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!!