Something New

Ruby had a little bit of a restless night again; not sure what's causing my girl to toss and turn so much because when she's up, she seems to be just fine.

When I gave Ruby her first dose of Biotene this morning (basically a mouthwash that helps her avoid mouth sores associated with chemo), I noticed there were several little black-ish spots in her mouth that were not there last night. Upon further inspection I realized they looked like dried blood...likely the dreaded mouth sores we've been trying to avoid. I alerted the nurse when she came in for oral meds, and she confirmed that they often come on suddenly like that.

Platelets were still not ready, so we ate our breakfast (with no problems, which was shocking because the sores should be painful) and went outside to play before rounds. During that outside time I noticed lots of bruises on Ruby. She's a crazy girl, so she usually has one or two, but they were everywhere this morning and she hadn't had any big falls that I knew of.

We came back for rounds and asked first thing about the sores. As soon as the nurse practitioner saw them she said that it was not sores, but a 'good' sign that she needed platelets (sooner rather than later). They were holding off a little longer because she wasn't bleeding and they only had a partial match. But given the purpura (bruising and mouth bleeds), we weren't going to wait any longer. Everything else looks fine; Ruby's other levels are dropping and her ANC is already less than 500.

Funny thing about those mouth spots. They weren't concerning because they weren't actively bleeding at all, but they did seem to be multiplying...every time I looked in Ruby's mouth again I found more. I thought it was just me :)

So Ruby is hooked up to platelets at the moment, swaying back and forth in her crib because there is someone in the hall playing a guitar.