Brinley went in for her chemo today. It was quite uneventful. Her counts were actually much higher than we expected. Her ANC was 1000, so she is still ok to be out and about for now. I know they drop the most 10 days or so after chemo, so that would be in the next couple days. It was a simple visit today, just one chemo drug, Ara-C. She'll get that for the next four days in a row, the home health nurse will give it to her. Then she has an oral drug, 6-TG, that she takes for the next week. As usual, it took way longer than it should have, we were there for 3 hours to do 30 minutes worth of stuff, but so it goes. It is always draining going to clinic, it makes for a tiring day.

We get a three week break now! She will need time to recover before we start MAINTENANCE! So the next few weeks will be a break from chemo and praying she doesn't get a fever and have another hospital stay. As long as she stays healthy and doesn't get any infections, I expect this next 3 weeks will be pretty good. I hate to speak too soon....but.....it would be nice to cruise through the rest of Delayed Intensification.

After any hospital stay, it always feel so good to be home. I notice little things all the time to be grateful for. Here are 10 simple things I've been grateful for the last 2 days:

1. Everyone sleeping under the same roof. Taylor is back from St. George and having everyone in the same house at night time has felt so safe and secure. Things are just not right when we are separated when it is time for bed. I need all of my kids and my hubby here to feel comfortable.

2. Sitting down to dinner. It puts a smile on my face to all sit down together to eat.

3. A shower in the morning. We have to trade off at the hospital, and showers can be few and far between. Yucky.

4. Brinley not being attached to a pole. She can roam around freely, even if it IS to follow me around all day.

5. NO VITALS EVERY COUPLE HOURS! Blood pressure cuffs are our enemy and I would burn them all if I could. I know they are important, blah, blah, blah. I still hate them. Asking a 2 year old to not even wiggle her toes! Cmon, there HAS to be another way.

6. A comfortable bed to sleep in. Eight months pregnant and a skinny little fold out chair/bed are not a good mix. Especially if you have to roll over. Or get up. Or sleep.

7. Home cooked meals. Yum.

8. My kids smiling. Doesn't happen near as much when we are doing hospital time.

9. Playing Wii with my husband when the kids are in bed. Fun stuff. I totally killed him bowling. Okay, so he killed me at everything else, but bowling is really the only game that matters.

10. The boredom of spending all day long in one room trying to entertain a 2 year old who is just as bored....pure torture. And knowing that I will be paying more for that little room than I would ever DREAM of spending for a gorgeous hotel on vacation.....even AFTER insurance...the twitching has finally stopped now that we are home, and I am grateful for that. LOL.

So Brinley has been happy the last couple days. It's funny, we get home and guess what Brinley and Jade want to play....hospital. So they have been playing hospital yesterday and today. It's funny to watch. They both know exactly how to take vitals, Jade is a little off on the temp. She rattles off some random temp, like 67.3, and then informs us that is very sick. She even said her blood counts are low, seriously, that would only come out of the mouth of the sibling of a cancer kid! It made me laugh. It's kind of sad, Jade wanted to be the patient with cancer and me to be the momma. I wondered if that was a way of getting a little extra lovin' from me. So I cuddled her for a while.

The only thing of concern right now is Brinley has had diarrhea for two days and it is causing a rash again. I know her counts are on the way down, and I can't seem to keep this rash away. I'm afraid she will end up with a really bad one right when her counts are lowest, and it won't heal. It's pretty painful for her, so I'm doing my best to be on top of it with creams, but it is hard when she doesn't heal as quickly.

I do have to say, as much as I loathe the bad times, they make the good times feel like heaven on earth. I can't get enough of these good days, if only there was a way to bottle them up and open them when things get rough. We feel normal today, which is a big deal. Thanks for checking in on Brinley, I hope you are smiling today too!

It looks like we are coming home in about an hour or so. We had to wait around for a while because her red blood was low and she need a transfusion. So, that took hours, but now we are done and getting her last dose of antibiotics, so I'm guessing we'll be out soon. Then she will get her chemo tonight from the home health nurse. I'm hoping nothing comes up between now and then, we are all grouchy, especially Brinley, and ready to be in our comfy house and beds tonight.