PREVIOUS | CONTENTS | NEXT

Less than a week after Ashley left the hospital, the long and arduous journey down the path to healing had its beginning. We took Ashley to St. Paul hospital in Dallas, just down the road from Children’s Medical Center, to begin the radiation treatments. We would get a taste very early of how treacherous the journey would be.

When the day for her first treatments arrived, we took Ashley to Children’s to get her very first chemotherapy injection. After the injection, we took her down the street to St. Paul to receive her first radiation treatment. She did fine through both the chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

After radiation, we drove across Dallas to a place that specializes in wigs for cancer patients. Ashley tried on several wigs and picked out one that she liked, very similar in color and length to her own hair. Then we started for home.

At about 1:30 PM, while traveling down North Central Expressway in Dallas, Ashley suddenly began to feel nauseated. Fortunately, we had brought a “throw-up bucket” with us. Ashley began vomiting, and vomited all the way home.

We arrived home and got her into the house and situated on the couch. She continued vomiting. We called Children’s and spoke to one of Ashley’s nurses and explained what was going on. She called in a prescription to our pharmacy for some Phenergan suppositories. I rushed to the pharmacy, picked up the medicine, came back home and administered the medicine to Ashley. The Phenergan calmed Ashley’s nausea and put an end to the vomiting, allowing Ashley to rest (finally). By the time it was over, she had vomited almost continuously for about two hours.

Friday morning we woke up, gave Ashley an oral dose of Phenergan elixir, then headed to St. Paul for her second radiation treatment, hoping the after-effects would not be a repeat of the day before. Ashley was difficult to awaken, and then she slept in the car all the way to the hospital. This didn’t really surprise us since she had experienced such a rough day on Thursday, and Phenergan tends to make one drowsy as well.

We arrived at St. Paul early and took Ashley inside. She continued to sleep until the nurse came out into the waiting room to get us. Susan and I both followed Ashley and the nurse into the treatment room to help get Ashley ready for her treatment. While the nurse was helping Ashley get up onto the radiation table, Ashley bent over at the waist and fell forward onto the table. Thinking she was just really tired and wanted to lie down, I leaned over to ask her if that was the case. She responded in a very sleepy voice. As the nurse was helping Ashley stand back up, Ashley passed out in her arms. We quickly found a sheet, spread it out on the floor, and laid Ashley down. The nurse called for assistance.

Ashley was only “out” for a few seconds before waking up. The radiation oncologist called off her treatment for that day, and sent us back over to Children’s. They did a CT scan to see if there were any fluid collections, blockages, or pressure build-up in Ashley’s brain. The scan came back showing none of these problems, for which we were very thankful.

The doctors then considered the possibility that Ashley had experienced a seizure, but quickly ruled out that as well. The best they could figure, Ashley was still weak from Thursday’s vomiting spell, and had not replenished her fluids back to adequate levels. Added to that were the effects of the Phenergan making her sleepy (and consequently weak), and it was just too much for her little body to deal with, causing her to faint. After spending most of the day at Children’s, we headed back home to Waxahachie.

Monday morning, we made the trek back to St. Paul and Ashley received her second radiation treatment. After the treatment, we stopped back by Children’s to visit with the nurses and ask some questions. While we were waiting to see the nurses, Ashley began feeling nauseated, and started throwing up again. Once again, the vomiting spell lasted for about two hours before it subsided. It was horrible. There was nothing we could do but sit by and stroke her forehead as we watched her little body wretch in agony. I guess the good thing about this attack was that it happened at the hospital, so the doctors and nurses saw exactly what was happening.

When it became obvious that the vomiting was not going to stop, Ashley was put in a room and given a couple of medicines by injection. She was then put on intravenous fluids to re-hydrate her, and was given another medicine or two through the IV. The doctor decided to admit Ashley to the hospital so that she could be monitored overnight and could continue receiving IV fluids to rebuild her strength. She was also given several anti-nausea and antacid medicines to prepare her little tummy for Tuesday’s radiation treatment.

On Tuesday morning I took Justin to school, then headed back to Dallas for Ashley’s radiation treatment. I arrived at Children’s just before Ashley was to be transported over to St. Paul for her radiation treatment. She really looked good, and Susan said that she had slept well throughout the night.

We went to St. Paul and Ashley had her radiation treatment without any problems. After radiation, we returned to Children’s to sit for a few hours, just in case she had another severe reaction to the radiation. We were watching her closely for any signs of an upset tummy or nausea. No such signs presented themselves.

We had decided that 1:30 PM would be our benchmark, because that was when she had started vomiting after her very first radiation treatment. 1:30 came and went without any problems, so we asked to be discharged. We were given prescriptions for the medications Ashley had received through her IV so that we could continue administering them in pill form. After all the discharge paperwork was finished, we finally left Children’s sometime around 3:00 or 4:00 PM, and headed home. We now had one good day behind us, and that felt pretty good!