Unhealthy Weekend

The Barnett family has had a busy weekend of doctors appointments and lab tests. It all started on Friday. I put my boy on the bus for his first day of Kindergarten, sans Mommy. About an hour and half later, I was getting a call from the school nurse. I talk to her all the time, so I just thought it was Ally again. Oh no. She said that actually she had Evan in the clinic and he had just vomited in a trash can in the middle of the school office while on a school tour. Greeeaaaaaat. I rushed over to pick him up. He was pale white and could hardly walk down the sidewalk to our car. He was just doubled over with stomach pain. Crying and in pain. Evan is a pretty tough guy too, definitely not one to cry very easily. So I knew it was hurting him. Within an hour or two, he was just fine again. Eating, playing, and fine. This was actually about the fourth time this has happened in about six months. One time throwing up, pain, and then better. We decided we better get it checked out. Evan went to the doctor on Saturday....one urine sample, one stool sample, one blood test, two x-rays, and one uncomfortable rectal exam (poor guy) just to find out that everything looks fine. The only thought is that maybe he has a twisted bowel that causes the pain/vomiting and then it untwists itself. So next time it happens he has to get an x-ray very quickly to see. Some people may have thought it was nerves, but the other three times it happened were not "nervous situations" and anyone that knows Evan probably knows he is not the nervous sort.
Friday afternoon after school, Ally had her "quick" shot of Vincristin at a late appointment at the clinic. Which ended up being not so quick because she also needed platelets. Sometimes she needs the red blood, other times the platelets. So, we ended up closing the place down at 7pm. It just NEVER EVER EVER can be easy. She made it through though, like the trooper that she is.
Today, Carly woke up with a fever. She had also woken up through the night which is unusual. She was saying point blank that her ear hurt. Since we suspected an ear infection, we took her to the urgent care right up the road here and avoided the 3 hour wait at Dayton Children's. They diagnosed her quickly (and we were right, ear infection) and even had the medicine right there to start right away.
As of right now, I am feeling like we got nothing accomplished this weekend. The health issues seemed to take a lot of time. We were able to go to the charitable Lemonade Stand that I mentioned on here previously.
Thanks to the St Luke's Mom and Tots group for doing this fundraiser on Ally's behalf. It was a lot of planning and work and we are so grateful. They sold $60 worth of Ally's Army bracelets and also made another $250 to put towards the L&L Society for Ally's walk.

We also had HUGE success with the blood drive for the Light the Night Walk this weekend. Ally's Army had 15 people go to the blood bank to give blood. We definitely had the largest attendance of any team. I am so grateful to the people who took their valuable time to do this. Not only do we get about $400 for the Walk, but we replenished the blood supply for all those bags of blood that my daughter has used. I gave blood myself (first time) and it really does warm my heart knowing that someday MY BLOOD will be helping someone in need. I will definitely be doing this again. I must give special thanks to all these kind people.

Laramie Lundy
Jerad Barnett
Laurie Pezzott
Larry Booher Jr
Paulette (our home care nurse)
Catherine LeVesseur
Heather Shively
Suzanne Duplain
Lindsay McKay
Jennifer Zollars
Pam Booher
Larry Booher, Sr
Melissa Spencer
Jessica Neal
and ME!

Here I am with my sister and sister-in law right after we each became a pint lighter!
Please continue to keep our Ally girl in your thoughts. We have another week of school in front of us, and then we are looking at starting a new phase of treatment for her on Friday. This next phase is very intense and involves frequent inpatient hospital stays. It is going to be a tough time for all of us and I may be asking for more help as a result. Whatever it takes, whatever we need to do, we will just keep moving forward and knocking this disease out of her. For good.

Please also say a little extra prayer for my sister and I as we play golf tomorrow in a tournament to honor our mother called "The Marcy Cup" We have about 50 wonderful women who are playing in this outing to raise money for charity. We are establishing an oncology fellowship in Mom's name so that our local health center for the indigent will be able to provide cancer care to those who cannot afford it. All of my mom's friends will be there and I know it is going to be an emotional day. How many more emotional days can one girl take?