First Day of Chemo

(Painting by Hope during first chemo treatment)

The day started at 9am in the oncology office at the hospital. Hope was not scared, but she was very eager to get things moving. Her arm was extremely sore from getting the PICC Line inserted the day before, she was very tired, and her legs were sore as well. It was difficult to see her in a lot of pain while we were waiting in the room. At the oncology office they had to run blood tests to make sure everything was ok to start treatment. We waited about 2 hrs. in the oncology office for her to be admitted to the ICU. It is rare to have chemo treatment in the pediatrics ICU, so communication between the two teams was not optimal. Once in the ICU they gave her the largest room which was also the only room with a restroom in it. The reason for Hope to have treatment in the ICU is because, with the tumor, she developed Diabetes Insipidus, and it is very important to closely monitor the sodium levels in her urine. In the first 30 minutes there was a whirlwind of people coming in, ICU Nurse, Charge Nurse, Case Manager, Social Worker, Chemo Nurses, Dr's, etc. While all the people were in and out, Hope kept herself distracted by watching a movie. The next step was hydration time, it was a 2 hour process to pump her PICC line full of fluids. The nice thing about the PICC line is she doesn't have to get poked anymore in order to insert an IV. I wasn't there when they actually started the chemo, but it went really well. Hope painted during the whole treatment and didn't even notice that anything was happening. Afterwards, at one point, she thought she was going to throw up, but it was a false alarm. At this point in day two she is still doing well. They suspect she will be in the ICU for 4-5 days. I will keep you posted on how she is feeling. Thank you!