Some of the girls in our ward brought Jordyn a special bag of candy and a card since she couldn't go trick or treating. So sweet!!! I am so blessed that I get to see people serving others, and serving my family. If only it were under different circumstances, but we appreciate everything, even the little things people are doing and have done for us sooo very much! Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers, and thank you to those who have brought us food, and special treats to brighten our days! I have a feeling I will get to see more of the good parts of the holidays than the bad this year! Last year I didn't appreciate the holidays as much as I probably should have because I let the crowds and rudeness some people express when they are doing holiday shopping get to me. I can already tell it will be quite a different experience this year, and it will be okay, maybe even better with us being stuck at home (and of course the occasional trip to the hospital for Jordyn to get chemo...).

Anyway... It has been awhile since I last posted... Things have actually been going alright lately. The first part of Delayed Intensification hasn't been too awful. She has handled it better than she did her last phase of treatment. She has had better counts, and less nausea... But, the doctor told us the worst part is the second part of delayed intensification. Next week will be her last week getting chemo for the first part of it, but the second part starts right around Thanksgiving, as long as her counts are good enough. During this next part of delayed intensification, she will be getting two new chemo's, and one of those will be administrated at home a few days in a row. New chemo's always make me nervous, because it is unknown how her body will react, and how she is going to handle it emotionally. From what I have heard from other cancer moms, and read on other cancer blogs, Delayed intensification gets to be pretty miserable, so we shall see... I have decided that with cancer, there are so many variables, and unknowns that make us cancer families and our little ones play the waiting game. We have had a hard time not being able to get out much, and when we occasionally do decide to take Jordyn somewhere, we have to deal with the extreme anxiety and guilt that she may get sick. We are part of that "special" group of people who they immediately put in a triage room when we go to the er (which happens every time our cancer cuties have a fever) just to protect them since there is always a good chance that a fever means their immune systems are completely shot and they could get sick very easily and have a hard time fighting off infections. We are also in the special group who gets to cancel doctors appointments with less than 24 hours notice if counts are to low to get chemo. Our doctors are very lenient in what we feed our cancer cuties. The most important thing right now is calories. Since food tastes differently, favorite foods aren't always the favorites anymore, and appetites go from not hungry at all to can't stop eating everything in site because of rounds of steroids...

And I got off on a really long tangent there for a minute... Sorry about that... Anyway... Jordyn has had a bunch of energy and with the 7 days of steroids she was on, she has put the weight she lost during interim maintenance back on, so that is very good.