from Indiana

We are in Indiana! The visit to Hershey Medical went fine. Alivia's counts were all down. The WBC's were down to 84.5 (good but remember high for a normal person is 19) and both her RBC's and plateletes were down. So the hydroxyurea (remembered how to spell it) is working...but hopefully not working too well on the RBC's and plateletes. Our next visit is Monday to check counts again. Hopefully that will be a quick trip too. They got blood on the first try and all the nurses think it was just a positional thing. Thank God...all the other options would have required surgery to fix. The bone marrow came back and suprise, suprise it was almost identical to the last one. They have all 5 been identical. Maybe we can not have one for a while now. So the next step is to keep bugging Johns Hopkins till they give us an appointment.

I only had one small bit of crying today. I was outside a patient room waiting for the doc to get down with something and I could hear the little boy inside crying over and over "I don't like it"!! Couldn't have said it better myself.

Andrew got on the road around 3 so he'll be in Indiana around 11. Can't wait to see him. At one time in our lives we fought about just about everything but over the last few years we have both grown up a lot and now are friends. I miss him when he's away (which is a lot since he doesn't live close) and get so excited to see him. He loves Alivia so much...in the beginning I don't think he knew what to do with this little baby but now he just can't get enough. Thanks Andrew it means the world to me. Can't wait to see you.

I mentioned yesterday that I am going to start collecting a new item to take to the Hershey Medicical Clinic with me. Well here are the details. After a child gets blood drawn, gets a bone marrow biopsy or spinal tap (older kids get these done in the office under local anesthesia) or just sees the doc they get to pick a toy out of this big treasure box. Often parents bring in donations for the box cause the pickens can get pretty slim. Right now there are about 50 of the same pink horse and not much else. So I want to start collecting things for the box. In the past there have been activity books, small games, or toys from fast food resteraunts. The toys need to be brand new and preferable in the wrapper. Most of the toys are little and under $5. Another really cool thing that people do is knit hats for the kids who have lost their hair. Over the next month and a half I will be collecting these things. So if you go out for a fast food meal and can afford it buy a toy or if you are in the dollar store and there are activity books buy one. Then you can send them to me, hand them to me in church or give them to my parents or James' parents. I won't take them to Hershey Med. till the first week of November. So if you can it would be another great way to bless someone going through cancer treatment. Thanks ahead of time.