85 days to go

We've managed to escape to the lake house and treat ourselves to a "vacation". It's nice and sunny and bright here today. The lake is up to the house and with the temps warming up you can hear the lake "cracking". It's actually much different than I expected. The kids say it sounds like whales talking (hmm...didn't realize they've heard whales before). I can't really describe it...it's pretty cool...you'll hear the noise in the middle of the lake and then it's comes across the lake almost as if it was traveling along the cracks in the ice. I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for it...but I can't even grasp it right now.....I'm just happy with "it sounds cool".

I realize that we never explained the 100 day "rule" to all of you. The day of the BMT transplant is considered day 0. For the 100 days after transplant, Lisa will continue to be immune suppressed. The "100 day mark" is generally considered a milestone - by this time, docs will assume she is past the worst of the procedure and on the path to recovery. Again, we've been pretty lucky. Lisa sailed thru the transplant pretty easily; there are many things that could have gone wrong and there is still room for problems. It can take up to two years to fully recover from a BMT and return to full health (that's just the BMT recovering, that doesn't count any side effects, residual cancer, returning cancer, or any other unexpected surprises). She will be watched very closely. Interestingly her 100 day mark will be 6/6...just 5 days shy of her diagnosis date of 6/11. To read more about the in's and out's of BMT you can check out the PED-ONC Resource Center.

So what does that all mean? For now, it means when we say she is home....we mean home. She has almost no immunity and can't be exposed to anything and can not be in crowds (makes taking her to the hospital interesting....she has to wear a mask and we don't let her touch anything, and we run from any one who looks sick). That means no store, no church, no school, no big family parties (like your brother and sister's communion), no movies, no bowling, no zoo.....okay, so you get my drift. It's actually taken me these last 3 days to fully grasp how difficult this will actually be for me. I'm so used to being able to run an errand whenever needed that there's already been a few times I had to rethink things. Can't run to the store to get milk, can't take her into work to say hi, can't take her to my doc appt....not a huge deal, just an adjustment. This will be a good time to get our house projects caught up!

Keep praying! We still have a long road ahead. Healthy visitors are welcome...Lisa needs some different people to play with.