Dreams and diversions

Mandy spent most of her day on Friday strung out on Ativan, a narcotic anti-nausea medication. She was sick the minute she got up on Friday morning. As soon as I got more Ativan in her, she did better. I hate giving her that stuff, but it is the only thing that helps on days like that. So, it is what it is. Most kids it knocks them out, but Mandy is a drunk college girl. She is giggly, goofy, staggering around and when it wears off she gets sick and crashes hard. Benadryl does the same thing to her. Makes both Alannah and Zachary unconscious....Mandy, on the other hand, it totally hypes her up.

We had some decisions to make this weekend. We discussed at length Mandy's wish of Hawaii. Ronnie and I came to the conclusion that it is just too far. It is a 5+ hour flight from California to Hawaii and 5 or so hours from here to California. Plus, it scares us to have the potential for being over the middle of the Pacific and needing a Doc RIGHT NOW. So, we had kind of decided to steer her towards The Atlantis, what was originally her second choice. The Atlantis resort has been advertising heavily lately on Nickelodeon, with ads geared towards attracting kids. Sunday afternoon, she was taking a rest in our room and watching tv. She came out and asked, 'Can we go to the Atlantis instead of Hawaii? I just saw another commercial and it just looks so cool!' Yup, baby, we sure can ask.

So, the really exciting news is Kristin from Children's Dream Fund called this afternoon to let us know that she was already on it and that has already gotten The Atlantis Resort APPROVED! Mandy was THRILLED!!!! As were Alannah and Zachary! Thanks so much to Kristin for being so quick to make Mandy's dream come true! The Atlantis looks awesome! www.atlantis.com/ For my kids, who are total water freaks and would sooner swim than walk, it is like Nirvana! Thanks, Kristin for making that happen! She even said that they often work with Angel Flights and that she may be able to have us fly over on a private plane, instead of going commercial! How cool would that be?! It is all volunteer based, and with the price of gas these days, it may not happen that way, but commercial or private we are beyond excited! No dates yet, but may be as soon as the late summer.

In other medical news, no word yet on rescheduling the impending MRI. She has a rash right now, on the skin above and around her port. It is a sandpaper-ish rash that itches. I will call the Doc in the morning to ask about it. I am pretty certain it is something topical and nothing to worry about.

Only 6 more days of school left! This is great news in a lot of ways and yucky news in one. As soon as school is out, I am officially unemployed. They were so sweet and let me work 3 days a week after Mandy was diagnosed for the rest of this school year, but that isn't an option next year. I need to find some job I can do in the middle of the night from home...some data entry thing would be great. Or better yet, winning the lottery...but oddly, I think you have to buy a ticket for that, and I am so not a lottery ticket buying kind of girl. :-)

That's about it. Back to chemo on Thursday. Thanks for checking on her. Love to all~