You Give Me Fever

Uggh... two steps forward one step back. Or the other way around.

Ricky and Brie came from Sharky's (I think I said Cozy's yesterday but that's the place in the City) and gave Sylvie a little bob haircut. Now she really looks like Suri Cruise. Gabrielle said that Alexandra spied a photo of Suri in a magazine last week and thought it was Sylvie.

I slept at home last night while Michael "slept" at the hospital with Sylvie. She had a fever ranging from 101 to 103 all night and through the morning. Sometime when it was still dark they did a chest x-ray. While I appreciate that the portable x-ray machine is painted like a giraffe, I hardly think it makes a difference to Sylvie. X-Ray totally clear.

After reading the interview with Leonard Cohen in the New York Times this morning, I was thinking of how much I love his song "Hallelujah" and then had a little hallelujah myself when Sylvie asked me for a bagel!!! This is a big victory. Dr. Nita even heard it :-). But when she took a bit of bagel w/ cream cheese, then oatmeal, then Kashi O's, then Greek Gods honey yogurt, each time she made a horrific face and spit it out. She might have mouth sores or just a bad taste in her mouth. We're trying to remedy it. At least she said she was hungry!

The infectious disease doctor came in this morning and said that the port which they closed up last Sunday has now tested positive for a strep bacteria. So the good news is the staph us under control. Now they need to determine what type of strep this is and administer the best antibiotic. For now, they're switching from Oxycillin and another one I can't remember to Vancomycin until they determine if it's resistant to penicillin. BUT she is going to see if they can work it out so that we can go home on schedule although I may need to get a crash course in administering antibiotics through a port. This is a far cry from when I volunteered with the paramedics at Wayne General during high school.

A little victory in that Sylvie's magnesium level is 2.2! It was about .9 two days ago. This is GREAT news. Yeay for Magnesium and Santa Cruz organic caramel dessert syrup!!!! Actually Dr. Rosen talked to the chief compounding pharmacist at Town & Country and they can make something 'better' for her.

Today Sylvie has more Physical Therapy and is getting some more blood because her hemoglobin is low. On that note, I wanted to thank everyone who has donated A+ blood or any kind of platelets for Sylvie. Paula has been keeping track of it and I have a little notebook at the Hackensack University Medical Center blood bank for everyone to sign in. Sylvie has been getting around 2 transfusions a week and has received platelets once. Because she's only around 26 pounds, she does not get a full pint each time. In case anyone needs the 411 its:
Hackensack University Medical Center Blood Bank
30 Prospect Avenue
Hackensack, NJ
Contact: Nadia
201-996-4818

Kitzchy came over around 6:45 am this morning when I was returning from my morning walk with Lucky. She drove over and I thought that for someone who ran 5 miles 2 weeks after giving birth that driving less then the length of a football field seemed a little silly (she was en route to the Duck Pond to go for a long run). Sammy made a movie for Sylvie; my eyes just welled up with tears. The Karas's and the Chase's are working on a Sylvie-run over Memorial Day which means everyone needs to start training now :-). I'm hoping Sylvie will be at the finish line.

As you can imagine, the Dining section of The New York Times is a highlight for Michael & me. He usually reads it online before it's published. I was looking at the giant photograph of the food pioneers in Brooklyn and thought it wasn't so far off from the old photographs that Polina & Dina have shown me of their family in Russia. First trucker hats and now beards... Go Brooklyn! I was going to insert a reference to Taliban beards but thought it might be taken the wrong way, especially by our Brookyn friends, who we love so much. Anyway, the article is actually wonderful and inspirational so everyone should read it. It makes our attempts at having a community garden plot in Ridgewood seem silly. On that note, however, I continued reading about Mast Brothers Chocolate since we're chocolate afficionados and couldn't help but look at the interior photo of the furry faced bros leaning over their precious cacao beans thinking that it has to be a health code violation and they need hair nets for their faces (great business idea). Obviously my sense of humor is drastically altered 15 days after being at the hospital.

Just want to put it out there-- we love our friends or family and want to see you but if you are sick, your loved ones are sick, the best thing to do and only option is send your love from afar and keep the sniffles or upset tummies at home. Sylvie's chemo makes her NEUTROPONIC (word of the day, there will be a test later) which in essence means low white blood cell count and no resistance to bacteria or viruses.