Showing posts with label Dr. Kahn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Kahn. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
We're BA-ACK!!!
We're BA-ACK!!!A quick update before we all collapse. This has been a LOOOONG day. Charlotte slept in this morning (till after 10!!) while we cleaned up and packed up our room. We took three boxes to the post office (one of which we sent media mail as it was full of DVDs and books!). We came to Texas with three suitcases and left with FIVE (not counting our carry-on totes, the stroller, and the car seat). I have never traveled with that much stuff in my entire life! Actually used the skycaps!We said our goodbyes to our friends at RMH and I think Charlotte was a little upset by it all. She didn't want to say goodbye so we just said "see you later". All our recently made friends have carepages or caringbridge sites so I think we will all be able to keep in touch. I'm hoping a bald chicks reunion will be in the works within the next year. After some lunch and our final checkouts, we headed to the Museum of Fine Arts for a few hours. We only got to see about 1/2 the museum (I guess the second half will wait until next year) but it was one of the best collections of contemporary art I've ever seen. Very creative and interesting art (plus some "weird stuff"). There was also a beautiful collection of Indian, Korean, and Indonesian art. After that we headed to the airport. We went to turn in the rental car but had so many bags that the Hertz agent just drove us to the terminal to drop us off. Checked the bags, made it through security in record time, and grabbed an early dinner at Wendys in the airport. Charlotte was great on both legs of the flights. Roger saw one of the pilots waiting to board before we left Houston and mentioned to him that we were going home after finishing her radiation. As the plane landed in Atlanta, one of the flight attendants announced "One of our youngest passengers, Charlotte, has recently completed her cancer treatment and we are really proud of her". Everybody clapped, including Charlotte. Yes, we're not really done but that's ok. It's an accomplishment all the same.We had to wait for the stroller on the jetway after both flights so Charlotte waved at everyone leaving the plane and worked on her best flight attendant "buh-bye". We had a very short layover in Atlanta (less than 30 minutes) and both flights were uneventful. We arrived back in Richmond where the temperature is a LOVELY 60-some degrees. SWEET. The outside feels like the indoors in Texas felt the whole time we were there...It's late and it's dark but we already know that our house (and possibly our neighborhood?) has been decorated in anticipation of Charlotte's welcome home. Thanks in advance for the welcome wishes! We are looking forward to seeing everyone in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we will hit the ground running. Tomorrow will be another long day. Roger will be taking her in early for the MRI, I will be going in to teach in the morning, and then I will meet up with them in the early afternoon to (hopefully) get results from Khan and Tye. Plus I have no idea how long it will take me to unpack, go through mail, and just kinda settle back in. I know everyone wants to see us (and Charlotte). Patience please! We can't wait to reunite with everyone. More updates to come!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Great Richmond Dad and Other Good Stuff
What an awsome day! First off, my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jeanne came by the store looking to take us out to lunch. Lunch is always good. They came by at the exact right time because I was at home and had just finished doing a bunch of stuff that needed to get done so I was available.
So I packed up Charlotte headed down. We went to Casa Grande (mmmm.....) and lunch was very good. Rachel had to leave early to teach but CJ and I stayed for a good long while. Charlotte is so good at entertaining herself, it's amazing!
Then, just as we were getting up to leave I get a call from Rachel at the store checking to see if I had received the text that Annette had sent. I really hadn't been parying attention so, no, I hadn't.
Seems Kate from Richmondmom.com called and I should call her right away. So I did. Looks like we won the Great Richmond Dad contest! (And I do mean "we.") Thanks to all who voted and made it possible. It's very exciting!!!
We're going to have an official event at the Chick-fil-a right here on Friday evening sometime. I'm sure when but there will be an announcement on the Richmondmom.com site.
Back to reality: Rachel went to talk to Dr. Matt this morning and she always feels better when she does. The rest of the day has been very busy with camp, classes, and all that at Romp n' Roll, and CJ drawing lots of pictures at home. Aunt Phyllis kept her dynamo ways up and with only a little help from me, had a new shelving unit installed in the upstairs office closet.
A very odd thing, the next door neighbor took it upon herself to trim some branches off of our trees...on our property...without asking us. Now she's an uber gardener and all that but Gramps is a Master Gardener and he knows more about that sort of stuff than she will ever forget. I'm positive she thought she was doing us a favor but I think it was a bit presumptuous. What do you think? Whatever, I certainly have other things to worry about.
Saturday was odd. We had the morning to ourselves and we went to Poor Farm Park to play. As we got there, we nooticed other kids coming to a birthday party at the shelter right next to the playground. Chalrotte was very into the playground untill the kids really started showing up in numbers. She got manhandled by a few kids wanting to get around her and that kind of turned her off to the whole thing. We left after less than a half hour.
Then we went to downtown Ashland to see the Farmer's Market. A woman at a booth heard her name and said, "Is that THE Charlotte from St. James?" I'll say it again, I think CJ is over the whole minor celebrity thing. We did get to eat big marshmallow treats, though! YUM!
Gotta go teach Monday night classes,
WOOHOO!
Rog
Update:
Have I mentioned what a great day this has been? Besides my atrocious spelling, we've continued to have good stuff happen.
Charlotte had a great day playing with me, Uncle Kolbey, and Aunt Phyllis. (Right now she's sitting in bed, singing to herself; being cute as humanly possible.) She's also been drawing pictures to send to Pixar Studios as part of her "thank you" package for all the stuff they sent her.
We had two rather full classes this afternoon, both of which were not even on the schedule originally. Both were "requested" by groups and have filled out the evening nicely. One class, "Rhythm n' Roll" at 6:30, is nothing but girls! Never had that happen before. They're every bit as rowdy as the boys and don't listen even more! (did that make sense?) Total hoot! Gonna be a great session.
Tonight, Charlotte and I got to talk to Nile and little sister Olivia via Skype and I got to see the autographed Super Bowl champion footballs he got at the bowling event with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dang it! He got to meet the Bus! :-)
Thank you all for the well wishes and comments. I really appreciate it.
Did you see how they (Richmondmom.com) pulled you along in the best American Idol fashion with the teases and first letter of the name revealed to get you to click deeper into the website and all that? It was awesome!! :-) Kudos to Richmondmom.com.
There's going to be an offical "award" event at Chick-fil-a on Friday evening. Stay tuned for more details.
Last but not least, we did NOT hear from Dr. Kahn today about THE PLAN. Feel free to nudge him to call us tomorrow if you see him. We are so over NOT having a road map. Someone just point or something and say, "Go there!" And we will. I promise.
Beside that, it's been a pretty good last few days. Thanks to all our customers for coming out and registering for classes, thanks to everyone who has been lining up to do things for us, thanks for the donations that are still coming in at a pretty good clip, thanks for the chocolate chip cookies and the home made mac & cheese with the bread crust topping! The thanking will never stop.
Time for milk and said cookies!
Rog
So I packed up Charlotte headed down. We went to Casa Grande (mmmm.....) and lunch was very good. Rachel had to leave early to teach but CJ and I stayed for a good long while. Charlotte is so good at entertaining herself, it's amazing!
Then, just as we were getting up to leave I get a call from Rachel at the store checking to see if I had received the text that Annette had sent. I really hadn't been parying attention so, no, I hadn't.
Seems Kate from Richmondmom.com called and I should call her right away. So I did. Looks like we won the Great Richmond Dad contest! (And I do mean "we.") Thanks to all who voted and made it possible. It's very exciting!!!
We're going to have an official event at the Chick-fil-a right here on Friday evening sometime. I'm sure when but there will be an announcement on the Richmondmom.com site.
Back to reality: Rachel went to talk to Dr. Matt this morning and she always feels better when she does. The rest of the day has been very busy with camp, classes, and all that at Romp n' Roll, and CJ drawing lots of pictures at home. Aunt Phyllis kept her dynamo ways up and with only a little help from me, had a new shelving unit installed in the upstairs office closet.
A very odd thing, the next door neighbor took it upon herself to trim some branches off of our trees...on our property...without asking us. Now she's an uber gardener and all that but Gramps is a Master Gardener and he knows more about that sort of stuff than she will ever forget. I'm positive she thought she was doing us a favor but I think it was a bit presumptuous. What do you think? Whatever, I certainly have other things to worry about.
Saturday was odd. We had the morning to ourselves and we went to Poor Farm Park to play. As we got there, we nooticed other kids coming to a birthday party at the shelter right next to the playground. Chalrotte was very into the playground untill the kids really started showing up in numbers. She got manhandled by a few kids wanting to get around her and that kind of turned her off to the whole thing. We left after less than a half hour.
Then we went to downtown Ashland to see the Farmer's Market. A woman at a booth heard her name and said, "Is that THE Charlotte from St. James?" I'll say it again, I think CJ is over the whole minor celebrity thing. We did get to eat big marshmallow treats, though! YUM!
Gotta go teach Monday night classes,
WOOHOO!
Rog
Update:
Have I mentioned what a great day this has been? Besides my atrocious spelling, we've continued to have good stuff happen.
Charlotte had a great day playing with me, Uncle Kolbey, and Aunt Phyllis. (Right now she's sitting in bed, singing to herself; being cute as humanly possible.) She's also been drawing pictures to send to Pixar Studios as part of her "thank you" package for all the stuff they sent her.
We had two rather full classes this afternoon, both of which were not even on the schedule originally. Both were "requested" by groups and have filled out the evening nicely. One class, "Rhythm n' Roll" at 6:30, is nothing but girls! Never had that happen before. They're every bit as rowdy as the boys and don't listen even more! (did that make sense?) Total hoot! Gonna be a great session.
Tonight, Charlotte and I got to talk to Nile and little sister Olivia via Skype and I got to see the autographed Super Bowl champion footballs he got at the bowling event with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dang it! He got to meet the Bus! :-)
Thank you all for the well wishes and comments. I really appreciate it.
Did you see how they (Richmondmom.com) pulled you along in the best American Idol fashion with the teases and first letter of the name revealed to get you to click deeper into the website and all that? It was awesome!! :-) Kudos to Richmondmom.com.
There's going to be an offical "award" event at Chick-fil-a on Friday evening. Stay tuned for more details.
Last but not least, we did NOT hear from Dr. Kahn today about THE PLAN. Feel free to nudge him to call us tomorrow if you see him. We are so over NOT having a road map. Someone just point or something and say, "Go there!" And we will. I promise.
Beside that, it's been a pretty good last few days. Thanks to all our customers for coming out and registering for classes, thanks to everyone who has been lining up to do things for us, thanks for the donations that are still coming in at a pretty good clip, thanks for the chocolate chip cookies and the home made mac & cheese with the bread crust topping! The thanking will never stop.
Time for milk and said cookies!
Rog
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Another Great Day for Charlotte. She is Amazing!
I am changing the time zone to "Hawaii Time". Maybe that's wishful thinking...
Another great day for Charlotte. She is amazing!
Yesterday, I came home from Costco with three Nandina plants that John had helped me pick out for the front yard. Charlotte greeted us at the care and proceeded to ask all kinds of questions about what we were doing. She said, "How many plants did you buy?" and I said, "Well, you tell me." So she responded, "You bought the number of plants that match my age." WOW! Pretty higher level thinking from that kid!
For those of you wondering about further plans with the Head Shaving Party, the current schedule is that the party will be Friday, April 10th from 3-8 PM at Romp n' Roll (Virginia Center) with lots of play time for the kids. We will probably do the actual head shaving/decorating at about 6 PM to allow for folks to get off of work, etc.
Bob Flanagan and some other folks from the Ashland Jaycees have stepped up to take the reins for this current project. If you would like to coordinate efforts with him, please contact him at bob@dewre.com
I can't think of anything else to say tonight. LOST was great until it started tugging on those "mommy" heart strings. Damn that show!!!! I'm going to try to be brave and watch the series finale of ER tomorrow but I know it will be one big bawl-fest.
Time for night-nights. Early day at the clinic tomorrow.
Rachel
Update:
The girls are off to see Dr. Kahn.
Urgh.
Earlier, I had been trying to talk to Charlotte about what to expect and all that but this time, I just couldn't bring myself to ruin that great mood she's been in all week. When I tried to bring it up last night that she had to go back in and see Dr. Kahn about the "headache in her head" her face visibly darkened and she said, very matter of factly, "My headache's all gone now." Feel kind of sneaky not warning her better about today.
Gotta love that parental guilt.
Gotta go do Romp n' Roll To Go at Primrose. Thanks to Karen Giles for helping out this weekend with the Spring Fling. Did I mention that Primrose is using the event as a partial fundraiser for A.S.K. in Charlotte's name?
Thanks guys.
p.s. Where is Rarotonga?
Update, Today was Kind of Rough:
And now we begin the slow descent...
Today was kind of rough. She went in first thing for the catheter. She knew it was coming so despite getting to watch Strawberry Shortcake on DVD, having all her favorite loveys close by and mom's hand to hold, the whole experience was rather traumatic. Chocolate milkshake after it was finished made it a little better, I think.
We got home around lunch time to find John and Kolbey cleaning the house top to bottom! Excellent!
She spent most of the day on the grumpy, clingy, whiny side. She knows that she is going back into the hospital tomorrow and she is not very happy about it.
Meanwhile we are mostly packed and ready to go. Kind of getting this routine down to a science with what we need, etc. We will go straight to the clinic in the morning for blood draws (labs) and then down to Radiology for the MRI. And then (hopefully) we will get admitted to the 7th floor without too much delay.
The plan is for granny to actually stay the night Friday night. Rachel is on duty Saturday night and Roger on for Sunday. I am sure there will be more updates over the next few days.
Big thanks to Bob for jumping in with both feet on the Head Shaving party and for all the other "heads" that have volunteered. I think plans are slowly falling into place.
Another great day for Charlotte. She is amazing!
Yesterday, I came home from Costco with three Nandina plants that John had helped me pick out for the front yard. Charlotte greeted us at the care and proceeded to ask all kinds of questions about what we were doing. She said, "How many plants did you buy?" and I said, "Well, you tell me." So she responded, "You bought the number of plants that match my age." WOW! Pretty higher level thinking from that kid!
For those of you wondering about further plans with the Head Shaving Party, the current schedule is that the party will be Friday, April 10th from 3-8 PM at Romp n' Roll (Virginia Center) with lots of play time for the kids. We will probably do the actual head shaving/decorating at about 6 PM to allow for folks to get off of work, etc.
Bob Flanagan and some other folks from the Ashland Jaycees have stepped up to take the reins for this current project. If you would like to coordinate efforts with him, please contact him at bob@dewre.com
I can't think of anything else to say tonight. LOST was great until it started tugging on those "mommy" heart strings. Damn that show!!!! I'm going to try to be brave and watch the series finale of ER tomorrow but I know it will be one big bawl-fest.
Time for night-nights. Early day at the clinic tomorrow.
Rachel
Update:
The girls are off to see Dr. Kahn.
Urgh.
Earlier, I had been trying to talk to Charlotte about what to expect and all that but this time, I just couldn't bring myself to ruin that great mood she's been in all week. When I tried to bring it up last night that she had to go back in and see Dr. Kahn about the "headache in her head" her face visibly darkened and she said, very matter of factly, "My headache's all gone now." Feel kind of sneaky not warning her better about today.
Gotta love that parental guilt.
Gotta go do Romp n' Roll To Go at Primrose. Thanks to Karen Giles for helping out this weekend with the Spring Fling. Did I mention that Primrose is using the event as a partial fundraiser for A.S.K. in Charlotte's name?
Thanks guys.
p.s. Where is Rarotonga?
Update, Today was Kind of Rough:
And now we begin the slow descent...
Today was kind of rough. She went in first thing for the catheter. She knew it was coming so despite getting to watch Strawberry Shortcake on DVD, having all her favorite loveys close by and mom's hand to hold, the whole experience was rather traumatic. Chocolate milkshake after it was finished made it a little better, I think.
We got home around lunch time to find John and Kolbey cleaning the house top to bottom! Excellent!
She spent most of the day on the grumpy, clingy, whiny side. She knows that she is going back into the hospital tomorrow and she is not very happy about it.
Meanwhile we are mostly packed and ready to go. Kind of getting this routine down to a science with what we need, etc. We will go straight to the clinic in the morning for blood draws (labs) and then down to Radiology for the MRI. And then (hopefully) we will get admitted to the 7th floor without too much delay.
The plan is for granny to actually stay the night Friday night. Rachel is on duty Saturday night and Roger on for Sunday. I am sure there will be more updates over the next few days.
Big thanks to Bob for jumping in with both feet on the Head Shaving party and for all the other "heads" that have volunteered. I think plans are slowly falling into place.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Not a Bad Night
9:17 AM
Wednesday morning. Not a bad night.
When I got here, I ran into the dynamic duo (Mom and CJ) touring the 7th floor. Both were definately not having the easiest time. Made me feel good to brighten their evening even if just a little bit.
After Mom left, Charlotte and I read a little and went for another walk./ She was pretty uncomfortable just sitting in the room.
We met Leah's mom in the lounge and got her update which is not great. She was the one who was seriously injured in the car accident coming back from the ski vacation. The MRI showed brain damage and it has been confirmed that she's paralyzed from the neck down. Before our experience here, I would have just said "Wow, that's too bad." and written her life off as kind a waste. But after seeing things here and recent developments on the news, I can't help but be hopeful for Leah and her family. Might be wishful thinking but mom is extremely positive through it all and I look forward to keeping up with her progress and expect good things. Either way, they could definately use our positive thoughts and energy.
Nurse Andrea, who started off dubiously the night before, was a dream last night. There were several diaper changes, vital gatherings, and liquid exchanges both ways and she never woke Charlotte. I was up everytime but that's just me.
CJ is stirring, gotta go put on Sesame Street.
Rog
2:18PM Update
Leah's page is on Carepages.com. Search for leahaveryporterfield.
Looks like we'll have to file a grievance with the insurance for the stem cell/bone marrow transplant. Dr. Kahn tried to get the insurance on board for having MCV in network but it's not going to happen. More on that when I get more time to write.
Right now, Aunt B is here and I need to get to Romp n' Roll for evening classes.
Rog
Wednesday morning. Not a bad night.
When I got here, I ran into the dynamic duo (Mom and CJ) touring the 7th floor. Both were definately not having the easiest time. Made me feel good to brighten their evening even if just a little bit.
After Mom left, Charlotte and I read a little and went for another walk./ She was pretty uncomfortable just sitting in the room.
We met Leah's mom in the lounge and got her update which is not great. She was the one who was seriously injured in the car accident coming back from the ski vacation. The MRI showed brain damage and it has been confirmed that she's paralyzed from the neck down. Before our experience here, I would have just said "Wow, that's too bad." and written her life off as kind a waste. But after seeing things here and recent developments on the news, I can't help but be hopeful for Leah and her family. Might be wishful thinking but mom is extremely positive through it all and I look forward to keeping up with her progress and expect good things. Either way, they could definately use our positive thoughts and energy.
Nurse Andrea, who started off dubiously the night before, was a dream last night. There were several diaper changes, vital gatherings, and liquid exchanges both ways and she never woke Charlotte. I was up everytime but that's just me.
CJ is stirring, gotta go put on Sesame Street.
Rog
2:18PM Update
Leah's page is on Carepages.com. Search for leahaveryporterfield.
Looks like we'll have to file a grievance with the insurance for the stem cell/bone marrow transplant. Dr. Kahn tried to get the insurance on board for having MCV in network but it's not going to happen. More on that when I get more time to write.
Right now, Aunt B is here and I need to get to Romp n' Roll for evening classes.
Rog
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