A Mixed Blessing

So here I spent last night and much of the morning praying that Kean's counts would be up

so we could move forward with the Chemo and surgical procedure today.

And I have to admit, when his counts came back at 610 (need to be 750), I was

sorely disappointed.  Until the thought occurred to me, that I should be thanking

the Lord for not answering my prayers.

Kean is happy, and although tired, he seems like he feels pretty good.

If he had gotten Chemo today, he'd likely be quite miserable by Christmas day.

And get this, by the time they went to reschedule him for next week, (with doctors off and no one working

on Christmas day) there were no slots available for him until FRIDAY!!!

Woot hoot.  That means we have almost the entire week of Christmas to ourselves.

So yes, my prayers have been answered.  The forecast seems to be calling for

our family to be home for Christmas.  Who would have ever thought!!!

My dear friend, Deb Winward was our date to the hospital today.

Let me tell you what a sweetheart Deb is-- her only two grand babies arrived

last night and yet she was willing to spend the day with Keanut.

Another blessing of having Kean's counts not met-- we all got to go home early.



 Since we never made it over to surgery, I missed seeing one of our favorite nurses

get a huge award.

Remember Joe Ronquillo?

Our local NBC affiliate did a lovely story on Joe and Kean a few months back.

http://www.ktvb.com/community/blogs/maggie-omara/Four-siblings-dedicated-to-patients-at-local-hospital-169188596.html 

Well today, Joe was recognized as one of St. Luke's top nurses.

His family was there to see the big surprise.

Joe won the Daisy award-- quite a big deal.  I guess 500 hospitals

around the country participate in this program.

Joe told me this afternoon, he thought he was going to get fired

when he saw everyone, including his family there.

Seriously, he deserves this.  You should see how great

Joe (and all the other nurses in the Pediatric Oncology Unit)

are with Kean and the other children.  To see what they see, deal with what

they deal with and go through losing so many patients... they all

deserve to be nationally recognized in my book.