Just another day in the life of Leukemia. High Temp means ER. Doctor calls ahead and we head right back when we get there with mask on face. Fielding all the questions of medications, when the last clinic visit was, so on and so on. From there, it is time to get port accessed. This never gets easier. How can you get used to a one inch needle on the end of a butterfly coming at your chest? How do you even get used to a port in your chest all the time? It just becomes your new normal but sometimes it just is plain scary. Restraining a child is not something you get used to.
Once port is accessed it is time to flush the port and take blood sample. Waiting on pins and needles for the ANC counts. Are they high enough to fight an illness? Or, will we be admitted? Then you have to wait days to find out if the port is infected. Oh how traumatic that would be. Once counts are confirmed good we move into treatment. Tylenol and antibiotics, the slow drip begins. The good news, we get to come home after all this is complete.
What now? Do we home school from here? We certainly do not want to put her in situations where she has germs. Protect her too much, she does not have the chance to build immunity. The count down is on, only six months left. We are not alone though. With every week that goes by we feed new families from Hearts for Hadley. It is a constant reminder that, not only are we not alone, others are just beginning the journey. It is just another day in the life of Leukemia.