Packing Up

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Some days I feel like if we're not packing, we're unpacking. There is a constant filling and unfilling of bags and cars, and no matter how many times I do it, I still haven't mastered it. But today is packing up to go home, so none of that matters. (Read: it's all thrown randomly in any bag I can find.)

Yesterday was a good day. Ruby chose to make it eventful by coming unhooked from her chemo (her second time doing that). There was no haz-mat team this time though because I saw the instant it came unhooked and the nurse came right in to help me. I had her in her crib, watching a speech video (more on that in a minute) and I had changed her diaper and checked her connections just a few minutes before. As I sat back down to my knitting, I looked up at her getting herself settled in a corner of her crib and I saw the chemo tube fall away from the Ruby tube.

The bad news with chemo or blood products (we've done that too!) coming unhooked is that it potentially slows down her discharge because we have to order new chemo and get her rehooked. The good news (and I think she knows this), is that it gives her free, unhooked time while we wait on the chemo. Since this is not my first rodeo, the minute the nurse hep locked her this time, I grabbed Ruby out of her crib, threw on her shoes and we did laps around the Aflac Unit until the new chemo arrived (maybe ten minutes?). When I say we did laps, this girl ran (almost), and belly laughed, and swung her little arms, and loved every minute of it.

So why was Ruby hanging out in her bed? This whole trip has found Ruby very energetic. VERY energetic, and not too keen on sleep. She's been routinely wired until 9 or 10PM (at home she's snoring by 8PM at the latest), and she's woken up before the sun, standing in her crib and saying, "Up! Peeeze!" sometime between 5:45 and 6:30AM. I was determined to not have that be the case again last night, so I didn't put her down for a nap today. Instead we watched a speech video for about an hour and powered through the afternoon. As expected, Ruby was fine with this. At 7:45, she could not keep her eyes open anymore. She even slept through being hooked up to fluids at 8:15. And this morning? 7:15. (I'll take it!)

So here we are, at the end of the 5th chemo admission (the end of the 5th round is when her counts recover, in about three weeks), still amazed at how well our girl is doing. Thanking God every day for the gifts He has given us through, and in, this process.