Cycle 5 completed this morning. We had some anxiety and drama with accessing the port but St Debby came to the rescue. The lovely nurse who missed with the first attempt (we are talking about a rather large needle that has to go through the skin on her chest and into the small port) felt terrible. Once accessed and calm, Isabella says "don't worry, you were very close!"
The clowns were there to brighten our morning. Matilde's face was a picture of total disbelief as one of the clowns pulled the missing red scarf from nonna's sleeve. Matilde gave nonna an enormous hug and she is now forever 'la nonna magica!' Even wise Isabella was a little perplexed by the trick.
Well we are packed and ready to head north to the cool open space of Canada. The weather has been oppressively hot in DC this past week. We have whittled down the bags of toys and hopefully there aren't too many superfluous dresses in the bag.
The final test, before leaving, was a blocked kitchen sink this afternoon. Thankfully our dear contractors were working opposite and fixed the problem very quickly....I don't think I shall tell Gregorio till we are safely on the road tomorrow morning! That's assuming he manages to leave the office tonight. All the usual drama prior to going on a holiday.
We'll be back at the end of August, just in time to start school. Cycle six begins on September 3rd, so more updates then.
Enjoy the rest of the summer,
Emma and Gregorio. xxx
PS Happy Birthday Caroline!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Another birthday
It has been a week of birthday celebrations for me. Gregorio took me out for a surprise evening with friends on Saturday evening. He would not give anything away despite my endless questioning. It turned out to be Paul McCartney in concert. At 67 he rocked the night away, ending with all the classics and fireworks. Gregorio, fireworks again on my birthday, grande, cosa puoi fare l'anno prossimo?! On Sunday we had a lovely BBQ with some of our dear DC friends, thankfully the skies cleared as the evening began. On my actual birthday on Tuesday, I had a very relaxing day with the family at the National Gallery, pool and dinner out. Thank you for all the birthday wishes.
I share my birthday with the person who coined the phrase "Yes we can!" And, as you know it has been very much a year in which we strive to believe we can beat the weed in Isabella's head. Today at the hospital, we said our official good-byes to her oncologist. He is sadly moving onto another hospital, he summed up how far we had come and what to expect in the coming months and years. He is cautiously optimistic for the future. We will complete cycle 8 at the end of the year and will then be monitoring the weeds with monthly visits to the clinic and MRI's every 3 months for the first two years.
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
Three chemo sessions down, one to go. We are almost counting the hours to our road trip north next Friday.
Love,
Emma & Gregorio xxx
I share my birthday with the person who coined the phrase "Yes we can!" And, as you know it has been very much a year in which we strive to believe we can beat the weed in Isabella's head. Today at the hospital, we said our official good-byes to her oncologist. He is sadly moving onto another hospital, he summed up how far we had come and what to expect in the coming months and years. He is cautiously optimistic for the future. We will complete cycle 8 at the end of the year and will then be monitoring the weeds with monthly visits to the clinic and MRI's every 3 months for the first two years.
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
Three chemo sessions down, one to go. We are almost counting the hours to our road trip north next Friday.
Love,
Emma & Gregorio xxx
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