Monday, March 6, 2006

Everything is going well in Iowa City. I am reporting from Denver. Tina has commented that a lot of our friends from the hospital have stopped by this evening, including Jeremy (nurse assistant), James (nurse assistant), Liz (student/Dance Marathon volunteer), and Dr. Nancy. Dr. Nancy is back on our floor for March as a resident pediatric physician. She helped during our long month of many stays in December. Leah used to fear her, but they are slowly developing a positive relationship with each other in their own little way. Very similar to the interaction between Leah and Dr. Rahdi. Leah still claims that she is not friends with them and it usually followed with some blushing and a smirk on her face. Sunday morning, I witnessed the funniest Dr. Radhi/Leah encounter thus far. Every time he walks into the room over the last month or so Leah puts on the worst looking, contorted facial expression one can imagine. Well, Dr. Rahdi took two steps in the room and replicated the facial expression at the exact same time Leah did. Leah even laughed about it later. I have to say he one the battle that day and was proud of him for giving Leah a bit of her own medicine.

My stay was almost uneventful except for one major breakdown on Saturday that was caused by a lack of sleep/nap on Friday and Saturday. Leah screamed for her Mom for an hour. I tried every trick I could think of to calm her down - humor, tough love, etc. Luckily, Mrs. Larson (one of Leah's teachers) and her family stopped by after the Iowa game. Though Leah wasn't overly polite, Mrs. Larson did calm her down and set the stage for Leah and I to mend our relationship. All was well about fifteen minutes after Mrs. Larson left and Leah and I had a lot of fun reading, playing memory and UNO again that night. We have even found that we like to watch America's Funniest Videos together. Leah should get discharged from this, her 5th round of chemo treatments, late tomorrow afternoon.

Again, thank you to all of our support team - our family, friends at home, new friends and medical professionals in Iowa City, members of our church, blog readers, the communities of Denver, Waverly, Readlyn, & Janesville, those who don't know us that are constantly praying for Leah, etc. There are so many to mention. All of your kind acts, thoughts, and prayers are strengthening us and Leah every second of the day.

Later this week I will write in more detail about the specifics of Leah's benefit that so many have worked so hard on for us. This will take place from 5:00 - 11:00 pm on April 8th at the Denver Legion. Leah thinks it will be quite the party. We hope she will be out of the hospital in time from her March 29th surgery to enjoy it. There is also a Cookie Lee jewelry party at the library in Readlyn on Thursday night, March 30th and 40% of profit will be given to Leah's fund. It is a cash and carry sale and the Cookie Lee representative plans to have a lot of jewelry to offer that night. If you do have immediate questions, please feel free to e-mail me at ckristau@forbin.net and I will forward your message to the proper contacts. Otherwise, we will post the e-mail addresses of those contacts and further details later this week.

One last thing, a very special thank you to Sara Hunemiller. Her entrepreneurial spirit and hard work on the LOVE FOR LEAH bracelet sales is to be commended.

Blessings,

Chris