And Then There Were Four

Treatments left, that is.

We just want her life back. She wants her life back.

She wants to be able to drive herself to and from school. She probably wouldn't even mind doing the dishes - at least once or twice, anyway.

She wants to be able to go out and do stuff with friends and be a normal high school Senior with all the activities and fun that should be happening this year.

Yes, we realize that it will still be a few weeks after her last chemotherapy before she will start feeling better, really. But to know that there are no more ahead will be an awesome feeling. Matti has started to actually count down the days and treatments.

We made a chain for her for that purpose. Each sibling put various thoughts - or pictures, which is, I suppose a representation of a thought - on each link. Of course, some of those pictures are battle scenes: airplanes dropping bombs on cancer; football team (BYU) beating cancer's football team (U of U, obviously); a stick figure of Matti kicking another stick figure (cancer) in the butt.

Anyway, it was fun to do that for one family home evening.

Also, Nicki's mom got 5 stuffed animals in gift bags for Matti to bring to each of her last treatments and to give to another kid having treatment on that day. It is an idea that Matti really loved and enjoyed helping to brighten little Janelle's day last week. We didn't take pictures. We are kind of sorry about that. But, I am sure you can imagine what the exchange was like. If you need help, then review this post.

So, two ways that can be pretty special in counting down the end to her treatments. After that, she gets to join the Long-Term Follow Up clinic - LTFU, they call it. I remarked to Matti early on that it's a good thing they don't have a short-term follow up clinic. Or, perhaps too bad they don't.

Last week, she felt a little more sick than we have been accustomed for her vincristine treatment. Frankly, some of that is probably due to other things happening in the home which added unnecessarily to her stress level. I won't waste any more space here on it, but you can read my other blog.

Matti will be doing Thursdays for the next 3 weeks and then, one more Friday. We have everything scheduled so she can have the best chance of getting to her concerts at school, as well as being able to participate in Clark County Honor Choir.

The cool thing about her participating in honor choir is that the conductor is the Director of Choral Studies at NAU, so Matti gets the opportunity to work with her and be in front of her. It's an opportunity to hopefully boost her resume for when it comes time to apply for scholarships.

Of course, she still has to complete her classes. And that takes homework that she doesn't always have the energy to get to. And if she misses classes, then she has to make up work...again using energy she often does not have. School is worrisome enough when your daughter doesn't have cancer.

This Saturday, we are going to take Matti to the Danny Gans Run for Life. If we get a picture with Donny, I will be sure to post it. Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation is another fantastic organization that, I believe, is worthy of your charitable donation budget. They have been fantastic in helping us this past month. We really would have loved to had the kids participate in their Camp Cartwheel this past summer. Maybe next summer.