Can you believe the snow this morning? A nice white sheet to wake up to.. I wasn't expecting that! It's been a tad warmer the past couple of days, and I really don't watch the weather.. or the news.. I'm selfish that way, I guess- my life seems to be a lot less stressful and more calm without hearing about the horrible things on the news every day. I've got my own things to worry about, and at this point, I don't really know if I could handle anyone else's! It really makes you respect what God has done for us, all the burdens he bears.. and He still remains with you every step of the way.
Proof of that can definitely be seen in our family, even with the whole 'when it rains, it pours' feeling. Jake had his surgery on Tuesday, it was an outpatient thing, so he was home that evening. He was under some pretty strict restrictions, so we ended up canceling our Thanksgiving plans of traveling. With some decent rest, he should be up and back to his old self in no time, but for now, he sure is feeling the pain.. but he's well taken care of. :)
Tuesday night we had Jentai's cousin Ali over for a sleepover. This was so much fun! Ali is 5, so is at that perfect age where she is really playful with Jentai, yet can 'mother' her and could help me out with both of the kids. We had her over because on Wednesday, we had picture day for Kyan! So for something fun, we had a few cousin poses as well. When I dropped her off Wednesday evening, we were able to have a fun 'not-so-Thanksgiving-meal' with my family and were able to catch up a lot.
Although Jake couldn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving, the temptation of turkey and stuffing was just too strong! So he sent me to the nearest family get together to bring home some left overs. :) Jentai and Kyan and I were able to visit with relatives while Jake got his rest, and we all were able to enjoy the fabulous food!
Friday gave us our first physical therapy appointment we've had in a while. Jentai worked a lot on going up and down stairs, alternating which foot she puts her weight on. She tends to go up on the right leg first on each step and down with her left leg first, which will only continue her 'right side' strength and never get her left side going! She also got to put a puzzle together, which she loves doing, while sitting on an exercise ball. This will give her something to strengthen her core/trunk muscles while having her lean her weight one way or the other to build her left side up, too.
After PT we had her labs scheduled in the clinic. They had asked for her to come after 2 weeks on maintenance to look at her numbers. They didnt want her ANC to crash right away and not stay on top of it with cold season and preschool underway! And, from her history in the Interim Maintenance, (which I called practice maintenance) after 2 weeks on the pills, she had to stop them and wait for her numbers to rise up again. Well, when her numbers came back from the labs, everyone was a little shocked. When she started the meds a few weeks ago, her ANC was around 1000, and it had to stay above 750 to continue. Her ANC on Friday was over 4000!! :D -Her nurse said noted that once it hit 3000 we could increase the meds.
They will play with the doses all throughout maintenance. If her ANC gets too low, they'll stop it, and slowly bring it back to her original 100% dose once her numbers start regaining. But when they go high, they can potentially give her more. Hey, if your body is going to take the meds well, why not load it up with as much cancer blockers as possible?!
But, since it has only been 2 weeks, we are going to leave the dose where it is. We don't feel the need to jump the gun right now when the meds may just not have totally kicked in yet.. And again, we don't want her to numbers to crash during cold season, when she's in preschool and more susceptible to contact!
She's doing really well. Her hair is growing back faster than I think it did the first time- and it looks to be really dark! She's just as active as ever and is so excited about the snow!
As for this weekend, we're still laying low, hoping Jake will get his rest in and recuperate fast. The snow will help, keeping us grounded as far as traveling, but we may just need to bundle up and play a bit after putting up the Christmas tree!
Hope you all had a safe and happy thanksgiving!
Oh, P.S.
We've had a lot of requests for our new address, especially with Christmas on it's way, so I thought I'd post it here.
Jo, Jake, Jentai & Kyan Otremba
471 Park Ln
Hudson, WI
54016
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