June 13 & 14

June 13 2014

Jesse woke up during the night to use the bathroom. I woke up with her, but unlike Jesse, I stayed awake for two hours afterwards.

Around 7, I woke up realizing that I had slept through 2 of my alarms. Yeah. Jesse slept till 8:15. When she woke, she was ravenous. And not thinking twice about the CT Scan she has today, I fed her. She is supposed to not have any food or drink 4 hours before the test except for the contrast. The reason is when they inject the last dose of contrast into Jesse, it gives a warm sensation. This can cause her to throw up and potentially aspirate.

When I gave her the first dose of contrast at 9am, I realized the mistake. I called the CT Scan technician. Luckily she said we could back the scan up by 15 minutes. Whew. Read directions, must read directions…

At 10:15 Jesse and I walked over for her eye appointment. This went really, really quick. And it was obvious that C clinic didn’t want us sitting in their room waiting.

Jesse and I returned to the Grizzlies House to wait for 12pm. When we walked back into isolation, I had to call D Clinic because no one was at the desk. The secretary quipped that CT was calling her looking for us. No one called me. Why can these people not call me and ask where I am?

We walked back to CT, Jesse laid on the table, I put on a gown, and in 10 minutes the scan was done. Jesse and I left the building again.

Around 7pm, we decided to find somewhere to eat and get out of the room for a bit. We found Jason’s Deli. Really good food. Jesse had some mac and cheese. She told me at first that she wasn’t going to like it. I told her she needed to get rid of that attitude. She ate half of it.

After dinner, we did a little exploring. I have been wandering what was in the other direction from St Jude. We passed a bar with bikers hanging out, crossed a bridge, and were on the Mississippi River. There was a park on one side, and wealth living on the other side. We passed a golf cart party at the housing development sign. We also passed a party on a terrace. If I had guts, Jesse and I could have crashed both.

June 14, 2014

We decided to head out to Horne Lake, Mississippi today. Since we will return to St Jude for radiation, Mike and I have decided to bring the camper back with us. Yes we will have to pay to stay at a campground. But Jesse will be able to play outside and have space to run around.

At St Jude, Jesse can’t play on the playground. Even though her urine cultures have been coming back negative for bacteria this time, she can’t be around the other kids with compromised immune systems. If her sister was to come with us, they would both go nuts having to stay in the hotel room. Also we have no kitchen here to really cook. Having the camper, we would have a kitchen.

     When we exited I-55, it was amazing. There is a Target, Walmart, restaurants, and more all within 5 miles of the campground. We pulled into Jellystone and I was instantly impressed with how clean it is. There are not many trees and it does look like the campground isn’t that old.

Jesse instantly noticed the trampoline and 2 huge water slides. Then she saw the playground. She wanted to go play on them, but I wouldn’t let her until we went in to meet the staff. I had talked with a lady on the phone Monday, who was super nice. And the lady manning the desk was super nice as well. I am honestly very excited to stay at this campground.

Jesse was very impatient to get outside. She and I explored the campground for an hour before heading to Target. Tomorrow before it gets too hot, we might go check out the zoo 🙂