Day Four

Another kink in our 'normal' today.... Ruby's chemo bag ended around 7AM, at which point they flush it out. At the end of the flush, they start a new bag. Each time they start a new bag, they flush the line and do a quick 'pull' to make sure the flow is going in and coming back out (blood). When the nurse tried to pull this morning, no blood came. She tried four different times on both lines, but nothing. So they ended up injecting a medicine to break-up a possible blockage in her tube. That had to sit for 30 minutes and then be removed (it was not supposed to go into her vein). Before the 30 minutes even finished though, the nurse was able to get a pull, so we were a go to re-hook up the chemo.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Ruby was somewhat fatigued, but not as much as yesterday. We still fit in plenty of speech and playing. She did knock out a monster almost-three-hour nap though; that was impressive. Ruby's appetite is still there, but she is picky, though not as much as the first round. One thing she's started doing during this hospital stay is drinking milk out of a real straw (from the carton) incredibly neatly. I'm almost tempted to let her do it on her own (instead of me holding it). That hasn't happened yet though because I fear she will definitely dump, spill, or throw it, filling our dorm room with a sour dairy smell...I know this girl.

We are still on track for leaving tomorrow afternoon. I imagine it will be dinnertime or so before they let us go. Hopefully we don't have any more issues with Ruby's line to delay us. So far they've been able to 'catch up' with the speed of her drip, but I think any other kinks would slow us down.