Tuesday Night

Hello, all.  It's Kelly.  Kiara has already gone to bed.  But before her head hit the pillow, she asked me to briefly blog so that people wouldn't worry.  To me, briefly means business-like.  And business-like means BULLET POINTS.  If you're not careful, I'll turn the post into a PowerPoint with cheesy, built-in clip art.

• As is typical, I was up first to get Karissa off to school.  Because of many years of clothing drama, and to avoid morning arguing and delays, Kiara lays out Karissa's school clothes the night before.  This typically happens after Karissa has gone to sleep (it's like the tooth fairy).  Last night, I did the deed so Kiara could sleep.  This morning Karissa informed me that the jeans and shirt that had been selected for her were unacceptable in combination "because that shirt is part of an outfit!"  Oy.  The appropriate jeggings were retrieved from the drawer and off on the bus she went.
• Mmmm...  Sweet blessed god of coffee...
• Eileen came by at 9:30.  She retrieved the list of helpers that had volunteered with Kiara and looked over the tasks to be done.  Then, she started cleaning the house.  In the bathrooms.  Huh?  Really?  Wow!!!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
• The one task I could not morally or ethically delegate to Eileen - I dumped the cat litter.  Blech.  Yes, I know, if I did it every day it wouldn't be so gross.
• Kiara spent most of the day on the couch.  Not much nausea or pain, just general fatigue.
• Northwest Medical brought by some tracheostomy supplies and took back some supplies we didn't need.
• Eileen came back in the afternoon, swept and mopped the floors and pruned the hydrangeas in the back yard.  She also found the hidden nest where the chickens have been laying eggs (instead of in the specifically-designated nesting boxes in their coop.  Can't they follow directions?).  Tossed out a few eggs after some float-testing and the rest went into the fridge.  Omelettes for breakfast.
• I was able to field a number of emails from work, and even joined a conference-call meeting.  Yes, I feel tremendously guilty handing off so much work to my colleagues these past few weeks.
• There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where all work on the Enterprise comes to a grinding halt because all of the crew members are spending their time playing a video game.  The game had been designed by an alien race intent on taking over the universe, and the game was able to shut down the player’s higher-brain functions and render him/her incapable of doing anything else.  I believe the writer of that episode went on to invent Candy Crush.  Damn smartphone.
• Ellen brought by some lovely dinner: chicken, pasta, salad, and bread.
• Heather picked up Karissa after school, took her to ballet practice, fed her dinner, and supervised homework.  We were treated to a solo-piano performance of Musette, and a reading of The Paper Bag Princess.
• We are tremendously lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives.
• Kiara's chemo pump is functioning as it should.  We go back to the cancer center tomorrow afternoon to have it removed.  Some stomach upset this evening, but we have several medications on hand to take care of that.  A dose of Tylenol before bed and hopefully a good night's sleep.
• Kind of dreading what Wednesday (Day 3) will bring, as that is rumored to be the worst in the cycle.  In all of this, the trach tube is still my primary source of anxiety.  I hope we can find the correct mix of humidity, suctioning, cannula changing, and collar tightness.  We continue to work on it.

OK, not so brief.

Thank you to everyone for your help, support, understanding, thoughts, wishes, prayers, karma, and time.  Love and hugs to you all.

-Kelly