Christmas Miracle

Early this morning Jerad took Ally to the blood lab for a scheduled finger prick/blood count. He went early, because we felt about 90% certain that she would need a blood transfusion today and we would be headed to Children's. Her hemoglobin was low last week, and with the chemo they gave her we thought it would only go lower.

About 11:30am we found out that she did NOT need a transfusion!!! I kept calling it my Christmas miracle. How nice to not have to go there this week. I seriously was choking back tears when our nurse Robbie was telling me her numbers. Her ANC was also higher...over 1000...which is a good hedge of protection with the holidays coming. Robbie said "Merry Christmas" and I said "yea, this really makes it much better for us." She explained that Ally's bone marrow must have started producing some red blood cells and then she told me that that is exactly what they want it to do. And by the grace of God we changed our plans and went and got ice cream instead.

She is still in her sad/emotionless/silent stupor. I tried to engage her in several projects throughout the day. We made a few Christmas ornaments and I also let the kids do their gingerbread trees. (I am glad I am done with that mess until next year.) But anyway, nothing warranted a smile or a conversation or anything and by the end of the day I was actually crying. I felt so bad because I bent over backwards all day to try to please her, but I felt like I failed. And those who know me know that I don't handle failure well. Ah well...the steriods are done as of last night. Last time it took about five days for her to come out of this and be back to herself. And that should hit right about Christmas Day. Pray for us!

I was surprised by the large number of emails/comments/posts etc about my "Better Days" song that I posted yesterday. I had no idea that it would touch so many people. Most of the people that it touched were fellow cancer survivors/families and I was so happy that you liked it. I never want to post things that can be depressing, but I know that I do just by telling the truth of our story. I questioned posting the song, but now I am so glad that I did. Anything I can do to help even one other person is worth it to me.

Two prayer requests for two little hospital friends: Baby Lincoln is having a rough time. We love that little guy and he can bring joy to our face in an instant. And a friend of a friend, Skye Getter, who is actually in Cincy right now and suffering terribly from her chemo after another relapse of her kidney cancer. She is a friend of Ally's friend Jackie, who also has kidney cancer. We haven't met her, but I read her Mom's blog everyday and pray for her much.

Thanks for all the support and love and hope everyone enjoyed this first day of winter. (I can't believe it is winter.)