Long awaited update!

Dear Family,
It has been a long time since we have sent out an update on Lulie's progress so I will try to recap some of the recent events.
Mom is on her 27th day in the hospital.
She has had various infections crop up but they have been treated with a number of antibiotics and are remaining under control. A week or so ago, she developed a rash around her mid-section that was itchy and very sensitive to the touch. For a while they were thinking that she had developed a case of shingles, but the doctors now think it was an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics. Mom has not had to have another picc line inserted, but the IV line in her left arm has been moved a few times. That arm has become very red, swollen and sore and the IV line was moved to her right arm. On Monday the 17th, she had an ultrasound of her left arm and discovered that she has two blood clots in her arm. The doctors don't seem to be overly worried about them but she is keeping heat on her arm most of the time. Today her arm is not quite as red and sore but it is still tight and swollen. She had a little fever spike on the 14th but it came down quickly. She has developed an infection called "enteroccus" which came from a bacteria that lives in the body, but in her case has moved to parts of the body where it shouldn't be. This infection is very resistant to most antibiotics and she is receiving one antibiotic that should control it, but we now have to gown when we go in to see her. That is so we don't get the infection ourselves and take it to other parts of the hospital.
Mom has been having increased nausea and has a hard time eating anything. Mealtimes are the hardest times of the day. She has been receiving IV nutrition for several days--amino acids and electrolites. Today she was given a new medicine by mouth (a little hard to swallow) called Meg-ace that is supposed to stimulate her appetite.
She has been feeling more tired over the past few days but yesterday (Tuesday the 18th) she received two units of red blood and another unit of platelets. The red blood has made her feel better. It bumped her hematocrit from 27.6 to 32. Her platelet count yesterday was 15 and now it is at 53. The other blood count that they are tracking every day and posting on her wipe board is the part of the white blood called Neutrophils. These are the white blood cells that fight infection. Since she has had the chemo, this reading has been at zero (.0) but on Monday this count finally made a little movement and went to .1. It has remained at .1 for three days and we are getting impatient for it to really get moving up. It needs to get up to 1.5 or 2.0 before she can leave the hospital.
Mom's hair has been falling out for a week or so and she is now wearing hats. She looks festive in her Santa hat.
Her room looks very Christmasy and everyone comments on it when they enter the room. Grandma's forest is getting bigger and looks really good on her red wall. She was so happy today to receive trees from the Thompsons, Stuart and Susanna, and Brooklynn and Emma. Grant explained to Grandma that his tree was an isosceles triangle and a square. :) Grandma loves her forest.
Things are going okay, but we need to cheer those Neutrophils on and get the count way up. Keep sending cards and emails. I'm sure I don't need to remind you to keep praying hard for our Mom and Grandma. She gets much comfort and strength from the love of her family.