Haylie update - Mar 26
I’ve had a several people asking how we were doing so I thought I should give an update. I’ve been meaning to do an update post for a while now, but I get on Facebook and start reading all the funny covid-19 and homeschool memes and get totally distracted. Some of them are hilarious, and I’m thankful for laughter during this time.
We are doing good! It’s almost a little sad, but Haylie’s and my life hasn’t changed all that much on the day to day schedule. We have been practicing social distancing for almost 2 years now. 😜 Anytime Haylie’s levels are down or it’s cold and flu season we really can’t go anywhere and we miss just about everything. Now it seems everyone is experiencing what we have been going through. We have missed birthdays, vacations, special events, school, church, seeing friends, going to eat out at restaurants...only now we aren’t the only ones sitting at home. This time, we are all in it together and I feel your pain for all the things missed.
We have been staying home and haven’t gone anywhere except for the occasional bike ride around our neighborhood. Today we finally had to venture out to the hospital for labs. She is supposed to be going in for labs every week since her liver levels got so high and they had to switch her chemo meds. They let us skip last week, but said they can’t let her go longer than 2 weeks without checking.
Her new medicine is doing great at helping her liver, but unfortunately it causes her body to metabolize the chemo differently and sends more of it towards her blood. That is good to kill any cancer cell but the meds don’t distinguish between bad cells and good cells so it has been attacking her red and white blood cells, too. That means her immunity is down to almost neutropenic levels at times and her blood has been borderline transfusion again. Not a great place to be in the midst of a major virus pandemic. Today’s labs came back great! Her liver is in the normal range, her hemoglobin is at 10.6 so no need for another blood transfusion (yay!) and her ANC rose to 980! I know a lot of you won’t know what that means, but it is all good and right where it needs to be so that the chemo can still do it’s work.
We have been keeping busy with school, chores and lots of family time. I know this quarantine has been difficult, but there is also a lot of good. We have been able to eat almost every meal together, play games, and have family movie night every night. Amazing.
We also have the absolute best friends and neighbors. I am forever grateful for Sarah Walker and Laura Burlison who have been checking on us and made grocery store runs for us so we don’t have to leave the house and possibly be exposed while out. We owe y’all big time!
It has been so hard to not run to the grocery store and let others shop for us, but I realize we just can’t take the risk of us contacting it and exposing Haylie. I know we will be fine, but we have to do everything we can to protect Haylie while her immune system is not functioning like the rest of us. It’s just too big a risk for us to take. If you know of an elderly neighbor, pregnant friend or someone immuno-compromised please ask them if you can run to the store for them. You have no idea how big of a help it can be to them.
Spread joy, not Covid-19 😜
#HealingForHaylie
I’ve had a several people asking how we were doing so I thought I should give an update. I’ve been meaning to do an update post for a while now, but I get on Facebook and start reading all the funny covid-19 and homeschool memes and get totally distracted. Some of them are hilarious, and I’m thankful for laughter during this time.
We are doing good! It’s almost a little sad, but Haylie’s and my life hasn’t changed all that much on the day to day schedule. We have been practicing social distancing for almost 2 years now. 😜 Anytime Haylie’s levels are down or it’s cold and flu season we really can’t go anywhere and we miss just about everything. Now it seems everyone is experiencing what we have been going through. We have missed birthdays, vacations, special events, school, church, seeing friends, going to eat out at restaurants...only now we aren’t the only ones sitting at home. This time, we are all in it together and I feel your pain for all the things missed.
We have been staying home and haven’t gone anywhere except for the occasional bike ride around our neighborhood. Today we finally had to venture out to the hospital for labs. She is supposed to be going in for labs every week since her liver levels got so high and they had to switch her chemo meds. They let us skip last week, but said they can’t let her go longer than 2 weeks without checking.
Her new medicine is doing great at helping her liver, but unfortunately it causes her body to metabolize the chemo differently and sends more of it towards her blood. That is good to kill any cancer cell but the meds don’t distinguish between bad cells and good cells so it has been attacking her red and white blood cells, too. That means her immunity is down to almost neutropenic levels at times and her blood has been borderline transfusion again. Not a great place to be in the midst of a major virus pandemic. Today’s labs came back great! Her liver is in the normal range, her hemoglobin is at 10.6 so no need for another blood transfusion (yay!) and her ANC rose to 980! I know a lot of you won’t know what that means, but it is all good and right where it needs to be so that the chemo can still do it’s work.
We have been keeping busy with school, chores and lots of family time. I know this quarantine has been difficult, but there is also a lot of good. We have been able to eat almost every meal together, play games, and have family movie night every night. Amazing.
We also have the absolute best friends and neighbors. I am forever grateful for Sarah Walker and Laura Burlison who have been checking on us and made grocery store runs for us so we don’t have to leave the house and possibly be exposed while out. We owe y’all big time!
It has been so hard to not run to the grocery store and let others shop for us, but I realize we just can’t take the risk of us contacting it and exposing Haylie. I know we will be fine, but we have to do everything we can to protect Haylie while her immune system is not functioning like the rest of us. It’s just too big a risk for us to take. If you know of an elderly neighbor, pregnant friend or someone immuno-compromised please ask them if you can run to the store for them. You have no idea how big of a help it can be to them.
Spread joy, not Covid-19 😜
#HealingForHaylie
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| Our daily life. 😜 |
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| Protection for our hospital visit today. |
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