Saturday night was a rough night. Brace woke up every 1.5 hours in pain so nobody slept well. :)
Sunday: It was hard to get out of bed Sunday morning so I skipped breakfast and exercising. I showered and ran to the church to make the last run through practice of Joy to the World descant. As I said before, Brace really wanted to go to church in his red Christmas suit. (thanks for the red suit picture from Christmas Sunday 2018) Luckily he decided to not risk the bugs because he felt so awful.
Sacrament meeting was beautiful with two of my favorite speakers Anne Procuniar and Dan Schoessow and then of course, the choir sang. The best part of church was Carey Penrod was there mask and all with Fawn and their girls. (Keep praying for Carey Penrod) After church it was fun to chat with members. Then I called Brace and there was no answer so I quickly drove home to get him ready for radiation treatment.
When I got home Brace was sound asleep and with ten minutes to go. With his go to chamo chemo bag, he was ready, but looking very weak and tipsy. Bob Demmon, our neighbor, was driving today and I asked him if it was OK if I just went along in the back seat. Treatment was fast, but with each new radiation to his neck his throat becomes more and more sore.
Brace's brother, Blaine, and his kids Lindsey, Jeff and Annalisa came to visit because they were in town for Christmas vacation.
Monday: Sleep was not good Sunday night so waking up Monday morning was hard. It is like having a newborn. I'm sure Brace would appreciated me saying that. :)
I finally got out of bed at 8:30am and got his meds and food ready to go. His throat was even more sore so I ground up almost all of his pills. He has been able to swallow pills for the last few weeks but with radiation going every day it gets worse.
At 10:50am he was ready to go to radiation with Erik Larsen but he did NOT feel good. Today they did the Cat Scan to re-evaluate the scanning map. They made a new mask to prep and then did a treatment with the old mask. He's lost 25-30 pounds so that is important to do a mask that fits his body at the new lower weight.
Today, Bryan Lake and his darling wife Heather live in Oregon. They came with their two sons Dylan and Chase to take Penelope on a approved luncheon with her two companions at AppleBee's. Penelope thought that was just delightful. They had this planned with the Mission President for a little over a month.
He has been struggling with a fever for a few days. Alice really encouraged me to tell the doctor so I called Dr. Carroll. He said a fever by itself is not that serious but if it is also coupled with chills, shaking and feeling absolutely crappy it is a problem. I said how about all three? Dr. Carroll arranged for us to get our blood drawn at the infusion center at Hoag Irvine. On 12/12/19, the first day of round 3 chemo, his white blood cell level was 8.12. Today after the blood draw it was .65. (less than point one) . WBC is what your body uses to fight off disease. After much discussion between radiation and oncology we decided we wanted to be at Hoag Hospital in Newport so we could be close to Dr. Carroll. Radiation said they wouldn't treat him again until his blood levels were safer. I knew that we would be at the hospital a long time so I thought we should go home, feed him, take his pain pills, pack supplies and then head to the emergency room.
Did I tell you today was our family caroling party at our house? When we came home from the blood draw it was 5pm right at the start of our party. Kjarstin and James had agreed to prepare the tacos for the party when I knew that we might have to go to the hospital. I attached him to his feeding tube pump, gave him his pain meds and headed downstairs just in time to have two tacos. Lunch didn't happen for me so it was good for me to eat and so fun to see my sister, Scott and our amazing nieces.
After dinner, we opened presents quickly and then Brace felt a little better so we took his presents from the Perkins upstairs. :) We all enjoyed watching him open his presents. Then on our way out with eight bags and everything we needed for the hospital Leslie, Dominique and Geneil were singing songs from the "Scarlet Pimpernel" (one of Brace's top three musicals) with Kjarstin playing at the piano. Brace knew the song well and joined in with them while my sister Diane and her husband danced on the side. I just stood there crying and filming the whole thing. It is a very romantic song...... "When I Look at You". Look it up - you know you want to.
I think we got to the hospital at 7:30pm or 8pm in Newport. They have him on Sepsis protocol and are trying to figure out why he has a fever. He has had two bags of antibiotics so far and I think they just received another order for the third bag. At 10pm when they tested his WBC count he was now at .5, so the good news is we are here.
It is now 2:33am and my cot just arrived. Hurrah! All the nurses including me have to wear a mask because he has no immune system.
P.S. Brace reminded me the last time we were in the hospital was Thanksgiving Day so it looks like we will be here Christmas Day. Good thing we had our party today. :)
Thank you to Bryan and Heather Lake for visiting Penelope with food and presents.
Thank you to Elena Nelson, Ali Zor and Beverlee Leung for sending presents to Penelope.
Thank you to Ali for coming to help me wrap presents for the family party Sunday after radiation.
Thank you to Tina Whitesides for the special oranges
Thank you to Melissa Fulton for getting the chicken for the family party.
Thank you for Kjarstin & James for running the family Christmas party without me.
Thank you to the Perkins for being so flexible about the party.
Thank you to Robyn Robinson for checking on Brace and for dinner for Karen.
Thank you to the Kegel's and the Schreiber's for being great neighbors.
Thank you to the Goodman's for coming caroling to our house. We love that!
Thank you to the Perkins for the their fun gifts, beautiful voices and helping doing the dishes at our house.
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