Chemo Round 2 = Drama Mama.....

Well, Little Blu had her second Chemo treatment this morning.  This was supposed to be the 'easy' one (those were her words mind you).  Today she was scheduled to only gets one of the meds, (Vinchristine) and this isn't the one that makes her super nauseous.  As she held DaddyMax's hand on the way in she said, "you know last time wasn't so bad and I bet this time will be even better."  We were optimistic for sure and loved her positive comments.  While we waited she and Max, put together toy train tracks, read books, and made the obligatory jokes with her urine sample which,  naturally, was hilarious.  She loves grossing him out. :-)

This fun was short lived however as something flipped in her little head as soon as height and weight were taken and she was instructed to her little bed.  Instantly tears started streaming as she pulled her fuzzy blanket over her head, hiding her distress.  She became super bossy and from our perspective it was so surprising how everything turned on a dime.  It goes without saying... this is new for all of us.

She told the nurse she wasn't afraid of the port access (where they stick the needle into her chest to administer the meds) but instead was afraid of taking the tape off afterwards. Hmmmmmmm... last time the tape didn't seem to really bother her.  In the end I think this was her way of expressing anxiety and worry about the entire process and used the tape removal as her scapegoat.  Poor thing :-/   We totally get it and being just her second time, she did her best to put on a brave face and we tried our best to comfort her and calm her nerves (and ours).

The Child Life Specialists recomended we tried to entertain her... We tried soothing her and using the iPad but NO...she was not having any of it.  Like, 0 of it.  She whined about the face mask (and eventually threw it on the ground), the table was in her way, she was bored, she couldn't see the paintings on the wall, she was hot, now she was cold and really... she complained about every single thing she could.


And listen, god bless her little heart because this must be a MASSIVE undertaking for her but after a while Max and I just looked at each and other and finally said, "We love you.  We totally get how scary this.  But, knock it off."  We feel like we're walking a tight rope of loving and tolerant while at the same time not allowing her to deflect and delay the inevitable.  We have a really long way to go and there is no way we can do this process every single Friday with this drama.  After the port was accessed, this is when she took her face mask off and threw it on the ground in an absolute fit and, I gotta admit, I was pretty impressed hahahahaahahahaha!

                                          (note the hand over forehead dramatic gesture)


While she did scream at the port access, the meds were delivered super quick, the needle was removed, and we were done.  Quick exit and we were shortly home.

Once home she was feeling great.  She made pretzels in her Easy Bake oven, road her turtle scooter, and then.... her head started to hurt.  THANKFULLY, my good friend Amanda saw these days coming and had already given me a vial of peppermint oil with instructions on how to relieve a headache.  As instructed put some on her thumb and placed it straight onto the roof of her mouth.  Her eyes got super big  and then she almost immediately spit it out in the sink LOL!  However , jokes on her because 10 min later when I asked her how her head felt, she smiled and said "much better!"   Baby steps :)

She is now watching TV with a healthy snack.  Hopefully the weekend will go well.

Oh, and one other tid-bit of news... we learned today that because we're still so early in the treatment cycle that she is cleared to go to school next week 1/2 days!  The more normalcy and connections she can have the better :)

That's all for now!

Carlie