Sophie's World

9:25 PM First of all, thanks for all the kind comments about our frustration with our infusion pharmacy. It's nice to know that we aren't being totally irrational in our irritation! We got another shipment of antibiotics today. They were due tomorrow, so I guess the folks at Curascript are trying to do right by us. But it doesn't help that when I called today about the shipment, I was told (from the pharmacist) that UPS would deliver the drugs tomorrow. An hour later, the pharmacist called and claimed he "mis-spoke" (who is he and what elected office is he running for?). The drugs had already left and a courier would deliver them this evening. We had to cut short our lovely walk at Sampson Nursery to come home in time to meet the courier, but I think we're all set for the duration of this round of antibiotics (although there is some question as to whether "until" 5/29 includes 5/29 or not--more on that later, I guess).

Today has been a good day. Sophie had a visit from Home Health this morning, which went mostly fine. This visit was for a couple of reasons. First, it was to check "peak" and "trough" levels--to check the levels of antibiotic in Sophie's bloodstream before and after treatment. No word yet on how that went. Second, we're hoping to get a good measure of Sophie's ANC (a check on her immune system) before we travel next week. I have to admit that since the last two times we've traveled together as a family Sophie got sick (either during or immediately afterwards), I'm very, very nervous about being away from UNC for a whole week!

Sophie continues to have a recurrence of her rash. In fact, I noticed last night as we got ready for her bath that she was itching her arms pretty roughly. Today, I sent her to school in a long sleeve shirt in an effort to keep her covered up some more. I think it worked. Unfortunately, the hat I sent to school with her was where I had left it, and she was out and about hatless this afternoon when I picked her up. I will speak to the teachers tomorrow about making sure that Sophie wears a hat outside and (hopefully) make sure that she gets sunscreen applied beforehand. If that doesn't help after a few days, we may need to keep her indoors or pick her up before the kids go outside. I hate to have to keep her from going outside, because I know how much she enjoys that, but I can't bear to see her with a rash all over her face, neck, and arms.

Elisabeth is in the midst of her grade assessments this week. I think she's doing well--she seems unconcerned (as usual). I picked her up early today and hauled her around with me as I did errands. I think she enjoyed that time together and feeling like she was helping out. We can now count the number of days Elisabeth has in school on one hand (especially considering she'll be out for five days on our trip to New Mexico). If elementary school hasn't changed much since I was in it, those last couple of weeks are all downhill anyway--I noticed that the kids are already watching a lot of videos, at least based on what I hear from Elisabeth.

Susan finally went to urgent care today about her foot. She injured it last week in the hospital. The x-ray didn't conclusively show a break, but the Dr. showed her how to tape up the baby toe and suggested it would take a couple of weeks to get better.

Susan's mom asked today if I'm settling into life after school. I guess so. It's so hard to tell because our life has been so chaotic and stressful these past two weeks. Check in with me in another couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll have an answer by then!