What a difference a year makes!

I haven't updated in months, and no news is definitely good news.

Things have been great since the start of the year. Daniel's blood counts are consistently stable, he is feeling well and suffering very few side effects from his chemo. Life is very much back to normal. It's just that our normal includes lots of pills and more time spent at Sick Kids than most people, but things are going as well as they possibly could.

Daniel has become very accustomed to our hospital visits, and is very comfortable with all the procedures. He asks questions about what the doctors and nurses are doing, and when I tell him that we're going, he asks what kind of visit it will be: "Poke & Run" (bloodwork only), "Butterfly Kiss" (IV chemo through his chest port - the needle they use is called a butterfly and I tell him it is landing on his port to kiss him) or "Cujo's Room" (spinal tap - procedures are done in a room sponsored by Curtis Joseph's children's foundation and is decorated like the Leafs' dressing room). He is quite happy to go to the hospital. In fact, he was rather disappointed last month when I told him our visit would just be for a Butterfly Kiss. He asked if he could please go to Cujo's Room, couldn't I ask the nurse, maybe she will let us. I told our onc nurse that they must be doing one hell of a job if the children are begging for spinal taps!!

Summer passed without incident. Daniel is now in SK, growing like a weed and generally making me proud as punch at every turn. He is an excellent reader, a slick dancer, playground climber extraordinaire and is remarkably savvy at cutting large pieces of paper into many smaller pieces of paper. He asked for a black Spiderman costume for Halloween, then a few weeks later decided he wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween, and would wear his Spiderman costume for Christmas (!).
And Hannah continues to excel in her role as big sister. She is in Grade 2, sings in the choir, ran cross country, plays hockey and has joined Brownies. I think if a permission form came home for walking on burning coals, she would sign up for that too. Maybe I can get the teacher to send home a form for the "laundry folding club" that meets in her room twice a week.

So although we still have 19 months of treatment to go, the worst is behind us. We are now counting down, not counting up. And everything is going as well as we ever could have hoped for. I know what I'll be thankful for this weekend.