The Children's Inn is pretty cool. The rooms are basically like hotel room, and it has fun rooms for kids and teens. It kind of reminds me of living in a dorm except there are no crazy college kids. It has actually been pretty quiet, and the only time we see other people is at events put on by the Children's Inn like family dinner. Elliott and I think that most families who stay in the Children's Inn probably spend more time in the hospital then we do.
Creatinine:
We spent the first day getting a lot of scans and multiple tests. At the end of the day, we were really tired and wanted to get back to our room and rest, but it was not to be. We met with one of the doctors who told us that Elliott's creatinine level which is an indicator of kidney function were too high and wouldn't qualify him for the clinical trial. So, she suggested that we be admitted into the hospital to get fluids to see if we could lower his levels. His creatinine was 1.7 and it needed to be at or below 1.5 to qualify him for the study. Elliott spent the night getting fluids, and in the morning, Elliott's levels were 1.62. Yet again the doctor reccomended another day and/or night of fluids if El's levels did not come down. I have to say that waiting for this level to come down was one of most stressful things of this trip. I mean the only thing that was holding us back was .12.... .12!!!!! Ugh! I feel like the farther we go on this journey the more I realize how much control I want to have and how much God is actually in control.
The nurse came in to redraw El's blood at 6, and Elliott and I were pretty much sure that he would have to stay the night in the hospital again. But The Lord answered our prayers and an hour later we got the news that El's creatinine was 1.49!!!! .01 to spare!!! How Great and Awesome is He!! I literally leapt for joy when the nurse told us. Most of my weight had lifted!
So instead of spending another night in the hospital, El got to come back to the Children's Inn with me.
Weekend:
Saturday was mostly restful. At night we decided to take the bus to Chic-Fil-A. Except trying to navigate the buses in the dark left us kind of lost and too far from Chic-Fil-A. Being lost in DC area is no fun.
On Sunday, we decided on the metro as the main source of transportation. We used the metro to get to church which was pretty easy. We will probably still church hop around though. We also used the metro to get to the DC United game except this time we used a wheel chair. The mixture of sketchy elevators, escalators, uneven sidewalks, and unthoughtful people made traveling pretty hard, but we made it through. The game was pretty fun, and I am glad that we got to go.
Apheresis:
Today we were did the first step of the clinical trial which includes taking out Elliott's white blood cells. The first step was putting in a temporary neck catheter. It was pretty short procedure. Then Elliott got hooked up to the apheresis machine through his neck catheter that he just got. This large machine, pumped out Elliott's blood and separated the red and white blood cells, and the red cells got put back into Els body. It was a long process and took about 4 hours.
Unfortunately, the day ended up with Elliott being in the hospital for a transfusion. I hate that he has to spend so many nights there :( but it is necessary.
We are going home tomorrow!!! Yay!!!
Things to be praying for:
1. That Elliott and I have a safe trip back to Michigan.
2. That Elliott will not have too much pain on the way home and while we are at home.
3. That this clinical study will be helpful to Elliott's cancer, and that his side effects will be minimal.
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