Saturday June 4th - Discharged from Portneuf!

Yesterday was very comparable to the under the hopsital bed episode a few weeks back.  Cooper woke in a bad mood.  He was obviously very tired of being in hospitals, having vitals done, taking medicine, having blood drawn and everything else.  The day started with the nurse and medical student not being able to do vitals.  Then at 11:30 a.m. the nurse needed to premedicate for the platelet transfusion but Coop had be held down for the medicine which only fueled the fire.  Then they started the platelet transfusion, he was kicking and screaming by then and yelling "I don't want the yellow stuff, unhook me right now".  He would grab his line from his port and try to unhook it.  This went on for probably 30 minutes to an hour but seemed like an eternity for me and the nurse.  Cooper covered his head with his blanket and fell asleep for hours.  He had really worn himself out.  He had another blood transfusion right after the platelets.  When he woke up he felt so much better.  Jared was there and I took the other kids out for a movie and dinner.  When I got back to the hospital Cooper was in a great mood and having fun with dad.  It made me feel so much better.  It is really hard to see him so frusterated.

Marc is one of the nurses that takes care of Cooper at Portneuf.  He had a son with Evan's Syndrome which is treated much like a cancer patient.  He had chemo, many transfusions, and a bone marrow transplant.  Marc's family story is well written by his wife in a book called Little Green Apples.  I read it last night.  Wow, what a story.  I used almost a whole box of kleenex's to get through it.  There were many feelings and thoughts I was able to relate to even though their trial lasted years and ours has just begun.  Everyone should read it.  It is such a sweet story.  We are lucky to have Marc as one of our nurses, he really understands.  There are also many other nurses and staff we love very much at Portneuf, they try so hard to comfort us and make our stay the best it can be.


So this morning the doctor said his white count is coming up (ANC 252) but he is still borderline for needing another platelet transfusion tomorrow.  He discharged us and we will have home health coming in daily until his counts are higher.    Cooper had a big smile when I told him we were going home.  We are suppose to go for Cycle 5 on Monday but I bet they will push us a couple of day.  ANC has to be 750 for chemo.  So we are home and the kids are having fun.  Hopefully we have a couple of days before we leave again or need more medical care besides home health.