Aria was admitted 6/08

Aria in the Emergency Room with Reo by her side. Reo is always by her side.


Reo and Aria taking a ride to her hospital room.

June 12, 2008

Subject: Aria was admitted

June 12, 2008:
After checking Aria' temperature 3 times yesterday (June 11, 2008), I called the clinic and was told to head to the ER pronto. It is so strange. We were watching a movie and I was cuddling with Aria and at the end of the show I thought, "You feel sort of warm. Let's go check your temperature." Her cheeks were slightly warm but the top of her head was definitely warm as was her neck and forehead. I thought, "Better check and make sure." Aria was resistant and grumbled, "I'm fine Mom!" When I checked it the first time I was shocked. 101.3! I gave her a minute or two to cool down. I know it is ridiculous but that's the thought that entered my head. I also needed time to pace and wander in disbelief!

Our clinic nurse, Mary, assured me that she would call ahead and let the ER know we were coming. We packed up and within 15 minutes were out the door. The entire drive to the hospital Aria was quoting lines from the movie Finding Nemo. It was hilarious. She was in great spirits, which is why a 101.3 fever was so weird and freaky! It came out of nowhere. Just a few hours earlier I was telling a friend how well she was doing so this was a true stunner. Let me say that Doc arrived home early saying, "I just needed to be home." Within 30 minutes of his arrival we were headed to the ER. I was so grateful that I didn't have to manage this one on my own. 3 kids, first ER trip potentially solo. Nope! The whole thing sounded positively icky so having Doc with me was so huge. I sent a whopping "thanks" on up to what Kurt Vonnegut liked to say, "The Great Big Everything."

I dropped Doc and Aria off at the ER and Reo, Rianna and I raced away to a bakery to pick-up some cupcakes I had ordered for his birthday party celebration in his class today (Thursday). So adorable! We zoomed on back to the ER and Doc and Aria were already in a room and her port had already been accessed. They were drawing blood cultures and a physician was checking her out. It was fine. Aria was still in a super mood and her temperature dropped to 99.4. We waited to see what her counts were going to be. Anything less than 500 is an automatic admit so we were keeping our fingers crossed. About 30 minutes later and much effort keeping Rianna contained (I finally stuck her in the sink and let her rip out paper towels!) we got Aria' lab results. She'd already been given big gun IV antibiotics just in case. Her counts had tanked again to 54! We were absolutely stunned. Actually, it is more accurate to say that I was completely stunned. I don't actually know what Doc thought, although he seemed surprised. So we were prepping the kids for a sleep-over and frankly, Aria was delighted. She started to rattle off the movies she wanted in her room! She also started to mention how starving she was and how pizza sounded so great. So we were preparing to head upstairs to a room, and then have Doc head home to get a change of clothes and order some pizza. When transport showed up, he brought a wide wheelchair so that both Reo and Aria could ride up to the third floor. It was mighty cute! I have to say that seeing Aria bald and wearing a mask while we walked through the hospital was hard. It is reality but it is still so hard. Little things that like catch me off guard sometimes and fling me into the depth of the reality of it all.

We made it to the oncology ward and were given a hearty welcome. Aria was checked in, hooked up and situated. It was after 7pm by the time Doc left to go home and get himself situated. As luck would have it, a huge pizza party was happening in the Ronald McDonald room so we dove in, which saved Doc copious amounts of time, which is a high commodity these days. The kids settled in with sodas pizza and a movie. It was fine. Rianna was all over the map but she's a perfect little 18 month old and that's just what they do. It is challenging though. At least now she is that much more coordinated so she isn't tripping in the shower stall and so forth. But she is of course, yanking the emergency pull cords, which we tied and taped again and she's climbing all over the place. She's also digging in drawers and cabinets. It would be so funny if it wasn't so exhausting on top of an already very stressful situation! Aria’s temperature had dropped to 98.3, which was great. As I'm learning, things change within a very short period of time so living with this bizarre constant threat looming is odd and somewhat contrary to living in the moment. I try to be present but the temptation to address my constant concern is always there. I’ll have to think about that some more. Reo, Rianna and I left close to 8:30pm.

It is now a gorgeous Thursday morning. I am in very good spirits in this moment. When I last spoke to Doc Aria was completely beside herself that she was going to be able to watch another movie and stay up way past her bed-time! It is important to remember simple pleasures such as these. I'll be heading over to the hospital after I take Reo to school. I won't be able to join in on his party, which is a TOTAL bummer but I don't think I was going to be able to do that anyway. Dragging Rianna to something like this is too hard on me and the classroom teacher. Doc is going to a meeting and then will hopefully be able to re-work his schedule for this afternoon. I'm hoping that Rianna doesn't have to spend the day at the hospital, for all of our sakes! She needs to be outside on the farm running around playing and eating sand! We'll see how it all plays out.

Aria will have to stay at least until this evening. The nurses were saying that she might be able to go home within 24 hours but then we all had a hearty laugh over the fantasy of that thought! She'll more than likely stay tonight. It all depends on her counts, which have to be above 250. We'll know a lot more today. I'm hoping she had a good night and was fever free! I should hear from Doc in a short while. Keep us in the light of your good thoughts and wishes! ~j