Thursday, July 9, 2009

Checkin at UCSF cancer clinic


Today I'm grateful; for...
Spend
ing quality time with my wife
Safe trip to SF
That I'm healthy
That my kids are healthy
That my wife will get healthy with God's help

We made the trek from Reno to SF last night. Lulu's younger sister, Ibis and her three daughters arrived from Texas around noon. I was at the office so I could help pick them up from the airport (I'm sure the van was full anyway?). I left the office at 1 PM to get to the NICU to hold Baby Lourdes for an hour before taking off to SF.

When I got to the unit Lourdes was in her Giraffe incubator (now days I was told the nurses call them isoletes) and was sleeping. She does a lot of sleeping, and let me tell you that she is very cute with her pick pajamas and matching hat. Her oxygen requirement
s have gone down form 4 liters/hour to 3 since yesterday (another one of those small victories that we have learned to celebrate). The nurse gives me the days and previous night's satis report; "she had a good night, she only desaturated two times and had one bradycardic episode. She is up to 3.1 pounds and is now taking 24 cc of breast milk ever three hours with no residual." They always say things in a way that makes my heart soar. The nurses could report that the baby had grown a third eye, had lost all her long black hair, and her nose feel off during the last shift and they would say it in such a way that I would have thought that it was the best thing that could have ever happen to her! She also told me that yesterday's nurse had taken a photo of Lourdes without her nasal cannula and had framed it for us and gave it to my wife earlier that day. In the 5 weeks since she was born, we had never seen her without some sort of breathing apparatus. I couldn't wait to see it. These are the type of things the St. Mary's team does that are above and beyond the expectations. I know that I've said it before, but these little things make the experience more tolerable.

T
oday is a big day, Lulu's schedule today is for a 8:30 AM breast MRI, 1 PM chemotherapy training, and then at 3 PM something called MUGA (which I understand is a heart function test needed before they start her on the chemotherapy treatments.

Right now she is getting the MRI done. I'm praying as the machine looks at her breast tissue it doesn't seeing anything more than we already have been told (three right breast lesions, one=2.3 cm lower breast deep into the chest muscle wall ; two=.5 cm upper breast tissue; and the three lymph nodes in the right axillary arm area. I'm hopeful that the previous test could be wrong. I'm saying a little prayer for her as she probably has some scary scenarios running through her head?

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