February 12, 2006

Leah has now had 3 of her five doses of chemotherapy this round. So far, so good. She has not been sick and appears to be dealing with it very well. She continues to eat huge amounts of food and is hitting new records for her weight. She looks heavier in her face, but we are also starting to notice that her arms are looking a bit chubbier, too. Right now we will take each and every pound we can get, because there may be a time when she is not so hungry or willing to eat.

My mom stayed over with us until Saturday afternoon when my sister arrived. Suzanne was here in Iowa City in the afternoon and brought with her food from Applebees. It has taken me a while to get tired of hospital food, but I am quite tired of it now, so the Applebees lunch was wonderful. Leah needed more frozen pizza meals, so both Suzanne and my mom went to get some for her and a few other supplies as well. I do like having people here so that we can get things when we need them, and also have a vehicle to do this with. My mom left late in the afternoon to go back to Readlyn.

Suzanne, Leah and I did not do anything too exciting last night. We did move rooms so we are now in a double room by ourselves. On Friday we checked in to a double room that a fourteen year old girl, Caitlin, was also in. Caitlin is in the hospital and will be for a while. She and Leah actually interacted a bit, and that was rather nice. However, we are up in the night a lot to go to the bathroom and Caitlin definitely does not like it when machines beep and make noise, so when we were told that a room down the hall could be ours, we decided to take it. We also have a lot of junk here, so the extra room is nice, too. Suzanne and I did watch some figure skating last night and Leah and I read through a few huge stacks of books. I read them to her, she reads them out loud again, and then we read them some more.

Roshaun brought Leah two CDs of music to listen to and dance to. Lots of the songs are ones that I know and even though we had to do an abbreviated version of listening to them last night we will enjoy having them.

James worked today and Leah had quite a fun time torturing him this morning. Usually when Leah has her pole and her port is accessed she does not like walking around at all, but when it comes to picking on James, this was not going to stop her. Originally we were out in the hall when he was looking in the linen closet to get some bedding out, and Leah just "happened" to shut the door on him. I just happened to hold it closed with my foot, too. Leah thought this was hysterically funny especially since we could hear him talking to us from inside and knocking on the door for us to let him out. Later I tied some different cape-like things tied around his head, tied the stethoscope around his hands and then shoved him in the shower while Leah held the door shut. This, too brought hysterical laughter. It is a good thing James is a good sport. He does have the day off tomorrow and may need it to recuperate.

Suzanne ran some errands for us again-more Kids Cuisine pizza meals and a few other things. I have acquired a new pair of Gap jeans with flowers embroidered on them. Leah looked at them and said "Chris is going to say these are the worstest pants he ever saw." This is exactly what he said when I bought my camouflage pants, too, and Leah also shared that with the nurses. Lis stopped here today to take Leah's Valentines Day cards home with her and drop them off at our house. Chris has since taken them to Mrs. Larson's so they make it to preschool.

The library was on our agenda today and now I have convinced her to watch Desperate Housewives with me. She is tired out, but so am I. We have two more doses of this chemotherapy and hope to be home late on Tuesday night. We will not be discharged before 6 PM for sure that day and Chris will come down and get us.

We are praying for good scan results on the 23rd, for Leah to continue to feel well during and after her chemotherapy, and for her tumor to be shrinking-especially away from the involved blood vessels so resection is possible. Please continue to remember her in your prayers each and every day.