Tuesday's update from Packard

Emily is still in the hospital, and this morning had a fever of 103. They are treating the fever with some Tylenol and she is a little more comfortable with it and the fever lowered to 101 after taking the medication. We got some results from tests yesterday and we are happy that she tested negative for RSV and Swine flu. We were a little worried since we had been in San Diego the US epicenter for this swine flu outbreak that she may have contracted it, but at least we don't need to worry about it, for now. She is still on 2 antibiotics for Pneumonia and I thought she looked a lot better when I arrived this morning, much less red in her face.

She is in a total isolation room, meaning anyone who visits or comes in to treat her has to wear a mask, and the medical staff wears an extra gown. She also is unable to leave her room, so she can't go up to the play room or go on walks. The play room staff knows of this so they sent someone down to bring Emily some art supplies. She is pretty much just sitting around and watching TV with lack of much else to do. She keeps telling me she misses school, especially Math, so we are going to have her teacher drop some school work by our house for her. It makes me so happy she actually misses doing school work, cause when I was a child I would have done anything not to have to do it. She's just a fighter and am amazing girl who is making the best of her situation and wants so much to just live a normal life, I wish she could.

Today I think the plan is to just be medicated and to wait until tomorrow and do another chest XRay to see if she can go home, but I am not certain they may do some tests today, I haven't seen a doctor so far. The nurses are all the same as when we used to spend much more time here, so at least they are all familiar faces and everyone LOVES Emily so they stop in to just say hi, even if they aren't assigned to her directly. If you have to go through this it's nice to have friends on the inside who care about your child. Packard is really a great hospital, even though some people like to slam Stanford, I think if you are ever faced with something serious you'll gain a new level of respect for the people who work here, even if you have to deal with some B.S. from time to time.

Last night when I went home I felt really sad, I don't want to be overly dramatic but I can't help but worry about what's going on here and I am fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. I feel much happier being here with Emily, so I can care for her and be part of what's going on, it gives me less time to think of "bad" outcomes. Today I am staying with Emily while Tracy gets some sleep at home. this afternoon Tracy will come back for a few hours, and then I plan to sleep here with Emily tonight. One GREAT thing about the new Oncology floor is private rooms and a full sized bed for the parents ! No more "sleeping chair" hell. I have two laptops so I leave one here and one at home so I can stay connected. While Emily watches TV I blog, Facebook, or just surf the net.

I will update this afternoon or evening.