![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cota.org\/uploads\/775\/images\/WWE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bridget had a pretty non-descript last week of chemo. She spent as much time as possible in the Great Room doing crafts, though it was closed the last two days she was there. She also came up with a new distraction- playing the keyboard in the teen room, teaching herself via YOU TUBE videos how to pluck out a few tunes. She probably spent a few hours there each of her last three days inpatient. On Labor Day, some wrestlers from the WWE came to visit. They did crafts and played with the kids in the Great Room. They were in town for an event that evening. Allison and Andrew stopped by on Labor Day too and our family of five spent some time playing board games together before Mom had to take them home to prepare for back to school the next day (12th<\/sup> and 10th<\/sup> grades). All week Bridget was looking forward to her final Hospital Bingo- and it was a success! Her prize choice was a bit surprising- a kit where you construct three medieval battalion weapons (i.e. a catapult). However, she explained she was going to paint them pretty colors and bedazzle them.<\/p>\n In terms of side effects, the patch really helped with Bridget’s nausea. Her skin issues came back, mostly on her feet. Her toes and soles are red and painful, but it is mild, and she is just tolerating it. The only other new complaints are some issues with her vision. She said her eyes get fuzzy and it is difficult for her to read things, like her texts on her phone. Her eyes are also sensitive to light and are watering. This has actually been coming and going for a couple of weeks but seems more pronounced with the current cycle (or at least she is mentioning it more). So, we have gotten a consult to go see ophthalmology.<\/p>\n At 3:15 on Thursday, Bridget officially was disconnected from her final chemotherapy infusion. The last thing on the agenda was a lumbar puncture with chemotherapy. They only do lumbar punctures with anesthesia in the oncology clinic on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Bridget really wanted to get this last one done under anesthesia as the last one was pretty painful. Additionally, her back is already sore from already having 8 prior lumbar punctures since early July and there is a big sore on her back from where they continue to do it in the same place. There is basically a small crater in her back- she describes it as having a second belly button, but on her back. So, we let her make the decision to get it with anesthesia, even though it meant having to come back the very next morning for the procedure. Generally, we were told, they would have just let us stay one more night in the hospital, which Bridget would have preferred versus going home and coming back, but they were short on beds and actually had some oncology kids on other floors of the hospital. Knowing what it is like to be on another floor, wishing you were on the oncology floor instead, Bridget totally understood and was happy to go home if it meant another kid could be moved up. It is still amazing to me that through almost the whole summer, all twenty rooms on the oncology floor were occupied!<\/p>\n Around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, all the nurses on the floor gathered outside of her room and sang “Happy End of Chemo” to Bridget (to the tune of “Happy Birthday”) while we left the inpatient unit for the final time. It was actually bittersweet. We’ve basically lived in the hospital since mid-June, and have gotten close with many of the nurses, especially her four primary nurses. We will definitely be stopping back to visit when Bridget has her outpatient follow-up appointments.<\/p>\n Bridget doesn’t miss a beat, though. You may recall that after course three we had to get a blood transfusion before they discharged us. We expected to have to do the same this time around. However, we were surprised to learn that her numbers were dropping, but not enough to warrant a transfusion (especially given that we’d be going back the next day). Once Bridget heard that, she asked if we could stop at Target on the way home and use her newest Target gift card. We obliged, of course, though made it a short trip.<\/p>\n On Friday we were back bright and early and her final lumbar puncture went smoothly. The nurse practitioner did the puncture a little lower given Bridget’s already sore back. We were now officially done with treatments! <\/p>\n To our surprise, she still didn’t need any blood on Friday, but her counts were still dropping. Thus, the team asked us to come back again on Monday. Friday evening at home, I gave her the last Neulasta injection (to stimulate growth of neutrophils). Given that her counts were still not horribly low, Scott took Bridget to a few stores on Saturday morning. It was our puppies 3rd<\/sup> birthday, so they wanted to get them a few new toys and treats. Bridget also had a coupon from Duck Donuts for a free dozen donuts (for pediatric cancer patients- given out at the oncology clinic earlier in her treatments). Lastly, she wanted to stop at Michael’s for some more supplies for the cricut machine. While at Michael’s at the cash register, Bridget’s eyes got suddenly fuzzy and she got very hot and dizzy and fell. She didn’t quite pass out, Scott says, but she was close and did fall (she caught herself on her hands). She wasn’t hurt, thank goodness, and recovered quickly. She just gave Scott a scare and Bridget later told us her first thought was, “Oh no! Daddy is NEVER going to let me go shopping again!”. Of course, we reported this to the team today and they wonder if she was just a bit dehydrated and if her eye issue may have played a factor in the dizziness as well.<\/p>\n At the hospital today, she got both red blood cells and platelets. Her neutrophil count was still high, but it is artificially inflated due to the Neulasta injection on Friday and the counts should drop over the next few days. Her platelets were only 11 and her hemoglobin was 7.5. Thus, we will once again spend a few quiet days at home as her counts will bottom out. We will return to the clinic again on Friday to check her blood counts, get more blood if needed, and meet with her doctor to discuss back to school, the follow-up schedule, next steps etc. Here’s hoping the next few weeks are uneventful, and Bridget can recover, not just from the last cycle, but from an entire summer of aggressive chemo. We hope she can regain some weight and energy and get back to school and activities as soon as she is up to it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bridget had a pretty non-descript last week of chemo. She spent as much time as possible in the Great Room doing crafts, though it was closed the last two days she was there. She also came up with a new distraction- playing the keyboard in the teen room, teaching herself via YOU TUBE videos how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforbridgetd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}