Pop Tabs!

We've been busy with appointment after appointment. Torie sails through them all and asks for "more games" after testing is done. I'm so proud of her. Today was Opthalmology and Audiology. Dr. Bothun says her eyes are great and she's had no worsening of corneal clouding since September! Audiology didn't go quite so well. She has mild hearing loss at high decibels, but her left tube may be plugged. We have an ENT appointment on the 14th with....Dr. Christianson! Not the other one! Hooray! We met Dr. Christianson in September and were very disappointed when he wasn't Torie's Doc. But now he can be. Some of you know what good news this is! He knows Dr. Hartshorn (Denzel) and has hiked Medicine Bow Peak. We liked him from the get-go. Tomorrow is Neuropsych day. About 4 hours of testing to see where Torie is in cognitive and motor development. I'm sure they'll underestimate her, seeing as how I'm trying to get her on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader".

We got her planned (you know how things change) schedule for transplant yesterday. She will start Campath (camp) on January 14th and she will get this Sub-Q once a day for 3 days. Campath is a monoclonal antibody that is used as a conditioning regimen before chemo in bone marrow transplant (BMT). It kills white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, making it easier for chemo to finish the job. There are of course side effects, so Torie may not feel so hot for a few days. She will be admitted to the hospital on January 25th to begin the rest of her chemo, with Transplant day on February 4th. It seems so strange to blog dates after months of wondering. This is so freaking scary!

Anyway, last night before dinner we were watching the news and a commercial came on for Sesame Street Live! coming to Minneapolis next week. Torie got so excited and started yelling about Big Bird and Grover and Zoie and Elmo and Abbie Cadabbie that Mom and I decided to try to get tickets. And we did! Torie told our new friend Brianna (a super-cute Hurler Girlie) and her mom Nicole all about it at dinner. We are going January 13th, which will be Torie's last chance to be out without a mask for a long long time. She needs to have something fun before this unpleasantness begins. And you know Torie...we'll be hearing about this just like we did Disneyland, and the swimming pool, and Casa Bonita! Daily!

Tonight before dinner we took our pop tabs to "The Big House". Torie loved putting them in. She said "Torie dumping in!" Thank you everyone for your help. RMH of the Twin Cities makes about $35,000 a year from these. Wow!

Speaking of dumping, another Torie funny story: Yesterday afternoon Torie was standing, well, kinda crouching, by Mom's bed. Mom said, "Are you going poop?" (I know this this sounds gross, but stay with me!) Torie got a hurt-feelings look on her face and said "NO." Mom told her, "It's okay if you are" and Torie said "Yeah." After a minute she stood up and smiled and said "There you go." Serves Mama-Great right for being so nosy. And I'm glad it wasn't my turn to change her!