6/9/10 (I think)

I am going to be quick (supposedly) because Piper is napping and I am never sure how long that will last. Although this morning she napped long enough for me to shower...HUGE accomplishment here folks. So I smell nice and Piper is sleeping happily and for the most part things are looking up. The Dr took her off of the antibiotic that treats viruses because she never developed one. She continues the other 2 for 14 days from yesterday, but 7 days worth of those doses have to be here at the hospital. And the rest we MAY be able to complete at home. Apparently because the bacterial infection is in her port line she has to receive the antibiotic through the port so they should be able to keep her accessed and hep-locked (where the port stays accessed or connected and the line that hangs out to connect to the IV pole is basically plugged up until something needs to be given. It keeps us from having to poke her too many times) when we go home on Monday and give her the antibiotic through that or have home health come and do it. Frankly we have another 6 days to ponder out a plan.

Piper is doing great. No more bacteria being shown in her cultures. She is breaking out in a rash on her bottom and they will be running a culture on that just in case. As of right now though they think it is simply a diaper rash from yucky antibiotics. Her ANC went from 0 to 20 and that thrilled me. It also thrilled me that they chose to allow me to have Piper hep-locked when she isn't receiving antibiotics so we spent the majority of the day outside in the grass or me holding her hands while she walked around and showed off her pretty shoes.

I am making a list of the Beads of Courage that this girl has accumulated since her 5 days in the clinic and I am pretty sure it'll be a doozy of a list for the night shift lady. And speaking of the night shift, Piper did wonderfully last night and I thank Heather for that. She is one of my favorite nurses and people and a darn funny blogger to top it off. I wish I had my camera here to take some pictures of all we do...you know, the shopping and eating out. The picnics in the grass and the "movies" (aka: the fish wall). This hospital is amazing. Piper has made friends with the coffee shop lady, the security guards, the janitors, definitely all the Aflac nurses, the grill guy down in the cafeteria and anyone else who dares to look at her toothless, nose-crinkling smile.