5/2/06
10:25 PM Once again, apologies for being away. Actually, we haven't been away, just away from the computer. I'll try to cover everything that has happened.
Sophie's counts from her blood draw were great. She was bumped up to 75% dosage, which gets a little tricky because it means we give her half a pill 4 nights a week and a whole pill 3 nights a week (or something like that--Susan knows much better than I do and thankfully, she creates a chart for us so we can keep it straight). Her cough seems to be better, although she seems to get a coughing fit just when I think she's fine. This last time Sophie was admitted to UNC, the doctors prescribed an inhaler, and it wouldn't surprise me if she has a touch of asthma--her coughing certainly seems to follow whenever she's been exercising a lot or is otherwise very stimulated.
Our big excitement is that both girls have a dance recital this weekend. The dress rehearsal was Sunday, and from what I hear, both girls did great. Sophie has a habit of standing around in dance class (in other words, not dancing), but she did the whole routine on Sunday without a problem. She is such an entertainer--even parents I don't recognize know who Sophie is. It's kind of weird.
Speaking of dance class, our friend T'yanna came to dance class tonight. She's been home for a while (went in for four days last week for treatment), and I think she looks much better. She's lost all her hair and is quite thin and weak, but it's clear that she is no longer in a great deal of pain. T'yanna was in the same class as Elisabeth and she got to try on her dance costume for the first time tonight. We're hoping that she'll be able to attend the recital and at least make an appearance in costume. We continue to keep T'yanna and her family in our prayers.
My big accomplishment (other than being free from schoolwork--that is still sinking in) was to get organized for our Church-wide Yard Sale. We have so much stuff in our storage building out back that we need to get rid of. I threw out a lot of things that we had been saving that simply would not sell, organized what might sell into a "pile" and straightened up everything else. Susan reminded me that our New Year's resolution for this year was to straighten up the building, and I guess maybe I did it today!
Tomorrow evening, I will go up to Virginia to help out and visit with Susan's mom and grandmother. I'll be back late Friday, but I'm hoping that it will be helpful to have me around for at least a couple of days. Under the circumstances, it's nice to have an extra pair of hands, and since I don't have class anymore, I figured I could go up and help out a bit.
Sorry for not posting more frequently, but as we've said before, we're really trying to carve out more family time, which doesn't make for much time in front of the computer.