Daley Ponderings

23 years ago, we started this blog to have a good way to keep everyone informed of how things were going. In some ways, it really does feel like a lifetime ago.  However, Isaac is still close in our hearts.  His life and death are a part of our family and influence our relationships to... (More)

Today is Day +500 and we have much to rejoice over! We are so thankful for Grace's good marrow results, so thankful to reach this milestone. I feel so much lighter now, and the smaller things that bothered me last week don't seem so bad anymore. Here are some recent pictures and quotes... (More)

Jon was reading through Grace's test results and saw that the most recent bone marrow report mentioned the JAK3 mutation. He contacted her doctors because we thought that one was gone following the transplant. Dartmouth doctors can't see her Boston results to compare  so they contacted... (More)

Here's a quick update. Grace has some virus that she's fighting off and she gave it to me, too. In medical news, she had a checkup and echocardiogram on Tuesday and all that looks good. So far we haven't observed anything noticeable, either good or bad. She got fitted for a hearing aid, and... (More)

Our week has been somewhat full, with a few extra church services, including Maundy Thursday with handbells, which I didn't find out until the end of the service that it wasn't recorded, and I meant to record it during rehearsal, but I forgot.  But, it went well, despite Jeremiah being... (More)

We had our appointment with the NF1/oncology doctor yesterday. It turns out the neurofibroma is even bigger than we thought. In addition to what we already knew, which is that it goes from her external ear where we can see into her middle ear, it also extends down under her ear into her parotid... (More)

I get daily emails from GodTube.com, and they are often worth reading.  Today's devotional  was good. While I don't ever feel (well, not since just after the bone marrow transplant) that "life is over", it is sometimes hard to think about what Grace's life will be like, and the... (More)

The appointment with the NF1 doctor went well. One of her oncology doctors was also there, the one who works closely in the NF1 world. Jon didn't remember meeting the NF1 doctor, but it was right at the very beginning, during Grace's first hospital stay, when she was diagnosed. So, much to be... (More)

Grace woke up Friday morning wanting to eat and drink, and she has kept everything down. There is a cold running around our house, which I thought she was getting last night, but she seems ok this morning. However, she did wake up with her nose tube pulled out again. So we are trying out the day... (More)

Next week is Grace's third birthday, for which we are exceptionally grateful. I know that there are a lot of people out there who love Grace and would probably like to do something for her birthday.  She has all the physical things she could need or want, so prayers would be the number... (More)

I had to go calculate the day since we no longer count the days like that any more - it has been great to have less medical stuff going on these days, and we get more comments about her being "so cute" in the grocery stores and the soccer games, etc. Her hair is growing in, and I don't think... (More)

Heather is better at writing the updates than I am, though I've been intending to write a few since we've been back in the hospital. She has been doing quite well the last few days and much more cheery.  Nothing like a colonoscopy to cheer you up I guess.  I hadn't been paying... (More)

When Jon and Grace got back from Dartmouth, Jon asked me to take her temperature.  He could feel that she was hot, but the thermometer they used at Dartmouth did not register a fever (it was the kind that you hold a centimeter away from the forehead.)  My initial armpit reading was... (More)

When Faith signed up for the donation, she was told to expect one or maybe two days of significant pain, and then a week of pain that should be managed with Tylenol and then no running and jumping for six weeks, even if she felt like it. She had 3-4 days of significant pain, and has certainly... (More)

As they say, no news is good news.  Not much exciting has been going on lately.  Grace is eating a fairly regular diet at meals, which has always been pretty small.  Yesterday, she drank a lot, which hasn't been common for her, so we give her 600ml of water via her NG tube, 50ml... (More)