A thousand words!

Our friend Nichole took these photos of Erica for her senior project at school! These were taken just before surgery, Thanks Nichole!

Tubies are Out

Just a quick note to let you know that the tubies are out and everything went really well with Erica's procedure this morning. In fact, we had a wonderful day. I will post again tomorrow with all the details (and photos)! We were able to get the tubes out, visit some very special people, get rid of the binkies and talk on the radio . . . all before noon.

Thank you for all of your prayers, this has been a long and emotional day. This day is now committed to memory~it feels like we were literally able to sever some ties today, even, perhaps, close a chapter.

All our love,
Meg, Bob and Erica

Nurse Wendi

Well, with only three more days of Broviac care to go, I cleaned out the basket that housed all of the Broviac supplies . . . gauze pads, silk tape, chlorohexadine swabs, alcohol wipes, heparin syringes, saline syringes, hypafix tape and caps. I just took what I needed to get us through Thursday and I got rid of the rest.

It's weird, I must say. I hope I am not making too big a deal about this . . . but it is, for lack of a better example, the public display of completion; a point from which we move forward. For example, Wendi.

Wendi is our home health nurse. She was here the first time that we brought Erica home after being diagnosed at 4 months old. And for over two years, she has come to our home multiple times a month to draw Erica's blood and examine her symptoms. Wendi was in our living room the first time Erica crawled . . . and she cried, just the same as we did. See, without the broviac, Wendi won't be coming to our home anymore. Quite frankly, I am sad about this, we will miss her so much.

Wendi was there to listen and, at times, set us straight. She knows the emotional roller coaster that we have been on and therefore, she was a nurse to all of us. Wendi has always shared our optimism, she knew that Erica would make it through this journey and even when times were sketchy, she stayed strong and positive . . . without ever sugar coating the facts.

There have been people, many people, throughout this journey that have been our "shepherds", guiding us down the path, at times, in darkness. These nurses and caregivers are amazing, how they do their jobs, year after year, sometimes in celebration and sometimes in loss, I will never know.

Today, we just want to tell Wendi "Thank You" and "We Love You". We are honored to call you our friend and we have been honored to work with you. God knows that we do not know what the future holds but for now, we just get to pause and say Thanks!

All our love and gratitude, Miss Wendi!
Meg, Bob and Erica

February 19th

That's the date, February 19th. Erica's surgery will be the first surgery of the day, 7:00am. We are all very excited, emotional on many levels and Erica is on board with the "bye-bye tubies" plan!

Please keep her in your prayers!

Lots of Love,
Happy Valentines Day!

Fun in the Snow

On the anniversary of Erica's bone marrow transplant we were playing in the snow, taking sled rides down the hills! Quite the contrast from just one year ago. It was great!

Erica is doing really, really well. All of the one-year tests came back clean and, in fact, the grown hormone levels are starting to climb.

The decision has been made to have her Broviac taken out. Bob and I are going to make the call on Monday and we'll schedule for surgery on a date that we are able to get her in first thing in the morning. This way she won't notice the 12 hours that she will need to be NPO. Just one more surgery sweet girl!

I've been telling Erica that her tubes are going to go "bye-bye" and now she looks at them and says, "bye-bye" and then looks at me like, "well, why are they still here?"

I'll keep you posted on the date and time of her surgery.

Thanks for checking in!
love-love-love!