Monday, May 19, 2008

An Amazing Day

Rick suggested that I post an entry to the blog before the grin left my face, so I am trying to channel the glow here. Katie and I had a wonderful day.

Our trip to Burlington was uneventful. Katie snacked and slept. As I scooped her out of her car seat, she shouted, "Let's go see Shannon!" She was happy--no kidding--to reach the clinic, where she had time to play before our appointment and greeted Dr. Homans with a big smile. She was good for Jess, the nurse who does her vitals, and she enjoyed her time with Shannon. We met with Beth, showed off Katie's walk, played with a surfer toy from the prize box and honestly had a good time at the clinic. Shannon pushed two drugs through Katie's port, instead of letting them drip, and we were out of there. We have never had such a quick trip through the clinic, and the success of our visit carried over into the rest of the day. For the record, Katie can pronounce vincristine very clearly, but her efforts to pronounce methotrexate are hilarious--a crowd pleasing activity.

We have been out on the town a lot lately, and I was afraid that Katie's counts would be dropping, but they continue to be good. She has an ANC of 1210! (It was 10 three weeks ago!) I took this to mean that our social butterfly had permission to go play, and that is what we did. We took Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Heart to lunch with us, and Katie pigged out. She doted on me, and she cozied right up to my parents. She had smiles to spare, and she mingled up a storm. She was the center of attention, and she enjoyed the spotlight. Our trip to Talbots should have been a disaster, but she continued to soak up the love and attention of an ever increasing fan base--people flock to Katie--and played happily with toys. Then we went to the mall, where she filled her face and watched people before helping me choose a treat for Josh. She smiled all day long.

My dad commented on Katie's spirits. He thinks this is the happiest she has been in a long time. I think he's right. Her fuzzy little head, the peculiar gait and the weight loss are the only indications that this is a child with a serious illness. Katie knows something that most of us don't know about how to get the most out of the good days. Suffice it to say, she slept all the way home, stirred just very briefly and is sound asleep in her own room. She is exhausted, but she is tired because she has had a good and busy day that she thorouhly enjoyed. Oddly enough, we had fun today--FUN!

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