tanning beds and chemical burns

Piper is soundly sleeping after a happy day of drooling and pooping. I make them classy, don't you think? Her little wrists and legs look horrible, but she is "Lortab-oblivious". In essence, the Methotrexate that she got last weekend has seeped out her skin causing her to look as though she fell asleep in a tanning bed then ran into a chemical fire. Its ugly but like I said, she is very contented. Her lips look a little better and she has been taking small bottles fine. Her bottom still has raw spots but truly I am so used to her bottom looking that way I hardly notice and smother her up with the handy-dandy spackling style sensi-care cream as if I were in a trance.

The weekend doctor was actually impressed and said she had fully expected to be giving orders to put Piper on Hyperall (sp?), which are intravenous nutrients and morphine around the clock. As it is she is eating about a 3 oz bottle (jacked up with lots of rice cereal for calories) every 3 hours, including one hazy middle of the night feeding that every bone in this mommy crying out the wrongness of...I live by "never awaken a sleeping child"...but have altered it to "never awaken a sleeping child unless they have Leukemia and you are trying out new tricks to keep them growing and going".

We plan to be here for a while. Piper's blood counts bottom out around 7-10 days after she gets chemo and she got the Methotrexate last Saturday so she is on her way down. Once she gets there, she cannot heal until her counts begin to come up naturally. When they come back up she will begin to feel better and hopefully her skin and mouth will look better as well. Unfortunately, because she has low counts that will get worse before better, the Dr wants to keep her here to watch. So here we stay...at our second home. :)

Alot of you have asked for specifics to pray for. As always, pray for this chemo to do its job on Pipers body...that it is effective and ultimately cures her. Also pray for Chad. He has a busy juggling game of school, work, bills, mr mommy-ing, missing Piper and I and still wanting to support us...its enough to keep him running. And of course Linley. She is quickly learning that differant caretakers allow differant things and it makes it difficult at times to enforce the family rules that she knows and does not love.