Ups and Downs

Yesterday was another rough one. On top of our (they said 5-10 minutes!) so called short visit to the Dr., Alyssa had a rough reaction to the treatment. First we went to ABQ with Dad and had our appt at around 10:00am. We showed up and ended up waiting around 20 - 40 minutes just to be seen. Met a new Oncology Dr. - Dr. McKinnel (spelling?) and talked to him about a lot of issues etc. We finally made it up to the Infusion suite - It was cool!!!! They have snacks for the kids and individual TVs for each station (they can play XBox orPlaystation or watch movies of their choice) It is decorated Star Wars and has big picture windows looking out. When they came over to try to access her port (no this is not a thinly veiled reference to some Star Wars thing) they informed me I was supposed to have applied the Emla - ( this was our first time and no one told me I was supposed to do it!!!!) So we ended up waiting ANOTHER 4o minutes waiting for the Emla to work. Then, they finally got her port accessed, and it took WHOLE 10 minutes to do the treatment. SO, it took a whole 3 hours and 40 minutes for a 10 minute treatment. HMMMM.

We went to Grandma's and about an hour later she started hurting(in Alyssa's words this was disabling agony NOT just cramps or something!!!) Thank you Joyce's for the meal you had at our house because we would've eaten around 10pm with the way things were going if I had had to cook. She is doing better today thankfully.

PRAYER request - The little guy in the infusion chair next to us was another heart rending experience. I do not know what kind of cancer he has but it is not what Alyssa has. He is 3 years old and looks like he is about 18 mo. He has a double port thru his belly button and he was about as cute as they come. For a little fellow he took the whole thing pretty well. MOM was a trooper - she just cuddled with him - they were there probably for WAY longer than us (they'd already watched Shark's Tale when we got there and were popping on Cars and were settling in for a nap when we left. I am constantly reminded that God has really had mercy on us thru this ordeal and that we are blessed beyond measure. Please pray for little E and his family!!!!!

Thank yous - I think I am not only WAY behind but forgetting several folks - I am going to try to catch up here: Thank you J&J M for the check today - what a huge blessing that was It will really help out for all the copays etc. Also D&D for the money you sent Alyssa - I'm not sure what she's saving for but she's squirreling the money away for something special. Thank you T family for the books you gave Alyssa - she's read them both now and I just finished the Kathy Reichs book. Thank you TG for the fiber fix - can't wait to create! Thank you so much Aunt J for rescuing me yesterday - I would NOT have made it thru the whole day yesterday at the hospital with all three kids (Do you think I would learn my lesson by now - this happens everytime I go into UNMH!) Thank you B Family for the YUMMY looking dinner you brought tonight and AGAIN - thanks to all of you who keep us in your prayers and lifted up to HIM for strength and wisdom! Oh, and Aunt N. for the information today - we are going to look into it!!!!