Alli was so sad that she would be in the hospital over Valentine’s Day, so we sent out an SOS... and wow, did everyone show up! She has been absolutely showered with love and support. THANK YOU! 

She is still admitted, and we’ve been told she’ll be here at least until Wednesday, but most likely longer. Her fevers have been on and off, with the last one yesterday afternoon. All cultures and testing to try to find the cause have come back negative though. Her ANC (the number that shows how her immune system is functioning) is still at 0. It has come up to 10 a few times, but then drops back down. We’re told it needs to be between 100–200 and consistently improving before she can go home. Apparently, this waiting period is one of the most frustrating parts of these types of hospital stays. 

So far, she has received platelets once and one unit of blood. Her platelets are back down to 10, so they’re planning to give her another bag of platelets tonight. She’s currently on a continuous pain pump and IV nutrition because the mouth and throat sores (mucositis from the chemo) are very severe right now. We’re told this typically goes hand in hand with low ANC, and that both should start improving around the same time. 

Right now, our focus is managing her pain and making sure she’s getting enough hydration and nutrition so her body has the time it needs to heal. Every day she asks when she can go home and why she has to stay. It’s been hard on her, and on all of us, as we put everything else on hold to be here with her. 

We’re hanging in there and just wanted to share a quick update. Thank you for the continued prayers that her immune system will begin to recover so we can hopefully spend a little time at home before the next round of chemo. We are sad that this was supposed to be our little break away from the hospital and instead it's turning into one of our longest stays yet. The next round of chemo is currently scheduled for next Tuesday, but her numbers need to be above 240 for that to happen, so we’ll see. Surgery has been delayed slightly so we can attend a wedding in March, and is now planned for 3/30.