Staying Home & Getting Out

We had such a nice Thanksgiving week. It was great to be home and just play & relax & hang out with my cousin. We even got our Christmas tree and got our decorations up which was way ahead of our normal schedule! It was a fun vacation and hard to get up and back into the routine on Monday morning. This week was a bit of a "hibernation" week in our house. Monday we took Braden to a doctor's appointment for a checkup and then went straight over to the oncologist for Brooklyn's follow up appointment after getting released from the hospital last week. They said she was looking good, her lungs sounded clear, her breathing is good and she isn't coughing anymore. We went to the infusion room to do her blood tests and then went to lunch together. I ran another errand and then picked up Braden from school, dropped Brooklyn and Braden off at home with my mom and picked up Kayla to go to gymnastics. It was fun to be able to take her because she hasn't been in class since last spring & she has always been kind of a natural gymnast (maybe because she is always bouncing off the walls at home!) She picked it up right where she left off and it was great to get to watch her doing something she enjoys so much. The nurse called while I was at the gym with Brookie's blood results. Her ANC level was at about 750 which was much lower than it had been in recent weeks. She had been right around 1400-1600 until she went into the hospital with pneumonia and it shot up to 13,000 because her body was fighting the virus. So, for it to drop from 13,000 to 750 in just a week was a big drop. When she is at 500, that is when we are on "house arrest" and can't be around anyone else or leave the house. So, since it was close to that 500 number on Monday, we decided she shouldn't go to school and should just stay home all week. The doctor wasn't worried about her numbers so we started her chemo back up on Monday night. We were nervous because if she would get a fever, we most likely would have to check into the hospital again since her counts are low. The thing that made us most nervous about that is that Mike and I were going to Phoenix this weekend for his work's Christmas party. I was nervous to leave her and be so far away, especially if she would get sick & need to go in to the ER. My parents and aunt and uncle all helped watch the kids and I knew they would have a blast, I was just praying she didn't need to go in to the hospital for anything. For Mike and me to go away for the weekend was amazing. Mike kept saying that a night in a hotel is like a week in Hawaii for us! So for us to be gone for two nights was like 2 weeks! We had such a wonderful time in Arizona. We got to see some of our best friends and had a really fun night out with them and then just enjoyed hanging out together all day Saturday. It was great to just be able to relax and not have a schedule and get to talk without being interrupted all the time. It was also really nice for me since I had been on "lock down" in the house all week. :)  I like to get out more than we got to this week, but I know that it is not about me, that Brooklyn's health is much more important than getting out and running errands or visiting with friends. There will always be time for that, we need to be sure that she stays healthy and strong to be able to fight this disease and be healthy again. The Christmas party was really fun and we were so happy that Brooklyn stayed fever free all weekend so we were able to enjoy our time and not try to catch a flight home and rush to the hospital. Our timing for our flight home today was perfect because the kids went to have breakfast with Santa at my parent's golf course and we landed in time to get to the course before the kids got their presents from Santa. It was so good to see everyone and have the rest of the afternoon to hang out together. When I was hanging out with Brooklyn earlier tonight she said, "Mom, it's been long days since I saw you." I said, "I know Brookie, I missed you & I'm so happy to see you again." She gave me a big hug and said, "Me too Mom." It was really great to get away, but it is always so good to be back home.