures of Faye's homecoming will be posted soon!

Thank you to everyone who came to the Boot Camp fundraiser tonight! It was awesome! Pictures of that coming soon as well.