Curse you flu season!

I have been away much longer than I had hoped. Unfortunately I was in bed for the last three days battling the flu. If it was not for my Mom I do not know how I would have survived this sickness! I don't believe I have ever been this sick before and I truly hope to never again be this sick. The flu just plain sucks. We were lucky enough to hear that Jillians counts went up a bit so she was not at severe risk if she contracted my sickness. But as of right now she is running a low fever and battling a cough herself. I have made many many calls to the oncologist in Stanford and am awaiting their decision on what our next steps will be. They want me to check her temp again tonight and hopefully it will have went down or at least stayed the same. Worst case scenario for tonight is that they tell us to go to the ER to get her numbers checked again, if her counts are still good and her temp doesn't go up anymore then she will be able to ride out the fever at home in hopes that her immune system is good enough to beat whatever she has. If her counts are low then she will be sent to Stanford to be watched more carefully. They put Jillian on Tamiflu to help prevent her from getting the flu and which sucks more is that she is scheduled to get her flu shot tomorrow! Pray that she does not get anything close to what I had because then we will be dealing with something fierce! Daniel and William are also starting to get symptoms of something too. I may be having to take care of all three of them. No fun here at the Garcia house!

Other than our sickness Jillians mood has been great. She is showing no major signs of feeling unwell so thats always a plus. The doctors are keeping her accessed so i can give her an anti-fungal medicine to help with contracting a fungal infections so everyday i get to play nurse once again and hook her port up to an IV bag of medicine and give it to get that way. By far this is the most stressed I have been giving her any meds. I feel as though I should be more trained in nursing to be given this responsibility and it can be very overwhelming. So far I don't believe I have screwed up yet but other than watching the nurses in the hospital I have absolutely no training what so ever! The last time I held a job that was of any major importance was in the Navy and I was an aircraft mechanic. Nursing was far from any skills I obtained. But if anyone is going to do it its going to be me.
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Instead of deleting those last paragraphs I decided to just keep them and continue to update. After writing that bit I went to check up on Jill and her fever spiked so we had to call Stanford to see what to do. They decided that they wanted her to go to the ER to get her counts checked and see how at risk she was with the fever. So Jill and I drove up to San Luis while William headed to my moms because Daniel leaves for work so early in the morning. If they decided to send Jill up to Stanford we didn't want William to have to get up so early with his dad. So Jill and I spent a few hours in the ER where we got to see many familiar faces from the very first night of our diagnosis. It was nice to be able to see everyone and let them know that Jill was doing well. I was able to redeem myself considering I was a mess the first night they met me. They saw me at my utter worst that night and last night they were able to see me at my best. Jill's counts came back great (other than her platelets which are now bottoming out at 14,000) her ANC was over 2000 last night so they let us go home and give her some Tylenol in hopes that whatever she has her immune system is strong enough to fight.

She did great for the rest of the night but today she continues to go up and down with her temp. We went and saw our nurse practitioner (Mary) who I believe is a godsend and I absolutely love her. We are so lucky to be able to have her here to be our middle woman with Stanford. She alone allows us to remain at home so much more than we would have been able to and we are so very lucky to be working with her! So we got to see her again today and we did more blood work to see if jilly would be able to head to Stanford tomorrow for her scheduled lumbar puncture and chemo. Unfortunately her platelets came back low again so they decided to cancel chemo for the week in hopes that Jill's counts will recover on their own. I should be finishing this blog up in Stanford right now and not laying down next to Jill's bed as she goes to sleep because she insists she is "scared" now to fall asleep in her own in her room, and its hard to say no to a four year old with cancer! So Jill and I get a bit of a break off from driving up north this week. Our plan now is to see Mary on Thursday and see where her counts are then and depending on her number we should start back up with her regular treatment plan on Monday. It's nice to get a bit of a break but veering off course with her treatment isn't something we are very excited about. As far as her fever goes we are not out of the woods yet. We may still be heading up to the ER tonight of she spikes another fever. That would be another long night for all of us! So if you see a black dodge magnum speeding north on the 101 then move aside because Jill and I will be on a mission to the ER!

William had a doctors visit today and my poor baby had to get the flu shot. It's always so heartbreaking seeing him cry with his big tears and his sad face. He was pretty mad to be getting a shot and it took a lot of us to hold him down. If anyone knows William then they know the size of that boy! He's not a small kid. He's still adjusting to this new life we have all found ourselves in. I still think we all are. It's seems to be hardest for him to adjust since he is the one who has to hop back and forth from his home and grandmas. Luckily it's only been like once a week which isn't too bad. And on the days Daniel doesn't work he stays with William and Jill and I just go up. He's having a rough few days at school but that's typical of any kid and especially special needs children. We should be getting his services started back up soon and I'm excited to get back to work with that! I know it's only going to be more hectic schedules and busier days but it will be nice to see our girls again and get back to work! I know William will love it.

We're in a bit of a funk with illnesses in our household right now so we can use all your amazing prayers to help us get through this. Two months ago this just would have been a typical "off" week for us but now fevers are so serious. Jill's hanging in their tonight but once her Tylenol wears off I'm not sure what type of temperature we will be dealing with. Pray that its normal! I hope everyone continuing to read my blog is doing well and healthy. Ill continue to write as much as I can. Even though Jill's a bit sick she's still doing amazing! Hope everyone else is as well!