Saturday evening Two

Brian and I went to see Mom and Dad tonight. Our good friends John and Nichole Gruber (and blog administrator extraordinaire) kept the kids overnight for us. THANK YOU!
Mom was getting her hair cut short tonight to help her transition into her chemotherapy treatment. ( Thank you Aunt Sherry for doing it for her ) It was the fastest haircut in the history of haircuts as she was trying to do it before the nurse came in.
Mom has been dreading the side effects that will most definitely come from the chemo, and was hoping the transition might help her and the grandkids adjust as well.
She looks absolutely lovely with short hair and was in good spirits. She was supposed to be home this weekend and Sherry had told her they would cut it before treatment, but then we found out Mom wasn’t coming home. It was a huge relief when she said she could run up and take care of it for her this weekend.
She is still very sore, and the needle to the port is still not in place. I believe they will wait until they need to access it on Monday and fix it then. She is sore and tender in that area and she can’t put her arms around Daddy’s neck when he helps her stand. It is tender under her arm as well, so they did a little experimenting to get it to not hurt when he helps her stand up. He is so gentle with her and so worried about hurting her. Mom’s leg looked less infected, red and swollen to me tonight. The redness had decreased and they are still giving her iv antibiotics.
Carmen drove home tonight and left when we did just after 10:00PM. It’s a long drive for her and Troy and Maria when they come up. If you think of it and have a little extra room in your prayers, please pray for their safety as they commute.
One of Mom’s biggest disappointments about not coming home was that we had a family birthday party scheduled for Paris tomorrow. Mom was very concerned that she wouldn’t get to celebrate with our family, so we are taking the party to her tomorrow.
We spoke with the nurses and have found a clinic waiting room that we can use to have the shrimp pasta that Paris has requested. Don’t all 10 year olds ask for that on their birthday?
We are hoping that tomorrow will help in keeping her happy and distracted. It gets pretty boring for her in there day after day.
One thing I want to mention is that we still have not met with the Oncologist that will be administering the chemo. We don’t have the pathology report back so we don’t know what kind of chemo Mom will be getting. Once we know what kind she will receive, we can ask some more intelligent questions. For now, we just don’t know what to expect or ask. Some chemotherapy is administered once a day for 5 days and drips into the port in about 2 hours each day. Another kind of chemotherapy runs 24 hours a day for 5 days.
At this point we just don’t know what the situation will be like after she comes home. We have been told that the immune system really takes a hit 4-5 days after she starts to receive the treatment and her white blood cell count will decrease. It will be imperative that she not be exposed to anyone who is sick, sniffling, coughing etc. I am hoping we can get educated on the whole matter Monday and have more information to share with you then.
Thank you for your continued love, support, calls, emails, blog messages, offers for housing and childcare, meals, prayer and so much more that I know I am forgetting.
Mom and Dad feel very loved through this ordeal and we kids, and kids – in-law, thank you.
Will post something later Sunday night after we get home.

With gratitude and thanksgiving,
Kimberly and family