HERE WE GO

I am happy to say that tonight I AM writing this blog from a hospital room at St. Jude. This is a happy thing because it means Caleb’s counts came up high enough for us to continue Cycle 4! But first, a recap of the last few days…

Even though all of Caleb’s counts weren’t high enough to be admitted last week as expected, his ANC was high enough for him to go out in public. This is the number that indicates how well his body is able to fight off any infections. So with his doctor’s blessing we were able to plan activities outside our apartment. Tyler is off of school for Easter Break, so on Friday we went to the Bass Pro Shop in the Pyramid. They love to bowl in the fish themed bowling alley they have there, and had a blast with Grebbie and Grandpa.

On Saturday we took the kids to play putt putt golf for the first time. I didn’t know if it would hold their interest for a full 18 holes, but to my surprise it did! They loved it and were so excited to figure out how to play each hole. They were pretty good at it too. I know daddy is excited that there might be a future golfer in at least one of them!

The place that we played putt putt also had an arcade. The kids had a blast playing all the different games, and they even had 2 little bowling lanes. The kids definitely bowl every time they get a chance. Mommy even hit the 1000 ticket jackpot on one of the games ha ha! It was a great time and we will definitely go back to that place to play again.

We ended Saturday with a movie and ice cream! We saw the Disney Penguin movie. I guess that movie didn’t interest too many people because we were the only 4 people in the entire theatre. We loved it because we were able to have a discussion about penguins and nature the entire time. It was a cute movie, but the best part to James and I was when they showed behind the scenes footage at the end of the movie. They showed a little about how the film crew got some of the footage both in the air and on the ground in Antarctica! I can’t even imagine shooting in those conditions. That alone made the movie pretty interesting.

Sunday was Easter, and well, since we thought we were going to be inpatient we already celebrated Easter earlier in the week. So, I had to come up with a creative way for them to have an Easter egg hunt to find their baskets from Grandma and Bruce. So instead of filling the eggs with candy and toys (which I had already done earlier in the week), I decided to send them on a treasure hunt. Each egg was filled with a card showing a picture clue to find the next egg containing the next clue. After finding about 7 different clues, the final clue led them to the van where their Easter basket was hiding. They had a blast. It went so well I think I might just do the egg treasure hunt idea every year!

We spent the rest of Easter having a delicious dinner, decorating Easter egg cookies, and playing outside. I am thankful for the beautiful weather and time together as a family.

That brings us to Monday (today). We were really hoping that Caleb’s counts had recovered enough to meet the requirements to go inpatient today. In order to be admitted his Hgb has to be above 8, platelets over 50, and ANC over 500. We got the results and the thumbs up from his doctor that we were good to go. We were once again hit with the mixed feelings of being happy about moving forward, but feeling down about the hospital stay. The inpatient stays and the 7-10 days that follow aren’t easy. But we know in the bigger picture that it is all part of the plan, and all necessary for us to finish treatment and get home. The next couple days won’t be fun, but I smile every time I think about getting to his 5th and final Chemo cycle. It’s coming, and in just a few weeks I will be able to say we are on our last Cycle before we go home. Even though treatment will continue in Florida, at least we will be home and that is what we want so bad right now. After 7 months of being gone we hardly remember what normal life was like, and honestly it doesn’t really matter because it won’t be the same when we move home. It will take some adjusting but we are so ready for that time to be here.

But, I guess I’ll stop dreaming and try not to get ahead of myself. For now we are in a hospital room for the next 4 to 5 days. We will do everything we can to entertain and comfort Caleb along the way. We’ll let everyone know how it’s going over the next few days!