We also did a hearing test last week. Lauren had never had one at MSKCC and the last one she did have was 2 or 3 months after transplant. Now I don't have the final report yet but the audiologist was pretty impressed that it looks like Lauren hasn't lost any hearing at all. She said that is pretty rare given how many rounds of high dose cisplatin & carboplatin Lauren had received. I told her that I hadn't noticed any porblems with her hearing other than the usual 'selective deafness" that all kids have.
Thankfully there were no "quarantine" problems at RMH this time around. Lauren was her usual social butterfly, running around, playing with the kids and wrapping the volunteers around her little fingers. They had a lot of barbeques and craft activities for the kids outside on the terrace. But boy were those two weeks hot! The first two nights we were there we were in a room that the airconditioner didn't work well. I started to complain that first night and by Tuesday i was threatening to campout in the livingroom unless they found us a new room. Thankfully by late that afternoon we were all moved in to a new, much cooler, room.
It was really too hot to do much exploring in the city so we pretty much stayed around the house the whole two weeks. The one trip we did go on was to the fireworks on the 4th. We had the day off from clinic and Bill and Timmy drove in that morning. The kids spent most of the day playing in the playroom. Timmy was happy because there were some boys around his age there this time. They became fast friends and hung around together at the house and at the fireworks. Early in the evening, a police bus (courtesy of the 19th precinct) took us all down (with lights and sirens going) to the old heliport on the river. It was a nice big fenced off area that the kids could run around in. It was also the police command center so the only people allowed there were the police officers and the families from RMH. They cooked up burgers and hotdogs for us and let the kids go in the big mobile home unit and play with the sirens and stuff. They got us there about 2 1/2 hours before dark so the kids got to spend a lot of time playing tag & coloring with sidewalk chalk. Lauren was black from head to toe and was so worn out that she fell asleep 10 minutes after the fireworks started! It was a great show and a great place to watch it from. Thanks to all the guys in the 19th precinct for taking such good care of us!
Lauren started back at PT yesterday. Her back and hips have been bothering her some lately so we weren't surprised to find out that her pelvis was out of alignment again. Also her leg muscles are very, very tight again which is most likely due to a growth spurt. Karen told her that she has homework now - she has to let me stretch her calves and hamstrings once a day at home. Lauren was not a happy camper about that but did agree to it so we'll see if it helps. We'll be visiting the Valerie Center next week for checkup and HAMA bloodwork. HAMA results should be in the week after. I still keep my fingers crossed that one of these times she'll turn up positive.
We have a lot of stuff planned for the 6 weeks we'll be home before the next antibody round. Timmy's karate school has a free summer program so Lauren will be starting in the Little Ninja class tomorrow. She'll go every Thursday until the end of August. I can't wait to see how she likes it. Timmy has swim lessons next week and then in a few weeks soccer camp. We're also going to take some mini vacations and use up some passes, to some nearby parks, that we got from "Give Kids the World" last October. The kids are really looking forward to it.
Well that's about it for now.
As always thanks for checking in on us and for keeping Lauren in your prayers.
