Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Sorry about the delay in keeping up with the blog. To get everyone caught up-
Last week we had a big scare! It was a Thursday morning and Maegan had taken Abby to St. Francis for her blood work. For a while, Abby had been getting nauseous especially in the mornings. Abby is continuing to fight her urinary tract infection and they started her on a strong antibiotic for it. We think it was the antibiotic was hurting her tummy looking back. Maegan gave Abby her antibiotic right before they left the house. So Maegan pulls up to the hospital, and as soon as she gets to the doors, Abby throws up all over the back seat, and Maegan said it was a lot! Luckily, one of the nurses from Dr. Dodson’s office was walking in and was able to help out since Maegan cannot get close to Abby’s vomit because of the chemo. When they got upstairs, they took Abby’s blood and it did not come back good. If I remember correctly, Abby’s platelets were down to 39, her white blood cells were around 0.89.

All of this happened while I’m at work, and Maegan had her dad take the girls home so she could take her three hour gestational diabetes test. Maegan gets a phone call from Children’s hospital saying that Abby needs to get a platelet infusion that day, and to have her up there before 4pm. Maegan calls me, obviously upset and tells me about the blood work and the upcoming infusion. So I start stressing out trying to figure out how I can get off work to take them to the hospital and how I was going to get my hours in at work and worrying about Abby! Maegan calls me a little bit later and tells me to stay at work and that her dad will drive her and the girls up there, and that my dad will pick up and watch Emily. It all worked out well, because this way, my parents have Emily, Maegan and the doctors will take care of Abby, and I will be able to watch Mary-Beth when I get off of work with Maegan’s parents watching Mary-Beth until I get home. We are still stressed out just because of the situation with Abby. I still go up and talk to a few people about the possibility of borrowing sick hours if needed. Unfortunately, since I used my 12 weeks of FMLA leave, I’m not even eligible to borrow time. So I had no choice besides not getting paid and the possibility of losing my benefits or working.

Abby makes it up to the hospital and they get checked in and they start her on an IV as well as an IV antibiotic. Around midnight, they get Abby her platelet infusion and then they check her blood again around 3am. They told us that until her blood work gets back up to a certain number, they don’t want her on her chemo anymore either. In the morning, they gave Maegan the news that Abby’s blood work is already getting better, and they are expecting her to be released that day, Friday. The new antibiotic did not seem to be bothering her stomach, so they said that as long as she keeps doing well with that, she can be released. Thankfully, her blood work stays good, and she keeps the antibiotic down, and Maegan gets to come home. My dad brought the girls home for us and they had a good time with grandpa.

Maegan and I had already had plans to go to Nashville and watch a Titans football game thanks to my buddy Eugene Amano. He is the starting center for the Titans and was able to get us free tickets. Since Abby was feeling fine, my parents took the girls for the weekend, and Maegan and I were able to get a good weekend in down in Nashville. It was very pretty and the weather could not have been better! We walked through downtown Nashville and stayed at a nice hotel. The next morning, we went to watch my buddy play and had a great time there! It was Maegan’s first NFL game, and my second. The only thing that would have made things better would be if we could have met up with Eugene, but we understand that he has a busy schedule. Maybe we can do it again some other time.

Since then, Abby has been doing well. They took her blood again on Monday and her counts continued to improve! So we now were able to give Abby her chemo again, but they wanted us to modify it a bit. Rather than giving her the chemo seven days a week, they only want her to have it Monday through Friday, with the weekends off. We think that will be good letting her body get a bit of a rest.

We had a great Turkey day today with plenty to be thankful for! We have had our ups and downs, but all of the blessings and friendships that have been built and strengthened have been amazing. Even through the hard times, there have been things to be thankful for. We’re thankful that Sara is getting ready to join our family and that because we are having her, Abby and the girls have insurance! We found out that just the week we spent in the hospital would have cost us over $175,000!!! That’s not counting the 30 days of radiation and the continuing blood work and medication. I could write a novel on all of our blessings, but for the short version, I am grateful for my family and for our parents! Our parents have been so beneficial for us so we could focus on Abby and our emotions without having to wrestle with everyone. I am thankful for all of our friends who have done so much for us and our family! I am thankful for my job which I love. Having a job and bosses who were there for us and able to help out with my scheduling and being able to move me to traffic so that I can be home at nights to get Abby her medicine has been a big relief. I am thankful that God still loves us and has not forgotten us! I am thankful for His healing power that he is providing to Abby. We are thankful!

I will try to be better about putting info up her for everyone. Maegan is getting ready to go out and brave the stores for black Friday while my parents keep the girls at the hotel. In the morning, I am going to St. Louis to pick up Abby’s medicine and then coming home to get ready for work. We hope that everyone had/has a great Thanksgiving!