Admitted 27th Dec 2017
Chemotherapy :
- Vincrystine
- Cyclophosphamite
- Doxarumicin
Discharged 30th Dec 2017
Round 4 was only 3 days of treatment but it was ‘intensive’. She became quite grumpy and stopped eating again. The side effects seemed to compound with each round now. Her skin was becoming dark, especially her hands and feet. This is caused by the skin cells dying at a faster rate than normal.
Her tummy was also becoming a problem. She became constipated easily as her bowel got very sluggish and the pain meds she was on also contribute to it. The milk she was drinking from bottles was also part of the problem but it was difficult to restrict her as the bottles comforted her and helped her to go to sleep. We were giving her Movacol but with the chemo causing some diarrhea as well, balancing the dosage was difficult. She could go from really runny poops to rock hard and so painful in just a day. Nausea was a constant issue too. She had every right to be miserable but she still had times when she was cheerful and wanted to play.
On the day she was discharged, the volunteers from the Starlight Foundation visited and blew bubbles and sang a bubble song for Erika. She was feeling very unwell and this picked her up for a while but we still took a rather miserable girl home. Fortunately she picked in the next couple of days though she was very up and down.
Princess Erika
We were back at the hospital on the following Friday for a blood transfusion. She was very pale and tired. Back home that night and she developed a fever so back to hospital we went. She was given the usual antibiotics and bloods were sent off for testing. She was also given platelets.
She stopped eating again and only wanted breast milk. Bloods came back clear, fever stopped and nutrophils on the way up so we were back home again on the Monday.
Erika was looking more and more sick and it was breaking our hearts to see her like this
We were back at 5C to see Doctor Tim on the next Wednesday for the usual blood test and dressing change. Erika was eating normally again so we were still able to avoid the NG tube.
We felt so fortunate to have the house in Brisbane. CCS is an amazing charity providing free accommodation for oncology families, but I did have an argument with a post in the carport during the following week. It was a very tight fit and required a 3 point turn (or 4 or 5 sometimes) to get the car in and out, coming very close to the posts every time. The park assist was not so helpful in this situation as it just beeped the entire time I was putting the car in or out. So on this occasion, I was not being as mindful as I would have liked and turned way before I would normally have and collected the front left of my car on a metal post. It made a horrible noise, as did I afterwards. It looked bad to me. The wheel arch was dented and bumper was badly scratched and I was really cranky with myself. I also had several arguments with the deep sharp gutters out the front of the house too which caused bad damage to both of the left side wheels. In the big scheme of things this shouldn’t have been a big issue. Erika was fighting for her life and we were dealing with all that that involves but at that time, it was just too much.
Nicole also had a fight with a towel rail in the bathroom at one point. She stood up too fast and scraped and bruised her back badly. She felt the same as I did with the car. She said that we shouldn’t even be here. This wouldn’t have happened if we were in our own home in Toowoomba where we belonged! I felt the same way. It just wasn’t right or fair. It was beginning to take its toll on both of us and those we left at back at home in Toowoomba.
We both definitely had times when we were just so over it all but it rarely happened at the same time so we were able to have a good cry, pick each other up and move forward. Looking back now, I don’t know how we did it.
Jace was able to have a week off work and come to Brisbane and spend some quality time with Nicole and Erika and after seeing Tim on the Wednesday we were lucky enough to be able to come home to Toowoomba for a few days before heading back to Brisbane for round 5 to start on the following Monday.
