Sunday Evening

Only my husband would talk about our daughter's toilet habits online. What is the world coming to? For what it is worth, we are learning to disguise some fairly disgusting medications in some creative ways. What did parents ever do before popsicles? I am learning to hate popsicles...

Katie had another good day today. She has less energy now. As Grandma Jean said, "She looks like a regular kid now." In other words, she isn't running circles anymore. She is, however, catching up on years of television she has missed. Dora and the Wiggles have a certain kind of power; it eludes me entirely, but Katie is enthralled. As the medications begin to affect her more, she turns to these her new best friends for solace and some "veggie time." Once Katie is awake and moving, she is fairly animated and relatively cooperative. She is far more kind to her nurses now. She showers Rick and I with love and affection. Quality bonding time with Katie is one of the unanticipated benefits of her hospitalization. We would much rather be home, but it is nice to have quiet time together.

Once she is awake and moving, Katie is very happy to see her family and friends, and she has had lots of company this weekend. Cousins Kyler and Eric brought her nice new crayons, cool new markers and lots of love. Nana brought Josh up for the weekend, and Katie had time to simply relax with her brother, who is responding to this crisis with a kind of grace I had not expected. Rick and Jean came to visit two days in a row, as did Grandma Kathy and Grampa Heart. Uncle Mike and Uncle Brendo turned the day around for Princess Cranky today.They can always get her to smile.

We should warn you that one of the drugs she takes may have an adverse affect on Katie's behavior. Take a minute to imagine it: Take one redhead, make her two years old, give her Katie's backbone and then add steroids. Yikes. We are working hard to reinforce some limits, but you've been warned. It may not always be pretty. She was pretty feisty to begin with. We may be looking at sassy...

There is a lot about Katie that will begin to change soon. We keep an eye on her blood counts, for instance, and they indicate that the chemotherapy is doing its job. This is good news. The medications need to eradicate damaged white cells before Katie's body can begin to manufacture healthy new cells. This is also the bad news. Once Katie's cell counts really get low, we will have to be extremely careful about her exposure to germs. She won't be fully quarantined, but the effect will be the same. Please bear this in mind: We would like to see all of you--Katie would like to see all of you--but we will not be able to receive many visitors once the medications she is taking have done their work. She will not be strong enough to fight off infection, and we won't be able to take any risks. At this point, oddly enough, loving Katie may mean leaving her be. Isn't that a sad reality? Especially for a social butterfly like out Kate. On the other hand, if the steroids she is taking really do mess with her 'tude, it may be safest to stay away from demon baby!

One challenging aspect of this process for me is that my little family is rarely united in one place. I worry that Katie will receive much more attention and that our relationships with Joshua will suffer as a result of the ongoing separation. I am really looking forward to pulling us all together again in our little house in the Kingdom. I am recuperating at my parents' house as I write, and Joshua is sleeping happily. I am excited about spending some time with him tomorrow morning. He may have a chance to play with his best buddy, and we will make time to buy some more Magic Tree House books. Sometimes it is just thrilling to spend time doing some very normal everyday things.

On a happy note, Rick will return to Barton with Joshua on Monday.We both miss our students and our school community. We should publicly recognize, again, the wonderful people--adults and teenagers alike--who are working with us to come up with a plan that meets all our needs. The odd but true story is that I miss teaching. Grading papers never looked so good.Many thanks to the students who have sent us cards and letters. They mean a lot to us.

It will be so nice to go home, but we should also mention the incredibly kind and generous people at Fletcher Allen who have done so much to make us comfortable during our stay--competent nurses who are also friendly and forgiving and capable doctors who know how to smile. Katie loves her doctor, who gave her a LiveStrong bracelet today. She took a nap with it in her hand today.

That's a good place to end this post, I think--with a sense of optimism and gratitude. Many thanks for the well wishes. We'll keep you posted.