Thursday, September 4, 2008

Stitches, Super Powers, and Sweet Memories

This post is about my sweet and brave girl Dorothy. I promise an update about Josh at the end.

Last night Dorothy cut the back of her ankle. Because of the location she needed stitches. We went to the emergency room and the doctor told me she only needed one stitch. He said that the numbing medicine would require 3 needle pokes but the stitch was only 2. I told him to just stitch it, she would be fine. He left the room for a while to get ready and while he was gone I talked to Dorothy. I reminded her of a story that she has heard about before. In the early days of our church the prophet was Joseph Smith. There is a story about when he was little that he needed an operation. They wanted to give him whiskey to dull the pain and then bind him down. His father said that they didn't believe in drinking and that he would not have to be bound. He held him and Joseph was still for the operation. I told Dorothy that I would hold her. I told her it would hurt but be over quickly and she would be ok if she held still.
When the doctor came in he brought a bunch of nurses to hold her down. I told him they didn't need to be there, she would be still. As I held her she asked if she could cry and I said of course, a nurse told her she could scream if she wanted. Dorothy was very offended and told her that babies scream and she would not. Well she cried a little but never moved and was very brave. They were all amazed at my brave girl! Afterwards, while we were waiting to be discharged, she told me that she was going to thank the doctor when we left. She fell asleep and when I carried her to the car I said goodbye to the doctor and as he said the same we heard a little Thank You from my arms.
As I write this I am crying. I miss so much of my other children because of this terrible disease and hope that they know how much I love them. All of my children are very special and I love them so much. Also, this is my first stitches! I always knew it would be Dorothy!!

Now an update on Joshua. He is stable now but had a rough weekend. After not keeping anything down for 3 days his weight is down to 63 pds. They are considering putting in a G-tube to suppliment his feeding but we do not know yet about that. We did get him on anti-nausea meds and he is eating now but he just can't eat enough and we will be going to the doctor tomorrow and Tuesday to check his counts and weight as we watch it. Also the toxicity from the vincristine is getting worse and his speech is going down hill so they did not give him his dose on Tuesday and are discussing cutting it out all together. I was very frightened when we got to the doctor and saw how much his weight had dropped. I asked them how bad it was and they said "well he is not tachacardic yet" That means that his heart is ok but he is little enough to start affecting his heart. Needless to say, I am very worried and we are working hard to get him to eat. We had him meet with a nutritionist and he is now trying to eat something every 2 hours. I am proud of the fact that he works so hard to do what they tell him to do. Nothing tastes good and yet he tries.

Thanks for the prayers and your love, we continue to live day by day and prayer to prayer.

3 comments:

A mother heart said...

OH, my heart just aches for you. And Josh, and every other child and family blindsided by cancer.
I just want to yell EAT, EAT!! Which of course you want to yell too, but that does no good, does it.

On a brighter note--Yeah for Dorothy! What a sweetheart to be so brave and even say thanks to the doctor.

We love you all!!! Give all the kids hugs from our family!

Anonymous said...

"Wow" Dorothy, what a girl! I am sorry you had to get stitches but it sounds like you did a great job. I know if I could come by you would be showing me your badge of courage.

Still need pictures of the house! How is the home schooling going? It has been cool here and I finally have apples off of my apple tree this year. Off to pick the apples.

We miss you all! April and Kirk

Britt Thomas said...

Dorothy is such a sweet girl, sounds very typical of her :) Hope josh will get better, he is a tough kid. love you all!!!