Procedure 5/3/2011

Well Isabelle's procedure was scheduled for 12 in the afternoon, so we woke her up at 4 am to eat and drink some milk. (No food 8 hours prior to procedure) Then at 7:30 she woke up and had some water. (No water 4 hours prior to a procedure) The good thing was she didn't start complaining about being hungry until 11 am. We arrived at the clinic right on time and they didn't even start her procedure until almost 2. I was very aggravated at how long it took for them to get started, our appointment was already late.

When they started the procedure, everything was going pretty well. Isabelle was actually sleepier than she has been in the past and seemed a lot more relaxed. The nurse was there to make sure Isabelle didn't move at all during the procedure. (Isabelle lays on her side as the doctor does the injections into her spine) Well out of no where. as the doctor sticks her in the back, Isabelle turns her upper body to look at her doctor. That didn't go very well seeing as that made the doctor pretty much stab her in the back. Isabelle immidiatly started screaming out in pain. The nurse had gained control again right away(she had let her guard down) and was like I'm so sorry Dr. I'm so sorry. I was really nervous and ran over to the table to comfort Isabelle. I was worried because it wasn't like a shot in the muscle or under the skin, we're talking about SPINE. Everything was fine, thank goodness, but I just kept thinking omg shes going to be paralyzed. The doctor tried to stick Isabelle again and she was still screaming. Dr. Chao had to stop and get a new needle because it apparently wasn't going in right (darn thing was probably dull). Then they finally got everything in ok and Isabelle started saying that what they were doing tickled her. (The were cleaning the site.) She luckily didn't remember any of the procedure.

20 minutes later she was eating and we moved to the play area. She also recieved a chemo that goes in an IV drip and it takes an hour. We then had to wait another hour after to make sure she didn't have any side effects from it. We did not leave the clinic until almost 5 and got home at 7 in the evening with traffic. It was such a long day. She has to come back Thursday for another blood transfusion and a platelet transfusion. Her white blood count is still pretty good. Hopefully she feels ok tomorrow and we can do something fun.

The first picture is the car ride to the clinic and the second picture is her waiting patiently for the doctor to come into the procedure room and do the procedure.
She was so hungry that she just wanted to look at her lunch and hold it, while waiting for the doctor.

 Still waiting for the doctor
 After the procedure getting her IV chemo while watching a movie on the portable dvd player that they have at the clinic. This is called the infusion area and there are lots of little cubbie type areas for all the patients.