So long, steroids...we won't be seeing you!!

I think we made record time at Riley's clinic visit yesterday. Her appointment was at 12, and we were out of there by 2:15...that never happens. When we were waiting for the nurse to finish accessing Riley's port, Riley asked the nurse if we were going to have to be there for a long time. Poor girl didn't feel like having to sit around and wait, and thankfully we didn't have to. We finally got to talk to Dr. Dreyer, Riley's primary oncologist. She kept up with Riley's progress while she was in the hospital, but we never actually got to speak to her...so it was nice to hear her take on everything. She feels strongly that Riley does not have a fungal infection, which was very reassuring. If whatever was attacking Riley's system were fungal, we would still be in the hospital with fevers and low counts. It was a positive sign that Riley's counts had gone up, and no more fevers. But, in the case that we are admitted again in the near future for fever...the first thing on the agenda will be CT scans to look for possible fungal spots. So, for now we will continue on as planned. And for the first time ever I have no idea what Riley's ANC was yesterday. What's up with that? It was not back when we spoke with Dr. Dreyer, and I completely forgot to check back before we left. They felt like it would be high, due to her white count being 4.23. Her hemoglobin is hanging steady at 10.8, and her platelets have sky rocketed to 207...she was tinkering with needing a platelet infusion when we were admitted, but thankfully they came back on their own. Riley did receive her missed dose of chemo and also her last dose of the red medicine, Doxorubicin. Yesterday was also her last day on steroids, so we get to enjoy 2 weeks of no medicine. We go back to clinic on Monday for them to check on her blood counts, and that is it. Then the following Monday, the 14th, will begin another month of new medicine.

These last few days of steroids have proved to be challenging for our princess. It is definitely a test on my patience dealing with the mood swings. Riley also started eating again, back to the steroid special of bread and white gravy. The girl dreams about white gravy...on the way to Houston yesterday she was talking about how she wanted to dip her donut holes in white gravy. That's disgusting. It has also been a challenge toting around her 35-ish pounds of dead weight. Riley became very weak during her hospital stay, and is now not able to walk without someone helping to hold her up. She can't even reposition herself in bed, so every couple of minutes she is whining for someone to come and roll her onto her other side. We are forcing her to walk, but if she decides she doesn't want to she will throw herself on the ground. I know it is mostly from the steroids, though, so hopefully in the next few days things will start to even back out. In the meantime I will continue to take deep breaths and count to 1,000...I've discovered that 10 isn't enough. Josh has been great, and more patient with her than I lately. He even treated her to her 2 am craving of bread, white gravy, and noodles this morning. It makes us thankful that she slept through the first two weeks of this higher dose steroid while in the hospital.

This weekend is the Hallettsville Relay-for-life, and Riley will be participating in the survivor's lap. I will be sure to take lots o' pictures!! Next weekend will be the Yoakum's relay, and she will also be doing the survivor's lap in that one, as well. Fun times for our Riley-bee!!!

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers, and words of encouragement. I know you all think we are these amazing and strong parents, but Riley truly makes everything so easy. She handles it like a pro, so we are able to follow suit. We love you all!!