A week in the life of the Mischnicks

Forgive me if it's been a few days.  This would have been a busy week under normal circumstances, but having Anna home with us made it an extremely busy week.  My feet (and just about all of my other muscles) are tired and sore at the end of the every day.  It is all we can do to finish up the daily tasks (even with outside help every single day), prepare for the next day, and make it into bed to get a bit of sleep before the next day begins.  I was toying with the idea of reserving a sleep room at the hospital while Anna was in her MRI on Thursday so I could take a nap; in hindsight, I probably should have done that.  Needless to say, unless anything big happens, assume that no news is good news from our home right now.

So here's an update.

Anna's news ... She lost three teeth this week!  This six year old lost her first tooth back in December and she had a few pretty wiggly ones during her hospital stay, but none of them fell out until she got home.  We hope that they all came out at once because she's six going on seven, and not because she just had six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, combined with three months of hit-and-miss oral hygiene.  Oh, well.  For now has a big gap smack dab in the middle of her mouth.

Thursday's MRI news was good, as was to be expected given Anna's improving clinical status.  The scans looked much, much better from her scans at the end of February, when the cancer was at its worst, but of course they should since she just had some pretty wicked treatments.  However, Anna's primary oncologist was probably the most positive that I have ever seen her, so that's a good sign :)  There are still several "spots", but at this point it is hard to say if the spots are scar tissue, "dead"cancer cells, "living" cancer cells, or something else.

Unfortunately for me, the good MRI news was tempered by the fact that I was reminded that this location is where we will come with Anna in future months and years for follow-up scans, and that there is the "family consult" room, complete with a kleenex box right next to the waiting room.  Sigh.  Anna's doctor commented with a big smile on her face that she hasn't often been able to give our family good news, and Thursday's scan offered good news.  But that reminded me that sometimes these scans offer bad news :(

This next week holds a hospital admission on Tuesday morning for Anna's next round of chemotherapy.  She will stay until either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, depending on how she is doing.  This particular kind of chemo is really harsh on the kidneys so the doctors are very conscious of pumping a patient's body full of fluids both before and after the actual chemo drugs go into their system to make sure it is dilute enough for the kidneys.  And since Anna hasn't had this drug yet, no one knows quite how she will react to it or how her body will tolerate it.  We all want to make sure she is in the safest place possible for the first few treatments.  Plus, her former therapists will have a chance to check-in with Miss Anna during this admission.

Kate's news ... This was her last full week of preschool, complete with a field trip to the zoo on Tuesday.  Kate and her buddy were partnered up with his Grandma for the field trip; they had a wonderful time and were full of smiles.  Kate has been very blessed this year to have had such a caring and supportive preschool experience to help her through these rough months.  This next week holds her preK recognition night, the final full day of preschool, and the family picnic.  Then it's on to kindergarten!

Kate also is at the end of her first year of dance lessons.  Last night was her rehearsal for Sunday's recital.  Matt and I (and her dance teacher, to be honest), were a bit nervous about how she would do dancing on stage considering all of the separation anxiety Kate has experienced this year.  But we needn't have worried.  Kate was all smiles last night and just lit up the stage for the rehearsal; hopefully she does just as well on Sunday.

 

Yesterday was also the big birthday for Miss Kate.  Thanks to all of you who sent along cards and Bill Peet books.  Usually we are pretty good about having our kids send out thank you cards, but this year is different.  So please consider this your official thank you.  The books will be well loved for many, many years; I guarantee it!

Ethan's news ... He's a goof.  He loves having momma and dadda around.  He's been pretty nervous when someone new shows up at the house (which is happening several times a day almost every day), but he warms up to them pretty quickly.  His language skills are budding.  We love the fact that his first words are almost all words related to food.  Such as ... wah-oh (waffle), pee-ah (pizza), muh-meen (muffin), nana (banana), peas (peas!), ah-bow (apple), and potpie (anything in the oven).  He also has a few sounds that he makes that are just silly.  If he doesn't know how to say a word he just says "ad-hn" ... hard to spell that one.  Then he'll say "gub-dee-gub-dee-gub-dee" randomly.  Silly boy.

Today and tomorrow Matt and I are hoping to catch up from some of the craziness of this past week (interpret this as laundry, dishes, picking up the house/yard/etc.), plan a bit for the coming week (interpret this as figure out childcare for everyone, plan food for the different days, arrange any necessary help), and maybe we will find some extra time to just hang out a bit or even go outside to play.  Don't get me wrong, we are still very happy to all be home together.  This is much better than having Anna at the hospital.  However, it is still really hard.  Just a different kind of hard.


Please continue to pray for strength, peace, patience, wisdom, healing, and rest for all of us, including Anna's care givers through the hospital and beyond.