Halloween

We dressed Lyric up as a Vanderbilt Cheerleader for Halloween but we had to stay in her room since she has a cold. She missed out on all the Halloween hallway fun. Not sure how long we will be confined to this room.

Dressing Change

Lyric had to have the dressing for her central line changed tonight. This has been done once a week for the last three months and she still hates it.

We are still confined to our room since Lyric has a cold. It's pretty tough with a small child being locked up in here 24/7. Looks like we could be in the room for as long as a week. Won't have much of a Halloween for her like this.

Blood Transfusion & a Cold

After getting back to our room from surgery and getting settled Lyric had to have a blood transfusion since her platelets and hemoglobin were low. She has had a runny nose since yesterday and cultures were taken on that. They came back tonight that she has a common cold now and will not be able to leave her room until it's cleared up.

New Central Hickman Line

Lyric and Daddy recovering after surgery

Lyric went into surgery about 3PM. Everything went fine. She now has her new central Hickman line put in and all the IV's removed. This surgery was longer than the others since it's her third one and they had to put it in a more vulnerable place. After surgery and chest x-rays, it appears that the line is in the right spot and there is no damage to her lungs. Recovery was also a little longer than before. She was pretty groggy and did not feel well.

Surgery Scheduled for Later

Lyric, as of right now is scheduled to have her central Hickman line put back in during surgery later tonight. I tried to get her to eat some breakfast this morning since she will not be able to have any food or drink after 10 AM. But she was not interested in eating and just went back to sleep. I managed to get her to take have a bottle of chocolate milk. I just hope it's enough to get her through the day.

2nd Negative Test Result

We recieved news tonight that Lyric's second negative blood culture came back and the team would like to scheduel surgery tomarrow to put her central Hickman line back in place. This is good. It appears that the infection has been killed. Lyric will still continue to get antibiotics for a few more days to make sure.

Parade of Baloons

Lyric received a special treat from her best 6A buddie, Brittney and her mom. BALLOONS!!! What child does not love balloon's? She was so proud of them walking the hall and showing them off. She was so happy.

New IV's

Just as I feared the IV's tend to be short lived. The Dr.'s are having to continuously stick Lyric and put in new IV's. She now has one in each arm. I can't wait until this infection is cleared up so we can get her central line put back in and get rid of these IV's and quit sticker her everyday to draw blood. This has been a really terrible week dealing with putting Lyric through all of the pain among other things.

One Negative Test Result

Lyric has been a trooper lately, considering she has been poked more the last few days than she ever has. The medical team has had to take blood several times for cultures the old fashioned way since her central Hickman line has been taken out. So far we have had one culture come back negative for signs of the infection. We need two for the team to schedule surgery to put her central line back in place. Although we may get two results come back negative, they will continue to keep her on antibiotics for a course of 10 to 14 days to be sure.

Recovery

Lyric came through the surgery fine. They removed her central Hickman line and cleaned the area up. The surgical team put in two IV's, one in her arm and one in her leg. Hopefully they will not clot off and last long enough to give her enough antibiotics to kill the infection. If not she will have to have another one put in or even a pic line. She was pretty groggy and ill feeling after the surgery though. She won't be happy with the IV in her arm. The Dr.'s happen to have put it in her thumb sucking arm and she won't be able to bend it and get the thumb in her mouth.

Ready for Surgery

Lyric is up early this morning and ready to go to the third floor O.R. for her surgery. The plan is to remove her central Hickman line and give her a peripheral IV. Antibiotics will be giving through the IV until the infection is killed. Once that happens, she will be scheduled for surgery to have a new central line Hickman put in. I guessing because of the infection and the time frame we will not be going home this round. I imagine once she is scheduled to have her new Hickman put in place they may just start round four. We will see. The first and most important thing is to kill this infection.

Dressing Change

Lyric had to have her dressing changed tonight so we were able to get a good look at the site where her central Hickman line enters through her chest. You can see the infection showing itself in the above photo. Tomorrow will be a tough day with the surgery.

Surgery Postponed

The surgical Dr. let me know that due to the work load, Lyric's surgery to remove her Hickman Line has been postponed until the morning. This is better for Lyric. She has had nothing to eat or drink since about 10:30 AM. She is now eating and can eat and drink until midnight. At this point it looks like the Hickman will be removed because they feel it is also infected with bacteria. While she is having the procedure they will also put in an IV to continue to give her the antibiotics she needs to combat this infection. Once the Dr.'s are confident that they have killed it, she will be scheduled for the procedure to have a new central Hickman line put in. This is very scary. A lot of these children die from infection. This is the third time Lyric has had an infection but the first time they have not been able to do away with it with antibiotics. Please pray for her and this situation.

Bad News

The Dr.'s told us this morning that 3 blood cultures have come back positive for a bacteria infection in Lyric's blood. The antibiotics are not killing the bacteria. I spoke with the surgical team this morning and was informed that she would have to go into surgery tonight to have her central Hickman line removed. They are worried the infection is in the line. She will have to have a peripheral IV line put in to continue antibiotics. This means 8 or 9 hours today with no food or drink. Please pray for Lyric, this is going to be a very rough weekend with a lot of poking and prodding.

It will be a busy day so I will try to fill in the posts from the last couple of days and update the journal on the progress of this situation tonight.

Pumpkin

Lyric kissing her new pumpkin

Lyric's Great Mi Mi Singleton brought her her very own pumpkin for Halloween and she couldn't help but cover it with kisses.

Typing

Lyric likes to play on the computer and pretend that she is typing. First she rolls her eyes at me.

Lyric is so smart! At just one, she sees the older children walking in the halls with there IV poles and she now just grabs hers and goes.

Lyric Loves The Phone

Lyric loves to go to the "quiet room" and play with the phone. She picks it up, dials and talks away.

2nd Positive For Infection

Lyric's second blood culture from yesterday has came back positve for bacteria infection. The Dr.'s have decided to add an additional antibiotic to help kill the infection. They have drawn more blood to monitor whether this is working or not.

The Tickle Game

Lyric and Mommy were having a little fun today. Lyric's new thing to do is to lean her head back and let you tickle her neck.

Lyric The Director

I picked up the video camera to get some video of Lyric and noticed it was full. There was about 20 videos taken apparently by Lyric. This is one of them.

Bacteria Infection

The Dr. came in early this morning and told us that Lyric's blood cultures grew something in the lab. Which means she has bacteria in her blood. She is on an antibiotic regimen to kill whatever has attacked. She is being watched pretty close right now.

Fever

Lyric started to run a mild fever tonight. The team immediately put her on antibiotics in case she has an infection of some kind. Of course infection is scary when a cancer patient has there immune system wiped out from chemo and right now Lyric's numbers have bottomed out. The Dr.'s also ordered a blood culture to determine what is causing the fever.

Blood Transfusion

Lyric's Hemoglobin was a little low this morning so she had to have a blood transfusion. The Dr.'s prescribe benadryl before the transfusion to ensure that she does not have a reaction to the blood product. This also usually knocks her out for a couple of hours.

Having Fun in The Halls

As Lyric waits for her numbers to bottom out and recover again, we just play the waiting game. Now that she can walk, Lyric rides on the riding toys pretty well. Just a little fun in the pod hallway.

Hallway Concert

Today most of the kids piled into the pod hallway with instruments and Jenny, the music therapist and had a impromptu concert. All the kids had a blast banging on there drums and tambourines.

Rex & Victoria Lee

Lyric is doing fine. Now that she can walk, she is all over the place. Lyric only had one visitor this week and it was a good one, all the way from Tulsa, OK. Rex and Victoria Lee from the Tulsa based TV show, "Making it Happen" popped in for a surprise visit. Lyric enjoyed the new stuffed puppy they brought and had fun showing off her ability to walk. When this is all over, they would like to have us, including Lyric on the show as a testament to God's healing.

Thank You

We would like to thank the Keith Whitley Association and the Whitley family for including Lyric's cause to the Keith Whitley Memorial Tribute concert and for contributing a portion of the proceeds to the Lyric Frizzell Fund.

Walking

Lyric is doing fine. Since she has been able to walk, she has been everywhere. Today, after checking her blood, it appears that her hemoglobin is down, so Lyric will have to have a blood transfusion later. She won't like this very much now that she has the freedom to move and walk around. She will have to stay in her bed for a couple of hours while they do it. Still waiting for her numbers to bottom out then recover.

Thanks to All at The Keith Whitley Tribute Concert

Lorrie Morgan & Corey

Crystal, Lorrie Morgan, Randy Hayes & Corey

All the artists on the show wore these special ribbons. The green stood for remembrance of Keith Whitley & the yellow represented Lyric's battle with cancer. Thank you to Tina Rose, mother of Country Artist Korey Blake, for making these. It really meant a lot to us.

Ken Mellons & Corey


The legendary Leon Rhodes & Corey



Chris Caskey from KY Bluebird & Corey

From the KY Music Hall of Fame, Robert Lawson and Lyric's portrait

Corey with Perry Edge from Double E Promotions

Corey & Bluegrass Grammy winner Randy Kohrs

Jimmy Frizzell, Chris Caskey & Corey

Jimmy Frizzell, Randy Hayes, Chris Caskey, Corey, Ken Mellons & Michael Whitley

Terry Hall, Corey & Crystal


Corey autographing the his Keith Whitley Print for the lucky auction winner

Below is the Keith Whitley Tribute concert poster Corey designed

Thank you to all the artists involved in the Keith Whitley Tribute concert held this weekend at the world famous, Nashville Palace. Everyone was so kind and concerned about Lyric. We appreciate everyone there. Crystal and I would like to thank Tina Rose and family for making the special ribbons that all the artists wore on the show for Lyric & Keith. Tina is the mom of a very talented rising young Country Star, Korey Blake. I have posted just a few of the photos from the night. There are two many to post them all here. If you would like to see them all, visit http://www.coreyfrizzell.com/ later this week after they are posted. Thank you to Pat Styles for hanging with Lyric while Crystal and I attended this important event. Photography by Jerry Overcast. http://www.myspace.com/jerryscountryphotos