Happy Easter!!

Post by Andrea

Well, some of you know that Carol Anne was in the hospital again last night. She was running a fever temperature again, but she wasn't feeling sick. After a conversation with the on-call doctor, I took Mom in again.

We were told to wait in the Family Lounge on the cancer floor and we weren't there for too long before Wayne and Brad walked in!!! Wayne is my uncle (Brenda's husband) who unfortunately is also undergoing chemo treatment at Grand River Hospital, for Leukemia. Brad is his son, who has been Wayne's shadow and HUGE support since he entered the hospital about a month ago. Not much later, Brenda walked in!! Although the circumstances were unfortunate, it was nice to be together. It was my Mom's first time seeing Wayne since they received their diagnoses. He is looking pretty well, and is sporting a shaved head. After a while he needed to lay down, so we said good night.

The on-call doctor ended up coming right into the hospital to see my Mom, but after looking at her blood work and a quick check-up, she decided to let her go home. We got a prescription for anti-biotics as a precaution, so that if Mom starts feeling more sick, she won't have to wait in the ER or for the on-call doctor. The doctor told Mom to take Tylenol to bring the temperature down. We came home and Mom and I watched a movie and had a late dinner.

Total hospital time last night: 3 hours, not too bad AND Brenda let us use her parking pass to get out for free!! Thanks Brendy!! Saved us $7

This brings us to today. We had a great time with our family. It was amazing to have everyone at Mom's house. For the most part we were all inside and got to have a nice visit. We celebrated Marie's, Linda's, Brenda's, Micah's, and Cathleen's birthdays with a giant Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Unfortunately, Mom wasn't feeling especially well, and gets a little overwhelmed when she talks a lot. So, after the cake people started clearing out. Which brings us to...

Some of the best news!! Wayne was allowed to go home to have dinner with his family today!! This was his first time out since he went in! We were hoping that he would get to leave the hospital until Thursday, but they almost changed their mind so that he couldn't leave at all. Brad brought him home for a couple of hours, so from our house, the family went to Brenda's to show their love to Wayne.

Mom went up to bed at around 8:30 and I believe she has actually gotten some sleep in, although she has to sit up in bed. I think she is starting to feel many of the chemo symptoms, mainly just feeling... how do I say this without using the perfect, yet crude word... Rhymes with Smitty. She also got a sore in her mouth, but hopefully we can keep that under control. She has a nasty rash on her chest, but the on-call doctor suspects it might be from the codeine, so hopefully it will go away when Mom starts the new cough medicine.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who came to Kitchener today. I'm sorry that it was under sad circumstances, but I'm so glad that everyone was here and I'm sure Brenda and Wayne and their kids are also so happy that they got a chance to be with all of you today.

Tomorrow, if Mom is feeling well we are going to Niagara Falls! Tentatively, Maggie and family, Jeany and family, Mike, myself, and Mom and are going and then from there we'll see Maggie, Jack, Hannah, Ava, and Micah off to the U.S.

Good night