The Smiths: Chemo Round 8

Boyd's birth wasn't the only exciting thing that happened in August - Abigail finished chemo!!

Round 8 started on July 28th and Abigail brought some friends :).

And played with the hospital bed some more.

And yes, she beat me at Bears and Bees.

Some book reading also helped pass the time.

The next two weeks Andrew took Abigail. I just couldn't handle it at that point. But they had fun together and she requested that he take her the second week!

At least in part because of the video games.

August 11th was the third week of the round and I was super nervous the baby would decide to come that day and Andrew would have to be running back and forth between me and Abigail (at least labor and delivery is just down the hall from pediatrics). At least Grandma was there by then to watch the girls at home should that have happened! But alas, Boyd waited nicely for Thursday to make his appearance.

Then, finally, on Tuesday, August 18th, the day we'd been anticipating for 15 months arrived. Last day of chemo!

It definitely came with mixed emotions. We were so glad she was finishing and could move forward, but she and I were going to miss her chemo group so much! It had become such a big part of our lives and I'm not good at endings anyways. Even though Boyd was only 5 days old, Andrew and I agreed that I should take Abigail. My one stipulation was that he sleep ok the night before so that I wouldn't be a complete zombie - which he did! He had his best night yet and I was able to get up in the morning and take him to the pediatrician before chemo and then go with Abigail. I didn't want to miss this big day after being the one who took her every week, except for the handful of times that Andrew rescued us, so he graciously let me go with her. (Yay for bottle feeding that made it possible!)

By the end of the day I was regretting this choice. Trust Abigail to go out with a bang.

The Texas Tech building that the oncology clinic is located in.

When we got into the clinic, they had decorated a room for Abigail and had presents and everything!

And the best surprise of all?! Madison was there! Madison was Abigail's nurse at the hospital for the first several months of chemo and we greatly missed her when she left. But now she was training to be a backup at the clinic when Brenda was out and just happened to be there this particular day!

I cannot begin to describe our feelings about Brenda, the oncology nurse. She and Becky, the child life specialist at the hospital, were the two pivotal people that made chemo not only tolerable, but out of this world awesome for Abigail! She goes above and beyond in making Abigail feel special - not to mention she's the only one we trust to access Abigail's port. She is so good at what she does and we miss seeing her every week!

She knew Abigail would love getting a watch!

I'm not the only one a little sad to be done with chemo. Abigail is really going to miss it!

Because it was her last day of treatment, Abigail got to ring the bell at the oncology clinic before we headed to the hospital.

We love Dr. Baskaran and Dr. Kaylani and have been so grateful for the excellent care they've given Abigail!

Another surprise was waiting when we arrived at the hospital, thanks to Becky! A decorated room, more gifts, everyone singing "no more chemo for you", and even a news crew to witness the occasion!

Abigail has obviously flourished under all the attention she gets :).

The newswoman did her best to interview Abigail but didn't ask the best questions. She got an "I know" from Abigail when she asked, "Do you know you have beautiful eyes?" :) Or something along those lines. Unfortunately, she also interviewed me. I sounded like an idiot, but they did the best editing possible, and my mask covered half my face so I guess it turned out as well as I could have hoped.

That night there was a 2 minute feature on Abigail on the 5pm news! (And she and I were still at the hospital, so got to watch it together - that's down below.)

Becky!! And luckily for us, not only is Becky one of Abigail's wish grantors from Make a Wish, she also lives close enough to us that her son will be in kindergarten next year at Sleepy Hollow with Cora - ensuring she's not out of our lives forever even if we don't get to see her weekly anymore.

All the excitement was too much for Abigail and she ended up taking her first ever nap at chemo.

It was supposed to be a quick day since she was only getting one chemo agent, but her hemoglobin was low, so we had to stay longer for another blood transfusion.

20 minutes into the transfusion, I went to adjust her blanket as she slept and found blood all over her and her blankie! Somehow, the iv had come unconnected and had just been squiring blood everywhere.

Becky to the rescue! She hurried and took little blankie to be washed and got everything else all cleaned up. Only, during the time it was unconnected, the blood in her port line had congealed and now nothing would go into her port. It was a crazy there for a bit because they couldn't get anything into the clogged port, but the bag of blood was only good for a couple of hours once they start and we were running out of time!

Brooke came to help out even though she had been on her way out of the hospital and got the medication they needed from the pharmacy to clear the port line and then sped up the infusion rate of the blood to get it all in in time.

Because of all this, we were still at the hospital at 5pm, and Abigail got to watch herself on the news! I was really upset that Andrew forgot to turn it on at home, but he managed to find the clip on YouTube within the hour, so they saw it too. Just not live like we did. Oh well.

Playing with her new set of princess barbies while we wait for the blood to finish!

Look at all the beads of courage Abigail earned! Unfortunately, Becky gave us her final beads earlier in the day, before the transfusion incident, and I forgot to ask about it, so her strand won't end with a red bead to commemorate her fun finish.