Headaches

Oh my, Clara Jean is having headaches again. For about two weeks now she has been complaining pretty much non-stop that her head hurts. Truthfully, I was ignoring her, blowing it off. Maybe it was a defense mechanism on my part. But on Monday her teacher called me to come get her from school. CJ had been complaining about her head hurting and was feeling really tired. I told Mrs. Heep that she has been complaining of her head hurting a lot and she said, "yes, she has." So not only is she complaining to me, but she is complaining at school. I called Dr. Whitlock's office.

When the nurse called me back she told me to take her to the pediatrician and have her checked out to rule out other causes before our next chemo treatment on Monday. She also said to have her blood pressure checked. Sometimes steroids can cause high blood pressure and high blood pressure can cause headaches.

I called Nurse Molly at school and asked her if she could check CJ's blood pressure. She did and it was fine. Then I called Dr. Mangrum's office and made an appointment.

This morning we went to see Dr. Mangrum. He checked her out from head to toe. Nothing. No signs of a sinus infection, ear infection, migraines. He recommended that she be scanned again. I asked him what the chances of the disease coming back, during her chemo treatments. He reminded me that nothing about this disease, and more specifically, nothing about Clara's treatment, has been typical. Now remember, her last CT was clear. But LCH is is fast and sneaky. So that makes me nervous. Also, the scans can be clear even after symptoms present themselves. So she could have pain and a clear scan but then a month later a tumor shows up.

Please pray for her. Clara is terrified. In fact, it wasn't until yesterday that she told me that the pain is mostly right in the spot where the tumor was. She said that she was too scared to tell me. She keeps asking me these "what if" questions and I am doing a decent job with my standard answer. We deal with what we know and give the worries to God.

Holiday World

Clara Jean spent those few nights in the hospital right after we went to Holiday World. So, I forgot to share about all the fun we had. Here are some of the highlights.

While Tom took Emma and CJ on a roller coaster, Lillie, Della and I hung out.

Lillie and Della Jane, fighting over the steering wheel!

Della winning!

Yep, our car broke down, in the middle of the road!

Ahhh...free drinks!

Della trying to decide what to do next. Daddy was taking the other girls on a BIG ride, again!

She picked the canoe ride. I wish I had this on tape. She had both hands in the water trying to make the "little boat" go faster!

All four of my girls!

Clara waiting on the waves.

Can you tell they are freezing? The water was sooo cold. I took this picture right after Della took off and went down that blue slide, by herself.

Clara peeking over the railing at me!

Tom and the girls coming down the slide. They went on this about 6 times in a row!

Tom, Lillie, Emma and Clara on The Legend.

Chemo week

(I wrote this on November 1 and never posted it.)

This past week was a chemo week. I have lost track of how many treatments Clara Jean has had. And to be honest, I don't know how many she has to have, only that she will have treatments until sometime in January. And from where I am sitting, that is a LONG way off. I know that it really isn't, but the past 5 months have been the longest of my life.

With Clara having 2 weeks off now, between chemo treatments, life is starting to feel a little normal again. This last break, she felt better than she has felt since this started. One of the hardest parts for me is to watch my once rambunctious, full of energy little girl, sit and watch her sisters play. She'd tell me she was too tired. I used to want her to calm down, sit still. Now all I want her to do is run and yell and laugh. Finally, over the last break, she started to do that.

We went to South Carolina over fall break to visit my parents. Lillie turned 12 while we were there visiting! We celebrated by going to a corn maze/hay ride/pumpkin patch/zip line/rope swing place. (There was even more stuff than that, but I can't remember it all.) Anyway, the girls all loved it! Heck, the adults loved it. It was so fun.

Isn't it wonderful to sit back and watch your kids play? Do you ever do that? I know, we're busy and who has time to sit, right? Life is too short to spend it working and cleaning and cooking and doing laundry. I know, all of those things have to be done. But your kids are only kids for a little while. Play with them, while they still want you to. I found a chair near the rope swings and watched my kids swing and laugh, over and over. Not a care in the world. Even Clara. That girl had bruises on the inside of her thighs from the ropes! It was so wonderful to see the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye.