2008-04-02

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise

The first night in hospital was a late night for Terence and Bianca. Unfortunately they were quite busy and by the time they accessed Bianca's port, the numbing cream started wearing off and so the skin wasn't quite numb when they put the needle in and she cried, but not once did she try to push the nurse's hand away - she was so brave!

Yesterday afternoon I took over from Terence around 2pm as Terence had to go to work for a meeting. Bianca and I had a good time spending together. Bianca looks pretty happy and she looks better than the weekend. They also say that her liver function is definitely not getting worse, so that is good. She is still neutropenic and they won't start chemo until Bianca's counts come up. Bianca's haemoglobin was low and so they had to take a blood sample from her port to cross-match and then later in the afternoon Bianca got a blood transfusion. To date she has had around 24 or 25 blood product transfusions. So a big big thank you to all blood donors out there.

Have you ever wondered what 4 hours look like? A blood transfusion (red blood cells) for Bianca takes 4 hours to run through.


They regularly monitor Bianca before and during the transfusion.

Bianca played with play doh during the blood transfusion.

Today I knew that this admission was a blessing in disguise. Last night Caitlyn had a bit of a tummy bug and around 1am this morning I got up and Caitlyn had 4 vomitting episodes. Not the most pleasant thing that time of the morning. Thereafter I got up for Caitlyn again at 2am, 3am and again 4am. So good thing Bianca is in hospital because the last thing I want is for her to pick anything up. So until I know for sure that I did not pick anything up, I won't be going to the hospital. So it's going to be a bit hard not seeing Bianca much this week, but rather this than her picking up a tummy bug.

This afternoon The Dom Post came to take some photos of Bianca so it will be interesting to see what goes into the paper.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lea,
Just to let you know we are thinking of you all. Bianca certainly does sound to be in the best place. Lets hope her counts start bouncing back up. I hope you get some rest today, last night sounds exhausting(we had it 2 weeks ago). Take care and fingers crossed the bug passes you by. Gentle cuddle to Caitlin as she recouvers.
Love The Blows

Anonymous said...

Wow, poor you Lea. What a night! I hope that Caitlin gets over the bug soon.
Also, good luck with Bianca's counts and getting out of there. She sure is brave. We don't use emla on Pete's port as he reacts to it, so he always screams like mad every time he is accessed. If anyone even tries to lift up his t-shirt at any time he freaks out a lot.
I hope you all have a good day. We are thinking of you guys.
take care,
Bridget and Peter