Daley Ponderings

Some pretty good appointments yesterday, and the snow (9 inches?!) wasn't too bad at all driving up to Dartmouth (one car sped by our line of traffic and a couple minutes later was spun off the road in the median, but she was already out of the car and on the phone, so presumably was fine, but... (More)

Today is the day, one year ago, that Grace was allowed to exit the hallway doors of 6 West and live in a place other than a hospital room! They played Raining Tacos for her exit parade, so my thought is to celebrate each year with tacos for dinner. (And maybe a shamrock shake thrown in.)... (More)

Last weekend, Heather took all of the girls on a retreat and had a lot of fun together.  Those of us at home had a work day at Grammy's and another friend's house and then had a really great day at home with a friend from church.  Elbereth, Jonathan's snake, was out and various people... (More)

Screenshot of a video call on Thursday:  Friday's procedures went well. They got plenty of marrow for their tests. The endoscopy showed the esophagus healthy. The sigmoidoscopy showed her colon quite inflamed. The surgeon could not tell the cause, but was confident that the... (More)

We went back to the clinic in the late morning after Grace threw up her NG tube.  She did manage to take her meds by mouth that morning, but she doesn't really like it.  They had tested her stool when she had so much diarrhea at her appointment the day before and it did come back... (More)

The last couple of days have been tough, but today is looking up. At 2:00 this morning, Jon called me to say that her breathing was worse and they were considering bringing her up to the ICU. I called my sister, she prayed for us. 45 minutes later, Jon texted to say that they had increased her... (More)

The last several days have been back and forth. I’ve started several posts in my head, and then they end up changing. The weekend doctors cancelled the stool studies, then the attending on Monday re-ordered them. Jon had some very frustrating conversations with the doctor, but an... (More)

Grace had a great day today. She went out for a walk, wasn't even too upset when Heather left for Hillsboro, waved at everyone as we walked down the hallway.  (She was especially adorable today because she brought a toy vacuum cleaner instead of her normal shopping cart, which is useful for... (More)

Warning: I'm feeling better now, but the following post pretty accurately how I felt for most of today. After a good appointment in Hillsboro, they still wanted us to go to a pediatric dentist who was familiar with chemo/transplant issues, so Heather headed up to Dartmouth this morning in the... (More)

(this was written January 2024, referring to Grace's first two years of life) When Grace was about six weeks old, right at the beginning of December 2021 , I noticed that she had “ café au lait spots .” I looked it up on the internet, and discovered that these... (More)

4/3 - I said to Jeremiah, "Your shoes are on the wrong feet, sweetie."  He replied, "I not 'sweetie'.  Joy is 'sweetie'." 4/10 - Joy and I spent a grueling but satisfactory three hours earning our yellow and orange belts, respectively. 4/14 - Jeremiah, "It will be so so so fun if... (More)

11/2 - Jeremiah, "Aunt Prudence gave us this one."  perfect grammar 11/3 - Jonathan, "Mom, did you know that if you take the 'c' out of 'record' and add 'er' at the end, it becomes 'reorder'?" 11/3 - Jeremiah, walking backwards with finger in front of his face, "Me try to pick [scab],... (More)

Once again, we were blessed to have Grandma and Dad-o with us for a birth. Jeremiah was still too clingy on Mommy for us to be comfortable having him at the birth.  He did well completely away from me, but had trouble when nearby and I was unavailable.  That is exactly the situation a... (More)

2/15 - JPD walked up to me and hugged my knees.  He now does this often. 2/19 - JDD quotes from The Incredibles, with an Indian flair: "This is your automated captain speaking. Would you like more samosas?" 2/24 - JDD "What's the difference between lo mein and chow mein, and why isn't... (More)

I think I have found a key to living selflessly.  When there's an emergency, it's easy to serve.  I see the great need, and I know it's temporary.  It's hard to keep serving in the ordinary, mundane, because it feels like it will never end and the needs don't always seem so great.... (More)