Lexi Update! Antibody Infusion

Here is another update for you from Lexi's mom!

Monday, April 26, 2010 6:46 PM, EDT

Hi Everyone!

Scot, Alexis and I have been at the hospital since 7:30 this morning. Alexis has been moved to room 5320 for the rest of the week. Alexis loves to receive ecards, so if anyone would like to send one just go Nationwide Children's hospital homepage and click on send an ecard. The best thing is that it is free! Make sure you write down her room number because you will need that.

Alexis is in one of the special transplant rooms. It felt strange walking into the room without having to wear gloves or kick out things that fall on the floor.

Alexis's treatment started at 9:30 this morning. Things have gone better than expected thanks to all the meds that the nurses and doctors have given her. Before the treatment began they gave her zofran, tylenol, benadryl and morphine. After all of this, she was still wide awake! The nurse told us that she could have more morphine after 11am. Alexis didn't complain of any pain until about 11:30am when she said that she was having gas pains. After a few trips to the bathroom, we realized it probably wasn't gas pains but where the antibodies were attacking the cancer cells. Last week Dr. Soni had told me that when kids still have active cells there tends to be more pain in that area when receiving the antibody therapy. One of the areas where she still has live cells is in her pelvis area. When we realized this we quickly asked for more morphine and the pain went away. I was glad our nurse Amy was quick because Alexis was having severe pain (what she called a 10 and usually she says her pain isn't more than a 6-7). Right before Amy walked in with the morphine Alexis was telling me that she wanted to stop the infusion! Unfortunantly, while Alexis was getting her morphine she vomited all of her breakfast. After this we learned to ask for more morphine as soon as she could have it.

About two hours later, right before Alexis could have more pain medicine, she started complaining of her neck hurting. Again her right shoulder was another area that had cancer cells. After getting sick again, the nurse practitioner ordered her regular regimen of nausea medicines! Throughout the day Alexis has had all of them. They have helped her to eat or should I say drink! She has had a popscicle, a fruit freeze from Taco Bell and some fruit punch. It is almost time to complete the infusion for tonight so she should be okay for the rest of the night.

The other talk of the day has been the black and blue mark (actually black and red) under my eye!! Yesterday, I was pulling a blanket off of Alexis's wooden curtain rod in her room and it fell and hit me in the eye. It was the worse pain I think I have had since labor! I let out a scream and layed on Alexis's bed crying in agony. Later, Scot said that it sounded like I was scared as if I saw a mouse. I told him that I was scared! I was scared of what my face was going to look like! It turns out that I was very right to think that. It only took a few hours before it started turning black. Now you may wonder why there was a blanket on the curtain rod! ALexis's new fabric blinds are white and she says that it lets too much light in! Oh, the things we do for our kids! All day Sunday, Scot and I talked about what lousy timing I had! I told Scot I would have much rather have gone to work with a black eye then to go to the hospital where people we don't know well come up with there own conclusions! When we first arrived to the hospital people did seem afraind to ask so I started telling them! The first 24 hours I had terrible headaches from the pain. I was finally able to get rid of the pain around 2pm, so I hope that is the end of it!

We are finally one day down and three more to go!

Take Care,
Jen

If you would like to catch up on Lexi's story, you can read all about her here. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.