3 Week Anniversary

We commemorated Sylvie's three weeks with cancer and hospital stay today with lots of princess movies, Dora the Explorer, coloring books and stickers galore. I have to day, today did not suck. Highlights include:
- Sylvie's in a great mood FINALLY
- Very positive meeting with all of Sylvie's doctors HOORAY
- Might get to go home for the weekend YIPPEE
- Visit from Dr. Rosen, Sylvie's pediatrician THE BEST
- Custom-made Princess scrubs that Ann had custom made AWESOME
- Heather's organic stuffed peppers FANTASTIC
- Chocolate from Mast Brothers in Brooklyn courtesy of Michelle (funny b/c of my comments about their facial hair last Wednesday. Dark chocolate, marcona almonds and fleur de sel-- AMAZING!

I think I spent the majority of yesterday sitting in the blue vinyl chair in Sylvie's room and waiting. For tests. For doctors. For x-rays. Just waiting. I do not like to wait but part of the new me is to be patient. I have it down pretty well except for driving. The one mile on Essex Street from Route 17 to the entrance of Hackensack University Medical Center, for example, is a real test for it contains the worst drivers imaginable whether they're driving beat up cars or luxury SUVs. I digress-- we had a good day and I'd love to talk about it!

Sylvie's team, led by Dr. Appel arrived early for rounds and had pretty good news. Sylvie's neutrophil count was about 600, up from zero on Sunday. There are 5 types of white blood cells. Neutrophils protect against bacterial infections. Chemotherapy reduces this number to zero which is why Sylvie can't be exposed to any bacteria, viruses or germs. You and me-- our count is probably around 1000. In order for Sylvie to continue chemo, she needs at least 750. Sylvie gets a shot of Neupogen daily except for chemo days to build the count. With her counts on the rise, they expect her fever to discontinue, the sores in her mouth to heal. The rash isn't getting any worse although they did discontinue one antibiotic. Sylvie's getting a really small dose of morphine around the clock just to make her feel a little better, too. And if Sylvie feels better, we ALL feel better! The most recent blood cultures came back negative, too. In order to go home, Sylvie needs to have no fever and be eating. We're working on the food thing. Technically round two of chemo starts this Friday but Dr. Appel and Ellen want Sylvie to be in good spirits, have a few days or R&R at home and higher blood counts. So we might actually get to spend the weekend at Casa Hughes and postpone Round Two until Monday. I cannot tell you how thrilled we would be to spend the weekend home as a family.

Sylvie was in one of the happiest and silliest moods that I've ever seen today. She was so animated and actually nice to the nurses. A welcome change.

I ran home to see Lucky, change my clothes, grab some food and try to upload photos of Sylvie and the family on Picasa. Once I figure it out, there will be a neat slide show on PrincessSylvie. I was looking at photographs and came upon a folder of recent photos that Sibel took of Sylvie blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Um... Sylvie's birthday is May 12. Apparently she suckers Sibel into pretending it's her birthday and it also explains the half-eaten birthday cake was in our fridge last month. Sylvie is so obsessed with birthday candles and cakes-- we have HUNDREDS of candles at home and Sylvie calls the King's super market in Midland Park, "The Candle Store." $0.99 buys happiness. Note to self though: Must cancel Sylvie's birthday party that we already booked.

While we were making sticker pictures and coloring Belle's and Aurora's as present for Dad, Michael had a rough day at work with a water tower "situation." Hence I'm spending the night at the hospital again. I told him that in the likelihood that I donate my liver to Sylvie, I may need a hip replacement thanks to sleeping on the couch/bed. And then a recovery period at a monestary that practices a code of silence. In the time it took for me to type this at least 10-- oops now it's 16-- alarms went off.