I hope all you Moms had a great mother's day yesterday. For me, it seemed to be a day of reflection. I had a good day. It is hard not to, when my wonderful daughter worked so hard to make it such a great day for me! She made me earrings and a bracelet. She drew the wonderful artwork (above) on our driveway. She worked secretly, with Kevin, to order a necklace I really wanted. I was doing dinner dishes (which weren't many because we grilled) and she told me to go sit down because I wasn't supposed to do that on Mother's Day! I know I've said it before, but she is so caring and giving and always wants to please. Kevin made scrambled eggs for breakfast and went out and picked up some donuts. Then Kevin and Aly took me shopping for some flowers for my flower pots. We worked on getting Aly's pool ready for summer and ended the evening with burgers on the grill. It was a lovely day.
It was also a day of reflection. We received an email, from Hope Kids, with a note and prayer for moms. We just signed up to be a part of Hope Kids. It is a group for kids who are or were going through health issues such as cancer. They set up activities for the child and their siblings and parents to take part in. It is also a chance to meet other families going through similar experiences. They always have a number of activities that we can attend. We haven't attended any quite yet, but Kevin and Tom are going to attend a Twin's game tomorrow...Anyways, the note talked about how, for some moms, it may be a difficult day as they may have experienced the loss of a child. I am so very grateful that Aly made it through her cancer experience, but I also thought a lot about those moms who have lost their child, not only from cancer, but from other types of losses as well. It has been hard to watch the local news lately. There are so many families still dealing with grief, still dealing with a child who currently is battling cancer. For them, it is hard to celebrate and enjoy Mother's Day. I said a prayer for those moms that are hurting, hoping they may find peace and healing.
I couldn't stop thinking about my kids growing up and how fast the time goes either. Aly caught me getting teary eyed a couple of times. Aly had also dug in our "office" and found creations they had made, from previous years, for Mother's Day. I save them! Anyways, she had spread them out on the dining table. There was one, that Kevin had put together, that had a picture of Tom and of Aly when they were younger. There was a picture of Tom when he was about 4 and a different picture of Aly when she was about 6 or 7 I think. They both looked so happy and healthy. It just brought back such good memories. It just made me yearn for those days. It's been hard for me to see Tom become an adult, be away at school, and see that it seems so easy for him to separate himself from us. I don't know if it is harder because cancer makes you want to hold your kids closer and not want to let them go?? It's just been hard. It doesn't help that he didn't really seem to remember that it was Mother's Day! Granted he had to work most of the day, but I had to pretty much beg him to spend an hour with me...I teased him that his girlfriend texted me, right away in the morning, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. I'm hoping Aly will take a long time to lose the desire to want to hang out with me! :)
Anyways, things have been going smoothly, otherwise...knock on wood. We had a good, fast trip to Nebraska to pick Tom up from school. The weather was awful. Nebraska greeted us with rain, that turned to freezing rain overnight. Our return was the day after Iowa and Southern MN was dumped on with snow. Our drive home was messy! It must've been really bad overnight because there were dozens of cars and semi's in the ditches. We had rain mixed with snow the whole way home. Aly and I were in Kevin's truck and the boys were in Tom's car. We got about 30 minutes outside of Lincoln and I thought about Aly's growth hormone medication. It has to be refrigerated and I didn't remember seeing Aly pack it back up. Why I couldn't have thought of that before we left the hotel is beyond me!! So, Aly and I turned around and went back. The boys continued on. It was not exactly fun to add the extra hour onto the messy drive, but we made it home safely. As soon as we hit Northfield, MN, the snow was no more.
Aly has been doing good. It seems the jaw locks have been decreasing. I'm praying that they are going away! She's been getting the hiccups a lot. I think that radiation really messes with the nerves. I'm sticking to that theory, because the doctors have no clue. If you remember, Aly had the episodes where all the muscles, on one side of her face, would tighten up. That went away, then it was the jaw locks, and now it is hiccups. Maybe it just needs time to settle down and normalize?
We have a day long session set up, at the hospital, on June 11. They are starting a new system where you make one appointment and all the doctors come to see you! It makes for a long day, but I think it will work great to see everyone at once and maybe it will help to get everyone on the same page. She will start the day with her 2 hour MRI of brain and spine. Then she'll see her cancer doctor, the neurologist and physical therapist. She will also have a hearing exam and echocardiogram. The chemo she had, sometimes causes issues with hearing and other things. So far, everything has been good. Again...knock on wood.
Aly has had a good week at school. She was elected to the Executive Student Council! This means that she will be on student council through 8th grade. She will not have to "run" for the next 2 years, which will finish off her middle school career. She was super excited! I believe she is going to be an unbelievable leader as she gets older! Today, she talked to one of her teachers to see if they could have a "grey day" at school. As I mentioned, May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month. She talked to me, on Friday, and said she'd, "really like to raise more awareness about brain cancer, because not a lot of kids are aware that it is Brain Cancer Month." I told her that is a great idea, and asked if she wanted me to help. She said she wanted to handle it herself, so kudos to her! She came home, today, and said there are steps involved to make it happen, which may take awhile, so they are not sure if it will happen in time for May. I hope it does! She REALLY wants to make it happen...THINK GREY...YOUR GREY MATTERS! :)
