June 21, 1990 – Thursday

Eli was sick to his stomach early this morning and then he fell back to sleep. After his morning cares, Eli drank four ounces of apple juice and kept it down. Eli’s morning ANC was 66, Platelets 152,000, and HGB was 9.4. I took Eli to the eye clinic, and he could now see twenty feet with his left eye and five feet with his right eye which was encouraging.

Dr. Landon stopped by to see Eli and said he was stable, but that there was yeast found in his stool samples.  That was a downer.

At 12:30 PM Henry showed up and I left for a while. Then at 1 PM a meeting commenced. Present in person or by speaker phone were Lucy Stone and Frida Bales of EU Social Services, Zoe Penson of SRS in Durango, Henry’s lawyer in Silverthorne, Dr. Harmon from EU, Henry and myself. It was decided that we had to come up with a plan together that would work for Eli’s going home and that both parents needed to work with the provider of medical equipment, meaning that Henry must attempt to learn an IV pump and Eli’s cares.  I initiated the phone calls to start the process of Eli going, home even though Henry said he would, but he never did.

Eli received his Vincristine chemo IV push while we were all in the meeting.  Total Pharmaceutical Care arrived about 4 PM to arrange for new IV pump training and they would call in the morning.

In the afternoon, Eli broke out in hives and for this he received IV Benadryl.  I wondered if Eli was allergic to Vincristine.  I prayed he was not as that was one chemo medication he certainly needed.

Eli and Noah got to speak with each other around dinner time, and the smile on Eli’s face was such an illumination to my weakened heart.

Henry called from the Ronald McDonald House and yelled at me, saying, I would rather see the SRS place our boys into foster care than go home with you.  That bastard cared not one bit about Noah or Eli, and I loathed him.

When Hannah called in the late evening, I spoke to Noah on the phone and I also informed Hannah of what Henry said about foster care. I cried with what that man was trying to do. How could one man be so cruel to his children?  My heart broke with things looking hopeless.  My faith was receding again, and I cried myself to sleep.