Tuesday, February 9, 2010

We are at home today, snow day from school, yippee! We have a delay tomorrow too, so not bad. We probably only got 8 inches or so. Hannah wasn't too excited when I told her we were going to the dermatologist this morning to get a mole on her back examined while everyone else was at home playing in the snow. Last time at clinic, her neurologist saw it and suggested we go get it looked at. Of course, the doctor today wanted to take it off and biopsy it. I hadn't prepared her for that. There were some tears because the shot of lidocaine really hurts, but she didn't feel anything after that. Now we wait. I'm not even going to get into the radiation induced mole issue, not going there unless we have to.

Hannah's next clinic visit is scheduled for March 16th. She is still struggling with stomach issues. I haven't talked too much about it here, but she is out of school on average 1 day a week. It's not typically all day, but she will come home from school sometime during the day. For the last couple of weeks it's been on Fridays. It's almost like she is just too tired from the long week, and she struggles to make it through. She comes home and sleeps for up to 5 hours, gets up and feels much better. Then she eats, has more energy and stomach feels much better. So, what is that? Last week she came home on Friday from school, slept for 3 hours, I woke her up at 4 because we had something to do, and by later that night she was good enough to play lacrosse! I'm planning on talking to her oncology group again in March to see their thoughts and ideas. If any of you reading this have any ideas, I'd be open to hearing them!

Speaking of something to do, Hannah and I went to the Coaches versus Cancer game here at our high school last week as representatives for the American Cancer Society (filling in for our friend from the ACS that couldn't be there.) Hannah had a good time getting people to sign petitions, hanging up the donation signs and getting people to play the games at our table. She also went out with me to give the speech in front of the crowd and present the coaches with their certificates of appreciation. We had fun! American Cancer Society runs this event all over the country in conjunction with coaches from the National Association of Basketball Coaches to raise awareness and funds.

We were then off to her lacrosse game (at 9 pm). She loves to play, and we love to watch her. We're not sure how much longer she will be able to play. Once the girls get older, the competition gets stronger, and the girls get faster. She won't be able to keep up and it will get too dangerous for her to be out there with the fast movement, pushing, shoving and flying hard lacrosse balls. She runs hunched over like a little old lady. Her upper body is always going forward a bit quicker than her feet can keep up with, so we're always afraid that she is going to do a face plant at any minute (which she did a couple games ago.) She really enjoys it now, more than last year. She doesn't usually get the ball during a game, but feels like she is more a part of the action this year. At one point during the game, after a penalty the ref handed her the ball, she took a couple steps a fired a quick pass right to a teammate. Dave and I looked at each other like "did you SEE that?" We were both surprised and laughing! The day after the games she always has some type of soreness or pulled muscle. It's because her body isn't conditioned like a normal 10 year old. Sometimes it's a twisted ankle, or a With the chemo, radiation and inactivity over the past 3 years, she is still behind. But, she's getting better, little by little.

♥Kim