Gratitude - Day 50

Ellie made it through her port insertion surgery and chemotherapy on Tuesday like a super star. While there were a few delays which we have come to expect with LPCH, all in all it was a fairly straight forward day and we all made it home before lunch and nap time. She had a subcutaneous catheter placed in her arm so that we can give her chemo shots for the rest of the week at home. While Jeff has taken over the crushing and dissolving of the 6-MP, I have tackled giving the shots and luckily it has gone far better than expected. The catheter allows us to insert a needle into this tiny tube without poking her, so the only real pain she feels is when the medicine goes in. That being said, she sees me coming with a huge needle and isn’t too happy, but luckily today I was able to hit the “sweet spot” as the training nurse described it fairly quickly and get the medicine administered.

In the next week or so we expect her blood counts to start falling as a result of the chemo she is now getting. This will likely mean blood transfusions, hopefully on an outpatient basis. In the meantime she and Timmy are looking forward to this weekend as we have promised them that by then Ellie’s port insertion will have healed and the catheter will be taken out of her arm so they can play with their water table and the spray bottles that they have been asking about every day since seeing our neighbor boys playing with them. They will also get to play in the bath together again for the first time in almost 2 months which will certainly be a treat for everyone (including Jeff and I who will no longer have to bathe them separately for fear of Ellie’s arm getting wet).

Throughout the last seven weeks, our family has been showered with love and kindness from friends, family and even some people who don’t know us personally. We couldn’t be making it through this without all of the support we have received. We are so appreciative of all of the texts, emails, and phone calls. While I haven’t been able to keep up individually thanking people for all of the dinners and groceries we have received, please know we are so grateful. I think there would have been multiple nights where Jeff and I may have forgotten to eat but for the fact that a delicious home cooked meal was sitting in our fridge. Ellie and Timmy have been showered with toys and art supplies which have been a wonderful distraction at the hospital and at home. From the Serra community’s support, to our dear friends who asked that in lieu of gifts at their own twins 2^nd birthday party a donation be made towards Ellie’s medical bills, to the photographer Aika Cardin who so graciously gifted us all of the photographs we had taken immediately before Ellie’s diagnosis, to our friends at The Sitting Tree organizing the “Ellie Get Well-ie” event we are forever grateful. But mostly we thank you for your continued prayers for Ellie to be healed. We have faith that there are great things in store for her ahead.

As our friends Natalie and Lily say, keep praying for miracles…they do happen.