Busy Weekend!

Sorry it's been a few days... we've been pretty busy since Friday.

Friday morning Elizabeth went to Children's Hospital with Mom for day 2 of chemo. She got a 2 hour infusion of oxaliplatin, after getting regalin and benedryl (Mom loves it when Elizabeth gets benedryl!!). Elizabeth dozed a little, but kept getting very angry that there was nothing good on TV. Kinda funny since the hospital has cable (complete with Disney channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network) and we do NOT!

About halfway through her chemo infusion she started demanding McDonald's. There is no way to truly appreciate how funny that is without the following setup...
Our neighbor one curtain over was a little girl roughly 7 years old who was also getting chemo. She was so sick... her mom even asked if it was okay for the older sister to eat her lunch near the bed, or would the smell make her feel more sick. And here is my daughter asking for Chicken McNuggets ("the big one" Elizabeth asks for, meaning 6 pieces) and french fries WHILE getting chemo. And the docs at UCLA didn't want to give Elizabeth strong chemo because "you want her to have as many 'good times' as possible in the remaining time." Silly docs, when will they ever get it that Elizabeth has good times whether she's getting chemo or not!

The good news is that Elizabeth did get her McDonald's and never was pukey during and following this last chemo treatment.

We DID spend most of Saturday in the Emergency Department at Children's because Elizabeth spiked a fever. There was no obvious source of infection, but they did give her a 30 minute infusion of antibiotics to be on the safe side. And because they ran a blood panel we found out that Elizabeth's hemoglobin is low enough that she needs a transfusion of red blood cells. That is set up for Tuesday (tomorrow) morning in the day hospital.

On Saturday Elizabeth did have a little blood in her stool, so Mommy had a little party in her head... Remember that Elizabeth's GI doc (Dr. Venick at UCLA--we love him!) said that a little blood in the stool is usually a good sign that liver tumors are being effected by the chemo and are bleeding as they die. He also warned to be on the look out for anemia because of it. So bring on those transfusions!! We'll take a little anemia and some blood transfusions over cancerous tumors any day!

Mike had a lot of fun on his Boy Scout camping trip. Dad was grateful for an excuse to leave and meet Elizabeth, Matt, Danny, and Mom at the hospital on Saturday, but reluctantly did go back to camp Saturday night. Matt and Danny tolerated 7 hours in a small room at the hospital rather well. Mommy thinks that remembering to bring the portable DVD player played a big part in how well the hospital trip went, and will never leave home without it again!!

We found a place to get personalized silicone bracelets (like the LiveStrong yellow bands) in small quantities without paying through the nose. We are considering ordering some white ones with a cross and text "Pray for Elizabeth". We can get other basic colors, too, like pink, red, blue, etc., but the minimum order is 10 per color/size. If there are people out there interested in wearing one for Elizabeth, please send an email to eahill88-blogger@yahoo.com with your address and any color/size preference you have. Once I have enough to put together an order, I'll let everyone who expressed an interest know when I'll have them ready to mail. The bracelets come in two sizes: adult and child. The child bracelets fit Mom's wrist just fine (they are about 7") and the adult fits Dad nicely (about 8"). Unless you're an adult male or have large wrists, I'd suggest child size. Anyway, we think anything that gets people praying for Elizabeth and helps spread her story is a good thing.

Thanks for the support and continuing prayers! Elizabeth is doing very well and we are so grateful for that!