You might remember that I mentioned illness making its way through the house and some kids not feeling well. Throughout the week, everyone in the family came down with a virus. It kept a few people in bed all day long. We kept Naomi in her room much of the time and a mask on her face as much as possible. She received multiple essential oil massages and stayed hydrated. But, as her doctor in CA indicated – it was likely that Naomi was already exposed – and the inevitable happened. On Friday morning, she definitely had the same flu everyone else had gotten. I was in a panic when she began to vomit. She never ran a fever though and recovered from the vomiting fairly quickly. She was even able to eat lunch and some dinner later in the day.

I called her doctor at 5:45am (poor woman) and she confirmed that I should just bring her in for her scheduled outpatient appt later in the morning. There we learned that her ANC count SOARED to 1300 and her body did indeed respond to the virus and was fighting it. Her neutrophil count was doing exactly what it was supposed during an illness. Thank God.

Also, while at the appt, her doctor showed me the different lab reports that indicated she was indeed exposed to Hep A. Some of her liver enzyme levels were four times higher than normal range. The good news is that they began to fall earlier this week. Looking at Naomi, she has no yellowing of the eyes or skin, so it is likely that Friday’s blood tests will also show a further reduction in those levels, but we will not know that until Monday. In hindsight, her delay was a really good thing. Had we gone to CA yesterday, if she had vomited there today, the chemo would have been delayed anyway. And seeing the results of the labs for myself, I can definitely see why it was not safe to begin her chemo/transplant this week.

We now get to enjoy an entire week at home, mostly together. Aaron is working part time. Naomi does not go back for a clinic appt for 6 days now. This will be our longest stretch without a dr. appt. since September!