Daley Ponderings

Grace has been on a clear liquid diet until today where she is getting nothing into her stomach until anesthesia at 5:30.  She will be getting a complete GI scope and a bone marrow biopsy.  Please pray for the anesthesiologist and the surgeons as well as for Grace. Jon called this... (More)

Today, Boston called to say they'd like to observe Grace over the weekend and to prepare for admission on Friday. They will likely do a colonoscopy and maybe even an endoscopy. (And Dartmouth suggested they get some bone marrow while she's sedated.) She threw up her NG tube this morning and so... (More)

We are headed home on Monday!   Grace will still have at least one clinic visit a week and depending on the labs that week, might have a second appointment, but we decided that for the sake of our entire family, we need to be home and it is worth driving back and forth as needed.... (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)

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)

The doctors started talking about discharge last Friday and that continued on Monday.  They decided to turn off the continuous morphine and moving more of her medicines to her NG tube. I was pretty skeptical that she was going to tolerate only on occasional morphine and I expected her to... (More)

Based on the number of supportive messages we got yesterday, I know you are all eagerly awaiting an update. We arrived at the Dana Farber Jimmy Fund Clinic for lab draws and "here's what's happening" meetings. We sucessfully ordered Grace some food, and then we had to pop across the street... (More)

Please pray for Grace's appointments today. Extensive dental work at 11AM under sedation (fillings and crowns), and sedation means fasting from now until after she wakes up; and then CT scan in the afternoon. We are scheduled to be there all day, so coming home to pizza and hymn singing will be... (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)

For the most part, these last two days went pretty well.  Grace was a trooper as we navigated the multiple confusing buildings and talked with many providers and was poked and prodded by various specialists. Her audiology appointment went pretty well.  The doctor was impressed with... (More)

Had sushi after a day of appointments at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.    We're staying overnight tonight. Had a lot of blood tests today and then a bunch of meetings with various providers to discuss next steps.   Audiology, dentist evaluations and an... (More)

We are heading to Boston tomorrow and Thursday for a myriad of appointments. Faith will also have her donor preparation appointments. I also discovered yesterday that a segment of our friends still had old dates. Because of our Christmas COVID, everything got postponed. So if all goes as... (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)

The pathology report indicated no parasites, and no bacterial infection, but confirmed the swollen lymph nodes. The doctor said, “I do not like the look of her paleness, and that spleen is really big. We need to see inside; go downstairs and get to imaging right away.” Grace had an... (More)