Thankful

In August I started capturing our life, day by day, in 1 second clips.  My thought was that it would be great to post it all over on the web on Thanksgiving Day.  Show off our new life in Japan, a way to remember all that we are thankful for in this new life.

Everyday, I would capture a quick moment. It was a fun to look over the ever-forming video from time to time, especially on those days when I was worn out and missing Colorado.  It was a video highlight reel of our new life.  On November 14th at Narita Airport I posted the video with this message, "Well, I've been making this 1 second everyday for a while. I think this is probably a good chapter break for now. A new chapter begins when we land."

I thought that would be my last 1 second a day video clip.  Why would I want clips of the Children's Hospital, of chemo drips, hard times or bald heads?  At that moment, the Japan clips seemed less-than-realistic, just all the high points of our new Japan life.  I had omitted all the clips of Anna crying about math homework, or people missing our Colorado home.  I didn't have clips of us taking the kids to the Japan Drs... in the rain... on bikes... with bronchitis.  -so why start now?

I told my good friend this same story,  that I was done with "1 second everyday", the chapter break would be the end.  But he's a true friend and he wouldn't let me quit. He challenged me to not stop the clips, not to stop looking for the good in the midst of challenging times.  He said that the Japan clips weren't fake, they were real, they were about finding the blessing in a hard transition.  Sure, it's a bit manicured, but we all do that to some extent.  

Manicured... Or, it's called looking on the bright side ,or counting our blessings  -And that's what I'm going to continue to do.  I had to go back and fill in the few days that I didn't want to capture but I think that's ok.

So, here's the video of the beginning of our new chapter, a chapter that will most likely be a challenging journey, but one that I will capture and find things to be thankful in nonetheless.

All of are home today, Abby is doing good as are all of the other other kids.  Thanks for walking with us in this journey and Happy Thanks Giving to you all!

Hopefully staying home for some turkey

Well we went down to Denver today for a treatment, spinal injection of chemo, shots and another chemo via her IV.

They checked her counts and her white counts are super low. Good and bad at the same time. She's severely neutropenic (means her body is very low on her infection fighting cells, neutrophils.

If she gets s fever we have to rush her to the hospital and admit her so we are praying she doesn't get a fever!  Please pray for that as well. Thanks! They want her to eat more as she lost 6 lbs in the hospital last week, that's a lot for her.  So, I guess we'll see if she wants to eat lots of cheese or maybe a Whopper.  Or a Carl's Jr. burger.  Or a cheese cake, the whole thing... that would get the weight back on her huh!?

Other than that she is good. It is so nice to see her here at home.  Ahhh hopefully we have  a little time to relax now.  Enjoy your turkey day and hopefully we will too!

Abby's coming home.

They are packing up and driving home. Praying for an extended stay here at home and that she doesn't have to get readmitted for any fevers or such.

Thanks for all of you words of encouragement. 

Still in the Hospital... maybe tomorrow?

Well,

We are really hoping and praying that Abby will get out tomorrow.  Try as we might, they still didn't let her go home today.

To be honest, it was a rough day.  She really wanted to go home.  She had more shots and she was on a big combinations of anti-nausea as well as anti-anxiety.  The effect of them all was not the best, she was super emotional and repeated the same thought over and over and over, all day long.  She is tenacious and just wanted to go home.

To be with her was hard.  As a parent you just want to unplug her, throw her in the car and leave.  Yet, at the same time, we know they are all trying to get her better and are looking out for her so we just have to trust that the Dr.s and nurses are doing the best that they can.

So, she is still there.  Vicky is staying the night with her and it sounds like she has calmed down and gone to sleep.  They will take her vitals again later tonight and if all is still good, they will release her tomorrow morning.  It will be super nice to have her back in our Colorado house again.

Have a great night.

Not quite yet

Well, Abby isn't quite ready to go home.  Her phosphate levels are too high without the help of IV fluids to keep them down.   If her nausea gets better, she may be able to drink enough liquids to keep them flushing out of her body.  Her uric acid levels are too high as well.  She is too nauseous to eat anything and hasn't kept anything down yet today.  So, all of those things together mean she needs to stay in the hospital a bit longer.  We will see how the week unfolds.  She has more chemotherapy tomorrow and Wednesday and Friday (all of which include those nasty shots in her legs).  Hopefully we can find a good combo and/or plan for the anti-nausea medicines so that she can get more on top of it.  Her port sight is getting less tender so that's good.  Her spirits are low.  She is trying to work through so many things right now.  We had a wonderful visit from her previous oncologist, Dr. Smith, and his nurse Sara, that were as good for Mark and I as they were for Abby.  As Sara sat and talked to Abby she emerged from her shell and for that we are very grateful.  Sara is a very special lady.  She saw Abby through the whole ordeal last time.  She and I were pregnant together with our third babies.  She has the rare gift of being able to gently assess what's going on, take charge of the situation, and stay on a heart level with you the whole time.  She is very perceptive and has a ton of experience with cancer kids and a ton of experience with Abby.  Dr. Smith (deemed "Dr. Sniff" by Abby back when she was 3) is wonderful too, we are so glad he is on the team to fight this with us. So, right now Abby is sleeping, with the help of some medicine. Mark and I went out to dinner last night while my wonderful mom stayed with Abby.  So many lovely people on this road.  We couldn't do this without each of you.

Pictures