Disneyland day 1

What should you do when you complete six months of chemo, for the second time in less than 18 months? Go to Disneyland! And that's exactly what we did because of an extremely generous gift from a couple that Joel knows, whose lives have also been changed by cancer. It was a trip like no other, starting with our very own plane to fly us there.

It was very fun and exciting, and filled with way too many opportunities for Joel to take pictures of geography.

When we arrived, it was a little cool and rainy, but that didn't slow us down much. Our first rides were Dumbo and It's a Small World.

We ran into a few characters,

and went on a scary Roger Rabbit ride - although you can see the terror on Eila's face, she sat calmly through the ride, but needed her pacifier afterwards. Then our hotel room was ready, so Eila and I headed in for nap while Annikka and Joel went on a few more rides and took a drawing class.

We were treated to an incredible suite at the hotel, filled with stuffed animals, mouse ears and hands, balloons, and bedtime snacks.

That night my cousin Joy came over and took the girls out for more rides so that Joel and I could explore some rides on our own. It was a great start to our celebration trip.

Moving forward

Today Eila returned to DCH for her first round of post-chemo ultrasounds and xrays. She did amazingly well in the ultrasound, now that she's old enough to be distracted by tv. Everything came back clear, so she is officially done with chemo! She will return for another round of tests in 2 months.

Along with the imaging done today, Eila had blood work done and met with her nephrologist. Overall, her doctor was very pleased with how well Eila is doing, but she did note that her blood tests have been slightly acidic. So Eila will be starting a new medication to try to help correct this. We're not sure what this means long term, but the nephrologist didn't seem alarmed.

Mommy time

Today was my last day home with Eila for this round of treatments. She has been doing so well for the past 6 weeks that we've been able to get out and do some fun things together. I'm pretty sure this became her favorite Tuesday activity. (She had many exciting adventures on her days with Grandma or Grandpa, too.)

 

Over the last few weeks, she developed so much confidence in the pool with this float-suit (thanks Swenvers). She would climb out on the edge and then order me to back up more and more because she discovered that she didn't need my help. She even started trying her jumps and swimming without her floaty on, although I wouldn't back up for her then.

Last Chemo, again

Today was Eila's last scheduled chemo.  I have found it's easier for me to say it like that, the last scheduled chemo, because there is still a part of me holding my breathe and waiting for the other shoe to fall.  But today went well; she has started regrowing hair and weighs over 11 kg finally.

From Jan/Feb 2013

It was different than last year.  Then, Joel and I were excited for the last chemo and Eila mirrored our excitement.  This year it meant something to Eila, she seemed to understand more that it was the last time "port had to get his medicine."  She decided she didn't want the nurses to sing to her this year (although I think she would have liked it), and she waved good-bye to everyone when it was finally time to go.

From Jan/Feb 2013

 
We celebrated with cupcakes and balloons after dinner (thank you Boysens).

From Jan/Feb 2013

She will go back at the beginning of March for an ultrasound, xrays, and blood work. Then we'll find out more about what lies ahead for her. We are so thankful for all the support we've received over these past 25 weeks of craziness; we couldn't have gotten here without help.

Favorite book

We have obviously been reading Eila's favorite book a lot lately, and today she happily read along.

Art Projects

We've had a few art projects over the past couple of days.

Annikka created her own logo a little while back:

See how she incorporated an "A" into a flower?  I think it's awesome.  Last night we turned that logo into a bookmark:

Then today we designed a logo for Eila:

(She loves cars.)

Finally, today Annikka made this awesome 3D depiction of me and her skiing:

Aren't those cool?

Tooth fairy

From Jan/Feb 2013

When Annikka's tooth became loose, we went out and bought this special little box to put it in for the tooth fairy.  So last night Annikka carefully put her sparkly tooth box under her pillow ...

From Jan/Feb 2013

This morning she came up to our room to tell me that the tooth fairy took her tooth and left her "paper money"!  She was very excited.  And the first thing Eila said to me this morning when I walked into her room was "I don't know if the tooth fairy come."  Obviously the excitement was contagious.  Annikka was happy to show her the empty box and the dollar.