holiday monday

Here is the picture I took of the first mask being made for the front of Aly's face.  They would only let us stay in the room long enough for us to watch this one, then they asked us to leave so they could complete all the other things they needed to do.  I am not used to having to leave.  At Children's we are able to stay with her most of the time. 
As I mentioned in the last post, besides this front mask they also took a mold of the back of her head.  She had to make an impression of her back in a foam piece as well, so she will lay in one position during treatments.  This is crazy stuff!

The boys left for home today.  I'm glad it was a very early morning flight because I was too tired to think about how much I'll miss them.  Although when I got back in the car after saying goodbye, Aly's comment was, "I'm not surprised you are a little teary."  But now, of course, I am thinking about that.  I hate that this is all happening during Tom's senior year.  Of course, I wish none of this was happening at all and Aly was healthy again.  It just seems like our total focus has been on all things medical and I sometimes feel that Tom is getting slighted in the attention department.  I know he is gaining independence and will soon be gone from under our wings so it is difficult to be missing this time away from him even if it is not a long period of time. 
I have the challenge of keeping Aly and myself busy during these weeks.  Aly already asked what we are going to do today.  I'm hoping this challenge won't prove to be too difficult.  At least we have great technologies these days to help us keep in contact with family and friends far away.  This week, before treatments start will be a good opportunity to have Aly Skype into her homeroom.  I'm hoping that will help her feel like she is still a part of the middle school community.  We also received some science homework before we left.  She will have appointments to set up with other doctors as well.  They want to do a baseline of her hearing, vision and cognitive abilities so they can tell if the radiation is affecting her in anyway.  Her vision is still impaired, by the way.  They are still hopeful that it will improve more as healing continues.  I am anxious to see an eye specialist again to get their opinion.  That is one thing we couldn't fit in before we left for Florida.  At the same time I am so worried that radiation will negatively affect things.  I want Aly to have the best quality of life she can.  It is not fair that innocent kids have to go through this horrible disease. 
Ok, enough of that.  We found out our address.  It is a little deceiving as we are not right by the sea.  It sounds like a lovely beach front address, but most addresses are like that down here.

4790 Seascape Way #206
Jacksonville, FL 32224

Now we just have find out where the mailbox actually is in this complex!  :)