Last Day of Chemo

As I write, Ellie is sleeping peacefully. Things were a bit dicey just before bed - she almost threw up, but was able to get some anti-nausea medicine. She is still in the hospital. She has not once had a fever since we came in the early morning. Oh well. She has had a good day. Melanie is here for a few days, so she came over to the hospital this morning so that John and I could go get some rest. I took a LONG nap! It felt so good. I think that we should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow, pending the results of her blood cultures.

This hospital experience has been interesting. Many of the rooms here are semi-private - and ours is one of them. There is a curtain down the middle of the room and both patients share a bathroom. Our room-mate is a teenage girl who is in a LOT of pain. She has done quite a bit of screaming and sobbing, which is unnerving for me, let alone Ellie. Ellie and Melanie spent all day in the playroom. Tonight things were pretty quiet until Ellie started feeling nauseous. The girl next to us made a couple of trips to the restroom to vomit while I was holding Ellie's head over a bucket. The girl was beeping for the nurse for medicine, and then I started beeping for the nurse as well... Then Ellie's IV pole started beeping a shrill, piercing sound that I hadn't heard yet... I guess our room was having a nausious, beeping, crying kind of evening! All is peaceful now, and I think I just heard snoring from the other side of the curtain - it's either the girl or her rather unsympathetic mother. I came so close to going over there this morning and asking if the poor girl needed help until I realized that her mom was actually there! I still wish I could just go hug her...

I will let you know what tomorrow brings. As always, thank you all for your kindness to us and faithfulness to remember Ellie! This verse has brought me such comfort tonight: "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deut. 33.27 (Thanks Robyn!)