Chemo Week Four Success!

Yesterday was pretty much a repeat of last week. Eliana's bloodwork from Wednesday came back high enough for our trip to Cincy on Thursday. Following our repeat blood work experience last week, we have moved her blood draw at home with home health nurses to Wednesdays. We receive the numbers back the same day and they are sent to Cincinnati so that they can keep Eliana on the Thursday chemo schedule.

Besides waiting to get started again, everything ran smoothly. Eliana and I had a great surprise when our dear friend, Holly, happened to be in the Cincy area and came by the hospital to visit us. She brought an Elmo balloon for my Elmo girl along with some other goodies for both Eliana and Roberto. A couple of things she brought were from Guatemala that she brought back from her recent mission trip. She brought me the most delicious cookie I have ever eaten. Thank you so much Holly for coming and sitting and visiting with us. Your friendship means a lot to me.

Eliana took a two and a half hour nap on my lap. In a bittersweet way, it was a wonderful bonding experience for she and I. She is all about smiling and playing unless she is having to have her port accessed and de-accessed. Unfortunately, there are lots of tears during that time for both of us. But the great part about it is that even when mom is still crying, Eliana gets over the tears quickly.

Something we were not expecting along this adventure was all the wonderful people we would meet along the way. One of them is Eliana's nurse coordinator, Heather. She makes sure that all of her appointments run as smoothly as possible and answers all my questions and makes sure I feel comfortable with what is going on in Eliana's treatment. She genuinely has Eliana's best interests at heart and we are quickly becoming friends.

The most important person in Eliana's health journey is her oncologist, Dr. Trent Hummel. He is one in a million and has no ego at all, he truly is a teddy bear with a doctor's coat. He is a father of three and makes you feel as if he has no other place to be in the world when he is talking to you about your child. He really relates to me personally as a parent and I am grateful that he is our main doctor in charge of Eliana's care. He shared with me pictures of his family from his facebook page which was very endearing.

Renee from our church group brought us a meal on Wednesday night. She brought a pizza casserole, Caesar salad and delicious chocolate chip mint cookies. Thank you, Renee, for the wonderful meal and for visiting with me for a while to talk about our kids.

Sue, the chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, shared a prayer with me. The prayer is a New Year's Eve prayer but even though it is February, Sue and I agreed that it was appropriate since our journey began the first of this year and Eliana's treatment is scheduled to be one year long. Thank you, Sue.


A New Years Eve Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not my shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright,
Even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people
And their causes need you most,
And by making you anxious to be there to help.
God's love, peace, hope and joy
To you for the year ahead.
~Anonymous

Love You Back More,

Mary Beth