Changes

Fourteen years ago today, I was big as a house. Small children could find shelter from the storms under my GINOURMOUS pregnant belly, Indian elephants had ankles smaller than mine and no brownie inside of a ten mile radius was safe from me. Today, I dropped off my first born baby at orchestra camp for two weeks. She is excited, but nervous. I just got a text from her telling me goodnight and that she loves me and misses me. She is such a good kid, if I do say so myself. She turns 14 on Friday. How the heck did that happen? Seems like only yesterday she was spitting up on me every two seconds, pronouncing milk "gunk" and swearing she was going to marry Winnie the Pooh when she grew up. Now she is a socially conscious young woman who I am told looks just like her Momma when she was 14. I still like her and she still likes me, which for a mother/teenage daughter team is a heckuva triumph. We will go down to camp and take her out to dinner to celebrate on Friday. It was quite a different scene than the crazed testosterone laden day dropping Zachary off at his camp. This was a college dorm full of a bunch of geeky, instrument toting, artsy types teenagers. The mother ship has landed for my geeky, instrument toting, artsy teenage daughter.

Meanwhile, Mandy has come up with a book idea for me. Ronnie and I were talking about this website and he VERY jokingly said something about it being a book. Mandy was on board with the idea and came up with a title. Her suggestion, "Diary of a Tired Mom." Really, 'nuff said on that one.

Mandy has a rough week ahead of her. After much soul searching, we have decided to switch clinics. We are moving from St Joe's to All Children's. All Children's has a pediatric neuro-oncologist on staff, which would be very beneficial for Mandy, who has numerous brain tumors. Switching is going to be very, very hard and this was not a decision we came to easily and on a lot of levels it breaks my heart. I do really believe it is the best thing for her though. Change is never easy and this is going to be even harder. Also, due to the allergic reaction she had to one of her chemo drugs, Carboplatin, last time, her treatment is going to be a bit different this time. They will be premedicating with Benadryl and a steroid, not sure which one yet. They will also be taking that infusion for that medication out over 2-3 hours instead of the 1 it was previously. At St Joe's they were planning to hold her for observation for 6 hours post chemo I don't know if they will do that at ACH(All Children's Hospital)or not yet. The fear is that carboplatin allergy can cause anaphylactic shock, so we have to watch it very carefully. One more change too, her treatment day is now Wednesday instead of Thursday. It is going to be really rough, but we really feel it is the best decision for Mandy's diagnosis. We could all sure use some prayers for strength as we go into this transition and for her to handle the Carboplatin okay.

Ronnie is actually home this week. Last week was Denmark, next week is Canada again, this week....jury duty in Tampa. Go figure. I suggested he play the crazy card and bail, but apparently it isn't quite that simple. See, all anyone would have to do was show up while I am in frantic "Where on God's green earth is the freakin' pink Nintendo DS" mode and I would be excused so fast the gavel wouldn't even have time to hit the desk. Of course, they would probably have me institutionalized, whatever, minor detail. I could use a vacation, straight jacket is optional.

That's about it for now. I have grand plans for this week. Getting caught up on laundry, because if I don't we are going to have to seriously consider joining a nudist colony. At some point, I should clean my house before FEMA shows up. And, I need to mow the lawn, though I think that puts my whole Rain Forest in Florida preservation act in jeopardy. I was trying to be Green by letting my backyard be knee high. No? Doesn't sound plausible? Eh, can't fault a girl for trying. If we end up having to join the nudist colony because I don't get the laundry done, the tall, tall grass would be greatly appreciated by my neighbors.

Send some prayers our way this week, if you have a minute. It is going to be a tough one.

Love to all~