Therapy, Clinic, and Angel McKensie

Wednesday was one of those non stop days. I did manage to get my flu shot in though. We started at therapy in the morning and we got some super news there ... her OT thinks we can move to monthly therapy, meaning she's doing very well and doesn't need much intervention at this point. I'm happy to keep her visiting monthly though so she won't be off of the radar and we definitely won't let her fall far behind. She thinks it's fair to say Chelsea is functioning (fine motor wise) around a 2 1/2 year old level, and ... she's 2 1/2, so I'll take it! So as far as her therapy goes, she's only seeing her speech therapist weekly, which is one area I'm afraid she'll always need intense therapy. On a good speech note though, she said 'book' plain as day yesterday! She even got the "ck" sound at the end! We were super impressed. I also could swear that I heard her say 'eat' in the car yesterday and she was signing it at the same time, so I know that's what she was telling me. Maybe we'll have a speech explosion soon!

After therapy we booked it to the big city (even ate our lunch in the car) and arrived only 15 minutes late to her clinic appointment. It didn't much matter b/c EVERY SINGLE SEAT in the waiting room was full. Fortunately I don't mind sitting at the kiddy table, and Chelsea doesn't much hold still long enough to sit down. We got called back an hour later and her physical check up was fantastic. Once again the doctors were thrilled at how well she was doing, very active and happy. Ryan and I were determined not to leave without something for her persistent diaper rash, so we left with a script for fluconozole, an oral anti-fungal. She thought it looked like yeast, and since it's so bad she's guessing the topical we got from the ped a while back just wasn't enough to get rid of it. We'll definitely be pursuing this if it's not gone with this medication. Poor baby needs some relief on her bum!

After clinic we stopped to eat dinner at a little restaurant where the waitress just doted over Chelsea. I believe she said, and I quote, "she's the cutest little thing I've ever seen!" Yeah, we think so too. While eating we were patiently waiting for the call on her counts and finally I decided to call our nurse just to make sure she didn't forget before she went home for the night. As parents, we await those phone calls and waiting over night would just drive us crazy. So here's what we got ...

WBC - 3.37 (down from 4.4 last month)
ANC - 1200 (down from 2400 last month)
HGB - 14.4 (on the high side, but no surprise as she's never low on energy!)
Platelets - 279 (about the same, they were 305 last month)

So ... while everything looks good, nothing scary, it might seem a little concerning that things were down. Don't worry, I panicked when I heard it and grilled our poor nurse, "Why is everything down, her white count is supposed to be going up!" She assured me everything was fine, there were no blasts (cancer cells) and it's likely her counts were down a bit b/c of her virus from last weekend. Whew. But still, I was hoping to have everything go up so I could breathe yet a little bit easier. I guess I'll have to wait for next month for that. She's not neutropenic by any means, but we'll continue our germaphobic habits as we don't need her catching any new bugs.

Lastly, I have to share about the service we attended for McKensie last night. It was extremely touching, the room was full of friends, family and hospital staff. It was obvious McKensie touched a lot of lives and the support in the room just brought me to tears. Her mom and dad spoke so eloquently last night. I'm not sure if I would have even had the strength to say more than a few words. They not only said a few words, they expressed their faith, and passed their strength and love on to the people in attendance. It was amazing. Her grandmother even said a few words about precious McKensie, and shared some touching stories passed on from friends and family.

We also were able to see some of the staff that took care of Chelsea during her treatment. It was great to see you all (in case you're reading). AND, it was nice to see them in their 'regular' clothes! I'm sure they were equally impressed to see me in something other than my sweats or pajamas!