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)

Short version of the post - all good results!  You can read the longer version below. We are very happy and it has been a weight off of us.  Until a couple days ago, it was seeming like it was quite likely going to be a bad answer, as we've been praying and thinking over... (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)

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)

We are settling into our second week of being full-time in the apartment. Our schedule consists of: Adminstering meds 3 times a day and then washing all of the syringes and straws and flushes Keeping her central line clean twice a day ( Boston Children's says cleaning twice a day is... (More)

Grace did well her first night. I had a harder time because it was like having a young baby - changing diapers in the night; she did go on the potty. Jon and the older girls dropped Grace and me off at the clinic on their way home. Grace was not happy to be stuck in a clinic room. First... (More)

We've probably said it before, and anyone who has been in a hospital for any length of time knows that any time someone says "soon" that means 2-10 hours, and "tomorrow" means 1-3 days, etc.  So, even though I posted here that it could be Friday, I've been telling myself Monday, though as... (More)

Grace had a great day today, despite staying up until after midnight (I went to sleep, but I asked the nurse in the morning, and she stayed up reading her new book and trying to not let the nurses check her oxygen levels since that would involve taking away her light...) She came to rounds in... (More)

We have lots of good news to report. Grace has been improving the last couple of days.  Her abdomen measured 53.5 cm, the smallest it has been in weeks.  They have changed her cyclosporin from IV to NG (nasogastric) which is a step towards getting ready to be discharged.  The... (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)

I walked home late Monday night, because there was supposed to be this big snowstorm. Jeremiah was already asleep, sprawled all over the bed. In the morning, it was only raining Jeremiah and I had leftover pizza for breakfast, and we walked to the hospital in the rain. The nurses and child... (More)

I woke up at 6AM because it turns out that is when the hospital does weekly generator checks which involves the power going out, which shuts off the ventilation fan briefly and triggers these color changing lights (that we didn't know about previously, see below), and so the nurses run around to... (More)

The last long update ended February 3 in the evening. In the wee hours of February 4 (Sunday) she got a blood transfusion for her hemoglobin level, which was expected. (They’re killing off her bone marrow, so her own body is not making as much blood.) Sunday morning, she got a dressing... (More)

The only known curative therapy for JMML is a bone marrow transplant, so we will be going down to the Boston Children's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute . Their team is one of the leading cancer centers for treating JMML. We had our first visit on December 12, and are still processing... (More)