St Jude – Thanksgiving week plans

Again, a bit overdue.  I know Summer just loves these updates, so I am trying to be diplomatic about the release of info!

I want to give my sister a big high five for helping out and buying Summer’s “caregiver” last week.   I spent time in acute care during Summers complications after the last round of chemo… And I was far more strained by the discomfort of the situation than sister Sylvia was.  Or at least she never let on to being uncomfortable.

Friday night Summer’s boyfriend, Nate, came to our house and we loaned him our Prius for the drive to Memphis on Saturday.  Nate will be filling in for the role of caregiver until myself, Angela and Aiden can come down on Wednesday afternoon.  After the holiday, Angela, Aiden, and Nate will drive back in one of the cars while I stick around for a week, or two.

When I was at St. Jude earlier in the month, Summer had some complications after chemo and had to go back to acute care for blood transfusions over a few days.  I have been hoping that we might avoid this situation after the most recent round.  But this literally comes down to luck.  We can’t predict anything.  If Summer had to go back in for more transfusions or platelets, we could be looking at a Thanksgiving with her in the hospital while a few of us sit at Target House.  It is whatever it will be… But you plan for the best-case scenario.

Over this past weekend Summer got an HAI (Hospital Acquired Infection) called C-Diff.  After Nate arrived she started getting very sick by Sunday.  Summer could not keep any food down and she was having bad cramping.  Summer went back to St. Jude and they got her checked out, the ok was given, then she was sent back to Target House to rest.  Dehydration is thr biggest concern with CDiff, fortunately she was already covered by the fluids that are being pumped in via her IV backpack.  (She has kept decent weight BTW)  God bless Nate for being there for her. I am sure he is doing so in his typical low-key supportive way.

I still am worried that her white blood cells could be a problem.  Lindsey told her that she has 2 days of seeing the public before she starts hiding from society.  So, she and Nate were thinking about seeing a movie tonight.  I told them to go.  But then I criticized their Marvel Movie selection.  I need to stop being so judgmental!

Tonight, Aiden gets in from Wisconsin and we will get the Fort’s Prius loaded up with half-cooked holiday foods.  Angela is working extra hard to make sure this holiday is as good as it can be while we are at Target House.  They do have a limit on housing.  We can only have 4 people in the room after 8 PM every day.  I had mentioned in the last post that Angela was going to work over the manager to see if we could get this “overlooked”.  As I suspected.  They would not change policy for our situation.  If anyone has heard terrible stories and begs for mercy, it’s gotta be these folks at St. Jude.  Angela was told last week that the Sheraton Memphis offered us a room to help with our housing needs for a few days.  Wow…  Just wow.

The plan is that we will spend the time together as a family until Saturday.  We will try to keep it festive, but Summer does have a small chemo treatment on Thursday.  As if we needed another reality check to tell us we are not home?  Saturday, Angela, Aiden, and Nate will head back north and leave me in charge of the operation.  I may stay one or 2 weeks after this weekend.

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Once reason to come back on week 2.  I had picked up some tickets to see Jack White (White Stripes) at the Aragon on December 8th, and had hoped to be in town to meet Aiden midway for the show.. but if it doesn’t pan out… there’s always StubHub!

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This post was a mess… I tried to write it while at work throughout the day on Tuesday. Not easy to do!!!

I had woken up at 3 am on Monday morning and never got back to sleep. So, Tuesday night I crashed early. All the while I was thinking I should post an update.

Between dabbling while at work and trying to rush, that’s how you end up with a crappy post!

This morning, I cleaned it up a bit.

Have a great holiday!