Hurry Up and Wait…..

Well, yesterday was an interesting and busy day, and it could be considered another good day.

First thing in the morning, we got news that Geli would be moving from the 3 Floor Oncology Ward down to the 2nd Floor Oncology Ward. We were told that we’d probably be moving around noon. Then someone came down and said that they’d be back in 10-15 minutes to come and move us. So we rushed around and packed up everything and waited….and waited…..and waited…..and waited………and then finally…..just before noon, someone showed up to transport Geli down a floor. This is what we consider “hospital time” you get to “hurry up…………and wait!” Fun Times!

We did get moved down stairs and are all set up in her new room. It’s nice and big and although not really big enough to fit Geli’s hospital bed and 2 cots comfortably….even with the 3 beds and various other pieces of furniture and medical equipment….it’s WAY bigger than her previous room, AND….we are all together. That is very nice…..except for when one of us can’t sleep and someone else just happens to be snoring……Oh the life of roommates, eh?

Geli’s Doctor and the Nurse Coordinator in charge of her case stopped by yesterday and talked about how well Geli is responding to the treatment. They even mentioned the possibility of Geli going home earlier than originally anticipated but after we all talked about co-ordinating the birth of the baby and collecting the cord blood and when Geli needed to be around for her treatments….they decided to stick with the original plan and have her outta here on the Friday or Saturday.

We are going to be having a meeting with Geli’s Dr. and the Nurse Coordinator and Xandra and Jeremy today at 1pm. Xani and Jeremy are finding all of this difficult and I think the biggest problem is that they don’t know enough information. Xandra is having a hard time sleeping and eating and Jeremy had a melt down last night on the way home. I’m hoping that after this meeting today that they will both feel a bit more comfortable. I think that Jon is going to take the two kids out for a few hours and do something special with them after our meeting and I hope that helps both of them to calm down a bit. We just all need to hold it together for a few more days and then we’ll all be re-united back home and working on a “new normal”.

We did end up having a few visitors yesterday which was so nice….it helps to break up the day a bit. One thing that we’d like to mention and also ask for prayer about……some of Angelica’s counts are very low and have/can compromise her immune system. If you are feeling sick or have been around people who are sick or are sick, we are asking that you wait to visit until you are feeling better. It’s important that Geli not get sick as she doesn’t currently have the fighting power to combat illness. But, this is something that we’d love prayer for that she’d remain healthy and that her counts would come up and that her body would do what it’s supposed to to be able to fight off infection and sickness. Thanks so much!

Chris and Xani Giggling

And then Nana and Papa came and brought dinner and Xani, Jeremy and Siah. We ate dinner out on the patio. Thanks Suseh and Catherine……the Spaghetti Sauce was delicious.

Dinner on the Patio

Angelica was quite tired yesterday and was really looking forward to getting to bed early, but it didn’t work out quite like we had hoped. Sometimes you just have to work around the hospital schedules and staff and finally we were all tucked in bed, with the lights out and all the evening vitals taken by 10pm. We had a good night, even if it was interrupted a bit, and woke up this morning after 8am.

Geli’s platelets were low and because of the Intra-muscular injections that she’s receiving today they wanted to bring her platelets up a bit so she got a bag of platelets given to her…..

She is a little nervous to get two shots (one in each thigh, but at the same time) and so if you could be praying for her. I think that not knowing if it’s going to hurt or what exactly to expect is actually WAY WORSE than what will happen when she gets the actual shots, but sometimes the unknown sucks! So that is another thing to be praying about.

I feel like a broken record saying that we appreciate you all and your support, care, love and prayers but I don’t know how else to say it and it’s so true…..Geli has mentioned it more than once….I think it all the time….and others have mentioned it too. Knowing that we’re not alone, that we have this huge group surrounding us makes all of this a bit easier. Thanks! It seems so inadequate, but we mean it from the bottom of our hearts.

Gelica’s “10 Lists”

I talked to Angelica this morning about this whole situation and we decided to pick 10 things that Sucked about this and then to find 10 things that were Positives. Life is all about good and bad……Positives and Negatives….you can’t really choose to only have the good things in life (although wouldn’t that be nice) but you do get to choose how you are going to respond in your situation. And, it’s okay to be upset and also you don’t need to feel guilty if you’re feeling happy or okay about things….just take it all one day, one moment at a time.

So, here are Gelica’s 2 “10 Lists”………..

10 Cruddy Things

1. VAD hurts at first
2. Sleeping is uncomfortable because of pain from the VAD
3. Have to get up a million times in the night to go pee
4. Feeling so super sick and tired before I found out about the Leukemia
5. The selection of Hospital food is limited and not always delicious
6. Not looking forward to the Chemotherapy injection into both of my thigh muscles today
7. Have to drag my IV pole everywhere
8. Having to wear a hospital gown for the first 2 days sucked.
9. Don’t get to go too far away during the summer cause I have to be close to the hospital for treatments
10. She couldn’t come up with a sufficiently crappy 10th thing….we’ll think about it and get back to you all……..

10 Positive Things

1. Feeling better now that I’ve started Chemo
2. Get to wear my pyjamas all day
3. People come to visit me (people I wouldn’t normally get to see)
4. The Dr.’s and Nurses are really nice here at Children’s Hospital
5. Getting to watch a ton of new movies
6. Should be able to go home at the end of this week
7. Get to have both Mommy and Daddy with me
8. Having the VAD so I don’t have to get poked a million times
9. Finished school for the year a bit early
10. Knowing just how many people around the world are caring for and praying for me