This Is My River. . . .
JJL
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
An Ally Twofer. . .
Friday, May 22, 2009 5:52 PM, EDT
Yeah for 3 day weekends!
Ally has had a good week. Her counts were awesome today, so she will begin Chemo on Tuesday (with the holiday as a bonus day off).
Ally is enjoying the warm weather, she went for ice cream today and to the park, where the slides and swings were hot.
We have a nice weekend set up. Tomorrow we are going to visit friends, on Sunday we have lots of family coming to visit, and on Monday we have NO PLANS! A rare day to ourselves!
Have a great holiday weekend. We are hoping our camera shows up in the mail tomorrow!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:34 PM, EDT
Ally had a great day at DHMC today. Things ran smoothly and there were no issues with the pharmacy this time! She is normally there on Mondays and that is only an adult clinic day (they make an exception for her). Today, being Tuesday, the normal pediatric staff was there. Ally got lots of visitors! She is normally very shy with lots of people, but today she was quite chatty. Everyone was very excited to see her.
Originally she was supposed to get scans after this 2 week round of chemo, but the word today was they may push it off until late June or early July. They think she is doing so well she doesn't need the scans until then. Yippee!
Today Ally weighed in at over 21 pounds! This is the most she has ever weighed!
This past weekend was super awesome. We spent some time at the park, and Ally was licked (much to her dismay) by a super cute little doggie. She spent a lot of time on the swing and even went down the slide a couple of times. She also enjoyed Mommy and Daddy's ice cream.
Ally will get chemo at home for the rest of this week and all of next week.
Our camera is scheduled to arrive on the 28th. As soon as we figure it out and take some pics I will post some more.
Have a great week!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
jjl
At the End
It all comes back to home
to what we first knew
of home, the sense of it.
I smelled spring tonight
after a hard winter
a bitter time of cold
and isolation, unrelieved
darkness, arguments
alcohol as solace.
But, it began with
the light in the morning
the moisture from thawing
the wind soft
over the lake
the ringlets of leaves
a freshness that
could only come
from the snowy north
and we awaken to it
a promise, an invitation
I wanted to run outside
bare feet on the wet
silk grass, leaves
everywhere, sweet air.
~~ Pat Maslowski
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:30 PM, EDT
Here are a bunch of random thoughts:
Just is case you were not aware: Ally is cute.
She is coming up with new words everyday. Today was hellooooooooo in a funny little voice.
She gets popsicles (usually only 2 mini ones a day...hey, it gets liquid into her...don't judge!) and lately she will give them a lick and say, "sour", more like: "saaaaaaaaaawa!"
Ally is doing well this week. She is getting her GCSF injections each morning. We are not noticing any side effects (it is supposed to cause bone and joint pain).
As an added note to the nap story from the weekend: Around 11:15 Sunday morning, as we were driving home from some errands I had to yell, "ALLY WAKE UP!" because she had fallen asleep in the back seat, in yet another 4 minute ride home. We sang the ABC song really loudly for the rest of the ride home. (She did take a nap for me around 12:30.)
Sailing to Byzantium
THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
-- Those dying generations -- at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
~~William Butler Yeats
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009 5:10 PM, EDT
What a fun day!
Ally had lots of fun with Daddy at home today.
She did very well with her chemo.
And she came to visit Mommy at work!
All of my students were VERY excited to see her, and a little sad I had the "you are a yucky germ factory and you will not touch Ally" rule. All of the teachers were excited to see Ally as well. We got many comments that she is cuter in person than in her pictures.
She was very quiet, and prefered to whisper her words. She had LOTS of fun with the play kitchen in the Kindergarten room. The K teacher was even nice enough to let Ally bring a couple of kitchen toys home (so as to avoid a melt down).
Giant (the superintendent) even showed up and Ally gave him a great High 5 and a good-bye wave. We even managed to convince her to blow him a kiss. She knows who to suck up to!
She had a super fun time in the car on the way home (and I hear on the way to school as well). We are looking forward to another fun week with nothing too exciting happening. Daddy has Friday off, he has to work this weekend as well.
Have a great week!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Friday, May 08, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009 4:17 PM, EDT
mmmmmmmm FRIDAY! There are only 28 days left of school....but who's counting?
Ally had another fantastic week. It is such a struggle in my head to see her doing so well, knowing that at pretty much any moment someone is going to tell us the chemo is no longer working and we have to move to the next step. It's hard to put my head around that fact. Anyway...
Ally has been working on telling stories. She is getting better at putting 2 words together, using lots of movement and getting us to understand. Sometimes we don't, and she gets frustrated. Some of her words sound funny when she says them. She still drinks a lot of pediasure ($10 a six pack...if any of you find coupons, send them our way) and pronounces it: Pee-Ya-da with sort of an italian accent. We make her say it, just so we can hear it.
Have a super weekend and Mother's Day!
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
A fistful of forgetmenots
in the rain. A year gone,
and still
The heart as true
Early elder, late lilacs
a day with no sun
A hard winter and late spring
The phlox still hiding, abiding,
waiting their proper step in the succession
As measured as a minuet,
the great wheel of the year turns
and sweeps us along
with all our desires and longing
no hurrying
just peace
Soon. . . .
Please. . . .
jjl
6 May 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009 3:10 PM, EDT
Happy May Day!
It has been a great week. On Wednesday we went shopping with Auntie and bought tons and tons of new clothes! Ally is looking stylish! Yesterday we got to visit another "Baby" friend. Ally enjoyed bonking him on his nose and meticulously cleaning the already clean floor. She honestly doesn't mean anything by it, she just enjoys cleaning! I have my theories as to why.....
Today we made cookies and had blood drawn, not at the same time. We just got the call, her counts are great. She will begin chemo Monday morning at DHMC. She well get the rest of the chemo at home. Just as a reference to how this chemo is different to her chemo she got in Boston: Today Ally's ANC = 9,423. That is with 7 days of GCSF injections. When we were in Boston it took Ally 20+ days of GCSF to get her ANC to 500. This low dose of chemo is a lot milder. Ally has very little side effects and she still has all her hair! I haven't said anything, although you could probably tell from the pictures that she continues to have hair. We were certain she was going to loose it again. Yippie for small victories! Speaking of small victories Ally has been napping in her crib the past 4 days. This is the first time, in her whole life, she has been willing to do this. It seems strange to have an hour to myself in the middle of the day. The only way she would nap for Mommy and Daddy before was, in our bed, cuddled up with us. It was wonderfully sweet, but free time is nice as well.
Okay, this was a train of thought post, and the whole time Ally was calling for me to sit with her at the window and spy on our neighbor doing yard work....I am sorry if it doesn't make sense!
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an unlikely gathering place
all gone before, all yet to be
the essence of what we were -- a hyphen
between dates
the two names one stone
the tiny box
the love in sharing roses
on graduation day
with ancestors
as an image on a tile
distills courage
to a roosters crow of dawn
By Phil Specht on May 20, 2009 6:57 AM EDT