Lately...

Monday night, Evalette received her first blood transfusion.  The first of many so I am told.  I am so grateful for all the blood donors out there.  You have blessed our family in ways that you don't even know.   The transfusion was a long 2 hour process.  The labs took their sweet time in getting the blood to us so the transfusion didn't start until 10:30 pm.  Then the nurses take her vital signs every 15 minutes.  Anybody that knows my Evalette is that she is a sleeper and she loves her sleep.  She didn't like being poked a million times for 2 hours.  Finally by 12:30 it was done and by 1 am it was all cleaned up.  My sweetie was completely done by then.  She cried and cried and cried until 2 am.  Finally she feel asleep, exhausted.
Yesterday was a good day, but last night was not.  She was up at midnight, 2 am, and then cried from 4 am until 6:30 am.  This morning we gave her pain medication and she relaxed, sat in her bumbo, and didn't make a peep for over an hour.  Her chemo order was late so her nap had to be pushed off...not good.  So she was so overtired that she now can't sleep.  I am hoping that she is finally asleep right now.  All in all, she is doing well.  Besides being high on steroids and her little system being in overdrive, hence the reason she can't relax and sleep, she is responding well to treatment.  Hilary, the child life specialist, and I made her a schedule and posted it to her door.  The nurses, doctors, and hospital staff have been good to respect it.  If we stick to the schedule she gets her sleep and all is well in our world.  If not, it makes things much more rough.  It is hard to watch her in pain or not know what she needs, but each day I cross off a day of her first chemo induction and it is one day less until we get to go home for 3 days or so.
In May, we will have chemo for 3-5 days in the hospital, then go home for 3 days, then chemo in the hospital for 3-5 days, then home for 3 days, and then back to the hospital for 10-14 days.  Then the same thing in June.  This is just a rough plan as it depends on infections, diaper issues and such.  I can't look too far ahead or else I get overwhelmed.  I am grateful that although the steroids make her very grouchy, not herself, and a zombie that she is otherwise doing very well!