Tuesday - 5 more treatments to go!!!!

I am REALLY lagging behind on blogging (aren't I cool using the term "blogging"?).  We had soooo much happen last week and everything is moving so fast.  I do have down time but please remember I am also working right now!  I promise, promise, promise to give all the fun stuff we did last week including a trip from the Lassen family!

Yesterday I was super sick - like I slept all day type of sick, like I would have canceled a presentation for work kind of sick.  Thankfully I don't get that way more than once every few years (once Erik and I were sooooo sick we had to call our superhero friend Vania to actually come and get Finn when he was around 8 months old and watch him a few hrs so we could both sleep - we still owe her for that one).  Erik took Finn with him to Elan's treatment at 8:30 AM.  This is of course because camp doesn't start until 9 AM... I couldn't do it - it was even "doctor day".  Erik did fantastic!  Elan's "doctor day" was in front of the stack of toys they usually give out on Fridays but the lovely Pat (seen in previous post at the Children's hospital) told Finn he could have a toy since he wasn't there on Friday - boy is she great!

So back to "doctor day"... Dr. Douglas actually said Elan was doing FANTASTIC!  He can't get over how he is acting as if he isn't even getting treatment!  Now I don't know if he says this to all the kids but who cares????  And compared to the others he seems to be doing great!

So we had plans yesterday to go to lunch with a lovely woman named Ruth from the local congregation at her home.  Because I was so stinkin' sick we had to cancel on her last minute... I was sooo looking forward to going over since number one she invited us and love to get to know the people here in the congregation and second, she is Swiss from the German speaking part and Erik and I lived in Germany for a few years so we really were looking forward to talking with her.   Well she wanted to take care of us after our canceling and she actually brought over homemade chicken soup (with kale!!! so have to get the recipe - super good!), yummy chicken (want the recipe too - had curry in it like the Germans do - Angie Shurg - best cook we knew there in particular did this one), green beans and rice plus an absolutely ADORABLE carved whale out of watermelon - like front of Martha Stewart magazine cute.  It had tons of watermelon and berries overflowing in it from another sister from the congregation named Michelle.  How kind, right?  She does this as kind of a hobby to make into a business - boy am I sold!  She is a Special Pioneer which means a person who has been assigned basically as a missionary to an area and volunteers at least 130 hours a month in the community to Bible education.  She is such a sweet heart and to do this for us!  We have been gorging ourselves with watermelon and Elan loves to squish it too.  We just felt unbelievably well taken care of.  I was beyond grateful for them since I was NOT up to cooking anything at all!  Erik woke me up 10 minutes before she was coming over to drop the stuff off and she was so sweet!  She even brought me some immune boosting herbs which I of course took and worked wonders (writing 24 hrs later and back to normal!)

She mentioned before she left that she actually had breast cancer that metastasized to the lymph nodes and is doing well so far.  She has been doing it by diet, exercise, breathing and herbs.  We are planning on talking further when I am not contagious - hopefully next Monday before we leave.  Here is an adorable photo of the whale!

Today was a difficult day (now talking about Tuesday).  Yesterday one of the  6 or kids who have AT/RT and was diagnosed around the same time as Elan passed away. His name was Jude and was only 6 months old.  He had JUST been legally adopted by them hours before his passing.  He was diagnosed after Elan was and really cuts to the heart and shows us what an awful cancer we are dealing with and aggressive.

We just really feel such gratitude to the Proton center for allowing us this treatment as well as all of the love and support from everyone!  All of the love shown and prayers for us are just so heart warming!  We know the road we are on is super tough but we are really able to enjoy so much fun family time and make great memories here!