4 days to go

Well, 4 more treatments anyway. We won't be done until the day after Easter which is the same day we start our next chemo cycle. Boy are we looking forward to radiation being over!!! We are enjoying another lazy day at home. Radiation was a blast this morning! Right. Actually, Summer decided that today she did not want to take a "nap" at the hospital. Well, of course, she did not really have a say so in this matter, but that did not stop her from voicing her complaints. :) She didn't want to lay down on the table either, which she hasn't on any of our other visits anyways. I always carry her back to the room and sit on the table holding her until she loses consciousness. Today she got to help knock herself out. She pushed the medicine into her line until it started working (a matter of seconds) and then the Dr. finished putting her under. Then they took her limp body from my arm and laid her down on the table to get her positioned for the treatment. She gets a gas mask while the actual prep and treatment are going on. She wears it all the way back to recovery where she wakes up. Sometimes she starts to regain consciousness a little early and tries to sit up on the stretcher. But, the past few times they have given her enough medicine to keep her under until we are in our recovery room. Then we transition her to my lap where she snuggles me for 15-30 minutes. She always seems to recover better in the clinic than in the pediatric surgery recovery room. Lucky for us, we are out-patient this week so we get to recover in the clinic.

This morning she wanted to eat before we left home. Today is actually the first time she has WANTED to eat before radiation. Usually I just wake her up and take her straight there, but she has been sleeping on the couch the past two nights so she woke up when I was getting ready. (another reason I love her sleeping in the back part of our room in her bed) She asked for grapes and tomatoes. LOL Yep, she is back to her old self, for the most part anyway. She ended up eating a pop-tart after her treatment. We are out of grapes and she never mentioned the tomato again. She also just had some chicken noodle soup which seems to be her favorite thing now. We work on a can all day long!

She is still complaining of belly pain, but she still will not take the pain medicine. Today she did stick her finger in a drop to taste it, but she said she didn't like it. Maybe one day she will change her mind, but for now I am not going to force it on her. That wouldn't work anyway and would probably only end up with us both in tears.

We may go see the Easter bunny sometime this week. I showed her the picture from last year which she wanted to keep. Of course she bent it a little so now it is not good enough for her. She is a little OCD when it comes to things being broken or bent. The funny thing is, in the picture last year which was taken in mid-March, she was wearing a tank top and shorts. Today she has on warm pants, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. Oh, and a toboggan because it is so cold outside! Wouldn't it be neat to have those pics side by side? Well, the day isn't over yet....

She had an awesome day again yesterday. Lots and lots of smiles and laughter. It does a body good, ya know! I am so thankful for days like that. If it weren't for the good days, I don't know how I would cope. I am trying to lean on God to get me through this. He has been there every step of the way. I can see Him in so many things in life, speaking to me it seems. I have never really seen so much irony in life as I do now. I guess it takes something big to make you notice little things in life. There have been so many coincidences in the past few weeks, I can't count them on my hands. I ran across this blog post today. Seems like He is always there, right around the corner waiting to give me a new lesson in life. The key is to LISTEN. That is something I probably need to work on. Did I really say probably? :)