Just a regular Wednesday

Wednesday was a really good day for me. And not for any giant reason at all...it is just sometimes all the little things add up for me and make my day good. After everything we have been through, I am pretty easy to please. Many days I count my blessings that my family is just under the same roof. I love avoiding the hospital as much as possible (even the visits)...although I do love all the people behind those hospital doors.


Our day started with a weekly visit to the Beavercreek outpatient center for a blood draw. Since Ally's counts are so low, we have to go every week. This is so they will know when to start her chemo up again (all her chemo is held right now due to low counts) Those people there are phenomenal. I don't ever have to do any signing in...paperwork...etc. It is just "Hi Ally, how are you today?" They all know us. A sweet guy named Jeremy has been taking her blood lately. He is really kind to Ally and he always does a nice job with no tears. She is really so brave about it all now, she doesn't even flinch. And they always call a courier to come get her blood and run it STAT. I love that.


From there, we headed to the mall to look for a couple of backpacks for "back to school." Ally had a specific one in mind, from the Gap, and Evan could really care less, but he needed one too. Ally was really excited to shop for some reason, so I just let her go. She led the way and the other three of us sort of followed. She found some cute clothes for school. I was just glad she was interested, and moving along, and not tired, etc. We had planned to go to the pool, since it was 95 degrees out, but mother nature dumped a huge storm on us right when we were wrapping up our shopping. Ally said "can we please stay and shop some more?" Evan and Carly were just going with it, so we did. We went in all these stores that I would never go in. We stopped at the petstore, and the playground, had lunch, even got Starbucks for all of us. It was very leisurely and fun, and before I knew it we had been there FIVE hours! ME...with three kids in tow. That is probably more time than I have spent there in the whole last year combined. I haven't had much time for shopping. It was just really fun and my kids were (miraculously) all good for that long...mostly because I just let them lead the way and I followed around. I realized when I got home that I didn't even buy one thing for me, but that's ok. So I know it sounds silly, but these little everyday normal life things just make me happy. I hope that I never forget it. That's why I write it down. Someday they won't want to shop with me or they will be too busy or some other thing.


Upon arriving home, I had a message on my phone from the hospital. I had almost forgotten! Well.....found out her ANC was 230. She really shouldn't have been in a public place. OOPs. That is really really low and it means her body has no immunity to fight anything off. A simple virus could be devastating to her. I thought for sure, given a week off, that she would be higher than that. NOPE. Her hemoglobin was also 7.7....they transfuse blood if it gets below 8, but they said we could wait if she was not symptomatic. Both of her liver numbers had gone way down (praise God)


So we are sitting with low counts. I feel pretty good that it is summer, not so germy etc. Luckily the mall was not crowded at all. Ally is looking good, feeling good, and acting like her old self. My worry level, which reached its peak in July, has gone down. It is hard to believe that her numbers are so low actually. I have faith that they will come back up. I just hope they do so by next Thursday, because we were planning a trip to see my Mom's parents in Pennsylvania. We really cannot go if they are this low....I would love a few prayers on this.


Here are a few more pictures that I love: