Just a quick update for everyone. Mira is getting better, slowly but surely. I was able to get out of work early today and the doctor feels that she is better enough to go home. She is drinking a ton and eating a little. It’s enough that she doesn’t need to be at the hospital anymore. I’ll post a more complete story once we get settled at home, sometime this evening! -Pat

Evening update: It’s around 10PM on December 9th and the whole family is back and asleep. Mira, Erika and Grandma Cheryl are quietly resting in their beds (they deserve the sleep). Once I arrived to the hospital this afternoon, I took a nice little nap with Mira. The doctor showed up around 2:30 and said that we could go home. As Erika is the nurse and would want to know, I quickly ran over to the Ireland Cancer Center and she said, “Take her home now!” I’ve gotta say that it sure is nice to know that Erika could be over to see Mira in about 2 minutes if need be.

So, Mira wasn’t 100% yet. But the doctors believe that she just has a stomach bug and as long as she isn’t throwing up, she could leave. With all the people coming in to detach her IV, change her sheets (a diaper can only hold so much of what she’s got) and get her ready for discharge: Mira was ready to leave. Here’s a pic of Mira and I getting ready to go:

Getting ready to leave

Clearly she has had enough. But on the way out to the car, a complete stranger gave her four baloons that she just fell in love with. It was about a 45 minute drive home (rush hour traffic), but she was fine the whole way. Once we pulled into the driveway, I asked her, “Where are we Mira?”

“Mommy’s home. Mommy’s home. Where’s mommy?” Yup, she was just looking for mommy. Erika and Cheryl arrived about 10 minutes later. I snapped a picture of the two shortly after that. I just love this shot, it’s one of my all-time favorites:

Mira and Erika on the couch

I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. But it means so much to have our whole family back home and in the same house. Mira seems to be getting better by the hour. After she was home for a short while, she started asking for “Peanut butter.” Which really isn’t peanut butter (she’s allergic to peanuts), but rather bread and butter. I know, Erika says that we’ve gotta break that habit soon as she’s likely to ask the wrong person for peanut butter and actually get some then have a bad allergic reaction. Now you may think that you know how to eat a slice of bread and butter, but you are wrong. The best part of the bread and butter is the butter, so the only way to properly eat it is the butter side only. Like this:

Mira eating bread the proper way

It does my heart so good to see Mira eating again. She had 2 pieces of bread, crackers, milk and juice. And it all stayed down. So nice to hear that she is getting better. The doctors believe that her stools will get resolved within a couple of days and she should be good by the weekend.

I put up the lights on the christmas tree this evening while Mira and Erika played on the floor with Grandma.

Here’s a picture of the three of us this evening also:

The family

We just want to thank all of your wonderful comments, letters, emails and gifts. Our landlord even stopped by yesterday and dropped off dinner for us. For Erika and I, the stress has been pretty unbearable at times. Your input is always welcome and nice to hear. So thanks again everyone.

I’m looking forward to this blog existing for fun times and not just the sad days.

I’ll update again in a day or two with more pics.