Reba Zumberge

Finally, at about 9:30pm, Reba was put in the ambulance that had full life support capability, so she was in good hands. Plus, Leah was able to ride along. Reba was connected to IV fluids the whole way up to Stanford.

When we got to the hospital, her room in the Bass Center was ready for her and it was a relief to be back at our familiar ‘second home’. There is no comparison to the nurses and doctors here. The nurses at Watsonville ER are great, but they don’t have daily interaction with children with cancer, and they’ve even thanked us for teaching them techniques that we’ve learned from Stanford.

So now they are doing additional blood cultures as well as drawing blood regularly for complete blood count (CBC) and metabolic panels. Her white blood count has gone up to 300, from yesterday morning’s 200. They have her on antibiotics and will keep her here until her count goes above 500. Her hemoglobin is down to 8.1, so they are giving her a blood transfusion at the moment. Also, her albumin is down to 1.3 so we think in the next few hours she will be getting an albumin infusion. Platelets are 50, not low enough for an infusion, but they’ll keep an eye on that level as well.

She is in a better mood this morning, and we are relieved to be here, but can’t wait to go back home. I’m sure Zoe and Reba miss each other. I wish I could explain to both of them what is going on.