Three hundred days without Cancer

We have been busy.  Adjusting to school life has been difficult for Mae.  Despite the fact that her first week was wonderful and she would run to join her class in line, she has since become the child that cries and clings to her mother screaming "I don't feel well, I am going to vomit!!" while her teacher asks, "do you want me to just take her?", at which point she is pulled from me as if the place she is going is one of extreme torture.  It is not, and I need to keep reminding myself of this.  It is "just" school.  

All of this crying and chaos is hard on Phoebe too and she will often say, "what happened?" when Mae starts to cry and then she will cry as Mae is pulled from us and brought into school.  It is hard, but I know that it will get better.  Our lives have not been normal, and Mae and I have rarely been  separated for the past 2 years so it will take some time.  Time, as they say, heals all wounds.  I see glimpses of my social and happy girl emerging at school and this makes me smile. I know that Mae loves school, she just wishes Phoebe and I could join her in all of this excitement.

In other news, we have recently returned from Memphis.  Phoebe saw her transplant doctor, the dentist, and had her blood tested.  We returned home happy, tired, and 4 teeth lighter.  That's right ... 4 teeth lighter.  It would seem that Phoebe's four front teeth were loose and an x-ray showed a lot of damage to the root.  They had to go, or they would have fallen out themselves and caused more trouble.  They are just teeth, is what I have been telling myself, and she will get another set in good time.  Until then she will have a lovely gummy grin.  This gummy grin also includes some shiny silver as a few of her back teeth have also been crowned.

A few more stories to tell her friends when she starts school. 

I have found myself thinking lately about what life will look like when Phoebe starts school.  I have been worrying about her missing teeth and wondering if she will be teased or if her speech will be affected.  Then I stop, because to be thinking of Phoebe going to school is simply amazing as there was a time not too long ago that we weren't sure if Phoebe would see another birthday.  And now school?  Wonderful.  All of those other things will just work themselves out, and as Jon likes to tell me, if anyone even thinks of teasing Phoebe, she will tell them where to go.

Yes, I think she will.  

Tomorrow we will be 300 magical days post transplant, Phoebe's bloodwork at last check looked excellent and her doctor even gave her the okay to start daycare, if she so desires.  He commented on the strength of her "warrior immune system". We are so very close to our one year milestone and Phoebe is doing so well.   

Shout it from the roof tops.  Happy day + 300.