Home again

Sorry - for a bit of a delayed post, but we actually got sprung free on Friday Night. We were very pleasantly surprised on Friday when Hans came back with an ANC of 380 (up from 60) and they said he could go! All we had to do was get platelets and red blood cells (5 hours of transfusions) thank you to the donors out there who make these life-saving transfusions possible! So, our week in the hospital, dubbed "art camp" by Dr. Russell, finally ended! The kids were doing as many at projects as we provided them. Hans was actually doing pretty well but just had that cough and had to be on isolation for the RSV. Kevin was again able to stay at the hospital every other night and go into work from there. That just meant that Elle and I would have to be back down at the hospital by about 7 - to give him time to get to his meetings, we felt like the nurses - leaving at 7, back by 7, we really appreciated just how rough that shift is - esp. if you have a commute!

Hans has been doing great since he has been home. He has been a hungry little lion cub. We are once again going to great lengths to keep him satisfied. Yesterday he had it in mind that he was going to have a steak. He started bugging Kevin to take him to HEB and get him a steak by 6:45 am- they actually went up and Kevin had one on the grill by 9 am!?! After that he was pretty much a carnivore, with a kids meal/chicken nuggets from both Jack in the Box and 'Hot Donalds' and then for dinner a full grilled chicken breast. I tried to add in some carbs, and fruits, but I think he was more or less on the Atkins diet yesterday.

It was sweet to me that Elle stuck with us through our week inpatient. Since she didn't have school or camp to get to, she could just stay with me. It was nice - I taught her to play Speed and Solitaire between art projects. She's going to be going on a big adventure - she's heading up to Washington State to get out of Chemo duty for rounds 4 and 5. She'll be gone a full month, staying with Grandma Kathy/Grandpa Dale first, then taking a a golf camp with Grandpa Dean/Grandma Diana, then she's heading over to Seattle b/w the 27th- thru Aug 15th! We're gonna miss her, but typically, Elle and Hans and I would travel back home for a few weeks in late July/early August. We were going to try to actually join her up there for about a week b/w rounds 4 and 5, but now - after this surprise week inpatient - we're not sure if we should get the tickets or not!!! we'll keep you posted.

Yesterday Elle and I attended Ryan Williams service. It was both painful and beautiful. After the service, his casket was loaded onto a Dayton Fire Truck and then taken to the gravesite.

I'll update more in a couple of days - thanks, again, for checking up on us. We go into the clinic on Monday for counts.
Lara
PS - thanks to the girls for helping out with Honey and to Therese and Ginger for tasty meals that we were able to bring back up to the 9th floor.