Carolyn received her regular monthly chemo on the Thursday prior to Labor Day. As part of her monthly chemo, Carolyn receives a spinal tap and chemo in her spinal fluid. During Maintenance, she has received this administration two consecutive months and then had a month off. She is now deep enough into Maintenance that the schedule shifts to on one/off two months. This is the same schedule as a Standard-Risk diagnosis. She will continue on this schedule until May 2009. We headed to the lake on Saturday. Carolyn felt relatively well for a steroids weekend and she was able to “play” some on the lake (see new pics, Carolyn’s thumbs-up is a request for “super-duper camper” speed). She did have a little more difficulty sleeping but we have been adjusting some of the meds that assist her with sleeping to balance side effects. She was also fighting a cold and congestion after we returned from the lake and she did not make it back to school until Friday, whereas Wednesday would be normal. She was much improved on Friday and made it through the entire day of kindergarten and “after-care”. She’s in after-care two days a week to match her pick-up time to Will’s dismissal time. Anyway, everything is going well medically and we are just trying not to over-exert her so that she is able to attend school as often as possible. Frankly, Sarah exerts much better judgment in that regard than I do.
I was finally able today to make good on a promise I made to Carolyn some time ago. I had told her that I would take her to a football game when she was five. She was either in the hospital or too immunosuppressed/weak last year to make it to a game (Daddy missed all but two also) so we targeted this week. I was a bit concerned that the trip would not happen because Carolyn has developed a bit of a foul mouth of late. Probably at her mother’s urging, she has been using two very wrong words to respond when I asked her what she would say at the football game. After explaining to her that she is only six and, therefore, has not even been alive when that team prevailed, she straightened up. All kidding aside (o.k., so maybe I am not kidding) we had a great time at the game today and Carolyn had a blast visiting with her friend Isabel. We made it all the way into the 3rd quarter until her more responsible parent reminded me that she is on two medicines this weekend that make her photo-sensitive and that we needed to call it a day. That caused us to miss out on tailgating with some friends but it was the smart move.
Things with Carolyn are really going quite well. Sometimes we need a little reminder of how far she has come in the last 8 – 10 months. We added a picture of Carolyn and Isabel tailgating last season to compare to the photo from today. She is really thriving and we are quite blessed. Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.
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