Feb. 16th Happy 7 months Evalyn..... Hello BMT!

On her new puzzle mat!

"Yea guys, we hope none of our players get arrested this year...."

        

         Evalyn is 7 months old today! She has been so happy this week and has starting doing something super cute. She will say "ahhh" and then lean into your chest, arm, leg, whatever is close, and hug while she is shaking her head and getting drool all over you. It's nice out today and we went to the park to try the swing for the first time. I thought that she would laugh with joy, but she didn't really seem that interested. Daddy and Evalyn slide down the slides and then we went to see the dogs at the dog park. She thought that was more fun but said they didn't hold a paw to our Chloe and Wallace. I guess she is still to young for the park... but she loves to eat, that is for sure. At the farm's Valentine's Party she had a blast in Mr. Franks arms eating potatoes and carrots, I'm pretty sure that he gave her something with cheese in it too.

So sweet!

MEDICAL MJ: I received a call from Dr. Khoury himself, talk about a lump in my throat, and he informed me that we were not doing to do this next round of chemo that was schedule to start Friday. Instead, we are going to go ahead and move toward the bone marrow transplant. Holy Cow! He also said that he wanted to talk to me about a clinical trail, not sure what that means yet. The next day, I got a call from my transplant coordinator, Rachael, who said that they are looking at me being admitted on March 16th and the transplant being on the 22nd. This is tentative, of course,because they have to schedule the harvesting with the donor, which she told me was a young person that lives in another country... crazy. I hope one of us has some money in a year to be able to pay to meet up. In the meantime, I have to do a slew of tests and meetings with different parts of the hospital. I'm going the 24th and 25th of this month and will have tests done all day both days. These include a CAT, Echo, EKG, bone marrow biopsy (ouch), LP, lung tests, and many more. Before, the transplant, I also have to get my double lume picc line changed to a triple. I have to meet with social workers, the radiation team, and I forget who else.
             Scheduling a month of sitters, knowing that I will not hardly see Evalyn is killer. Not that I have to have complete control but that is a long time! Jonathan and I have worked really hard for her to go to sleep on her own, entertain herself for a while, teaching her signs and stuff like keeping her hand down while eating. You all might think I'm crazy but with 6 plus people taking care of her, I literally have directions written out to keep everyone on the same page. So far, it seems to have helped. Children under six are not allowed on the floors I stay on so we have to meet down in the lobby or outside. I don't like her to come there very much because hospitals are germy and sometimes it is harder to see her and go back to my room than not see her. Sad, but true.
            The scariest part of all of this is how it is going to work once I get out of the hospital. I don't know how I will feel or how much energy I will have. My mom is going to take a few weeks off of work but won't be able to stay past that. I will then I many follow up appointments where I will need rides and sitters, which this is not new, it will just be more intense. Jonathan will be in the mist of studying for finals and will graduate in May. If all goes well, he will start a job soon after and I will need even more help. I'm just hoping and praying that I recover very quickly, that my sitters continue to be able to provide consistent care, and I continue to have support that is willing to go the long haul, cause it's going to be long.

boring.....

On a ride this week around the lake.