April 19, 2008

Caitlin has had a busy few days. She had PT in the morning and we left as soon as the session was over to go to her PCP's office for her 10:30 a.m. appointment. She weighed in at a whopping 117 pounds and the doctor spent quite a bit of time covering all aspects of Caitlin's care thus far. She referred Caitlin to a gastroenterologist for an EGD which is scheduled for Thursday morning. I asked her if she wanted it on Monday, but she said that was not exactly the plan she had in mind when talking about celebrating her birthday! We left the MD's office and went straight to dialysis where they did a blood draw pre-dialysis and then she had to stay for an extra hour after her 3 hour dialysis time for a post-dialysis blood draw. They called from the clinic and said that her phosphate was low and she now has ANOTHER prescription medication to add to her regimen. Brandon and Jordan were able to spend the afternoon with Ryan today at Family Day with the Marine Corp. Caitlin and I were going to go but when I checked the weather report, all I had to see was highs in the low 60's with possible rain - well, Caitlin and I are fair weather fans and we decided to see about getting our hair done instead! Caitlin is not supposed to take showers because of her permacath which means that she isn't able to wash her hair as frequently as she likes. She said it felt sooo good to have her hair washed today and get it cut. She was really ready to leave after the amount of time it took to wash, cut, and style her hair. She was able to rest a short bit of time before we went to the high school to support her cousin (my niece) Heidi in a beauty pageant - Heidi came in third runner-up. All in all, a very busy couple of days. We have nothing planned for tomorrow except to take it easy. I want to thank all the folks that are letting me know in person, by notes, etc. that this blog website is helping them keep up with Caitlin's progress. This has been such therapy for me to be able to write about what our days are like and I'm glad to know that it is helping others, as well. Thank you for all the prayers, offers of help, notes/cards, love and support that continue to be offered. Chris