MCKINLEY'S CORNER
November has been a mess of emotions. Casey and I had our first vacation alone planned in well over 2.5 years as we couldn't be away from the kids while she was in treatment. We were both so excited. Not only to go to San Francisco and Napa Valley (our old stomping grounds) but to be able to see and visit with old friends there as well and a bonus is that this was a FREE trip I earned through work. Well remember when I said a while back that everything "should" be normal at our monthly blood checks? This month was QUITE the opposite. It caught me 100% off guard. As a matter of fact...I was chatting all Love McKinley, Inc happenings and future plans with a couple child life staff that were in our room and the resident. I didn't expect this. Our Dr walked in the room and asked a funny question and I remember at that moment my entire body tightened by her simple ask "is she feeling ok? No colds or anything?" I knew she had her labs back and I knew why she was asking. Something was wrong. I of course answered but knew where she was going with this. She asked me to step outside the room & brought me into a room across the hall. At this point I'm already a mess. She hugged me, suggested I call Casey to come to the appointment, made me promise I wasn't going to pass out and she pulled up a trash can cause she knew what was coming next (I did make it to the bathroom). I LOST IT. I just kept saying to her "We can't do this again. I can't do this again. SHE can't do this again." But as always, there is little time to absorb and we are talking about what's next. We redrew labs (twice actually) and they were consistent with the first draw. One of our (mine and McKinley's) favorite Dr's happened to walk down the hall and poor guy saw me from behind and said "hey! Hows it going?" Well...I turned around and I think I freaked him out with my blood shot golf ball size eyes. I handed him her labs. At that moment she coughed. She hadn't even been a little sick but something as simple as a cough had him say "maybe this is a virus. She's coughed 3 times since I've been standing here." As the appointment progressed she sneezed a few times too and per McKinley's oncologist "this is WONDERFUL! Music to my ears!" I asked to have her swabbed. ParaInfluenza (same damn virus from last October). Its in the croup "family". But this was all actually good news. Now we just wait. Were these crashing counts on her labs because of the virus? Or did her counts crash prior too and make her more susceptible to getting this virus? All we could do was wait.
McKinley is doing really great. She's loving school, LOVING dance & enjoying being off chemo meds. It really is amazing how much she's grown, how much she's developed & how much more personality she has since she's stopped chemo. All things are looking great which is wonderful news. We've been very busy with advocating & promoting childhood cancer awareness month & attending a lot of events. We did have one scare at this months appointment but all was confirmed negative with an ultrasound. Myself, a few other "cancer moms" & McKinleys oncologist were all concerned about a vein by where her port was placed especially since she had a clot in the past. But all was confirmed ok with a quick ultrasound (Thank God). I'm not sure I'll ever be able to take a deep breath but I do try too. We are praying for a Halloween at home this year (last year we spent 8 days in the hospital fighting a nasty virus over Halloween). And although the nurses & staff came by her hospital room to trick or treat, I'm actually looking forward to sweating & fighting bugs on Halloween night this year. It's the little things 😉 Thank You as always for keeping McKinley in your thoughts & prayers.
xoxox,
Karen