day +16...relief

Whew...these last couple days have been a whirlwind. Our future sister-in-law's shower was today and it was wonderful. Lots of nice gifts, good food and fun company...yay Ali, we are so thrilled to have you "officially" a Mikels girl soon! After the shower I headed down to the hospital to relieve Jason who had logged some long hours here...and now it's my turn. We've been here every other night for the last couple nights and it's hard. Never quite feeling settled, but thankfully tomorrow night we'll be back on our 2 nights here, 2 nights home schedule.

Camryn has had a very good day, she's been up playing, drawing and having fun. Yes, fun can be found in a hospital room. Camryn has been doing well today physically too, her white count is up to .94, tomorrow we should bust the 1.0 mark! Her ANC is still at 100, but the doctors are confident that should boost up real soon. No transfusions today...good news. All in all Camryn is doing very well, pretty much right where her doctors want her. We are still seeing gradual signs of GVH (graft vs. host disease)...Camryn's ears will turn flaming red and then it's gone, her cheeks turn very red and then it's gone. One nurse best described it as a heat flash, here and then gone. All signs of GVH coming naturally, wonderful. We are so thankful...very thankful. Camryn is also eating more and more...little by little. Her IV nutrition is going to start being weaned tonight, so we are hopeful to see her appetite pick up a bit. Baby steps...there is no rush in the hospital.

Wyatt too had a good day, he's been shuttled here and there and today he got to stay home. He played trains and cars with Papa while Mommy and Grandma went to the shower. It was nice for him to have a day at home, to just be. Wyatt's been doing better...not as cranky, but still having some rough moments. Praying for him that these next couple weeks will go well, as I'm hopeful that it won't be too much longer for our little guy.

All in all we're okay...completely exhausted. I recently read in a book about childhood cancer that sometimes the best a parent can do when answering the question "How are you?", is to say "We're exhausted, thank you for asking." And you know sometimes is as good as it gets. It's hard to retell the story and yet you want to...you want to let people know how things are going, you want to say something, but often times you feel like a broken record. It's hard, trying to connect with people who you have known and trying to find yourself again. Because exhaustion is really what it is...hospital life is rough and to think there are 9 families living the transplant life with us here...and yet the doors are closed, but I know all too well that there is a exhaustion that runs so deep.

Hopeful for this upcoming week...for another week of increasing numbers and maybe talk of what we need to do to really make going home somewhat of a reality.

And tomorrow is Father's Day...a day for the four of us to hang out and be together. Looking forward to it...