Heck of a day

Our day started out fairly early at 6:30 as we got up for Briley's appointment at the clinic. Of course we were tired since Briley thought it would be a grand idea to stay up till 1:00 in the morning. There is always something about a new place that causes kids to stay up and play. Briley was tired. We put numbing cream on both arms and her port to cover all needle stick places. Glad Press n' Seal works great holding the cream on! Anyway, both arms were wrapped with it along with her port. She didn't like it much.

We headed over to the clinic first for a blood draw and count check. Well.......her ANC was 40. I'm not surprised that it was to low to start treatment, but we are extremely surprised that it was that low. She doesn't have a immune system right now. Any infection would be life threatening at this point. It's very scary.

The doctor recommended staying at the Ronald McDonald House until her counts go back up. "How long would that be?", I asked. Doc said it would be a minimal of 3 weeks! wow.....3 weeks? gosh.......ok. Understandably, since Briley's ANC is so low and we live 2.5 hours away, she wants Briley close just in case.

So I had to apologize to Alicia for packing so much.

We thought that we would get to come home today, if not on Sunday. Boy were we wrong. That's cancer life.

We are now living at the Ronald McDonald House, room 213. It's going to be a long 3 weeks. With her counts being so low, Briley is isolated to her room. So basically she will be stuck in this little room for 3 weeks. The room didn't have a tv in it when we got here! Thanks to my friend Erwin, he brought over a old TV and dvd player that he's not using anymore. Plus I signed up on Netflix to be able to watch movies on the computer. Erwin and I tried connecting the laptop and tv so Briley could watch movies from Netflix on the tv. But after a trip to BestBuy, it's looking like the tv is to old for the high tech devices. Oh-well, she can check out dvds from the RMH libary or watch Netflix on the laptop or ipad.

Without sugar coating anything, this is really hard. I know that we have met people much worse of than us, but this has been really hard. She has been doing so good (and still is) but her counts are terrible. Plus it will be really hard to keep an active 4 year old kid couped up in a small room for 3 weeks or more. But we will deal with it and thank God that this is all we have to worry about. In the big picture of things, being stuck here isn't all that bad.

Mawmaw (Johnnie Sue) had her first chemo treatment today. Please keep her in your prayers as she has a very tough battle ahead of her. She is at Hendrix in Abilene. All of the grandkids went in together and bought her a laptop so we can skype and most importantly, so that she can play farmville while away from home! It's been a terrible past couple of years for our family in regards to cancer. In less than 6 months apart, my mom had cancer, then Briley, then mawmaw. This is getting old.

I know I wrote a novel tonight. Alicia always tells me that I write too much on the blog. For those of y'all that know me know that I don't talk much so I guess I'm making up for it here! It's bed time. Thank you for the support and prayers. Briley has to stay fever free over the next few weeks. Please pray that she does along with praying for rain. God bless everyone.

John, Alicia, Briley, Bryson.