The best part of the Story

 

I have totally neglected my blog, but I feel the pull to return to it. The last post had my little granddaughter Gracie in the hospital. She declinedsteadily until doctors decided she needed to be mediflighted to Cincinatti to prepare for the bone marrow transplant.

Little McCoey flew out to be with Jeff and me while his family was in chaos. He was such a little angel, it was incredible. (I hear he saved up all the naughtiness he didn’t spend here to pour out on his parents’ heads when he got home after three weeks.)

So Walt flew with her, since Tricia was nursing Carina and couldn’t be separated. Tricia also caught a cold and couldn’t follow Gracie until she got over it.

But then the miracles we had all been praying for began pouring in. As soon as Gracie got to Cincinatti, her new doctors re-ran the tick panel. They all knew that tick panels are notorious for false results when taken too early. She had already had the whole panel, but this second time, LO! She had indeed been infected with a tick-born disease. (Not anything I had heard of.) But that infection was easily treated with antibiotics. As soon as they began the appropriate antibiotics for the infection, the HLH receded until it went away on its own. So the chemo had fought it off long enough for the tick panel to come back with accurate results.  Ironically, she never got any chemo or other treatment in Cincinatti, other than the appropriate antibiotics.

Doctors do not believe that there is any significant chance of recurrance.

Of course the steriods and chemo do have side effects. Grace had been sick for so long that she was left weak and with dramatic weight gain. Now, almost 6 months later, she’s back to her normal weight and is getting strong, too.

Before the events, she had been non-verbal. Now she’s quite a little chatterbox.  She’s thriving and happy, though she has developed a penchant for coloring on things she should not.  But I’m sure that every little naughty thing she does creates a dilemma. How blessed we are that she’s here to be naughty! (Of course, she’s not coloring on MY walls!)

Tricia missed Thomas and Katie’s wedding because Grace was in the hospital. But all seven of our children were in the temple with us for the first time at Chris’s and Lexi’s wedding. I truly felt that I could die that day with no regrets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good things are happening with my writing, too. But more on that SOON! Lots of things are “in the works,” but I’m still waiting to see how events will unfold.