May and a Hospital Stay

As usual, I am about two weeks late posting about Hannah's appointments. She has had some extra stuff going on lately. Over the last several months we noticed that her blood sugar had been dropping. It happened a couple of times during her procedures. After I started checking it at home, we discovered that it was happening fairly often. Her doctors wanted her to be admitted to fast and let her blood sugar drop so that they could do tests on her blood while the sugar was low. Her sugar usually starts to drop after about 13-14 hours of not eating. The fasting was mainly going to be overnight, so we thought it wouldn't be that bad on her. There was a mix up about when to give her a Cortisol test (which is a steroid that raises blood sugar). Instead of this test being given the night before, the nurse gave it to her that morning. This made her blood sugar not drop like it usually would have. We tried to make her day as fun as possible and made several trips to the garden.

Waiting for her sugar to drop. She really enjoyed riding on her IV pole. 

What should have been a 13-14 hour fast turned into 22 1/2 hours. We felt so sorry for her - she was really hungry and miserable. Once her sugar dropped (it got down to 36), she felt worse. Then she had a reaction to one of the tests they gave her and started throwing up. It took about an hour and a half after the tests for them to get her sugar up enough so that she felt better and could eat. I've never seen a child eat so much! I didn't take any pictures through all of that because it was rough and we were busy. The doctors wanted her to stay another night to make sure she did well with a couple of meals in her. We are still not sure why her sugar has been dropping. They did not have all of the results from the blood work by the time we left. We will have an appointment with the Endocrinologist in a few weeks to discuss what they found out. Her Oncologists are thinking that it is caused by one of her chemo medications. This would be the best case scenario because that will be over soon verses finding out that she has another medical condition. 

Even breakfast the next morning was extra delicious to her. 

Throughout our experiences at Egleston, I have often wondered how this hospital finds such excellent nurses and staff. I wondered if it was only because we spent all of our time on the cancer floor (and you have to be a truly special person to work with kids being treated for cancer, right?!) This hospital stay confirmed that all the nurses and doctors who work at this hospital are amazing. Everyone was so kind and attentive. Hannah especially loved her nurse named Wendy, who knew and sang all the words to the songs from the Frozen movie with Hannah. Eric and I often say to one another that even if Egleston was a farther drive we would not complain about going there.

Leaving the hospital. 

We got discharged around 5:30 on Thursday afternoon. Her chemo procedure appointment was scheduled for 8:00 on Friday morning. So we stayed the night and my mom came up to help the next day. It was hard for Hannah to finally get out of the hospital and then find out she had to go right back the next morning. She kept saying she just wanted to go home. My heart goes out to the families who have to stay in the hospital for weeks and months at a time. I cannot imagine! 

Hannah and her Lolley getting started at her appointment. 

Her appointment was fine. She just really dislikes having to be put to sleep. The doctors said that this time she was fighting them while she was sedated. This child will let you know what she's thinking and feeling! After her chemo she had to have an x-ray on her legs because she's been having leg pain. Everything was normal on the x-ray, so we are not sure what is causing the pain. She was a trooper to make it through several long days in a row. She's a tough little girl! 

Just three more chemo appointments to go. We're getting closer!! 

Some Amazing People

This awesome group trained with Team in Training and raised (A LOT!) of money for blood cancer research. They recently ran in the Nike DC Women's Marathon/Half Marathon. Hannah got to be their Honored Hero and meet some of them a few months ago. (They are holding a picture of her on the left of the photo). We are so thankful to them for giving their time to help find a cure. What an accomplishment! Thank you!

Hannah's Wish

Last week we went on a Disney Cruise for Hannah's wish from the Make-A-Wish foundation. The kids had the best week of their lives! We had perfect weather and made many family memories. We can't say thank you enough for this incredible charity and its volunteers!

This was Hannah's first time flying in an airplane. She was thrilled!

She was definitely the only one on the cruise ship wearing cowgirl boots. 

This picture was taken on our way to the dolphin encounter. Hannah wanted to pet the dolphins more than anything else on her trip. We were in the water during the whole encounter and I didn't get any pictures. I'm really sad about that (but I refused to pay $70 for the three pictures they took). She loved it!

The girls wore their princess dresses to dinner on the ship. 

Visiting with Minnie Mouse on the island.

Make-A-Wish had a special time for the Make-A-Wish families to meet Mickey. There were eight or nine other Make-A-Wish families on the cruise. It was nice to get to meet and talk with the other families. 

Our room attendant brought these beds down out of the wall and ceiling every night. The kids all took turns sleeping on the top bunk. 

This was my favorite moment of the whole trip. It is a poorly taken picture (blurry and way too much of that woman's rear-end behind them), but I'm so glad that I caught this moment on camera. We had waited for almost two hours to meet the princesses and it was their turn next. You can see the pure joy and excitement in their faces. This made the long line totally worth it! 

Hannah had so many questions for the princesses. Here, she and Lauren asked if that was her real hair or a wig. Rapunzel said that of course it was her real hair! 

Hannah asked what Tiana's dress was made of. Tiana told her it was made of lily pads. 

Before we got to Ariel, Hannah told me that she was planning to run up to her for a hug. Hannah is at that wonderful age where she still thinks the princesses are real. Priceless! 

She stood like this, talking to Cinderella for a long time. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I'd love to know. 

Hannah met a friend who is her age. They had the best time playing together on the island and on the ship. 

Eric and I went to the Bahamas for our honeymoon. We took a picture in this chair and the kids have seen the picture enough that when they saw the chair at Atlantis, Evan said, "Hey, that's the chair from the picture!" A lot has happened in ten years! 

Thank you, Make-A-Wish, for making this trip possible! It was wonderful to have something for the kids to look forward to and for us all to have a break from ordinary life. We will never forget this time we had together. We will always be thankful for these memories!