Abby goes pony-back riding

Hey all,

Long time no post. Well let me catch you up on some things.

See, schools out for the summer. I'm still working part-time doing tech stuff and I'm enjoying having more time with the kiddos.

Abby's counts have been really good. She had a sinus infection from probably before we went to California until about 2 weeks ago when after the 4th round of antibiotics she finally kicked it and is feeling much better. She has a ton of energy! Hard to believe it is the same kid! I had to ask a couple people with older kids if this amount of silly energy is normal for her age!

Abby had another Dr. Appt. with Dr. Smith at CHOA and everything looks good. They tested how high her Gamma Globulin is to see if they can take her off the monthly IvIG therapy or if they should wait. We'll probably go for another few months or maybe more depending on the results of her levels.

Abby has been in Sunday School 3 times now and hasn't gotten sick! She is actually really running the gauntlet this week since she is doing VBS all week long with all those snotty kiddos! :) We'll see how it goes.

The picture on the top is from when we went cabin camping up at Estes Park. Anna and her went on a 30- minute pony ride and had a blast!

Other than that, things are just normal... I mean really normal... kind of wierd, but I'll get used to it!

Pictures of the trip

Hey all.

Just a little post to deliver the best of the best pictures from our trip. I put them here. I didn't label any of them but I figured you'd all be able to pretty much figure it all out.

Other than that not much has been going on on the Abby front. She still has her sinus infection and constantly has about a 99.5 or 100 degree fever. She is back on antibiotics, Augmenten, and if the fever doesn't go down more we may need to take her in and get a blood culture just to make sure things are ok.

It's a very nice sping time here in Colorado and I'm trying to enjoy the sunny days before it gets too hot. Once school is out I'll have more time to do that. On that note, once I'm done for the year we will be taking a little family trip up to Estes Park to do a little camping. I think that will be a good time too.

I'll try to keep you all posted as we move on ahead. Abby's next appointment will be after Memorial Day so I'll post again after that.

See ya all.

We made it to Disneyland

Hey all just a quick thanks and a "hello" from Cali.

Here's the outline of what's happened and is to come.

Beach was great! Couldn't keep Abby out of the water... Anna wasn't so sure about the waves but warmed up to it over the few days that we were there. Basically we just sat in the sun, took some walks on the beach, played in the waves and enjoyed the view.

Lily, Abby, Anna all shared a room and did great. We had lots of fun sitting looking at the view above from our 2 rooms.

Abby and Anna went with the Dugalls to SeaWorld on Tuesday and had a blast. Tiffany and I had a blast letting them go to Sea World while we hung out at the beach and did some laundry. We pretended that we had 1 baby for a day and loved on Lily a bunch.

This morning, Wednesday, we all got up, packed, and drove to Disneyland. Put our stuff at the hotel, and went over to California Adventure until check-in time. The kids rested for a moment on the beds once we checked in and then we headed back to California Adventure for a quick dinner.

I took Lily back to the room since she was super tired and the parents plus Tiffany, Abby, and Anna all went over to Disneyland to see the sites until it closes at 8pm.

Tomorrow, the character breakfast, and early day into Disneyland, and a long day at the park.

Friday more of the same and some fireworks.

Saturday we leave after lunch.

Off to rest up for the big days ahead.

At the beach.

Ahh, we're finally here! Seeing the waves, the sun, the girls playing in the water and sand really does my heart good.

We went to the beach right away and the first thing that Abby did when we got there was to start collecting things. Rocks, feathers, seaweed and sticks. She put them all in a mound and decorated it very nicely. Vicky said she must be building a memorial to God like the Israelites did in the old testiment. So Abby kept building her memorial to God. And by the time it was done it definately was a monument to be reckoned with!

Pretty funny stuff. And so much more to come!


Lots of great pictures on our new camera. We'll have to put a link to an album for you all to look at. I'm sure we'll have a ton of photos by the time we are done!

Off to indulge in the incredible sunset! bye now.

Appt. and Steroids...

Well, we have a week of steroids again starting yesterday... don't worry, they aren't for Abby, they're for me!

I know the first month that Abby doesn't have to be on the grumpy pill and we still manage to get oral steroids in our house! I have a sinus infection again, actually Abby does too, but for mine they decided to really clear it up and "throw the book at me" as the Dr. said. So, Augmenton and Predinsone for me and Abby gets a round of Zithromax to help her out.

Pretty funny huh... ha ha. I'd laugh but it would hurt my face:)

Anyway, Abby's doing really good. She had her appointment yesterday and got IvIG. It all went well. Her ANC is up to around 3000 and everything else is coming up too! She'll get her IvIG levels checked next time to see how much longer she may need to be on that stuff. Dr. Smith said that sometimes it takes awhile for that part of the immunity to come back, it is just a bit slower to return. The ANC though is quick to return and so hopefully that will boost her cold and disease fighting ability in the near future. Especially since we are going to the "germiest place on earth"... I don't think Disney would want that to be their true tagline.

Well, off to take my meds. I'm thinking, just for old time sake, of smothering them with chocolate syrup and then waking myself up at 10pm to give them to myself.... or maybe not. I don't think I'd want to use that spoon!

Have a great day! We are off to Disneyland in T-6 Days!!!!

Officially Done!

Well the last pill was given last night. I still put the spoon back in the chemo container with the remnant pills and put it away. I don't really know what to do with it all now. What will we use that space on the top of our microwave for now? I'm also going to get back about 2 square feet of cabinet space back too. What will I do with such sacred space? :)

Anyway, pray for Abby's continued healing. I'm excited to see the gradual change as her body gets rid of these chemo substances and starts to slowly back to normal. I bet combination of low altitude, higher blood counts and lots of sugar in Disneyland will make for one energetic little girl! And one exhausted little girl by the end of the day!

Have a great day and enjoy the fireworks in your life too!

The Last Pills

Well we are fast approaching the final day of treatment. A date that I've been looking forward to since I've known about it.

I thought about tallying up the total number of pills that she's taken, or maybe the number of needle sticks that she had received, or the pints of blood that she has had transfused... but I thought that might be a bit depressing. Lets just say it's a lot and call it good.

This is a picture of really the last 1.5 pills that she will take. Crazy little pills. It is weird think we won't be dealing with the monthly grumpy and hungry pills anymore, nor the Methotrexate and spinal taps, or the 6-MP. It all just goes away. No more refills... weird. Can you put extra unused portions of medicines on Ebay? Just kidding. :) Actually we don't have a ton of any meds left over so that is good. I kind of feel weird about putting them down the sink or in the trash... what if some little critter gets it in their bloodstream and starts to glow, or turn into a super hero maybe. So I'll just have to take the extra to our clinic next time we go down.

And now we let her body rebuild. I wonder if she will feel and act a ton different? Or if she'll even notice being off all of this stuff? Let me say it one more time... Weird. But definitely a good weird.

I'm off to bed... the 19th of April, Abby's official treatment end day only 1.5 hours away. I feel like I should stay up, set up some fireworks in the driveway and welcome in these new years of our lives after chemo. Actually my dream firework show will probably be much more spectacular than my sidewalk show, so off to bed I go.

In the Middle

It's 10:45pm and whole house is asleep except for Abby and I. I think it might have been the double espresso that we split before dinner. What can I say the kid likes Starbucks:) Actually, I just gave her the "chocolate medicine" pill, #9 we're in the single digits now counting down to zero. I got the spoon out, put the M&M sized pill on the spoon and covered it with chocolate syrup. Crunch, crunch, sip, sip and back to bed she goes. I wash off the spoon, put it back in the sealed chemo container and back into the cabinet. Pretty much the same as the last 600+ nights of my life. I think I might have get that spoon bronzed... or maybe incinerated. I don't have much time... I guess I should decide here soon.

Now, with that being said, I should probably jump right into some point about how happy I am for Abby to almost be done and all that... But that's the problem, I don't really feel that way... it's hard to explain but let me try.

I guess I'm glad that Abby is almost done but in a way I'm still a bit numb. I don't if numb is the right term, maybe apathetic... but you know that doesn't really fit either because I do care, I care a lot actually. I care so much that I'm scared. That's right, scared. But I don't want to be scared and there is so much to be happy about, so much to celebrate and so I sit here in this hard to describe place. Somewhere between exuberant to be almost done and yet scared to be done... just kind of in the middle.

I think Dr. Smith maybe had the right words to describe it, "unprotected" he said. That's how people often feel when they come to the end of the treatment, unprotected. That word really resonates with me, rings me to the core. I mean even though chemo is ugly, makes peoples hair fall out, makes them feel like junk it still protects them. It still kills off the cancer. I mean lets be honest, if it wasn't for all of the nasty treatment that Abby was on she most likely wouldn't be here anymore. And now the day I've been waiting for, the day we've all been waiting for, Abby last treatment day is quickly approaching. The day where we stop suppressing her cell division and let everything grow like it is suppose to!? (exclamation and question mark intended). And with that fact, I'm left in the middle.

Now it's not like I won't be celebrating because I definitely will! But it may look a little different than i was thinking it would look like. Maybe more of a phased celebration. A little celebration to start here on April 19th with a bit of underlying anxiety. And then a few weeks later while we are on the beaches of California and at Disneyland a bit more of a celebration. The one month follow up... a celebration while holding my breath for the blood counts to come back. And then this fall when she gets her med-o-port removed a bit more of a party. October we will be going on her wish trip and I'll be looking forward to that trip as an even bigger way to celebrate all that Abby has walked through at such a young age. I'm excited to see her, actually see us all, be in our best child behavior!

So, does that make sense? I'm fine with it for now, but I don't want to stay in the middle for too much longer. I'm more of an extremes guy myself, give me the top or the bottom. Let me tell you, it's a much better way to experience life. I'd rather have highs and lows than just live in the middle with it's illusions of control and it's pseudo protection. All that happens by staying here is you get numb and apathetic... and once you're there you get stuck, and you don't really care about taking the risk and going back out into the non-safe looking world...

come to think of it, maybe I will bronze that spoon... it can be part of those series of celebrations that are speeding on towards us! Looking forward to all the potential highs and potential lows.

Off to dream of the days to come.

The last of the Grumpy pills

28 days of the grumpy pill (steroid drugs, Dexemethasone and predinsone) in Induction.

21 days of the grumpy pill during Consolidation.

5 days each month for the remaining 2 years of treatment.

The dosage has gone up as she's grown up, from 1 pill twice a day to now 2 pills in the morning and 2.5 at night....

Tomorrow morning is the last day of the grumpy pills, and boy is she grumpy this week!

... all I have to say is, "2 more pills to go."

I'm tired, I'm getting grumpy, I better go to bed.

Rewishing

Well last night we had the "wish lady" over again to modify Abby's wish. For some reason it seems that Abby has changed her mind about going to Disneyland and now wants to go to Disney World. I don't think it had anything to do with me showing her Disney World on the computer hooked up to the TV. An showing her the pictures of the giant tomatoes and cucumbers at Epcott didn't have any bearing on this change of heart either. And I'm sure me making up songs about Disney World didn't matter much either... but for some reason she decided to pick Disney World instead of Disney Land... weird. :)

Actually, the Make a Wish granter said that it would probably be better and since all she really wants to do is ride the Dumbo ride and Disney World has that ride too. Disney World also has the "Give the Kids the World Village" which is set up for wish kids and their families. The village has a fishing pond too, since that was another wish of hers I think it will be perfect. So, even though they are both Disney places she still had to say "Disney World" to the wish granter. So, last night the Wish granter came over again and asked her again what her wish was. Quickly Abby said, with very clear speech I may add, "Disney World." Pretty funny actually.

Her second wish, the one that they will do if they can't fulfill the first wish, was a bit harder to get out of her. She didn't really have a particular place like St. Lucia, or the Bahamas, or Hawaii but she did get across that she would like to go and find sea shells on the seashore. I think any sea shore would do to her. I probably could make a beach in the backyard and throw store-bought sea shell on the sand and she would happy to collect them. So, that's the second wish.

I tried to take a picture of the wish token that she recieved with her wish but it seems that it is hard to photograph wish tokens, maybe something magical about them. Maybe they are occupiing a different part of the space time continuum... or maybe my camera just doesn't have macro lens. I'll go with thought # 1.

Hey... did I tell you that Abby's in Denver right now getting her Last Treatment? I know crazy. Tiffany took Abby, Anna, and a cake as big as Lily down to CHOA. Hopefully she got a picture of it. Abby gets her checkup, her Vincristine, and IvIG and then a bunch of oral pills at home today and 5 days of the grumpy pill. But these are her last 5 days of this grumpy pill! Yipee!.

It doesn't seem real that she is on the eve of not having to take all this medicine soon! Crazy.

Phobic

Sometimes I'm in the mood to write and sometimes I'm just not in there. This is one of the latter moments in my blogging life. But, I thought if I just started I'd probably get into it. So here I go, maybe I'm just tired...

You know Abby is coming up to the end of her treatments soon and I know I should be joyful and happy that Abby's almost done, but nay. You see during this last 2 plus years I've become kind of phobic. And in a weird sort of way, I don't know if I'll know how to act any differently when all is done.

Let me explain with a little story about church. Just last Sunday we all decided to go to church. The plan was to sequester ourselves off on the side, our usual spot, and worship together. Then Tiffany was going to go off and help in the Preschool classroom and I was going to take the girls to our less germy and therefore safe house. So we get there early, pick a nice remote spot with a great angle of the profile of the pastors nose way off to the side. No one around, perfect. As church begins people start to file in late. Now maybe they thought we were lonely over there all by ourselves so a family came and plunked down right behind us. Then another small family in front, to the side, 2 rows in front, on and on. So there I am with my daughter, who has no mask on by the way, and these germy people all around me. You know, they don't pass a plate for money around in our church but I had visions of filling it with sanitizer and just passing it around our neighbors in the pew. So, I'm trying to sing and I keep hearing coughing, and then sniffs. Kids around us are picking their noses, people are coughing and it pretty soon that's about all I can hear. (ok so I'm exaggerating but you get the point.) This is my life. I now open the bathroom doors with a paper towel on the way out. I flush with my foot or elbow and I find myself smelling Purell like it's a fine perfume.

So now you see why I'm a bit anxious when this is all over. Right now most of you would say that it is completely fine for me to be a bit germophobic. But what about in a month? Or a year? I may be doomed to be "one of those people". What happened to me? I used to just boil the spaghetti sauce if it was older than I thought reasonable... now I throw it away. Oh no what have I become!?

Obviously my germphobia is irrational. Obviously my hand washing isn't working. Nor is the humongo air filter! Oh well I'll tell you how it all goes in a year.

Now onto the Abby front. Abby's last treatment, yes... LAST TREATMENT. Hey that's fun to say, "Last Treatment". [PERSON A]: "Where are you guys going on Friday Mark?" [ME]: "Oh we're off to Denver for Abby's last treatment." [PERSON A]: "Wow, it's her last treatment?!" [ME]: "Yup! it's her last treatment. Pretty cool huh?!"

So ya, Friday, Abby's last treatment. Last one. Finae, done, audios, buh-bye, Final. (i.e. Last). Tiffany is going to take her down and I'm going to hang out with Lily and Anna at home. We thought about taking her today or tomorrow but I was going to have to take more work off and so Friday worked better. Abby will get Vincristine, and IvIG and then some oral meds (plus the grumpy pill) at home. Wow! Only 10 more Decadron pills to go! Yippee. Then we'll continue the nightly meds until April 19th.

Wow, I think this whole soon to be done thing is going to take a while to sink in. It's coming up fast!

While I wait I just keep washing my hands to pass the time.

...Oh hey! I almost forgot to tell you... Abby's got Pink Eye again. I think I do too, and Tiff. Ah the fun of it all.

The Wish Lady

Abby is still doing really good. The weather has been great and so she has been able to play outside a ton. Her Nonnie, my mom, was here last week she got the girls a new bike to share. Anna has a little pink one but the wheels are still flat so I'll have to fix it soon so that they can race or something. The went out on the trail by our house and I guess Abby pooped out about 1/2 way into it so Tiffany had to put the bike on lily's stroller and push it home.

The Make a Wish Foundation people came over last night to see what Abby wanted. She was excited all day and keep asking me what time it was. When they finally got here both the girls ran off to hide. I know, I don't get it either. By the time that I hand wrangled them out of the corner of the family room Abby had fallen, stubbed her toe and was crying. But, she soon was over it and bouncing on the couch next to the "wish girl" as she called her.

They gave her a neat coin that says "wish" and asked her a bunch of questions about what her favorite things were. When she was all done with those they asked her the big question, what do you want to wish for?

Now I have to give you a little history before I tell you what she wished for. All week long she's been saying she wants to see the seashells, or swim with the "fishies" or go fishing or stuff like that. The week before though she wanted to "fly off to Never Land" which was cute and all but I thought might be hard to do. But last night it was none of these things it was simply that "I want to go to Disneyland". That's the wish. We made sure that she knew that she was already going to go to Disneyland but that made no difference to her so... sometime this fall we will go back to Disneyland and do it all again! I'm sure it will be great, she will have a blast both times as will we. But, I do have to say that swimming with the fishies in Hawaii would have been my first choice. That wish did come in second though so if they can't fulfill the first wish they will try to make the second one happen.

So that's the deal. I'll post some more pics soon.

Psuedo Spring

Well spring has sprung here in Colorado, even if it's only for a week or two. I love these little teaser spring days in March. We'll probably get snow next week but that's OK. Since it's been in the 60's and 70's this week Abby and Anna have been outside a ton. Playing in the yard, swinging at the park and riding their bike down our sloped driveway... Anna's a bit of a daredevil on that one!

The sun has definitely brought a new lightness to our family. It's great to see everyone feeling well and playing so great. Sometimes I forget that we have been locked up in our house for the last 3 months. No wonder this freedom to at least the yard has felt so nice!

We'll it's sunny again, so I'm going to make breakfast and go enjoy the sun. I'll be leaving the computer inside.

Back on Chemo

Tiffany took the girls back down to Denver to see Dr. Smith on Monday. Here counts are all way up, about 2000 ANC and 5000 for the total white blood cell count.

So, now she is back on her nightly chemo meds at a half dose for now. At the end of March she will have her last chemo pulse. By mid April she will be off all of her chemo and will just go down for checkups, IvIG and CBC checks. Sometime in September or October she should be able to get her access port out.

So, things are looking good. Abby's having fun playing outside in our nice weather and we are all starting to get back into the old routine of having non-sick kids! Yippee!

Abby's Home

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that Abby came home from the hospital yesterday around lunch.

She seems to be doing ok but still is a bit grumpy and under the weather with her cough. The fever is gone and her counts and back up to a good range.

She still is off her chemo. We'll have a checkup on Monday to see how she is and if we should start back up her meds.

That's it for now.

One More Night

Well it looks like Abby will be staying yet another night in the hospital, this will be her 4th night there. Tiffany took the shift last night and I came home with the girls. Tiffany's mom came back in to help and she arrived last evening. That let me catch up on some stuff this morning at a coffee shop while Vicky watched the girls. She is actually going to stay down with Abby tonight and let Tiffany come home. That will be nice because I haven't seen Tiffany much since this whole thing started.

Abby seems to be doing better today but the cough is worse, probably all that sitting in the bed. They are going to start her on some nebulizer treatments to help clear out her lungs. Dr. Pashley stopped in this morning and checked in on Abby and said her nose was looking really good, he's the one that did the sinus surgery. Dr. Smith also stopped by and checked her out. Since her fever is still bouncing around in 99-101 range and her cough is worse he wants her to stay another day for now. I never got a CBC result to see what her immunity is but I'm sure it's still pretty low.

So that's the scoop. I'll update more when I get a chance. But for now... a nap.

Mark

The Uncomfortable Bed

Well, I'm sitting here in this same uncomfortable bed that I remember so well from the first time we were here. This time I was smart though and I brought a nice cushy sleeping bag for to pad the bar in the bed that gets you right under the ribs, still though it's not the most comfortable thing I've ever slept in. Still I think for the price of this room per night they could have a more comfortable bed, I mean I only pay $100 plus for a really nice B&B during the off season and it comes with breakfast too! Oh well, I guess we're paying for them to wake us up all night long instead, they're doing a good job in that area. :)

Abby's doing ok. Here fever stayed down in the 99-100.5 range today with and without the help of Tylenol. Tonight when they checked it it had bounced up to 102.6 again so they gave her some Tylenol to bring it down. It seems like when her fever is high, her cough get worse too. They put her on droplet precaution and now anyone that enters has to wear a mask... except me because I'm impervious to everything but kryptonite... actually, I think sardines is my kryptonite but I digress.

So, back to Abby. Right now her stuffed poodle is visiting with the red light on her toe (the pulse/ox). So, either she is delusional or just feeling better. Oh no, I think the poodle is using the Kleenex box as a potty. Maybe I'm delusional! ...I think she's feeling better, yep, 99 degrees now.

Anyway, I'm off to bed myself now. Hope you don't mind a late posted blog because I'll have to post this in the morning.

Spent.

After 3 months of chemo coupled with colds, infections, surgeries, procedures, trips to Denver and a multitudes of medications I am now spent! Abby was up 4-5 times last night, Lily was also crying about as many times (she's teething). Abby's cough is worse again and she isn't sleeping or eating very well.

Usually I can brush it off, get through it and find the positive side of the issue in the moment but not this time. I think Abby sums it up best when she said to me last night, "I don't think this cough will never go away!" or "I didn't sleep at all last night!" in her little sad and frustrated tone. Really breaks my heart.

Anyway, that's how it is. Tiffany took the family down to Denver again today to get Abby checked out. Her ANC was at 0 and her total white count was only at 300. They checked her out, talked it over and since she sounded ok in the lungs they let her come home.

I came home early and walked into the house to the sound of Abby screaming and crying. I held her and tried to figure out what was wrong through her crys. It is really hard to not be able to do anything about all of this, really hard. She had a fever again so Tiffany called CHOA and they decided that we should get Abby admitted to the hospital again. Tiffany took her this time and when she got down to the hospital Abby's fever was up to 103. The staff did all the usually neutropenic fever stuff, cultured the blood, gave her a stiff shot some mega antibiotic and got her started on fluids.

It's 9PM now and things sound like they have started to settle down. Abby's cough is still keeping her away and hurts her to cough. Her fever has come down a good amount and now hopefully she can sleep. They did a chest X-Ray and we should no the results of that tomorrow.

Tiffany said that they are in the same room that Abby was in when she first got diagnosed... kind of weird. Tiffany commented on how things seemed to have come full circle. Indeed they have. My hope is that they can figure this thing out and kick this bug that she has. My hope is that Abby will feel better.

My last hope is that this truly has come full circle and that the bed that Abby now sleeps in tonight, the same bed that she was diagnosed in over 2 years ago, will the last hospital bed that she will have to sleep in for a very long time.

Ahhh, I can't wait until she feels better. Thanks again for checking in.

Overnight in the Hospital

As I was sitting there beside Abby's bed at PSL watching her put the pulse/ox on the stuffed poodles paw I thought, "Man, I haven't had to be here for a long time and boy am I glad." Actually sometimes I like it there. With all the beeping, tubes, people coming in and out, and even the little chair that turns into a most uncomfortable bed... still, I feel comforted and safe. I guess it makes sense, you're in a hospital, state of the art medical technology, trained staff, lots of good drugs.

It also brings up lots of emotions from the the past and makes me reflect on the last 2 plus year of our life. Especially with surgery. This one was a bit harder than most of the other ones except maybe the eye surgery. She didn't feel good at all when she came out and all she wanted to do was blow her nose. Obviously she couldn't do that. It took her a couple hours to stop crying, man that was hard. Part of it was that she was so tired. Once she took a little cat nap she was much better, that was at about 3pm. Tiffany left once Abby had calmed down and went back home to relieve her mom who was watching Anna and Lily.

The overnight in the hospital was pretty good. Abby woke up a lot during the first part of the night and went through 2 boxes of Kleenex dabbing her nose. It bleed a lot at first and by midnight it was pretty much done. Speaking of bleeding, she did have to have 3 transfusions on Thursday. One during surgery of platelets and one more unit of platelets after surgery following a quick infusion of packed red blood cells. She had a hemorrhage when they did the bone marrow and since her platelets were down to 68,000 they decided that they should give her some more before they started the sinus surgery.

The right sinuses were pretty clogged up with infection gunk and the other side was a lot better with just a little bit of gunk. They drained the right side and made both sides a bit bigger and easier to drain in the future. They also took a bunch of cultures of different spots so that they know what antibiotic will be the best to put her on. Those cultures will take a while since she's been on so many antibiotics but we should know by next Wednesday or Thursday. Right now she is still on Cleocin twice a day. She also is starting her Dexamethasone (steroid) pulse but is off all of her other chemo meds until her blood counts come back up. Her ANC (immunity) is still pretty low at 400- 600 depending on the day.

On a positive note, the spinal tap that they did while she was under was her last tap! Also, this Dex pulse is her second to last pulse! And the bone marrow that they did (the preliminary results came back fine) will take the place of the normal final bone marrow that they do in the last month!

So, overall Abby is doing much better. She's been playing today and seems to be in good spirits. She's a bit grumpy and her face and back are a bit sore but you wouldn't know it by watching her wrestle with Anna. She still doesn't like to do the nose rinse but really, who does?!

Thanks for all of your calls, prayers, and help during this busy medical time! You all rock!

Sinus Surgery Thurs

Hey all,

Abby's on for the sinus thing tomorrow morning at 11am. We'll take her down, check her in, and they do it all. It takes about 45 minutes per side of her nose and they will also be doing her spinal tap, and a bone marrow while she is under too.

She'll start her Dex pill tomorrow too so I hope she feels like swallowing them. We should be able to bring her home tomorrow afternoon but we may have to keep her over at PSL (the hospital) if they need to watch her. We'll see.

I'm off to finish getting ready.