March 20, 2006

Spring break is officially over and I went back to work this morning for a half day. Chris was home with the girls this morning since it was his day off. His brother, Randy, is visiting from Missoula, MT and both girls are excited to see him and do all the obnoxious things to him that Chris has been coaching them on.

Yesterday I took Leah for a blood draw at Covenant. The whole clinic was dark and we had to call for assistance from the main desk, but after that the nurse and the lab tech. came to poke her finger and we sat and waited for results. I am glad I took her on Sunday since we are definitely done with her GCSF shots for a while. Her white counts which were at .6 on Monday (3/13) were at 4.7 on Thurs. (3/16) and at 50.4 by yesterday. Considering we can stop the shots after they reach 10 we are glad we did not give her a shot again last night. Her hemoglobin is still at 10.9 and her platelets went up to 297, so I was happy with that, too. Iowa City called today with the results since they are not open on Sundays. They think her numbers look really good. I hope they stay that way since surgery is 9 days away. Since she is further and further out from her last chemo. treatment she should be doing well.

I am getting more nervous about yet another scan on Friday that we pray shows additional shrinkage. We have many big, big days coming up. Please continue to pray for Leah's tumor to shrink and her scan results to be good news. Please pray for a successful surgery and wisdom for the surgeons as they perform surgery on March 29.

We have been having fun, "normal" days here at home. Leah continues to attempt to potty train Chloe. This is not going so well since Leah seems to have her own ideas about how we should go about this that differ from my own. Right now she has sorted all the laundry and is busy throwing in different loads and folding A LOT of laundry. We had plenty of dirty clothes to wash, but when Leah decided it was laundry time she also changed her clothes in order to make a bit more laundry fun.

I work a half day tomorrow and all day on Wednesday. On Thursday we don't have to do a blood draw this time so I am taking Leah for a massage and manicure at Jiva Salon in Cedar Falls. This will probably be our last fun outing before surgery and one she will enjoy. I did take her to see the movie Curious George last Friday and she did well through the first hour of it. However, Leah does not like to sit still so we left before it was entirely done and I am the one who wanted to see the ending; she couldn't care less.

Tonight will be an early bed night- thank goodness. We have been having many late nights having glue parties with our neighbor Esther after we give the GCSF shots. Leah has discovered the joy of putting glue on your hand and spreading it out and then waiting for it to dry and picking it off. She has encouraged Esther and Chris and I to get involved in this activity as well. This brings back memories of elementary school, although I don't recall ever going to the extreme that Leah is. This also creates a big mess that we get to vacuum every day.

Leah's foods of choice this round of chemo. have changed yet again. Now we are eating spaghetti at every meal and guacamole chips for a snack. The other favorite is sliced turkey meat that I cut up into small pieces, shredded cheese, croutons and salad dressing. I figure there are some good calories in that meal.

Again, please continue to remember us in your prayers. These next few weeks will provide many answers as to how Leah's treatment will progress, and we pray that the surgeons can resect her tumor entirely and that they are able to successfully remove the two spots in her lung.