Sunday, October 24, 2010

My camera is broken. Thought you might want to know why I haven't updated our photo here, it still shows Hannah in the pool! That's all gone now, pool is closed and it's cold. Hannah has been getting a bit more stamina at school. She has made the last 2 weeks without coming home sick. It's still a struggle for her, but she is making it! But, she is complaining still of daily headaches and stomach aches. Nearly each day, she goes to the nurse, or takes time out for a break in her special education teacher's room for a snack or rest. The school tracks this for us on a calendar and when I looked at it, with each day filled with something, I thought it's time to do something else to help her.

We made a visit to clinic on Friday to see Hannah's oncologist. My fear was that he would say, well if she's having headaches, we should move up her MRI. Whew, that's not what he said. He looked at her school calendar and then asked about her diet! He ened up increasing her night time medication to double what it is now. He then said he wants her to have more fluid and sugar in the morning. He thinks she is dehydrated, which is leading to headaches. The difficulty is that because she doesn't feel very well in the mornings, it's hard to get anything into her. She usually eats a few bites of apple or 2 strawberries or a few grapes. This is the right kind of sugar, it's just not enough. So, we are going to try fruit smoothies. Hannah has never liked these in the past, but we're going to try again beginning tomorrow. She will take one with her to school tomorrow, and that along with the increased medicine at night will hopefully make a difference.

I hope this helps and she likes the smoothie because smoothies are a wonderful way to get in a lot of extra nutrients and vitamins. She hasn't liked any type of mixed shake drink since I made her and Colby drink the herb drink when she was on chemo. I made a green herbal shake with all sorts of really bad tasting things in it. I had pictures of the two of them sitting and crying while trying to get this down. It was BAD and it was BIG! I don't blame them for not drinking it. I then moved to a form of Carnation Instant Breakfast souped up but that didn't fly either...just the thought of anything else in it and they both wouldn't drink it AGAIN! Have you ever tried those? They are good! After that I pretty much gave up on any power drink for Hannah. We're trying again tomorrow, so wish us luck!!

Friday was not only a doctor's appointment, but we also delivered all of the Halloween goodies for the oncology ward! Hannah's Cans for Cancer sponsored Halloween for the hospital last year, and also this year! It is so much fun for Hannah. She scours Oriental Trading for weeks before ordering goodies for our bags. This year we made 360 bags total We also took in 135 pumpkins for the kids to decorate. The pumpkins were donated by Krupski's, Helen's and VerDerBer's this year. Thank you to all of them!! I am really missing my camera, I don't have any pictures of the girls washing the pumpkins, of our family on the floor putting together all of the bags, of the car packed full for our trip in! It was a lot of fun. Hannah decorated a pumpkin in clinic to leave there on display. I do have a photo on my phone, and I'll try to get that from my phone to my computer.

So, a bit of a change for us. I am relieved that they didn't immediately say they wanted to move up Hannah's MRI. We will hold off until December for that, which is just fine for us. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

♥Kim