Saturday, September 12, 2009

Thursday Appointment

We've been busy transitioning Natalie and Sean to school that we haven't updated the blog as much as we want to.

Natalie had her monthly blood test and UCSF visit this past Thursday. We always hold our breath waiting for the results. Leukemia still feels like a monster, lurking persistently in our mind, looming over our life, threatening to re-enter it without warning. I'm hoping for the day that we no longer feel the proximity of it and it feels like it is so distant like another lifetime.

We were so happy to hear that Natalie's blood looks great. Hemoglobin is at 14, platelets are at 300,000 and ANC 4,000. We hope and pray it continues to stay strong and healthy for many, many, many years.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

Sean is really loving kindergarten. The school had their annual community parade yesterday. He was looking forward to that parade since last week. After so many years of watching is older sister in the parade, he would finally be in the parade. He kept asking me all through the week, "Are you thinking of what I'm thinking?"
"Probably not," I would reply to him. "What are you thinking?"
"The parade is on Friday!"
It was a joy to see him so happy that day.

Natalie is slowly getting used to school. She still has some awkward days where she feels sad that she is so different, but in general she is enjoying being back in school.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Back To School

It was an emotional week in our house as both kids started their school year. Natalie's first day was a little rough as she did get some comments from her classmates about her hair. She was also very sad that most of her friends are in the other third grade class. She knows a lot of the boys in her class and they all were happy to see her back, but she really wanted to be with her girlfriends. We are working on helping her build new friendships with the other girls in her class. We were afraid that she would not want to go back to school after her first day, but she seems willing to keep going and overcome the different challenges. She inspires us so much with her spirit. We know it's hard for her and I was almost close to pulling her out of school if it was going to stress her too much. She seems to be doing so much better after Monday so I'm glad we hanged in there.

Sean loves kindergarten! On the first day of school, he was as cool as a cucumber. No tears at all. He had this look on his face like, "Okay, you can leave now. I'm all good." I was the one not knowing what to do with myself while both kids were in their classes. Sean comes home every day telling me how much fun he had at school.

Eileen and Gina from UCSF came to Natalie's school today to do their presentation for both of the third grade classes on cancer and how they can help Natalie transition back to school. Natalie was so happy to see both Eileen and Gina that she couldn't stop talking to both classes about her experience at UCSF. We were so grateful for the presentation and hope that they answered all the questions the kids have about Natalie. We hope both classes become like family to Natalie the way the hospital staff became like family to her as they go through her recovery with her this year.