Tuesday August 14th, Barely Keeping Our Heads Above Water

We had to wake all three kids up this morning; I barely dragged myself out of bed too for some reason.  Once the girls were all ready for school we got Ingram up and dressed to go to the hospital for his labs.  Thankfully Craig was still here and it was like we were both doing double duty trying to get everyone out the door with everything done...teeth brushed, hair brushed (well for the girls), breakfast, more studying for Madison, and on and on and on.  We can multi-task pretty well, but I really think we need some more arms, legs, ears, and mouths here to help get it all done.  We can't forget Beau or else he'll eat another part of our nice living room chair or the couch in the den or the outdoor furniture while we're not looking!  I feel certain that if he didn't play such a big role in Ingram and the girls life, he wouldn't be part of the family anymore.

Ingram had a great time at St. Jude today; it was one of our shorter days so that meant nap time happened too!  First up, he got accessed and didn't even cry.  He weighed 14.2kg/31.24lbs. which is on the low side, but then again he doesn't want to eat since he gags a lot nowadays and nothing sounds good too.  Angela, his speech gal, came to get him to take him back and he took off running with her while I was still sitting in my chair getting our stuff together.  Since he didn't look back, I stayed in the chair and got some things done while he played Penguins and Connect 4 which is how he works on his letters. 

His counts are nice and low but that's exactly where they're supposed to be right now.  It means the chemo is working to destroy stuff inside his body and that's good, even though his immune system at is zero right now.  He will continue to wear a mask till we go back Friday...yes Friday!  Woohoo!! We're home bound till then unless he has a fever of some sort then we load up in the car and head to St. Jude. 

Tonight we also said goodbye to the Rowlands.  What was just supposed to be about an hour turned into a 5 hour celebration...on a school night .  I know, what was I thinking???    But I guess when you've known folk for all your life, it's a little hard to say leave.  Stephan beat us to the hospital when we were headed in with Ingram and Chris came to our house to pray with the girls as they were scared out of their minds before anyone else knew what was going on.  The girls are already planning a trip to the Dominican Republic to visit them with Craig to make some new memories too!
 
Please continue to keep everyone that has cancer and other catastrophic diseases in your prayers whether they're children or adult patients.  It affects kids, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and even friends too.  We're only five months into our lifelong fight against cancer and it's a hard battle that reaches into every aspect of our lives.  We can't imagine how we would be getting through life right now without our Hope in God, prayers for Ingram and our family, and help from family, friends, and even strangers. 



 

"Be quiet Mommy!  They don't know where I am!"

Super Ingram...Flying to the Rescue!!