Tuesday, February 1, 2011 6:18 PM, EST

Today was much smoother for Ally and Daddy.

Ally woke up a little after 7:00, which is late for her. She woke up perky and ready for they day. The 2 of them headed down the street for some breakfast, and then settled into the room to play with all of her new toys! They also made a trip to the playroom at the Ronald.

Around 12:30 the hospital called and they headed down the 5 blocks there. As soon as they got to the hospital they were shown to the room and Ally was hooked right up. She got her premeds, and by the time I called (around 2:00) the 3f8 was in, and she was feeling the pain. So far her pain has been much less than in past rounds (not sure what to make of that, but they did tell us every round would be different). This is good, for obvious reasons, but also because she only needed 1 rescue. The rescue meds help ease the pain, but they also relax her body so much that her breathing slows and then she needs oxygen, which she hates. With less pain meds her oxygen stayed level, as did her heart rate today, so they were out of there around 5:00 tonight! Daddy said he actually preferred this afternoon schedule (today, not yesterday), and if it ran like this for the rest of the week, would recommend doing it each time, as things move quickly. (When we go in the morning, there is about 1-2 hours of "down time" in the morning.) They are all set to head to the family dinner at the Ronald tonight and Auntie Kelly should be arriving in the Big Apple this evening as well! Yeah for an extra set of hands!!!

Ice Cream Cake: On top of the awesome...whoops, radical, banner and toys they wanted to give Ally an ice cream cake. She is a very picky eater and was getting cranky from being at the hospital for so long, so Daddy said they were all set. The Child Life Specialist came back a couple of minutes later and said the nurses would really like for Ally to have the ice cream cake (and for them to share it with her). This story was much funnier/more interesting in my head last night, and now I feel lame writing about it, but I promised, so I did.

Dental Surgery: Daddy mentioned Ally had this done and the nurse practitioner he was talking to relayed that several of their patients needed this done as well. It made us both feel really good that it WAS because of her chemo and not us giving her pediasure, juice and other things whenever she wanted them, and thus ruining her teeth....we always knew it wasn't our fault (no matter what that stupid dentist said), but it was nice to hear that it is common with kids in Ally's situation.

Okay, so things went well today. Auntie Kelly will be there to help out the rest of the week, and Daddy said they only got rain there today and it looks like rain there for tomorrow....that just leaves me to shovel up the 23 inches we are supposed to get!!! (By the way, have I mentioned how AWESOME (I can use that word, because I am not talking about Ally) our next-door and across-the-street neighbors are? They help us out a ton by using their snow-blowers in our driveway! Yeah to Ed and Frank!!!)