Day -7

We stayed in the new room last night, stuff everywhere since we were too tired to unpack. It was like a family camping trip. Chloe is sleeping later in the mornings, which is nice – we get some extra sleep too. Chloe and mom love the windows. When she is in the bed she rolls around to try to look outside.

Today is the last day of the Busulfan (chemo drug #1). Each day of Busulfan there have been numerous blood draws to check her levels and constantly adjust the dosage. Since this is the last day, it was very quiet as there was no need for more adjustment. Quite a change from earlier in the week with our revolving door and sometimes a waiting line to see Chloe!

Mouth sores are a common side effect of chemo, so each day we do "mouth care" four times. This is to prevent and treat the sores. We have two medicines that we swab around Chloe’s mouth, one of which she has to swallow. Fortunately, she absolutely loves this. We use these little sponges on sticks and she loves to grab them and chew on them. To me, she looks like Popeye with his pipe when she does this. I’ll try to get a photo.

Chloe is the super social butterfly here. When we go for walks around the floor, she often draws a crowd with her smiling and laughing. She is really enjoying all this attention. And of course, everyone just loves her! It probably helps the staff to see a very happy patient.

Speaking of which, it’s expected that next week will likely not be quite so fun. So I wanted to thank everyone for their continued prayers, good thoughts, support, emails and lovely messages.

It really helps and will certainly be much more appreciated in the days and weeks to come.