Knights in Mail

Sorry for the silence in the last week--I took a break from posting.

We have had two hospital visits since I last wrote, one on Monday, November 24th, and one this last Monday the 1st. The blood draws on both of those days showed a continued downward trend in her WBC's and C reactive protein. The downward push on both of those numbers are an assurance that she does not have a hidden infection. Phew! and double that.

She had a CT scan on the 24th that showed her head swelling was pretty well resolved. The only note of concern was how her ventricles looked a little large. The neurosurgery nurse noted that it could be due to the brain not being able to drain the fluid in those spaces. We were told to beware of signs of extreme irritability in Zoe, coupled with vomiting. Greeeeaaaaaaat.

But, as of a week later, she was still fine, and our visit with Cunningham this Monday put that worry to rest. He shook his head dismissively about it being an issue. He said he's seen the ventricles expand in size many times in a child after surgery such as Zoe's. And, upon viewing her lab numbers, he was able allay any lingering concerns about her having osteomyelitis. Both worries were put to rest by the fact that she is doing so well: her animation and good spirits would not be so evident were she harboring infection or suffering from an inability to drain her brain (so to speak).

Both Cunningham's and Hopper's assessment of her yesterday led them both to recommend that her BMT be put into motion. They felt that she would be fine to start 3 weeks from now. The thought makes me a little queasy with nervousness. It needs to happen ASAP, that is clear. But, what could cure her could also kill her, so it's a strange event to welcome.

Whether SCCA will be ready for her to start in 3 weeks is another issue. They need to lock in her donor. As I hope I mentioned before, Zoe does have a donor lined up. What we know is that she is a woman in her late 30's who lives in the US. She does have the right to say that her schedule doesn't allow for a certain start date. Three weeks from now is Christmas, so it would be understandable if she didn't want to undergo surgery at that time. But, it would be such a gift for Zoe should she be up for it.

Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers.

And, on that subject, we were told of the most amazing blessing that is coming our way courtesy of the local post office: this Christmas we are to be adopted by them. !!!!

Carol, the mail carrier, came to tell us this astonishing news today. See, we had struck up a friendship with our usual carrier Robin well over a year ago. When Zoe came he brought her origami art, and he and Jeff swapped origami know-how. He was always interested in what the latest Zoe developments were, and was very concerned when things for her started to take a scary turn. Then, we stopped seeing him--Carol had taken over his route. Inquiries revealed that Robin had messed himself up pretty badly in a running accident--he has been laid out on medical leave for awhile now.

Why this is important to tell you is that Carol said that it was Robin who recommended us as the family to adopt this year for Christmas. She said that originally they had wanted to adopt Robin, but that he was adamant that we needed it more than he. His reasoning was that he had a goodly amount of sick leave stockpiled and that his wife was still gainfully employed. Our being self employed and without sick leave convinced him we needed it more.

So Robin, bless him or drat him (for being too doggedly altruistic in his laid-up state), has won out and convinced his co-workers that we are the ones to be adopted. What that means is that they want us to give them a wish list of things we need, or even a few goodies we want, so they can put them under our tree for Christmas. And we weren't even going to do Christmas this year!

I've cried so many times today. The blessings we are graced with amid our darkest times are truly awe inspiring. Mail carriers! Our blue-clad knights in shining armor. You never know where a champion will come from.