You all make me cry!

I haven't cried about Victoria or our family's situation in a while. I've gotten over that for now and figured out how to keep going. That's not to say that I'm not still going through Kleenex like I've got stock in the company. What makes me cry now, on an almost daily occurrence, is how incredibly generous and kind our family, friends, coworkers and even people I barely know or who I've only known for a short time have been. Even just everyone's thoughtful messages are helping us to get through this. Monkey's continue to be made by people who could give Santa's elves a run for their money, food fills our freezer, gas and expenses get paid for with more than generous donations, and Jake has never been so entertained with the wonderful family members who have become his second parents. People wonder how I'm managing to get back into work or how we are coping as well as we are? It's because you are all helping us. We are so thankful!

This week we received a special gift for the kids. My old school, Hemmingford Elementary, sent us two huge stockings for the kids. Actually, it was two huge beautifully quilted stockings, each with a smaller stocking attached. I'm not sure if we were supposed to wait until Christmas but I was too excited to see what they contained. I used the unwrapping of the gifts as a distraction for Victoria one morning, when she wasn't allowed to eat, while waiting for a procedure. The stocking will be used for many more Christmases, Victoria has already slept with her quit and the gifts are all perfect for them. A BIG thank you to everyone involved!!!

Today we met with Tori's oncologist. She had her test results and the good news is that her minimal residual disease testing came back negative!!!!!! This means that they can not detect any leukemia in her bone marrow and she is actually in remission :-)  That was the goal of her first month of treatment. The following 23 months of chemo are to keep it this way, crazy eh? Her next phase of chemo starts tomorrow.  We have been given the breakdown of all the phases that remain and what the treatment is for each of them.
She hasn't had a fever in 2 days and she has been cleared for surgery to have her port reinserted. This should happen by Monday at the latest. The bad news is that she needs to be on her IV antibiotics for 6 weeks after her blood cultures started coming back negative. That takes us to about January 14th. She needs to be on the IV and with the new chemo her immune system will be knocked back down again so it's the best place for her. At least now we can plan. It's hard when you have no clue as to how long you will be there for. 

 Victoria's monkey hat made by a patient at the Kemptville clinic. Despite her facial expression, she likes it a lot but also think's it's Minnie Mouse's hat too!

These stockings are huge, almost the width of our table.

                                         

The Sens came to CHEO last week. Victoria was in isolation so she could only see them through the glass. Jeff got a picture and some signed cards. He looks pretty happy, imagine if it had been the Habs!

The mother of a little boy, who has been fighting the same kind of leukemia as Victoria, makes hats for children with cancer. Today, we received a beautiful red Christmas hat. Victoria loves it and wore it around the hospital this afternoon.