Day 12: Today...

• Mommy's platelets were low so they transfused her with a unit of platelets (this time B+) from Boise, Idaho. When Mommy received it she recognized that there are so many -- from all over -- who are a part of her life-saving process. It is a pretty amazing thing. It also makes me see Blood Donation in a new way.


• Since they gave her platelets they also had to give her Benadryl -- she slept pretty much the whole day.

Because of her fainting/dizzy spell Saturday and Sunday morning, the doctor ordered her blood pressure meds to be cut down and also ordered for her to be hooked up to a telemetry monitor so that her heart could be monitored. She has little monitors stuck on her chest that are attached to a little box that she can carry around. (That's the little beige box on her lap. BTW - the orange bracelet she's wearing is a "Fall Precaution." It warns the staff that she may fall. Go ahead... I know what you're thinking... "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" -- don't worry, I thought it too!)

The telemetry monitor allows her nurse to be able to see, monitor and be alerted to any irregularities in her heart.

At different spots on the floor there are computer monitors that display several readings from monitors of patients on the floor. We took a walk around the floor (4 laps in the afternoon) and were able to check out her heart rate as we passed by. She was doing just fine! :)

• Mommy had a good appetite at breakfast and lunch. Dinner time was a bit tougher. She was pretty nauseous but was able to eat most all of her meal without incident and without having to take a nausea med. The meds pretty much knock her out and she didn't want to feel so drowsy.


• a couple of visitors from church and packages from church friends were a very nice encouragement!
• the doctor pretty much said that other than the fainting/dizzy spells, she's doing great

Seems like most of what she is experiencing are standard reactions and side effects to the chemotherapy. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to the doctors working with her and they know what may be causing the various "symptoms" and how to address it. While it's "normal" to them, it doesn't necessarily make it easier in the experience of it. It's an exercise of trust -- trusting the doctors know what's happening and that they know when to be concerned and not.