Big Week

Grandpa Jim came to our house for a few days on his way to visit some friends. Ruby never missed a beat, calling him "Um-pa" and looking for him 100% of the time. She made it pretty impossible for him to resist her; he didn't do much other than sit on the floor with her, play with her, watch her eat, attend to her every request....good times.

On Tuesday, Ruby went to school and I went to the second 'transition' meeting for her. When she turns three, she will age out of Babies Can't Wait (the state service through which she receives some of her therapies). This transition moves her to a local public elementary school where she will receive preschool or therapies, or both. The meeting went VERY well. While nothing at all was decided in this meeting, the information I walked away with made me feel very hopeful about what is to come in the next few years for Ruby. The next step is an evaluation by a few therapists, followed by the IEP meeting. If you're a parent that's dealt with IEP's, you likely just cringed. I am hoping our first one goes well, and I am preparing as best I can to ensure Ruby receives what she needs in the next few years to set her up for 100% inclusion for Kindergarten.

Finally, today was spent at the clinic and hospital. Ruby had several pre-op appointments: cardiology for an echo cardiogram (her heart looks good), the Aflac clinic for a physical exam by her doctors and blood drawn (her ANC is 3750...higher than it's ever been since we've been testing it!!), pre-anesthesia on the surgery floor to check her out and to fill out all paperwork for her procedure tomorrow, and finally to the clinic to receive her final infusion through her central line (a medication she takes monthly to help protect her from infections).

In between all of that 'fun', we went to the Aflac Unit (where Ruby spent oh-so many days and nights in the last seven months) to deliver a basket of goodies to the nurses, techs, nurse practitioners, staff. We also had cards for about a dozen nurses that we really connected with during our time there; Ruby threw in a red stethoscope ID tag with her Team Ruby logo on it too.

Tomorrow is surgery day: Ruby will get her central line taken out! From here on out, she will only have to visit the clinic once/month to have blood drawn to check numbers. During this time she will take medication a few times a week to ward off infections while her bone marrow works out all of the kinks that come along with returning to 'normal' after chemotherapy. Eventually those visits will spread out and she'll only get checked once/year. We are super excited for the surgery to be completed, super excited to take a bath (she hasn't had one since August), super excited to become a survivor of childhood cancer.