Violet Brielle Spataro

On Tuesday, March 13, Violet started to run a low grade fever. When you have a child with a port-a-cath any kind of temperature above normal causes your heart to go into your throat. A bacterial infection is something they warned us about at the time of surgery 8 months ago. This was a risk we were not told about prior to the surgery, but after. We needed to put this device into our child to administer chemotherapy to save her life, but this device also came with a risk of infection that can be fatal. For all of Tuesday and Wednesday I monitored Violet's temperature. She began to be a bit clingy and whiny which is not her norm. Her temperature never reached the point where I needed to call the hospital on these two days, but Josh and I were very concerned. Violet was showing no other signs of being ill to explain what was going on. Here is the reference sheet from the hospital on monitoring Violet's temperature ... Thursday came and Violet's temperature was slowly goin...

It has been so amazing getting out and about with Violet this past month! We have been able to visit our family so much more and go on fun outings together. We have gone everywhere from the grocery store, the mall, church, the Seattle Aquarium and the Point Defiance Zoo. After 6 months of only getting to see the hospital it has been so exciting! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to get Violet out of the home and to see her enjoying new sites. Violet loved the aquariums! Seattle Children's Hospital is decorated in an ocean theme so there are some small fish tanks throughout. Violet has loved to watch the fish and that is one of the words she loves to say. So, we knew that she would be so excited to see the huge tanks at the aquarium. She was hugging the tanks like she wanted jump right in and was squealing with happiness. It was funny to see all the people around her smiling and laughing at her excitement and my husband, Josh, heard a woman behind us say, "She's ...