December 2012

We finally had a break before Christmas and before we came back for the next part of my treatments which was called Stem Cell Transplant. My counts were real good and we didn’t have to come back to the hospital for two weeks. That first night after we found out my counts were high, mommy and daddy told us they had a special present. Carter and me had to sit by the Christmas Tree together and they gave us a small red box. It was real sparkly with a bow on it. When we opened it there was some pictures inside of Mickey Mouse. Daddy told me and Carter that we were going to Disney World the next day. I went straight to my room and started packing all my princess dresses. I was going to wear a different one everyday.

I slept with mommy and daddy that night (well, every night since I had my pump and fluids) and I woke up crying in the middle of the night. I had a fever and Mommy said even though my counts were real high we still had to go to the ER. I didn’t even care, I just wanted to get some medicine so I could go to Disney World in the morning.

Mommy took me to the hospital that was right by our house but when we got there they said I was real sick. I had to ride in an ambulance and go to a different hospital. When we got to the new hospital I was still crying a lot and there was lots of nurses that kept coming in and out of our room. Finally, they had to call a special kind of doctor and I had to be in ICU. ICU is a special part of hospitals with real smart doctors and machines that can help you breath. The last thing I remember was mommy laying with me and telling me everything would be okay. Then I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes it was morning and all the special nurses and doctors had left the room. Daddy was there too and him and mommy was just looking at me. I started thinking and then I looked at mommy and said: Mommy, we have to leave, we’re gonna miss our plane. Mommy just started crying and that’s when I knew we weren’t going. Then I started crying harder than I had ever cried in my whole life. All I wanted was to be with the princesses and instead I was stuck in a stupid hospital again.

The next day I had to ride in another ambulance to our regular hospital in Cincinnati. They had an ICU there too so that’s where we were going. Mommy told me that my blood was real sick and they weren’t sure how to fix it yet. I didn’t care, I was just sad about not going to Disney World. I asked if we could go when I left the hospital but mommy said we had to be back on a certain day for my Stem Cells. I hated stupid Stem Cells and stupid cancer.

After a couple days we got moved to our regular floor and all the nurses were real sad to see me. They knew I was supposed to be in Disney World too. I was going to have surgery to have my line taken out and a new one put in. Somehow my line had gotten germs in it and well, I didn’t realize it but you can die if that happens. We were real thankful that I was going to be okay.

One morning when I woke up there was something special hanging on my door. It was a note from Cinderella inviting me to tea. She had heard that my trip to see her got canceled and so she was coming to the hospital just to see me. All the nurses said she had never made the trip to Cincinnati before so I must be real special.

That afternoon she came and I was so excited. I wore my Cinderella dress just like I was gonna when I met her at Disney World. We had tea and she gave me an American Girl doll. I’m not sure if she was the real Cinderella or not but I thought maybe it worked like Santa. Maybe she had workers that went out and did trips for her. After that I forgot about not being able to go to Disney World because I was so excited about the special time I had with her. And on Christmas Eve they let us go home so we could all be together as a family.