Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Written by my wife, Loren:
We are now more than half-way through Oriah's treatment. However, as we have completed the weekly chemotherapy protocol, and treatments are now every 3 weeks, we only have 3 more total treatments to go! We will be done at the end of May, and truly the light now feels like it IS at the end of this tunnel. We also passed through the first round of testing (ultrasound and xray) last week, both of which were entirely clear. This was to be expected, but nonetheless, a relief! Oriah continues to become more and more of her sweet and precocious self. At nineteen months, she is dynamically growing and changing in so many directions, that we feel we inspired to get to know her fresh each day. While Oriah's physical growth has certainly been slowed by the chemotherapy, our fears that her mental development would be, also, have been entirely assuaged by the fact that she picks up words and makes connections at an almost incomprehensible rate. She talks a mile a minute, speaking not just complete sentences, but telling whole stories from front to back all day long. At the library the other day, I pulled the book, "Knuffle Bunny" off the shelf. I told her the title once, and she went about thumbing through. The librarian came by and Oriah said, "Hi there. I'm reading a book about Knuffle Bunny," with perfect articulation. The librarian's jaw dropped and she stared at Oriah blankly for a minute and then asked, "How old is she??" So...her brain is just fine smile emoticon We continue to feel the support of our extended community in multiple ways. Folks close by have continued to bring meals on chemo days which has been a life-saver, since some are 8 hrs long. Most appointments, Jay cannot miss work to join us, so our beloved nanny, Lasette, from Oriah's first year of life, has stepped forward to be with us through many of the treatments. It's hard to begin to express our family's gratitude for her kindness. Oriah's Grandpa Henry and Aunt Lindsay have visited, lending support and BIG love infusions for Oriah. Our dear friend, Dan, set what appeared to be an outlandish goal of $25,000 for a crowd fundraiser for Oriah's medical expenses, and we are now only $500 shy of this goal. It's hard to even wrap our minds around the countless acts of generosity that comprise this financial support and what this will mean for Oriah's healing. The larger donations have been humbling to receive, but the many gifts of $5 here, $10 there, have felt equally moving and profoundly poignant in their own way. I write this each time in a different way... we continue to receive such tremendous teaching about the power of the Village. Oriah is already benefiting immensely from the complimentary support of her naturopath, acupuncturist and osteopath. It feels like many unwanted current and future side-effects are being staved off by the wisdom of these modalities. Since Oriah struggles with a persistent cold and has had some tummy bugs as well, the regular support available to her system via these visits, is indispensable. Oriah loves her "healing sessions" with her natural doctors and receives a kind of nourishment therein that balances some of the discomfort of the hospital visits. Every day she asks that we set up Daddy's chiropractic table so that she can do "healing sessions" on her bunny and baby, which she executes very thoughtfully (with an occasional toss of the baby across the room) with tissues, syringes, lotion, a hairbrush and diapers. Though we are in a 3-week treatment schedule, the doctors need to check Oriah's blood counts weekly, so we go into the Children's nearer to us each Friday for a "finger prick" blood-draw. Unfortunately, this is more involved than it sounds, as they have to pull a fair amount of blood from one tiny finger, but we are finding creative ways to make this less uncomfortable, as we have about 9 more ahead. Every third Friday, we head to the larger Children's about an hour South for her chemo treatments. Beyond this, our days are filled with lots of fun and "normal" activities, and, now that the weather is warmer, loads of romping around our sweet land with our chickens, playing on the jungle gym and observing the many other creatures that pass us by. We feel more grateful for our little natural refuge than we ever have. And, Mama is proud to share that, despite the day to day ups and downs, we have only had to miss one of Oriah's music or movement classes! Thank you all, for receiving our story. It is an act of healing simply to share it. We will continue to keep you posted as we traverse the home stretch! With All Our Love, ~Jay, Loren & Oriah
