Memphis on Monday

So Todd, Devree and I are flying to Memphis on Monday. We will see Dr. Armstrong on Tuesday with some preliminary other things that need to be done. Dr. Armstrong is part of the group with Dr. Gajjar. St. Jude will pay for the airfare for Devree and I, but we will have to pay Todd's airfare. Todd will come home on the weekend. Devree will start her 6 weeks of outpatient radiation very soon. Then we will get a 2 week break and fly home. After the two weeks, St. Jude will do the stem cell harvest. We go back to 7 days of inpatient where she will get her first 4 days of chemo under hospital care then she will get 4 months of chemo on the outpatient basis. St. Jude will give us a place to stay from the get go because Devree will be highly susceptible to germs. That is the plan of attack so far.

Last night we went to a Children with Cancer support group in Reno. It was very good. They had breakout sessions and the kids went to different groups while the adults had their own session. We are just the babies with this prognosis. Some have been dealing with it for 5 years. But we had the oldest child with it. Most of the kids have leukemia and there was one 9 year old girl with a different type of brain cancer. She is the one that has had cancer the longest. They have stuck with LPCH. I felt bad for them. They were adamant that we should stick with LPCH but you know how I feel? I feel sorry for them because they have been going through this for 5 YEARS!

Anyway the kids had fun. I laughed at Dane though. For his group he put playdough in a balloon and squeezed out all of the air and then someone tied a knot in the end. He tells us "This is for my anger management. I can squeeze this whenever I get angry about Devree." He won't even let us touch it. This morning before school he is running around and asking "Where's my anger management?" He finally found it. It is funny, because out of all of my 4 kids I would say Dane is the most easy going. He certainly doesn't get angry very often.