Enjoying the Quiet

Ally is continuing to tolerate her chemo very well. I haven't heard much complaining about anything lately. I think some of her medications are helping her symptoms too. Ally takes a lot of medicine at home. I think one day two weeks ago we added up that she had taken 13 medications that day (including her chemo) She takes a medicine 3 times a day now for her leg pain. It is actually an anti-seizure medication, but it helps with the damage done to her nerve endings. She also takes several meds for her stomach...and soon enough...Tuesday...she will go back onto the steriods. The medicines sometimes work, but sometimes they don't. I have tried all along to keep Ally's medications to an absolute minimum, meaning if we have the choice on something, I try to have her go without. Lord knows they put enough stuff into her body with the chemo. I am definitely still noticing the effects of the steroids with Ally. She is eating a ton of food and you can tell from her appearance. She seems to blow up a little more each day. Just as soon as you get the dishes done from a meal, she will ask for a snack. She even has food in her bedroom in case she gets hungry at night. She went to the store with me on Saturday and probably tacked another $50 onto our grocery bill. I cannot tell her no.

And so yes, she went to the store. We are trying to get any last "public place" visits in. We went to a store and a couple restaurants, etc. I am guessing by Tuesday her ANC will be quite low, and this is when we enter back into the bubble. We may have to pull her back out of school. It has been nice that she is going a few days a week lately.

We operated much like a normal family all weekend, which is always good. We watched our boy score a few goals in soccer and "graduate" from his early childhood religion courses on Sunday morning. His teacher made a point of saying how mature he is for his age and also how creative he is. This is something people used to always tell me about Ally...it is her personality. But for Evan it is probably more baptism by fire. He has had to be quite independent this past year...usually with one parent, but lots of times with no parent. I am proud of him. He doesn't let the jealous gene get into his life very often. This is huge when you are a sibling of a chronically ill patient. He is caring and compassionate and oftentimes will do anything just to get a laugh out of his sister(s).

We will start our week out with one more good day. Then we travel back to Children's on Tuesday for more chemo. Maybe some blood. And on that note, I will once again thank all the blood donors out there. But most specifically....thanks to Larry and Jeff and Jerad for putting three more bags of blood into the bank for our daughter. You guys are awesome to take time from your day to do something that can mean so much to someone that is ill. Thank goodness for people like you with big hearts and good healthy blood!


Thanks to everyone for caring about our girl and all the others battling cancer. We are truly grateful.