I'm hoping for a rainbow.
I'm sitting in a living room at the Ronald McDonald House, watching the rain pour down... but there's just a little bit of sun coming through. I would love to be able to go wake up Caitlin from her nap to show her a real live rainbow. She's only seen a rainbow one other time, and I know she'd love it. Maybe by the time I'm done with this entry...
Well, I'm not sure where to start with the news. Caitlin is feeling better and eating a little. Last night after her nap, she was in the best spirits -- asking us to tickle her and 'hiding' under her sheets.
I think the most interesting development is that, well, remember when Caitlin had the measles in March? It turns out it might not have been the measles after all. She's breaking out in a similar rash on her trunk. There's no way to know what is causing it, other than to assume it's some type of allergy, possibly from the morphine, maybe from the adhesive, perhaps from the antibiotic. We went into the hospital and Dr. Gonzalez (who looks like Salma Hayek by the way) took her off the morphine, and prescribed her another pain med and an anti-itch, anti-allergy drug, so with any luck, the rash will stop -- though the previous rash didn't stop with these changes. bleh.
The good news is that when we went in, they took us out of isolation. Things aren't completely better with the cdiff (the bacterial infection), but good enough to get us out of our temporary isolation at the Grizzlies House. So we've moved, yet again (the third time in 3 or 4 days) back to the Ronald McDonald House. Caitlin's eyes lit up when she saw all of the toys and playgrounds here.
But the good part about being over at the Grizzlies house is that we met another family from Louisiana (actually, there are a ton of families here from Louisiana, but that's another entry). They are the Dunfords from Mandeville. Their sweet 15 month old, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with a rare type (M7) of acute myeloid leukemia. They were actually at Children's Hospital in New Orleans on the same day that Caitlin was diagnosed, but they were only there for one day before packing up and coming to St. Judes. You think we're handling this well? You should check out Elizabeth's site --
www.caringbridge.org/visit/elizabethdunford. Elizabeth is just SO cute, makes me miss Elise (who is doing great at Na-nee's house). Anyway, the Dunfords are up here for the duration of treatment, please pray for them and for their precious daughter.
On that note, I think I'll stop wishing for a rainbow and go spend a minute in the meditation room here, and wish and pray for something a little more tangible.
Pam
PS -- HA! wouldn't you know it.. there's a picture of a rainbow in the meditation room.
