January 12, 2006

Our Iowa City trip was very fast and uneventful today. We were on the road shortly after 5:30 AM. Chloe woke up happily and announced "bye-bye. Owie," which pretty much sums up the trip for her. Leah was up right away, too, and even asked for her medicine. She still does not like taking medicine, but we don't have tears about it at all, and she just takes it quickly and then has a drink.

We had our usual stops to put on Emla and then breakfast in Iowa City at McDonalds. The big news is that Leah gained 2 pounds since Monday. She is back up to 28.5 pounds. Her eating today makes me think that by the time we go back next she will be up at least 2 more pounds. (Her diet consisted of a pancake, 3 cookies, Hu Hot, yogurt, 3 cups of whole milk, a spaghetti frozen meal, Krismar chips, and anything else that looked good to her). Her port accessed easily and had blood return, we met with the nurse, and Dr. Rahdi, and we got her lab results back. Her blood counts continue to be good. The plan is that we will go down on Tuesday to be admitted for chemotherapy and if things go as planned, be released on Thursday morning. It does appear that we have escaped the dreaded GCSF shots. Her hemoglobin which was 7.7 before her transfusion is now 10.3. Dr. Rahdi enjoyed the Dora stickers we brought him-since he does not seem to remember any for Leah. And, we gave out a few Love for Leah bracelets as well. The last thing they did before they de-accessed her was to give her Vincristine, and we were on our way by 9:30. The most stressful part of the day was the knock down, drag out fight the girls had on the elevator over who was pushing which button. There was a little hair pulling involved and screaming, too. Obviously this was one or our prouder moments as parents.

Of course we had the usual Prairie Lights stop and Hu Hot. We also took a detour through the Amana Colonies, something I enjoyed, but which the girls were completely oblivious to. We had a visit to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Daryl's house tonight to bake cookies, and tomorrow I am back to school.

After we returned from Iowa City I was able to check a care page site for a boy we met in Iowa City before Christmas. He was in Iowa City, too, today for a CT scan and had great news. The tumor that doctors had not given his parents much hope for has decreased dramatically in size. Knowing the odds that the parents were given, it is impossible not to see God's hand in all of this. We continue to pray for God's hand to help Leah's healing as well.

Tonight Leah is helping me type and wishes to add a few comments of her own (you will understand this message if you are fluent in Swahili, perhaps):

ghgyyftytytyrtftrrruyryyukhuiyuyuryuyfgygygtleahyu801gjghgygygytyuyuyr5piguhuyytyytwty
chloetinayhhghjhjhghytyrtytythggffxyrrrtt5tyttdytsschrisuytuyygrtytyttftyrtytyryytte4ytytrt
2yuyyruyutyuyyyu6yuyyuytuyuyvhhhhhghkcatyoi8u6ytuyyyryhy5tytytr46guhuhuk
huhut9849120xfhghghg

One other bit of trivial information: Chris completed his jigsaw puzzle that he claims is far harder than the Charles Wysocki's we usually do. Within a day of completion two little girls had a great time giggling and screeching as they pulled the entire thing apart. He claims he is ready to start a new book, so instead of staying up until all hours working on the puzzle, he can do some reading. I am putting in a plug for the book blog I write for the Des Moines Register-my latest blog is mentioned on the Register's homepage, so Leah got a kick out of seeing that and looking at the pictures they added to it this time.

It is bedtime here now. Since this goes on for hours, we need to get started. Please pray for Leah's chemotherapy to be effective and for her continued healing.