Stair Climbing

The highlight of the day was indeed the climbing of 14 stairs multiple times. You see, Katie's last couple of rounds of chemotherapy have included a drug, Vincristine, that generally causes side-effects such as reduced reflexes, fatigue, numbness and gait imbalance; all of which would make it very difficult to climb stairs.

Until yesterday, Katie had not been climbing stairs for fear of falling down. She would climb the first one or two and then ask to be picked up. She has never tried going down the stairs at all. But something changed yesterday. She climbed three stairs while I was chasing her around the house on my hands and knees. She wanted to get away by climbing the stairs, but she wanted to be picked up at the same time - she had a dilemma. We solved that dilemma by climbing the stairs very slowly, side by side on our hands and knees with the occasional tickle encouragement. At the top of the stairs we continued our game of pursuit.

Today, she willingly shot right up the stairs all by herself, celebrated at the top, and has climbed up the stairs again since then. We are very happy for her and extremely pleased to see her find ways to overcome some of the more debilitating side-effects of her treatments. To express my feelings in some of Katie's own words, "Yea Katie!"