Working on getting a discharge

Elizabeth is starting to get really bossy, so we know she's definitely on her way to full recovery. She started to have a bit of fluid retention issues (reminiscent of her June 20-July 21 stay), and Dad started to demand Lasix be given once it was confirmed late 12/16 that she had gained 4 lbs since admission on 12/14. After a few hours of residents running in circles, finally Elizabeth was given the Lasix. I was ready to drive the Lasix I have here at home to the hospital at midnight that night if someone wasn't going to give it to her at the hospital. During Elizabeth's summer stay, the water retention caused so many complications that we were inpatient for an extra week and Elizabeth was on blood pressure meds (aldactone) for an additional two months and Lasix for one month before her body finally normalized. So it's easy to understand why we were not taking NO for an answer when asking for Lasix immediately upon discovering Elizabeth was beginning to retain water again! Her weight is being monitored (as well as abdominal girth) closely, and albumen and Lasix are being given as she needs them (which is pretty often, so Dad is staying on top of it making sure it happens).

I rushed Danny to the urgent care yesterday afternoon since he was having breathing trouble. The doctor there tried to explain to me that Danny (the 2 year old) has chronic asthma and he must have been diagnosed with it before. I said NO and that's why I brought him in--because the wheezing and gasping for air has NEVER happened to him before. The doc actually tried to argue with me and had the nerve to tell me that I must have missed it before. Really. I looked him straight in the eye and said,"My daughter has been a cancer patient for 2 1/2 years now. My husband and I know a lot more about medicine at this point than a lot of you healthcare providers give us credit for. If my son had asthma I think we would have noticed by now." He stopped talking down to me at that point. Of course, later when I asked what the dosage of tylenol to be giving Danny was he said 2 teaspoons, but couldn't tell me what the milligram dosing was. All he could say was "2 tsps" so I asked what concentration of liquid (because tylenol liquid comes in two strengths) so I could figure out the milligrams, and he couldn't answer that question either. Finally he looked up that it was 160mg, but really, this guy practices medicine. I think I'm becoming more and more easily frustrated at how ridiculous the medical profession can be.

Wanna laugh? Well, it's kind of sad, but made me laugh nonetheless. We were on our way to get a prescription for Danny and traffic was backed up really badly on our side of the street. Turns out there was a car crash that was being cleared right across the street from a church that had a living nativity (actors creating the Holy family scene, complete with wisemen and shephards). Jesus' birth was apparently too distracting. That's not the really funny part... It took some time at the pharmacy (wasn't our pharmacy--when I dropped off the prescription for Danny at our pharmacy, they told me to come back in 20 minutes to get it, but neglected to tell me that they were also closing in 20 minutes, so when I came back at 6:02pm they were already gone--I had to fight at the 24 hr. CVS to get them to fill Danny's prescription without the paper and just use the CVS computer for verification) and as we approached the church going the other way, there was ANOTHER crash, this time also on our side of the street. The firemen looked like they were shutting down the living nativity since it was creating such a disturbance. Could anything be more ridiculous? It was one of those "Why God?" moments for me. After everything with Elizabeth, and the day from hell with trying to get Danny treated so he can breathe, the pharmacy fiasco, and then car wrecks caused by people gawking at the re-enactment of Jesus' birth... it just makes me wonder what is the reason, the underlying purpose for all of this to happen? Why does Elizabeth have to go through all this? Why do kids get cancer? How is that part of the grand plan?

Thank you for checking in. We have had two negative blood cultures so far, and have made it almost a day with no fever. It looks like we should have Elizabeth out no later than Wednesday, just in time for her Make-A-Wish get together. Please keep praying for her continued healing and a nice Christmas.