Recap

Family time before Ella leaves for school....

The girls helped me back crescent rolls filled with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Yum!

On Monday, Lucy's platelet count was 54. 50 was the magic number to get to in order for her line to be removed. WBC was 2.5, Hgb was 9.7, ANC was 1100. Today, her platelets held at 54, WBC was 2.7, Hgb was 9.5 and ANC was 1200. She skirted by with the 54, but it met criteria so we went for it! I was so nervous but really excited.

Today was so huge for all us, but most importantly Lucy.  I think, psychologically, this will jump start her healing process.  She has made gigantic strides so far.  Its funny how I can't always tell day to day how much she has improved.  But as we walked the halls at St. Jude today we were stopped by countless people telling Erik and I how wonderful Lucy looked.  How she had so much life in her eyes and they couldn't believe she was walking so much.  More than one person told me today that they had never seen her out of the stroller before.  And its true, she NEVER walked.  She just couldn't.  It's great being reminded every now and then by people who don't see her every day how wonderful she looked.  It did my heart good. 

Erik went along today in hopes that the line would be pulled.  I'm so glad he did because it was a busy day and the line pull was as bad as I could have imagined it would be.  Not being dramatic, just honest.  I literally almost passed out.  Lucy was so brave. 

Before we went in to procedures, Lucy spent a leisurely morning having a smorgasbord of food that she really wanted to like, but didn't.

And then was escorted around the hospital by her father in the princess chariot. (I would have made her walk....)

This is the life-size gingerbread house that St. Jude built.  It even has a fireplace inside!

Chill-laxing before we get Lucy's labs.  My stomach is in knots by this point.

After we got the go-ahead, we made a pit-stop by the annual gingerbread decorating party (which was oh-my-goodness a mad house!)

 Lucy donned her chef's hat and coat (which she got to keep) and was paired with a local chef who was volunteering for the big event.  It was one of the coolest events we had attended so far.

Then...D-Day.  Here is what the line looks like.

This is Kim, the wonderful lady who does most of the line placements and removals.  Since Lucy was unfortunate enough to have multiple femoral lines for Apheresis, we got to know Kim real well!  Kim took great care of Lucy and although the procedure was a little trickier than most (wouldn't that be Lucy's luck), it is done and she is one happy little girl. 

We had to hang around Memphis for a few hours to make sure that there were no complications, so we celebrated with a lunch at Pei Wei and did a little Christmas wishing!  Thank you all for your prayers today.  They were definitely felt. 

As an aside, I got a pretty good lecture from Dr. W's nurse and nurse practitioner today.  Lucy's MRI has already been scheduled for January and I immediately began to ask "what if" questions.  They both stopped me mid-sentence and told me it was time to start living again.  It was time to walk away from this.  It was time to go in faith that all will be well.  Never were more true words spoken, but they are not easy to swallow.