Pacific Northwest Gardening: MY Charlize and her opportunity to live a wonderful life!, 1 by Soferdig

Soferdig wrote:
The news is getting better after a long time with me being angry with the male must fix or fight. LOL

Posted Apr 26, 2011 11:58am
We had a great weekend and are off to a good start this week! On Saturday Charlize’s counts were still very low, but she wanted so badly to get out, so she got all dressed up in her Easter dress and went to church for a special family event we had before our 3pm service. Leia brought the kids down late, so they were able to go in and sit down after everyone had already done so. Charlize had a great time watching Mark Thompson, a ventriloquist and comedian. She was engaged through the entire time and did not want to leave, but they had to leave out the side door ahead of everyone else to avoid the crowds. She wanted to say hi to everyone and see her friends, but she was not well enough to be around the crowds. Before they headed home, she did get to go out back and play in the field with some of her friends, which made the departure a bit easier.

On Sunday she had not vomited at all and was feeling good, so we went to have Easter dinner with our family. Everyone was healthy and did plenty of hand washing and sanitizing, and Charlize and Caedmon had a great time seeing all their family. It was nice to have a normal evening with our family and celebrate a holiday with them outside of the hospital. After spending every holiday thus far in the hospital or all day in the clinic, we were very happy to “normal” uninhibited celebration with everyone. We were able to bring all of her meds and TPN and Lipids with us, so we administered all of them and hooked her up away from home, to extend our night out as much as possible. As we were driving away, we said to Charlize, “That was pretty special, you got to see all of your favorite people tonight all in one place.” She responded “Yeah! I got to see my Family!” It brought tears to our eyes to hear the joy in her voice and to acknowledge her family as her favorite people; such a blessing for all of us.

Yesterday we woke up and de-accessed her at home again. That went very well, not even a single tear produced. We then made another trip to the community center for a swim. She had a great time and is getting quite brave in the water. She walks in on her own and does not want any help until she cannot touch anymore. She will push it until she is on her tippy toes and leaning out for me to catch her. She also plugged her nose and put her head under the water all on her own for the first time, without prompting.

Charlize also had her visit to the oncology clinic yesterday, but was not scheduled for chemo or any transfusions, so she made it a quick visit of only 2 hours. She got her routine checkup, re-accessed had labs drawn, turned in her stool sample and was out and on with the afternoon. Her counts all looked good and her ANC came back at 23,000. That number got her a week of freedom, and we are getting her back and healthy in time for chemo beginning this coming Saturday for our 5 day stay. We are looking forward to a good week with her feeling good and are hopeful that the vomiting and diarrhea will begin to clear up as well. Thank you for your love and prayers.

I have also uploaded some new photos from the past week – Enjoy!






This message was edited Apr 28, 2011 8:31 PM

This message was edited Apr 29, 2011 5:28 PM