Getting There

Emma Kait- February 1, 2012

 This was Emma yesterday afternoon walking into her  43rd clinic visit.  43 appointments and each of them represents a needle access into her port for blood work, questions about how she feels, vital signs taken and scrutiny over any physical symptom she has experienced.  As I walked behind her to snap this picture, my thoughts were focused on how much she's grown up in the past year.  She is a different person.  I am again struck with how much a child grows up in a year's time and I'm amazed at the change Emma experienced.  She was a little girl last year when the scary diagnosis of Lymphoma hit us in the gut.  She wore flowers in her long hair and had the carefree outlook on life that every 10 year old child should have.  That all changed in one day.  She is now a beautiful young lady of 11 years old who wears stylish dark rimmed glasses, spunky boots and a cute pink beret over her sporty short hair.  She was listening to Taylor Swift on her ipod and asked me on the way out of the clinic, "Mom, when did you start to wear makeup?"  She is more concerned and worried about things sometimes, but also has more faith and a peace about her that is beyond understanding.  I'm so proud of her. 

Her counts were 1300....the lowest they have been in several months.  It didn't surprise me because of how hard the last round of chemo hit her...I'm imagining her body fighting harder to recover from the effects of the drugs each time she is dosed with them. 

We scheduled next week's appointment for her final dose of chemo and also discussed the next few weeks of recovery, follow-up testing (PET scan, CT scan, MRI, Echo-cardiogram, blood panels, etc) and finally scheduling the surgery to remove her port (which she wants to keep as a souvenir).  It all makes me nervous, happy, anxious, relieved and hopeful.....we are getting there.  

This is posted in the clinic as you leave.....it's a good reminder for all of us.  

-Rebecca