Working on Week 8

Today was a good day. Not much going on. Took a walk to both gift shops -- Bailey wanted to spend some of her money that her dad's paying her for taking her nasty medicine. Since Bailey's talked Dr. T into reducing her epogen shot to once a week instead of the 3 times a week, Dr. T is now concerned about that $4 a week they (I say "they" because he has talked himself into believing he's getting a cut of Bailey's profits) are losing as a result. So he threatened to bump her back up to 3 times a week. They're having such a good time together. Bailey's nurse, Leslie, came in and brought some kind of grossly sour candy. She and Bailey were discussing the other day about which one of them could handle the sourest candy. So, in an effort to find out, Leslie and Bailey had a sour-candy-eating contest this afternoon. Leslie announces: "One, Two, Three, Go!" And they both pop the candy in their mouths and just sit there staring at each other with big round eyes! Neither one of them make a facial expression or a comment. Leslie simply says "Well, that wasn't bad at all." Bailey tosses me one, and I decide to try and follow in their footsteps. Well, I failed to do that, unless their footsteps led them directly to the trash can to dump the piece of candy that they had already spit out with much intended force into the palm of their hands! IT WAS AWFUL!!! "Not bad at all?!" They're crazy! They both enjoyed themselves quite heftily on my count. I, then, had to eat a row of Peeps. I'm much better now. Tom and the girls came to visit tonight. Rissy looked so cute in her little capri pants, and Josie is growing like a weed. It's only been 2 days since I've seen them, but it seems like a week already. So this is week 8 (54 days to be exact). I heard that Mimi Pearce said hello to Bailey on the radio today and mentioned that she'd been in here 54 days. I thought I was the only one counting! We calculated this morning, and I've seen (and Bailey, of course, has endured) nearly 100 dressing changes. That is a lot of dressing changes. Hope all is going well at R&L - I miss you guys! Hope all is well at First Christian Church in Shelbyville - I miss you guys too! Bailey's birthday is coming up (April 3 -- 13 years old, can you believe it?!) and we're trying to plan a small party. It's kind of strange since it's quite possible it will be postponed if her heart comes in before then. But we'll just "go with the flow". Her birthdays have always been more of milestones for us than just simple birthday celebrations. And to think that 13 years ago we were here for a month after she was born. It's a little overwhelming to think about the full circle that we've come. Maybe she'll get her heart on her birthday. Wouldn't THAT be cool! I need to go. Pizza will be here any minute. Haha!! Talk to you tomorrow. Angie