Hello, 2004. So far, you suck.

Kendrie had a clinic appointment today and everything went fine. Her counts are starting to drop a little from the chemo drugs, which is expected. They are still high enough at this point that we can continue to get out of the house. She is scheduled for another lumbar puncture in ten days, so we'll watch the counts and see what happens.

I was all set to update about the cute thing that happened today (ok, at least I thought it was cute) --- when Kendrie chose Blaine's camouflage, Elmer-Fudd hunting cap with extended ear flaps to be her "hat of choice" for the clinic visit. It was huge on her head and looked hysterical. Of course, it being a pediatric oncology clinic, they thought it was funny.

Then, right when I sat down to update this journal I got a gut-wrenching reminder that leukemia is not funny. Nothing about this &## disease is funny. An adorable little girl on my support list, Julianna, had a leukemia relapse in her central nervous system this week. Her dad waited until tonight to let the rest of us know .... her family was waiting on the results of her bone marrow test, which thank the Lord, showed no relapse in her bone marrow.

I think I have felt a connection to Julianna and Terry right from the beginning, for a couple of reasons. Julianna is close in age to Kendrie (she's 3), she's unbelievably cute (like I think Kendrie is), Julianna was diagnosed on Kendrie's birthday, they have the same ALL with the same prognosis, and Julianna's Caring Bridge site was the first one I stumbled across that let me know it was ok to poke a little bit of fun at ourselves and this disease. I have been so inspired by their journal that I've put a link to it in Kendrie's journal in the past, encouraging all of you to read it.

Tonight, I'm putting the link here again, so you can visit their site and please sign their guestbook. I speak from experience when I say that even messages from people we don't know can be encouraging. So please take a minute to offer a word or two of support to this brave little girl, as she and her family prepare to kick her fight against leukemia into over-drive.

Julianna Banana's Home Page

thanks, Kristie