11/25 pm

As of right now things are quiet. I am now a big fan of morphine. I would really appreciate it if the nurse were less ethical and would let Chad and I in on the sweet peace that Piper is feeling, but I am still happy that she is doing so much better.

There have been no growth on the cultures for 24 hrs...YAY! That means that, although the cultures are watched for 5 days, that it probably was not a bacterial infection. A bacterial infection would mean lots more antibiotics and side effects and worse. Since our arrival at the ER yesterday she has not had a fever, praise God. Right now Dr B is thinking she spiked the fever as a result of her mouth sores and ulcers both on her lips and down her throat. She is not able to suck a bottle down so tonite at 900 she will begin TPN, where her fluids have nutrients and fats in it so she is still not only hydrated but nourished. I am still attempting to give her formula and we hope that she will take it soon and not be on TPN for too long. Also, because of her throat being inflammed and red she has been given breathing treatments every 6 hours. She is not having difficulty breathing but sounds like she is wheezing. All of this plus her being on a constant low dose of morphine is making her a very quiet and contented baby. She is fascinated with her fingers and will wiggle them together as if she is plotting an escape.

Piper was able to meet her Uncle Nate tonite. My little brother Nathan has been in Iraq for a year and was finally able to see her when he showed up here at the hospital tonight. Linley is very impressed with her Uncle Nate as well...but he is 6"5 and can reach lots of things no one else ever could and this makes him "super neat".

We are here a little longer and Dr B said that they will probably push the next phase of chemo off from the 30th of Nov to the 7 of Dec. And hopefully we should get a few days of quiet at home while we wait for her counts to get normal enough to drop them back down with more chemotherapy. So all in all, today has been alot better than yesterday. Please keep praying that we will continue to see her fight this off. We had a good conversation today with Dr B, who is her primary pediatric oncologist. We always expect to hear the most honest truth from him and he was very blunt about being so happy with how well Piper is doing with treatments. He said that putting chemo off for another week is normal, even expected, especially after such intensive medications as HD Methotrexate. I asked him tonight if the statistics for a cure for Piper went up as she aged and he said in essence that with such small children the longer they could keep them in remission the better the chance of cure. He said that research showed that small infants who could stay in remission for the 6 months of intensive chemotherapy would have a much better chance at a cure. That recent studies show if leukemia is going to come back in infants it usually does so early on in her treatment. That is why for her age group the treatment is so incredibly intense for those important 6 months, as compared to older children who are treated much more lightly but for longer. So keep praying that her little body stays in remission and that these ridiculous chemicals and medications do what they are intended to do.