Interim Maintenance II is OVER!

We dropped Kelsi and Carson off to sleep at Grandma's so we could get up early and leave for our Salt Lake trip.  When we got home at 10:00 p.m., I had to take advantage of only one child and try to get things done. Avery had fallen asleep earlier in the night so she wasn't tired. After her dad fell asleep in her room she sneeked out and stayed up with me way to late. After only 3 1/2 hours of sleep it was time to wake up and get ready to go to Salt Lake.  Her counts were ANC 600, Platletts were 111 so she got Methadraxate, but because our ANC wasn't over 750, they didn't excelate. Instead they went down 20% of our last dose which was December 1st. I really was dreading this trip where it's only three days before Christmas and I want Avery to feel good.

It was snowing and the roads were bad until Scipio. The clinic was super busy. At the hospital we were trying to bribe Avery to drink and eat popsicles while getting Chemo. They say this can help with mouth sores. We brought are own drinks/popsicles, but it still didn't work well. Dr. Wright isn't there on Thursdays and when another Doctor came in and she heard us talking about medicines and such. She started throwing up again. More anxiety and stress on this little one.  We were there over 3 hours. After our Methadraxate and Vincristine were over, we were ready to go home. Then the nurse came in to ask if it was okay if some of the players from the Utah Jazz came to visit. Of course! Hello! I immendiately thought of my twin Kelly and how much he has always loved the Jazz. He would know everything about these players and could chat it up. Johnny and I not so much. I even like sports, but haven't watch one of their games since the good ole boys played like Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornaceck. I had to quickly explain to Avery how cool this was. She had just finished up Chemo and wasn't feeling too great so didn't have a lot of smiles. We were glad they were willing to take time to come visit these sick kids at the hospital at Christmas. Kids shouldn't have to be there ever, but especially this close to Christmas!

We didn't get the opportunity to meet the boy who we took some presents and money too, but did see a little Christmas tree in his room, which made we feel happy. His mom wasn't there and of course with all the privacy laws we couldn't hand it to him. We left it with one of the nurses. I walked back down during Avery's Chemo treatments and the mom had came, but was talking to the doctors. I just hope it brought some joy to him today! It was fun to do something for someone else! The countdown to Christmas is on! I'm getting more excited. Glad today is over with and pray that Avery can feel so good on Christmas!!