Sept 9th Time at Home and Starting Round 6

Well our time at home went way too fast. I spent most of the time unpacking, and by the time everything was finally unpacked it was time to start packing to head back up to Calgary. All those 12 Rubbermaid tubs that we hurriedly packed up got stuffed into the laundry room so it was out of sight. That left a very cramped spot to try and sort things out. It was going ok until I went to do some laundry and found the dryer was broken. Then we had to unload all the tubs into the bathroom to get out the dryer to take it to see about a repair. Alas a 15-20 year old dryer is not worth fixing up... so we went on the hunt for a new dryer. Just what we wanted to do on our visit home! Oh well we found a deal on a second hand set that was only a year old so hopefully there will be no problems with them anytime soon! Then I had to rip my laundry room right apart to get the new unit in. Sigh, next time we are home though the laundry is going to almost wash itself!

The weather was not particularly nice so that made it a bit easier on us since Charlotte could not be in sunlight. We took her and Yolanda out to see Great Grandma Slee. We all enjoyed lunch and a “tea party” as Yolanda calls it, at my Aunt and Uncles, in honour of Grandmas 91st birthday. I was disappointed that I had forgotten to take my camera along.

We were back up to Calgary on the 9th. Charlotte had an audiology test in the morning, which showed slightly more loss in the high range hearing. We are still in a good range we were told and she is still a ways off from needing a hearing aid. Things are looking hopeful that she might win that battle. After that we had blood counts taken in Clinic. Her counts were just borderline ready to start the next round of chemo, so she was admitted to get things started. A night of prehydration... to get her little system flowing so that the drugs are flushed out as fast as possible. As if that makes any sense.
Two days of drugs... and the 6 hour baths started again too. The drugs went in fairly uneventfully so that was good.

August 27th Clinic... and Sent Home!

This was a very busy day! We had a clinic check up in the morning, we were expecting that Charlotte would need blood. What we were not expecting was that once her transfusion was done we would be sent home (like home, home!) That’s what we say because RMcD is where we go when “they” send us “home.” But when they said home with a pause we said “like home home!?” Blink blink blink. Yes like home home. Yahooeee.... oh wait that had some major implications. This would be the longest stay at home that we have had in the last 6 months, we would have to (for the first time) pack up and clean out our RMcD house room. Ugh. Plus Yolanda is staying with us here, so we have her “helping” pack. Charlotte ended up needing blood and platelets so that tied Rob up at the hospital until 3 or so.

Rather than organizing that night and clearing out the next morning; my husband, the patient fellow that he is wanted us packed up, cleaned out and on the road by that evening. So Yolanda and I ran out to pick up some Rubbermaid tubs to put our stuff in... We have definitely accumulated a lot of stuff here! We packed and packed and packed... once Rob and Charlotte were out of the hospital we sent them out to pick up another couple of tubs so we could pack some more. We cleaned our room and were on the road by 6:30... no longer talking to each other. Our truck was loaded, 12 tubs and 2 suitcases in the back plus the cab was stuffed so much that I held a pile of stuff on my lap all the way home. A quick stop at the drive thru for supper helped boost everyone’s spirits- probably mostly mine as I had not eaten since breakfast. The ride home was good once the girls fell asleep and we were home around 10:30. Rob has since promised that we will not have to do that again. But all in all we got to be home for almost two weeks!

August 19th Build a Bear

We were discharged just in time to join everyone at RMcD house for a trip to Build a Bear. What a fun morning out that was. The Kinsmen hosted a fun trip out for all the kids (and their parents.) Build a Bear opened their doors early before the mall opened so the store could be clean and free of germs for our immunosuppressed kids. That meant an early start! RMcD arranged for two limos to come and pick us up, Tim Horton’s doughnuts were waiting inside for the kids... and plenty of coffee for the parents. Yolanda was so excited that there were no car seats and seatbelts, plus there was a purple doughnut in the box! Oh La la!

Once we got there both girls were a little overwhelmed at first but quickly got the idea with the help of some friends from RMcD. Yolanda picked a frog and Charlotte picked out a pink bear to stuff with fluff. Then they got to pick out clothes to dress their dolls all up.

 

After that it was back to the limo with our new firends and out for an early lunch to Joeys Only for fish and chips. Thank you to the Kinsmen and RMcD House for the fun day!