The Barnes (Mom's version)

Christi's counts are now starting to drop, which is to be expected. She was still feeling well this morning so on her six hour "get out of the hospital" pass, we drove to the city limits and spent over three hours at "The Barnes". Much to our delight, the girls throughly enjoyed this incredible art museum featuring work of our favorite periods (impressionist and post-impressionist) and arisits (Manet, Renoir, Gaugin, Degas, Cezanne, Matiss, and Seurat.). After enjoying the intimate museum-only open on the weekends and often selling out months in advance, the girls played on the spacious and lovely grounds where we earlier had a picnic. Christi created a scavenger hunt and the girls beat Daddy- not that anyone is surprised. Hours later, the girls wanted to come back to the wonderful Ronald McDonald House to play together before Christi and Shayne have to return to spend yet another night at CHOP.

We praise Him that all is going according to plan and Mrs. Smith shall arrive here before 7:00 AM. (We're very happy about having her spend the week with us; yet, sadly that means Daddy is driving back home tomorrow.) Christi counts should continue to fall. I expect her to need both blood and platelet transfusions on Tuesday and it's not too early to start praying that she avoids a fever this week. A fever would put her inpatient for ten days and would mean that she would miss the "Poker Run" fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House and also her ballet and jazz recital.

TODAY'S BLOOD COUNTS:
white 5.8
Hemoglobin 9.2
Platelets 37
ANC 5510

Christi's Funny: A sleepy Christi was resting under her blanket this morning when the nurse came in to hook up more meds. The nurse asked, "Where's her IV pole?" to which Christi responded with a fit of giggles, "We sold it on E-bay!" (We've never sold anything on ebay, but that's a standard joke at our house when we misplace something.)