Sophie's World

5:45 PM: Our little Sophie is still in the hospital. Randall was with her last night, and she had more fevers during the night (pretty high ones too). They did a blood draw this morning. Unfortunately, they couldn't get enough blood to come out of her IV site, so they had to draw blood from her other arm, and it took three tries before they got what they needed. Poor little thing had quite a stressful morning. The good news is that her ANC is up (.4 instead of .3), but with the continuing fevers, they want to keep her admitted for at least one more day. They also changed the antibiotic (from rocephin to metronidazole, plus she's also getting cefepime). Dr. Gold said that if her ANC is still going up tomorrow morning, there's a very good chance we could take her home, even if she's still running. No guarantees though. I guess we'll see which way the wind is blowing tomorrow. I have a prescription for clindamycin for her to take at home. It's oral--thank goodness, because being on IV antibiotics at home would mean inserting another PICC line, and I'm sure we all remember how difficult her last PICC line was. This medicine comes in either a nasty-tasting liquid or a capsule. Now, Sophie is really good at taking pills, but she does not like capsules (maybe the gelatin tastes funny, or it sticks to her tongue a little bit). So we're going to get the capsules, because the doctor says the liquid is about the worst stuff she's ever had in her mouth (they make the doctors taste the medicines they prescribe--a neat idea). I tried to have a rational discussion with Sophie about how much better the capsules will be, but she's not convinced yet. Wish us luck!

Elisabeth is doing well, but she's in as much turmoil as we are. She worries about Sophie, and she's also envious of all the attention Sophie is getting. When Sophie is sick like this, I just want to drop everything and be with her constantly, but then I'm really torn because I miss Elisabeth and Randall too. It's really frustrating to have to be separated from each other and that we have such a short time together when we're switching off. It's times like this that living so far away from the hospital is so difficult. I'm very eager for us to be reunited.