Blood Transfusion 1

So ever since last weeks hospital stay Arley has been under the weather. Hardly eating/drinking and very low energy.

On Monday she had clinic and still wasn't her usual normal self so I kept an eye on her and tried to get her to drink/eat when she wanted. When she received her daily shot she threw up an hour later.

Tuesday rolled around and still no eating/drinking with a continuation of vomiting has me starting to get worried. She again vomited within an hour of receiving her shot but it's hard to tell what all this is contributed to. She works herself up whenever she has to put the cream on and then to receive the shot so that's why it's so hard to decipher if it's due to the shot itself, her work up prior to getting said shot, because she's clearly dehydrated and not eating/drinking or a result of the chemo. Could even just be an odd combination of all of it put together.

I called the on-call doctor and he said to keep an eye on her, see if she would eat a Popsicle or drink some pedialyte and if I still felt like bringing her in I was welcome to do so. She had a few licks of her Popsicle before it melted on her and she fell asleep.

Fast forward to yesterday and she was so pale and listless that I immediately called the clinic to see about bringing her in. They said to bring her right away and back a bag in case we were admitted.

When we arrived she was weighed and she had lost another pound. For those keeping track that's two in less than a week. (One pound lost within two days) of the previous post. I'm worried that eventually she's going to require that damn feeding tube. If it gets her the nutrition she needs then fine I'll go along with it I just hate putting her into these situations all the time. How many procedures does one kid need?

Well nobody ever said this was going to be easy and that I would have to make and go along with decisions that I didn't necessarily want to. If it's going to make her feel better then I'm on board for it doesn't mean I have to like it though.

Anyway, after she was pumped with fluids they checked all of her levels and she was starting to drop dramatically. Her red cells needed to be at at least an 8.1 or higher and she was at a 7.3 no wonder she's felt so crappy the last several days. 

So it was decided that she needed to have a blood transfusion. I asked if it was possible for me to donate the blood to her since we are the same (as discussed a few blog entries ago) but they said no they don't use "known donors." Uh ok then.

She received only one bag of blood and then slept until about 35 minutes ago. She's refusing to eat breakfast but just drank 4oz of apple juice so we are at least moving in the right direction of getting something other than IV fluids into her.

For now I will end this entry and let you know how the rest of the day progresses once I have more information. I wanted to update everyone quickly with what's been going on with Arley since I posted a few things on Facebook.

Talk to you all soon with an update. Until then xoxo


ETA Update: Arley was released from the hospital with the promise that I would try to get her to eat and/or drink something and if not then i would have to bring her back. Her energy level had perked up a bit so that's why she was allowed to go back home. Once here she asked for some goldfish and some juice and drank about 5oz. About an hour or so went by and she asked for more fish. Works for me. While it may not be a meal it is by far a huge step in the right direction. Now its time to relax, and enjoy our weekend without any medical events and report back to clinic come Monday!