Daley Ponderings

Grace has had a fun birthday overall, with balloons and presents and blowing out the candles. But tonight, during her line flush, the white side busted a hole through, up above the clamp, near the Y . We did our best with a paper clip clamp, but Jon took Grace to the fire station... (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)

So sorry I left you hanging.  Grace and I went back to Dartmouth the next Friday.  They did her bloodwork and the creatinine was just fine, so they were reassured and sent us home without further testing.  She has been doing well. Faith has had two soccer games now, and is also... (More)

Grace is all set to leave in a few hours - just waiting on paperwork. Her potassium is a little high, but they had taken off her potassium-lowering drug, and she has been eating 4-5 bananas a day, so they expect she will be fine once she goes back on her regular meds and has more choices of... (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 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)

This is the day the doctors consider the transplant to be successful.  This doesn't mean that she's not still at risk for a bunch of things. But it does mean that Faith's cells are firmly established in her system and doing their job! (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)

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 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)

She got her own badge. We got the news that we can leave! Exploring the apartment. Playing with Faith and Joy. Swinging at the park. (More)

We left the hospital at 5pm today and are "home" at our new apartment and working out this phase.  Lots of meds to organize and schedule.  Getting used to a quiet room, so now we can actually hear the feed machine, where I never really heard it before.   Heather will be... (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 has been steadily improving.  She is not throwing up as much, she's had a few messy diapers that look more normal than she's had in months, or even ever. She had an ultrasound which she slept right through.    Her drain has not been putting out much, so... (More)