Preparing for Departure

We are happy and most grateful that Christi continues to feel well!! She was invited to do some ceramics with one of her best friends, Kaylyn, this afternoon bringing her a lot of joy.

Today was one of errand running for me as we are Philadelphia bound - flying out early tomorrow morning. I was able to catch sweet Tiffany (a Heidelberg College student and daughter of my dear friend Lori) as she had 13 inches of her gorgeous hair cut at the “Head Shed”. It will soon be mailed off for “Locks of Love”. What a sweetie!

Dr. Maris has “firmed up” some plans for us. He feels Christi needs to remain in Philadelphia so that she can be close to the hospital and to his care when the need arises (weeks of chemo, nutripenic hospitalizations, blood transfusions, etc.). He believes that we were “very lucky” last time, when her ANC was zero (no immune system) that she didn’t get an infection and that I got her to CHOP just when her fever started. It would be very dangerous not to be so lucky in the future; therefore, Shayne and I have agreed to his advice and we will be spending a longer time than we had hoped in the city of brotherly love. (Of course I didn’t know this when I purchased our tickets so we will be flying home late Friday night.) But now we will only be home about 4 days because we have purchased one way tickets back to Philly on March 8th. (Yes, that “one-way” scares me a bit, yet I know we will get home – sometime.)

When I told Christi of the change in plans (that we’d be gone one week, home for 4 days, then gone for a long time) she just asked if she’d be home for her 9th birthday (May 12th). I told her that I didn’t know, but that I hoped so and if not we could probably get some of her friends to come to Philadelphia to visit her at Ronald or in the hospital. Dr. Maris’s plan is to do 2-4 more cycles of chemo and then to switch to something less toxic. I do believe the “less toxic” options are current clinical trials and most of those are oral and could be done at home. We’ll just have to see how her disease behaves (while trying not to miss Shayne and Shayla………..and Buttercup and Buckeye) too much.

Our address at the Ronald House will be:
The Thomas team - Christi & Angela
Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House
3921 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-387-8406

Thank you, dear prayer warriors!

PS: Buttercup is now “tolerant” of little Buckeye, but that’s it. Maybe by the time we get home they’ll be friends. Christi made a food dish for Buckeye today – just like she made one for Buttercup when we lived in the Ronald House in NYC. (Thanks, Goshes!)