Rough day

The past few weeks were pretty good for Olivia. She had a lot of energy and her blood counts have been normal. A very important lesson I learned from this journey is to make the most of what we have at the moment. Today was chemo day and it was a really rough one for Olivia. I am happy that she had a couple weeks that she was healthy enough to enjoy going out and spend time with the rest of our family living local. We took advantage of the days when she and the entire family was well. We have a big family, so for everyone to be well at the same time is pretty rare these days, especially with a lot of kids.

Over the weekend she was crying because of stomach pains. We started teaching her how to tell us the level of pain with the help of Dad acting out the levels of pain from 1 to 5. It worked last night when she couldn't express how much pain she was feeling. It was a bit of a relief to know that she felt it was a 3 out of 5. It could be worse.

Olivia's blood counts have plummeted bringing her ANC to 486 today and is considered severely neutropenic (normal is 1,500). Her hemoglobin and platelets are still normal for a chemo patient, but it is during this time that patients usually get blood transfusions again. She will be getting her blood counts again Monday next week and I'm praying for improvements. With her counts being so low, we want to be really cautious because she is more prone to infection. She's been really clingy all day and has been very vocal about not feeling well. I hope and pray tomorrow will be better for her.

I don't have a picture of her today, so I'm posting a picture taken yesterday when everything was a lot better than today. I would like her to get back to this sooner. With the help of your prayers, I know she will. Only positive thoughts! Easter is coming up and I only wish for her to get stronger and feel better, and of course, no infection please! I don't even want to entertain the idea of getting admitted anytime soon. Positive thoughts..positive thoughts...