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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Doctor Day

We somehow fit in 4 doctor's appointments today. One for Carina for her flu booster shot. One for me - just a cleaning at the dentist. The other 2 were for Dante.

Dr. Patranella was very happy to see that Dante had gained 2 pounds since we saw her last month! He has not been sick since we started on the Zantac, which helped his appetite tremendously. We are now going to drop to once a day, for another 2 weeks and then stop all together and see how he does. Other than that, she said he looked good to go until his 3 year check up.

Next, we were off to the oncologist's. We didn't really see a doctor there today, just the physician's assistant. His ANC is still 2600, which is good. However, his hemoglobin is 8.2 - low (they transfuse below 8.) His platelets are still low - not super low, but still below normal. They took a lot of blood to run a variety of tests to see why he's anemic, and we'll be getting results trickling in over the course of next week. I'll have to take him in on Friday to see if he needs a transfusion or not. Hopefully not. I had said to Chris the other day, that I thought Dante seemed to be not feeling so well, looking pale and getting tired easily. Chris attributed a lot of that to his nap, or lack thereof, and the weather. But, the blood levels made sense. I sure hope they can determine what's going on. The list of possibilities as to the cause was interesting and stressful, and then the PA said, "...but none of these would be related to his therapy." Are you kidding me?! How can his blood be having trouble getting back to normal, and it have NOTHING to do with poisoning his body with chemo 5 days a week , every 3 weeks, for 16 weeks ? really.

Dante ended up napping afterwards, as the two appointments really wiped him out, which was good for him. He even went to bed on time, so he must have been tired.

Speaking of sleeping, we thought for sure we were doing good with Carina. She's been going down to sleep at the same time as Dante, waking a little bit here and there, and then sleeping most of the night. Last week she even slept through the night for 2 nights in a row. I didn't know what to do with myself! Then the weekend came...Carina has been up every night, all night, since Friday. Waking up every hour or two and not going to sleep unless I fed her. Last night, we finally brought Dante into our bed because she was screaming so much, and she cried all night long. I'm so sleep deprived right now, I can't remember what I'm doing half the time.

So, we will be having Dante sleep with us for the next few nights while Carina cries it out, or else I won't be able to function. Dr. Patranella swears that in her 20 years she has only met one baby that took more than 3 nights to figure it out. I remember her telling us that with Dante, and it was pure agony to hear (his crying, not her advice) - but it only lasted one and a half nights. Really. He has been a good sleeper ever since. It's just really hard with the two kids sharing a room, to avoid having them both crying when one of them wakes up!

Chris will be heading up to CT to visit with Gomma this weekend. We have music class, but other than that, no big plans, except trying to get some sleep!

Some photos from Chris and Dante's recent expedition to the aquarium:

Baby alligators!


What's that one?




Wall of water


Boy in fishscape


Uhh, there's a turtle on your head...


1 Comments:

  • I'd like to come over sometime and take some pics of both of the kids. Let me know if there's a time I can do that. Hoping Dante's energy rises too and that YOU get some sleep!!

    By Blogger Kip, at 12:48 PM  

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