Movin' On Up

So, we have moved. Thankfully, this time, required no boxes, moving vans or duct tape. Welcome to Mandy's new website. Caringbridge has been very good to us, but I wanted to be able to do some things that Caringbridge doesn't allow me to do. For instance, I can include pictures right in the body of text now. Like this...pretty cool, huh? I can even add short videos, though I can't prove that one right now, as I don't have any stored here.

My tech guy, aka Ronnie, is in the process of adding a gizmo so that you can get email notes for when I update the site, just like on Caringbridge. I believe it is up there now. There is a little box up there on the right hand corner that says Subscribe via email. Enter your email address in that box and it will send you a notification email when teh site has been updated, just like Caringbridge. So, all the same good stuff with a few more added features. We are still unpacking and hanging pictures on the walls, but, let me know what you think of the new place! :-)

Let me give you the tour...the information to donate to Mandy's fund is on the side over there. There are links for sites of our friends and great resources. More will be added as I find my way around this. Past posts are searchable by date or topic. Spiffy stuff, huh?

This week is a mixed bag of to-dos. Wednesday is the last day of school. We have already covered how that is good and bad.

Zachary is going to sleep away camp for a few days, which is great and thrilling for him... tough for the Mommy. I am certain he will be filthy and disgusting and exhausted when he comes home. All things a 9 yo boy adores!

The last day of school is also Alannah's last day of middle school. She will be starting high school in the fall. How the heck did that happen??? It seems like only yesterday she was constantly spitting up on me and not sleeping.

The fundraiser garage sale is happening on Saturday. A huge thanks to Kristin and Emily and all the wonderful folks who have worked to put this together for her. Thanks to all of you have donated stuff. It is going to be happening at 1210 Thomas Jacobs Place in Brandon. Hope to see some of you there!

The other big thing this week is Mandy's MRI. Thursday is going to a long, rough day. We have to be at the hospital early that morning, get her port accessed, draw blood, go over to the day hospital, be put under a general anesthesia, have the MRI, which should last about 2 hours, be in recovery for a few hours, go back down to the clinic and have chemo, which should last another 3 hours and then home. Anesthesia with Mandy is always scary. Mandy has a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia. This is a most often fatal response to certain types of anesthesias, predominantly the inhaled varieties. We almost lost her once back in 2003 when she spiked a temp of 106.3 several hours post anesthesia. Since then, they figured it out and no longer give those anesthesias and she has been fine every time since then. That being said, they always hold her for a while longer than average to verify that she is okay. So, Thursday is going to take forever. Revealing this is new for me, I actually normally don't share what the day of the scans is for her...I am just funny that way. But, I figure a few more prayers dedicated to her that day are a good thing.

As to the scans, my gut says it is too soon for anything to be different, good or bad. I am not sure how no change, if in fact that is what the scans show would be handled by the Docs. Time will tell. Please send up some prayers.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Let me know what you think of the new place! Thanks for checking on her. Love to all~