Thursday, December 18, 2008

Nee Nee capades

Yesterday Lily kept throwing up and having the runs, so they wanted us to come back into clinic. They said to give her a dose of hydrocortisone on the way and try to be in within the hour. I was warned that she would probably be admitted if her steroid or electrolyte levels were still too low. Fortunately the extra bag o stuff was still packed so I just had to make a couple of calls and get dressed. Lily swallowed the hydrocortisone pills with virtually no fuss. Hmm. I get Bella packed up and dropped of at the Turner Day Care facility(Carrie's House) and Lily and I were on our way. Half way there she starts singing the ABC's. Apparently the hydrocotisone did the trick. After 30 minutes at the gate traffic jam and 40 minutes trying to find parking- we finally make it to clinic and are rewarded with a signed application for a temporary handicapped permit. Not that those are any more readily available at Tripler- it will give us more options. They had already called the ward to prepare a bed for Lily. We walk into the treatment room, Lily is munching on a doughnut and starts to dance for Dr. K. She promptly dances Lily to the Chief so he could see how lethargic and sick our monkey was. This is far worse than marching a child into the doctor only to be told "it's a virus". Fortunately in the 2.5 hours we were there-they witnessed about 6 mood swings, 4 trips to the potty, a mitotane administration battle and the roller coaster that is Lily. She got an extra bolus of zofran and some electrolytes and since she had perked up- we were allowed to go home. Due to the difficulty administering Mitotane- we are starting a new incentive program for Lily. She got a new bead string and will get a white bead for every dose of Mitotane she takes. If she takes all her doses by next clinic visit she gets to pick a toy out of the treasure chest. Technically she gets a white bead for every chemo treatment and each mitotane is a technically a chemo treatment...so at least we can help her visualize her accomplishment. I was also rewarded with stories of teenagers who refused to take meds....and this helps me how? I was looking FORWARD to the age where you can reason with them. Actually that's not the teen years- never mind. I'm losing hope.

On the way out of clinic, she wants another doughnut. SO we stop by the vendor and get another doughnut. She hasn't eaten anything in 4 days- if she wants a dozen doughnuts and can keep them down- power on sister friend. I had parked on Oceanside because the ward is Oceanside and if we were admitted, the car would be closer for me to grab the bags out of. Also- if you park The clinic is Mountainside and I always get lost going between. So I go the way I know- We are stepping off the 2nd elevator(it takes two different elevator rides) when we bump into one of the nurses from the floor. She says they were expecting us, but glad Lily gets to go home. We are on our way, and we bump into our medical social worker.... During this pause Lily realizes she has lost nee-nee. We NEED to find nee-nee. I tell her that nee nee is in my bag and I'll get it- I usually carry an extra- but there is no nee-nee. While I am searching she says- NO I dropped nee nee in the elevator- we have to go get it! How could I publicly deny her this? SO we retrace our steps. We wait 20 minutes for the exact elevator we were on- which only seems to run from floor 7 to 4 and back up. We are on floor 1. I am tempted to ride another elevator up and ride that one down- but Lily will not hear of it. We repeat the process for elevator # 2. All the while Lily is going on and on about nee-nee- it's gone- we have to find it. We get all the way to the doughnut stop- I KNOW she had it there, I saw it. No nee-nee. No one's seen nee-nee. It's now after 2. If we don't leave soon, we will sit in traffic. I have nee-nees at home. So I tell her I'll call Florence and she will find nee- nee and bring it home. The whole way back to the car- We need to call Miss Florence, she needs to bring nee nee to my house. We actually make it to the car. Lily will not leave until I call Florence. I call Florence- You all are still here? Yea- we lost nee nee. AAAAAAHH. You'll never guess what I found outside the clinic door by the vendor? says Miss Florence -Yep- nee nee. SO Miss Florence brings nee-nee to the car and we get to finally head home. In about 3 minutes- Lily is crashed out and nee nee is on the floor. Nice.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I know how frustrating it is trying to retrace footsteps for their precious whatever. What is nee-nee? Kaylie somehow became attached to a pair of green boxer shorts of Boots'. Talk about embarassing...try asking people if they have seen those. Or if someone asks her what it is she'll say, "It's my daddy's underwear!" Nice. Anyway, glad she is feeling better and you didn't have to check into the hospital!

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  2. Wow, sounds like quite an afternoon! It's so frustrating trying to retrace steps for their precious whatever. What is nee-nee? Kaylie somehow became attached to a green pair of Boots' boxer shorts. Talk about embarrassing! People look at me like I am crazy if I ask if they've seen them. And if someone asks her what they are she'll say, "It's my daddy's underwear!" Nice! Anyway, so glad Lily got to go home. We'll pray about the feeding tube.

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Lily Kay Monkey

Lily Kay Monkey
November 2008 Photographed by Shelley Detton (7 Layer Studio)