Sunday, May 23, 2010

One Year

Early on in one of my blog posts I wrote about how much difference a week can make. It was a week before Clara Jean's first surgery, her big surgery, and I was anticipating everything that was going to happen because of the "bump".


Well, now I am thinking, "what a year". It has been a year ago this week, that the bump showed up. A year ago this week that changed our lives. It was a Sunday night that Clara said she had a bump on her head. Monday the pediatrician looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. Wednesday there was a CT scan and Thursday the phone call that I can still hear. "It is a tumor."


Since then Clara Jean has had 3 surgeries, two more CT scans, 5 MRIs, countless x-rays, 13 rounds of chemotherapy and has taken medicine at home more times than I can even count. We have spent 6 nights in the ER and spent just under a week in the hospital, back in the fall. We have also seen the endocrinologist 3 times, the pulmonologist 4 times and the pediatrician lots of times.

Right now, my baby girl is in remission. There is an 80% chance that she'll never have to go through all this again. There will be check-ups and scans. But she's an old pro when it comes to that stuff. And so am I.

Clara Jean finished this school year (having missed 50 days and having 25 early dismissals) with a fabulous report card. She worked so hard all year. Not just on school work, but on getting well and getting on with her life. That is one of the amazing things about kids. They don't give up. They keep on, keepin' on. And Clara Jean has done just that. I am so proud of her.