Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A Day At The Clinic: Photo Documentary of Alaina

Monday we had our trip to the clinic to see if Alaina was ready to begin her next phase of chemotherapy: Interim Maintenance. We arrive and wait for a few minutes before being seen.


Mommy explains once again everything that's going to happen. Counts were the first thing, which requires drawing blood. Normally, she'd get her port accessed (the mediport implanted in her chest) but since they thought her counts were probably still low, they decided instead to do a finger poke.


We think of something to do to pass the short time before being seen. 


Aha! Mommy's phone! Nothing like games to pass the time. Everyone becomes interested.

It's Alaina's turn now. She knows the drill and hops on the scale to pose like the little ham she is.13.9 Kilos, somewhere around 30 Ibs.

Then we get her height. She's stayed at a solid 91 centimeters her entire treatment.

Then there's the "arm hug", her blood pressure. Today, since she was calm and not entirely nervous, it was good. She also got to pick out some candy to hold. She couldn't eat it in case her counts made it and they had to take her in for her spinal and bone marrow draw. Distraction though is a wonderful tool to know how to use during these visits. She hadn't had anything to eat since 8pm the night before.


Taking off the numbing cream we put on because we thought we'd be getting her port accessed. Getting ready for that finger poke....


And then we have the finger poke. It's gotten better now. Amazingly, she does much better when getting her port accessed, which is a giant needle chest poke. But she has numbing cream and has done it way more than her finger.

She get's so upset, a lot of it is because we have to hold her down to keep her from kicking, squirming and the like. At the very beginning of this when she was first diagnosed, she'd even try and bite the nurses. She's come a long way. Mommy and Sarah, the child life specialist, and even big sister Averie, all tell her what a big girl she is and how brave she is....  



Now we put on a big bandaid, and she always has to see her "booboo" which is the blood.

Now it's time to go to the play room to wait for our awesome doctor. Sarah, who the girls love, play with them and keep them entertained.

Doctor examination time! Alaina loves her doctor and asks about every other day if we're going to go see him. He's a great guy. She's come a long way with her relationships between her and the doctors/nurses/staff. When she was first diagnosed, she wouldn't talk or look at them and even tried to physically hurt them. Now she laughs, plays, smiles, hugs, and runs to them.

We all have a very good sense of humor, which is important to us during such emotional times.

All done! What a good job you did, Alaina!

Meeting a new staff member....not shy at all and even introduces Bunny!

Until next time, doctor! We'll miss you! 

10 comments:

  1. Wow, I love this! Precious and sad all at once. I love that last picture of her hugging the doctor. ADORABLE! You're an awesome mommy, ChristaCarol. Keep up the good work!

    Amy

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  2. ChristaCarol,

    I'm praying daily for healing.

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  3. The last photo made me get blurry-eyed.

    Thanks for keeping us in the loop, and all the best to you and Alaina.

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  4. Thank you for sharing these. My prayer is that you'll be able to look back at them with a healthy daughter and "remember when". Take care.

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  5. Dear God you're an amazing mom. With amazing girls.

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  6. This made me tear, CC. You and your family are so brave. Hugs to you all.

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  7. What a beautiful, moving post. The photographs are wonderful and you are an incredible family.
    I'd love to give you all proper hugs but you'll have to settle for virtual ones, for now.
    Love to you all.

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  8. Wow Christa - such a fantastic documentary of a day in the life of the jones family! i love what you did with the pictures. thanks - love you! DAD

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  9. I just found your blog, our little girl was just diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with ALL. It's so nice to connect with others going through the same thing. Blessings, Trish

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