SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008 09:39 AM, EDT
Happy Ally's Mommy writes:

Last day of the second round of chemo today! It still looks like we are going home (as of 9:30 this morning), so we are looking forward to that!

Ally has been sleeping well, even with the middle of the night interruptions for bloodpressure checks and meds. We are hoping she will keep that up at home.

She will now take her milk through medicine syringes! Milk 1ml at a time....what a silly little girl. Tomorrow she will hopefully be back to the sippy cup!

Here's all we got today!
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008 12:36 PM, EDT


But it's enough!!!

If I watch the wind in the river

or hear the sound of your voice among the stars

a small ticking sound

water over pebbles

Do a I feel the weight of your hand

there, against my breast come morning

and turn, to find you grinning? Yes. Over

and over I do. Feel your breath against

the back of my neck. Warmth creeping

along my spine.

What can be made of this, this longing?

jjl

12/03/08

FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2008 07:57 PM, EDT
From Ally's Mommy...


3/5 of round two is over! Still not going to talk about the puking for fear of jinxing it!

Ally had another good day today. Grammy, Grampa and Auntie stopped by. We all went on a walk and explored the hospital. When Daddy showed up this evening we got a wagon and explored even more. Ally was a little queen, with all of her subjects looking, smiling and saying how cute she was. She would even wave like a queen to passers by. Oh, we have a diva on our hands.

Her eating was better today. She probably ate twice as much today as yesterday, although it was still not a lot. Any progress is good.

Daddy and I learned how to give her shots today. We are going to have to give her shots everyday when we get home, until her blood counts are good, then we give her twice as much meds (still one shot though) until we go to Boston. The Chemo nurse said it should be about 2 weeks after her first day of chemo, so that looks like the end of the week after next (figure that time table out....)

If she keeps up her eating, doesn't lose any weight, and keeps her food down it looks like we will be headed home on Sunday!

Another one of those "love this, don't know why" ones. . . .

click title for source

Sullivan Speaks. . . .

Clinton’s most surprising asset has been the sense of security she instills. Her husband—and the good feelings that nostalgics retain for his presidency—have buttressed her case. In dangerous times, popular majorities often seek the conservative option, broadly understood.

The paradox is that Hillary makes far more sense if you believe that times are actually pretty good. If you believe that America’s current crisis is not a deep one, if you think that pragmatism alone will be enough to navigate a world on the verge of even more religious warfare, if you believe that today’s ideological polarization is not dangerous, and that what appears dark today is an illusion fostered by the lingering trauma of the Bush presidency, then the argument for Obama is not that strong. Clinton will do. And a Clinton-Giuliani race could be as invigorating as it is utterly predictable.

But if you sense, as I do, that greater danger lies ahead, and that our divisions and recent history have combined to make the American polity and constitutional order increasingly vulnerable, then the calculus of risk changes. Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable.

We may in fact have finally found that bridge to the 21st century that Bill Clinton told us about. Its name is Obama.

The best propaganda is the least noticed propaganda

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam


Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,
To shine for Him each day;
In every way try to please Him,
At home, at school, at play.


A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for Him.


Jesus wants me to be loving,
And kind to all I see;
Showing how pleasant and happy
His little one can be.

A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for Him.


I will ask Jesus to help me,
To keep my heart from sin;
Ever reflecting His goodness,
And always shine for Him.


A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for Him.


I'll be a sunbeam for Jesus;
I can if I but try;
Serving Him moment by moment,
Then live with Him on high.


A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam;
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for Him.

Many living things

Many living things


Spring, green and many living things
begin to wake and stir

Small wingeds first ~~ flies,
the delicate mosquito. . . .
Then their predators
the birds, bats, the spiders

Perfect cadence
planned of the millennia
circles, cycles, spheres
in place, whole and balanced
Excellent and delightful in all aspects
Compleat

Soon peepers, soon



jjl
3/14/08

Elemental

First bee, first fire
river runs from silver to jade
jade to silver, chatting with itself
Crone's fingers flicker among the black
fire talks to itself, too

Lace of small branches
against the sky
grown blurry with bud

Just past sunset, sky whitens
clouds deepen into blue
raptors circle, glide
rising on what makes the spoke spin

In a still bare tree across the river
some spring bird
calls for its mate
is answered

Stone, water, wind, fire
winged things, finned things
barked things, legged things
not one thing wrong in this world




jjl
3/13/2008

Chemo 2, Day Two

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008 06:38 PM, EDT
Ally's Mom relates a GOOD Day!

Well day 2 is down. I am not going to write about her puking, I don't want to jinx anything!

A hospital stay is alot different when you are allowed out of the room. Ally and I played in the playroom, went for a walk around the hospital, bought a treat in the cafe, watched the nurses from the HUGE bean bag chair, and then went for another walk around the hospital when Ally's Daddy got here.

Being able to leave the room makes the day go by much faster.

Tonight is Ally's last night for pain meds (she has been on them from day 1 (Feb. 11)). Wish us luck that she won't need to go back on them.

She is not eating so well, as when we got her home, but the docs and nurses are not surprised with the Chemo, and extra fluids she is getting. We are still plugging away. So far we have found she likes spaghetti O's and chocolate pudding! SOOOOOO good for her!

She has been really good for her doctors and nurses today, very little crying when they examine her.

She did a good job napping too!

Hopefully tomorrow will be as good as today!

superabimus

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
some day


Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome
some day

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2008 05:53 PM, EDT
From Ally's Mom

Hello Friends,

We are back at DHMC. It was quite the process to actually get a room. We almost had to go home tonight and come back tomorrow, which would not have been that bad. But now I don't have to worry about her staying hydrated and medicated.

It has been a long day, but session 1 of round 2 is over. The docs say we SHOULD be home on Sunday...then we wait to go to Boston.

Back to hospital food!

google Acetylcholine . . . .

I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

~GHWB~

-



=

Wee update. . . .

Note from Ally's Mom on Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Hello Friends,

Ally is home with us through March 11. On March 12 we go back to the hospital for her 2nd round of Chemo. This round of treatments goes until March 16. We are not sure how much longer she will have to stay in the hospital past the 16th. I'll do my best to keep you updated.