Yesterday

Our visit to the clinic went fine. All of her counts stayed pretty much the same. The RBC's were the only ones to go up. The WBC's and platelets came down but not enough to change anything. Alivia got her IV antibiotic that she gets each month and got her dressing and caps changed (on her broviac). It went so much better than last week. The home nurse did it last week and Alivia was terrified and it definetly hurt her when the tape was removed (the nurse used alcohol to remove tape!! Ouch). This week it was Joanne who changed everything. Alivia knows and likes Joanne so she wasn't scared at all and Joanne didn't use alcohol to pull the tape off. She was patient and careful. Thanks Joanne.

We talked to our transplant doc and she gave us some dates....Yikes.
February 13th is the consult
February 19th is the eye exam
February 20th is another bone marrow biopsy and nasal wash
February 27th we go into the hospital for the transplant...unless the cord blood is coming from Europe then we will go in the following Tuesday.

Inbetween now and then we also will have an Echo, EKG and Chest CT along with our regular clinic visits. I personally thing spending 6-8 weeks there is more than enough time but obviously I am wrong.

On one hand its good to have a date so its not just looming out there in the unknown but on the other hand I was still holding onto the idea that if we never plan it something will happen and she won't have to have it. We could still get a miracle but I'm not sure thats what is going to happen. I still can't imagine actually walking into to the hospital with her as healthy as she is now and hooking her up to meds that might kill her. My brain doesn't work in that area.

I know that people are going to want to send cards and maybe gifts to Alivia when she in the hospital. That is great but there are some very clear rules on what kind of gifts she can have. With cards please don't lick them. I'm being overly cautious but its my baby and I want to do everything possible to keep her healthy. So use a little water. Second, no stuffed animals. We are allowed to take a few from our house (we have a million) but she can't have any others cause they hold onto germs. I will lay out the whole list in the coming weeks. Thanks everyone.