Dance Like No One is Watching

Here is one of my favorite pictures from our time at the prom on Saturday. At first Hannah just wanted to be left alone on the dance floor ... it was so cute to see her on the dance floor without a care in the world ... no thoughts of hospital stays, port accessing, doctors, scans, surgeries, etc.

It was a dream evening for a girl with a critical illness!

This morning was back to reality of life with Aplastic Anemia.

My alarm was set & we got up for our "clinic day". We dropped Lily off with Aunt Kim & then got to the clinic by 9:40. Hannah had a total meltdown when the nurses came to access her port. All the issues with her port have just built up & built up and I don't blame her one bit for not being able to take it anymore! After a lot of tears & discussion, we talked with Dr. Horvath, who thankfully suggested we go downstairs to the regular blood lab & have Hannah's blood drawn from an IV in her arm versus having her port accessed in the clinic. Hannah was in heaven ... especially since the girl who works in the lab is amazing & could probably find a vein in the dark! Hannah's blood got drawn without any drama -- thank you, Lord -- 45 minutes later the office called to say Hannah's results were back & we don't have to return to the clinic until Friday when she will probably need red blood cells & platelets. Her numbers today were 1.3 wbc, 7.6 hemoglobin, 48 platelets. I talked to Dr. Horvath briefly about going to City of Hope for a consultation for a bone marrow transplant & she is getting the ball rolling for us. I asked her if she thought we were headed down that road & her response was "I hope not."

I can't think too much about all the negatives, all the bad things about this terrible disease & the potentially devastating outcome. All my over thinking recently is enough to make a girl not sleep & constantly overeat. I swear by the time Hannah is well I will be over 200 pounds at the rate I am going!?!

Tonight we had a mini-family-American Idol party. We all drank out of the light-up cups that we got at the prom! Right now Jim & Hannah are busy working the phones for Kris Allen. Wish the voting was for Danny but oh well! Hannah is calling our house the "phone factory" because they are dialing from multiple phones :-)!

For tonight, I am thankful for our little American Idol party, the singing that Hannah did in Aunt Kim's pool today, the huge hug she gave me this evening, the way that Lily peeks around her car seat to see her sister while we are driving & the way my Hannah is constantly day-dreaming about her Make-A-Wish trip.

These are good days.

We are home and I can only be thankful!

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? ..." Psalm 27:1