Summer's End

I have been neglecting my blog. Shame on me. What began as a means of keeping others updated on Simon's struggle with aplastic anemia became so much more. . This blog has provided me with a means for venting my frustrations, joys, and sorrows. By pulling the jumbled thoughts out of my head, I am able to give them some sort of organization. I am able to come to grips with my own struggles and better see how God is working in my life. It has enabled me to strengthen my faith and serves as a reminder of how far we have traveled on this road over the last 6 month. I regret my neglect.

Following spring break, life, for all intents and purposes, returned to normal. Simon was back in school. Visits to the doctor have dwindled to only once a month. (Simon misses the weekly visits, and while I do miss the wonderful staff and doctors, I do not miss trips and the reasons behind the trips!) I worked almost every day during the last month of school. My days in the classroom convinced me that teaching was something I wanted to pursue.

I registered for the Praxis, which is a standardized test that is required to get a teaching license in Colorado. I studied for the test and began researching my options for obtaining my license. I have a B.S. in elementary education, but did not student teach, so additional schooling of some kind is required. The full-time job of mothering a sick child was replaced with the full-time job of trying to figure out my life!

June was a month of blessing amidst the whirlwind of activity. The church volunteered to finish the 2 bedrooms we had planned for the basement, so mom would not spend another winter in an unfinished basement. (And just in case you are wondering, living in the basement was her choice. She was not banished! She prefers to have a place to get away from the nonstop activity and noise that are unavoidable in a family with 5 children, even if it means living in a dimly lit, poorly heated area of the house.) When my brain was overflowing from cramming for the test, I would take a break and work on the years worth of clutter that was crammed into the basement. Throw in swimming lessons, the nonstop chore of trying to keep 5 kids on summer break quiet while dad is working from home, and very drizzly, damp, and cold June, and you have an inkling of what that month was like! I credit my survival with the fact that Annette, my older sister, was able to come out for a week and help mom with her part of the clutter. There is no way I could have managed without her help.

Simon's June visit to the doctor was encouraging. His platelets were holding in the normal range, as were his granulocytes. His total white count was just out of the normal range, as was his red counts. For Simon, these results were huge. The staff at the clinic were thrilled. On July 7, Simon had another bone marrow test. On that day, his hemoglobin was in the normal range for the first time since this all began. Even following transfusions, his counts were never this high! Dr. Cook was talking about waiting 3 months for the next bone marrow test, and beginning to take Simon off of the immune suppressing drugs! In all the years, the clinic had never had a patient respond so well to the ATG treatments. They were all holding Simon up as a miracle.

The quiet of the house has rapidly vanished. It has been replaced by a whiney bi-polar 11 year old and an over-energized 17 year old. Not a good combination! The blogging will have to be put on hold.