Bracing ourselves

The last week of June was a bit of a whirlwind. I was entertaining clients (as part of my contract job at www.keyevents.com) from New Zealand and staying overnight in the city after a long day of venue site inspections on June 28. Brian had taken Millie in for a blood draw (her first since December!) earlier that day at Kaiser in Petaluma. She was an absolute champ, according to Brian- she didn't cry and bravely allowed the phlebotomist to draw several vials of blood for routine testing.

As I was settling in to my hotel room late that night, I received an email from the lab on her results. I skimmed the counts and stopped at "Eosinophils"- which were rated far above the normal range. I know better, but I did it. I Googled "elevated eosinophils" on my smartphone. There, at 11 O'Clock at night, overworked and overtired, I read the unthinkable. The elevation can be a symptom of a tumor or leukemia. (Or allergies). I immediately emailed Brian to call our case worker first thing in the morning about this elevated eosinophil situation. Brian, like me, knew better but Googled it anyway- and neither of us slept.

The doctors say it is a symptom of allergies- and that if we were looking at another fearful conclusion we would see other areas of her bloodcounts elevated as well. With one suspicious eye cocked at Kaiser, we've agreed to let this one go.

We followed the scare with an 11 day family vacation that Brian orchestrated. We visited wonderful friends in Port Townsend, Bellingham, and Seattle Washington and visited cities in Oregon as well. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins in Seattle and met new friends in Port Townsend and Bellingham. It was a perfect family roadtrip.

Upon return we were back at Kaiser Oakland for a pedi-rehab appointment this week for Millie. It turns out that her drop foot has not improved over the last 10 months, which brings many questions to the rehab specialist. We may be dealing with simply the slow progress of nerve regeneration or it may be something more serious if the peronial nerve was somehow sewn over or impeded by scar tissue from her tumor-removal surgery. The bottom line is that she must go back into a brace and do extensive physical therapy to rehabilitate her foot. She is not particularly thrilled about this, nor are we as these fancy braces are very costly!

Millie and Griffin start school on Monday (they go to a "modified year-round" school)- which will be an unpleasant change in habit to these talented sleepers. They have loved summer vacation, and Millie has been swimming nearly every day (after sleeping until 9!)

We have a full set of scans due in August-including CT, bone scan, and MRI. We are grateful for your positive thoughts, energy, and prayers.