Steroid Challenges

For the past several treatments, Katie has behaved as if she hadn't even gotten any chemotherapy or taken a course of steroids. This time, however, is different. She went to Fletcher Allen last Friday for her standard dose of Vincristine and Pentamadine via her port, and Methotrexate via a lumbar puncture. She then came home and started her 5 day course of Dexamethazone. Saturday she felt pretty good until later that night and then she had a horrible night. She felt sick, her body hurt, and she couldn't sleep. She woke up Sunday feeling remarkably well. Her energy level dropped off quickly and she spent most of her day just feeling a little tired. However, by Monday, she was complaining of various pains and becoming emotionally unpredictable. The littlest thing has been setting her off ever since. A boo boo of any severity is cause for screams and uncontrolled sobbing. Any sort of reprimand, even a slight one, is cause for either inconsolable sobbing because "Daddy scolded me." or a kicking and screaming tantrum.
Today was the last day of Dex, and most of the other drugs effects should be waring off by now. I can't wait for Katie to return to normal again.

Going to the Prom

Normal people might think that Katie is too young to be going to a prom, but when your parents are both high school teachers, there is no such thing as too young.

Katie went to her first prom this year with our high school students. Her date was her mom. Once she found out that the girls got to dress up in very pretty dresses and dance for hours, she just had to go. We captured a few pictures before she left and then a couple more while she was there. She had a great time dancing and reveled in the attention paid to her by "the big kids." A few of the boys very kindly asked her to dance, but she turned them down. She would only slow dance with Amy. At one point she ran into the ladies room ahead of Amy, who was curious about what she would do when left to her own devices. Amy found her lounging on an old-fashioned fainting couch. When asked what she was doing, Katie said, "I'm just chatting with the girls." One of these things is not like the other, but Katie didn't appear to find it odd that she was much smaller (and younger, etc.) than the other girls. Our students were very good to her, and she enjoyed herself tremendously. You should have seen her shaking her booty.

In the event that you are wondering where Josh was, he DID have the opportunity to go along, but the prom didn't appeal to him. :) He continues to thrive. He is currently obsessed with Bakugan, and he is having fun with t-ball. The highlight of his weekend was a visit to a friend's house Sunday. Unfortunately, Katie insisted on tagging along. Fortunately, Josh has gotten used to her social butterfly ways, and he was gracious about her insistence upon joining his play date. She will go to school with all the kids she played with Sunday, so it's good for her to spend time with them. They were all surprisingly good about allowing her to tag along, and she was thrilled.

We are working on our plans for the summer. We're trying to figure out just how much fun we can cram into the time we have without driving ourselves crazy. We're thinking about a few weekend trips. Josh will go to a few different camps. We're getting chickens. We're starting a bigger garden than we have ever had. It all sounds so good that we are having trouble waiting for the school year to end. We are looking forward to some new adventures!