Daley Ponderings

Day +4 Grace has not thrown up at all today! She even had an episode where she ate too much macaroni at once, and was able to spit it out without actually throwing up. She does have evidence of the mucositis in her intestines, and a little bit in her mouth, but that part is doing pretty... (More)

My place beside you, My blood for yours, Till the Green Ember rises, Or the end of the world! One of our favorite series is The Green Ember, by S. D. Smith . Rabbits with swords, new stories with old soul, heroes and villains, joy and grief, hope and longing, with love and... (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 last post left you with Jon and Grace down in ultrasound. That procedure took two hours. They took hundreds of pictures - exploring all her internal organs. She does have vessel constriction in her liver, wgich is not unexpected with JMML. So since then, she has gotten another prophylactic... (More)

T-minus seven days and counting. Transplant Day is Day 0 and they count all other days from that. Yesterday, I left off while Grace was still sleeping. She woke up slightly grumpy, but soon was fully awake and her normal self. Chemo every six hours, blood draws every half hour (!) plus... (More)

Today is our last day all together as a family for a while. God blessed it by sending a beautiful six inches of snow that cancelled our outside activities for the day. We plan on spending it cuddling and playing games (and packing for Boston.) Prayers for this week: Praises: We got a... (More)

Jon and I both went with Grace up to Dartmouth today.  The dentist met with us pre-op and said after looking at the x-rays, she thought her front teeth looked really bad and she expected to have to take out the four upper front teeth.  This just seemed horrible to us, but I signed 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)

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)

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse. 1/4 - The whole family plays Cousin Memory. Nathaniel repeats incessantly, "I turn! I turn!" January - Nathaniel knows where all the dishes go. He loves helping to unload the dishwasher and he is good at sorting... (More)

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse. 11/10 - Nathaniel was a messenger to me from Joy: "mum" [come], held my hand to bring me to her. 11/22 - Jeremiah singing while playing, "I love you God, 'cause you make me happy..." 12/4 - Joy pinworms ~12/10 -... (More)

Or: How This Mom Started Playing Minecraft They say that a good way to show love is to take an interset in what the other person is interested in, even if you wouldn't care about it on your own. I'm a busy mom and wife of an entrepreneur, right?  I don't have time for video games.... (More)

Highlights from my Mother's Day, in addition to playing handbells: Nathaniel went in to the bid kids' room to give Jeremiah a morning hug and "hewwo!" Nathaniel belly laughs. Jonathan sang all the verses of Fairest Lord Jesus while washing dishes. (More)

6/1 - Nathaniel was playing with the nebulizer, dripped some of the leftover liquid, said, "Uh, oh."  Then he walked to the bathroom, opened the cabinet, got out a hand towel, came back into the bedroom and wiped up his spill. 6/2 - I asked Nathaniel to put the toy cars away and he did... (More)