Gearing Up....

We are getting ready to gear up for December - it's gonna be a rough one. Craig and Hannah saw Dr. B today and she decided that Hannah would be admitted on Monday, November 28th instead of the original planned date of Wednesday, November 30th. Here is how it will play out...appointment for blood work at the clinic in the morning, head over to the hospital for bone marrow aspiration and spinal tap, a bite of sack lunch, head to admitting where Hannah will stand in the corner with a mask on (lots of germs in admitting) to sign herself in. Then we start 4 days of intense chemo. Most likely she will start Tuesday morning with 3 days of one drug (I don't know the name) so day 1,2,3 one drug then day 3, and 4 "smurf blue" chemo. There will be an overlap on day 3 with both - ugh. I have to say Hannah is glad that we are just getting after it. A few weeks ago she wondered why we couldn't just start on 11/28 why did she have to go to get her Bone Marrow and Spinal Tap done then go home and go back a day later, it just seemed to prolong the inevitable. Let's just get it done. Dr. B says it will take 30 days to knock her down and bring her back up but if all goes well she will be home for Christmas. Although, Dr. B did say if you have to be in the hospital for Christmas PCH is not a bad place to be.

Leading up to November 28th - especially the week of Thanksgiving we/she will have to be very careful about people contact. So we will be laying low for the most part, no movies or shopping etc... We have been very lucky that she has been pretty healthy during this time, one small cold that was very short lived. 

The other crummy news is that we are not allowed to have a live Christmas tree, I guess there is a lot of bacteria and icky stuff growing in the water - who knew?  We will be decorating for Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend, which, according to Craig is just wrong (he got over that idea real fast). We had a plan to get the biggest tree we could find, think National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation tree. But really for Hannah it isn't about the day it is about the season, the shopping for the special gift, the wrapping, the music (she already has her Christmas playlist), the ugly Christmas Sweater party, the baking, the cards, adopting a family - this year we have a family from PCH. You get the idea, the good news (i guess) is that she will not remember some of it and we will have a celebration when she is home. Some wonderful friends have already put a tree in her bedroom so she can enjoy it now and some more friends have taken on the decorating of her hospital room - we have the most wonderful friends and family. Sometimes I look at the families in the clinic when I go with her and wonder if they are surrounded by the love and caring that we are.

We are so blessed this season that Sarah is home from Seattle and has just landed a fabulous job as the store manager of Splendid in Kierland commons you should check it out, that Jessie is having a great year teaching 3rd grade in the Roosevelt school district, and that while Hannah has had a hiccup in her life she is doing well and is as funny as ever. We are truly blessed. Stay tuned for more updates.