Not your typical Thanksgiving

Since Stella was diagnosed,  a week hasn't gone by without a doctor, nurse, or parent telling us that occasional surprise trips to the hospital are par for the course.  This wasn't something we really wanted to hear or dwell upon.  After all, Stella's treatment had been going smoothly.  We'll deal with the next curveball when it comes, we decided.  Well, it came.

Some background:  For kids being treated for leukemia, fevers can't be taken lightly.  Even a low-grade fever can indicate infection, and an infection in the blood would be particularly serious.  So the general rule is that if the child has a fever, he or she needs to get to the hospital asap for antibiotics and observation--even if the most likely cause is something such as a cold or other minor bug that's going around.

So Thanksgiving started out as we expected.   Zoe and Adrianne went uptown to watch the parade at Joanna's in the morning while Stella and I started preparing dinner.   Instead of going up to Adrianne's parents, we had everyone over at our place.  There was turkey, mashed yams, stuffing, Grandma Dorothy's famous spinach balls... and an increasingly high temperature from Stella.  

Long story short:  By 10:30 Thanksgiving night, Stella and I were at the hospital, and she was quickly put on precautionary antibiotics.  Cultures from Stella's blood test showed no blood infection, so she was discharged Friday afternoon.  Her temperature continued to hover around 100 for most of the day yesterday, and we were actually very close to having her re-admitted to the hospital, but Dr. Carroll informed us that the second blood culture also came back negative, indicating no infection of any kind, and so we are dealing with a virus.  Conclusion: Stella caught Zoe's cold.  

We're all going to take it easy today.  We still have to watch her fever but we are hoping for no more drama.

Thanksgiving has extra meaning for us this year.  So many of you have gone above and beyond: Weekly home cooked meals dropped off with our doormen, generous toys and art projects sent to keep Stella busy, packages full of useful medical supplies from those of you who have walked in our shoes, weekly visits from an incredibly dedicated teacher, and the loving care of Zoe--whether that means staying at our place overnight, or welcoming Z at your home in the wee hours of the morning so we can get Stella to the hospital for a scheduled procedure.  Please know that our thanks is motivated not by an obligation to be polite, but by our desire to express our real gratitude for what you have done.  We would not be able to get through this without all of you.  

We hope you and your families had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.  Hopefully Hanukkah will be less eventful for us!