Late Start

After a couple major “oh no, that’s not good” moments on Friday, we are just about under way for the big thing. Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for helping us get outta here and taking care of the West Richland palace.

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Preparing the Silver Eagle

Before we embark on the big trip across the country to visit friends and family that Miette wanted to do as part of her “wish”, the Silver Eagle needs some preparation work done to it. Even though the volunteers who worked on the Airstream worked their butt off and made it beautiful, time limited them from getting it travel ready. The electric brakes don’t currently work, some outside compartment doors aren’t weather proof which is bad for the electrical system (its 41 years old!) and a jack stand needs replacing. The Airstream will be going in for a systems check at our local RV service shop, RV Supply Specialties. Mark was an integral part of this Airstream project happening and Susie has nothing but great things to say about him. We look forward to meeting him! Anyone completely willing to donate time, energy, money, materials or whatever for children who have gone through the nastiness of chemo and the outright fear of cancer must really understand the value of their assistance in helping families in these situations. “Thank you” seems so small in comparison.

“She Has Some Neoplastic Cells”

We will attempt to describe our struggle to find alternative or at least complimentary (to chemotherapy) treatment for our child newly diagnosed with cancer (neoplastic cells), in a series of posts telling our story, up until treatment started.

Back in February of 2012, when I was able to sit down at work for a brief moment I checked my voicemail. There were two of them from our doctor friend who helped try and take care of Miette’s bump on her leg. We knew he sent off what he took out of her leg to pathology but we really didn’t think much of it. I figured he was calling to let us know what they found. I did think it was odd he called twice within a short time frame. The second message said something about “more work to do” and to call him back. I called him back, concerned but still not ready for what I was about to hear.

“She has some neoplastic cells”. Neo-what? I was at my computer with Google already up. A search for “neoplastic” resulted in Neoplasman abnormal mass of tissue as a result of neoplasia. Neoplasia is the abnormal growth or division of cells. Oh crap (to say the least). This was one of those moments where all the noise around disappears, tunnel vision starts to set in and an odd stand still happens. I can’t really describe it more than that.

More coming…

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