Hannah’s Journey

It has been a while since I have updated. You would think since Hannah is getting a small break from chemo, that everything would be quiet. Unfortunately, that is just not Hannah’s style. Always have to have some excitement. The week after chemo, she got her usual transfusions of blood and platelets. No big deal. On Wednesday, July 6 (the day my vacation truly was going to start, since almost everyone would be out of the house) I was taking Hannah and Austin to camp. We went by way of the pediatrician for one last blood test. This, of course, made it necessary to detour the other direction to the city for blood and platelets. Talk about a lot of mumbling and complaining (I can’t believe this, we should have just skipped the blood test, they’ll never notice that if we don’t show up at the hospital, etc), from both kids. We finally made it to camp about 6 hours late, said our goodbyes and my vacation now really started. Until Thursday. Camp called, “don’t worry, she just needs platelets, we’ll transport her in one of ther nurse’s cars about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, just stay home and enjoy the quiet.” Around dinner time, Friday, the next call from camp. “Don’t worry, she’s fine, one of the kids broke out in shingles and she may have been exposed at the pool or cafeteria, so to be on the safe side, we need to transport down to the city for a 6 hour IV procedure of immune globulin, can you meet us there?” Now, chicken pox is very serious if you have a compromised immune system. The chemo Hannah is on surpresses her immunity to chicken pox, so if she is exposed, she can develop shingles. So, since Bill has a bad cold, I went down to the city with another mom from Goshen whose daughter also is getting chemotherapy and is at camp. The ambulance passed us right as we got to the hospital, they were expecting us at urgent care, remembered Hannah from that morning, and set us up. We left the hospital at around 2:30 a.m., stayed in a Holiday Inn downtown, and drove the girls back to camp by 2:00 p.m. today. They promised me at least 2 hours to unwind before they called us again. However, I did get to see Nathan and Austin. Nathan is exhusted from herding 7 and 8 year old boys, but all 3 kids are having a wonderful time. Colin, of course, thinks that being an only child has definite benefits.