The other side of the dark day...

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 Kate's dark day of Jun 27th came and went like any other day. Kate swam 100 fly in the Independence meet and finished 1st (she was the only swimmer in her age group to sign up, but who cares about details) and then she and Matt hopped in the car to drive up to Rochester for next-day appointments. The worst part of Kate's dark day was probably Matt trying out the Grimace meal at McDonald's. It was death by milkshake and yet he drank the whole thing. Can't let food go to waste, or something. 

We braved June 27th with dread and came out on the other side. We enter year three into the cancer life. Two years of appointments, scans, blood draws, IVs, endless chemotherapies, daily medications. It is difficult to remember life before all of this, when Kate was able to get up at 6 a.m. to swim, play basketball, ride her bike, go to school and chase her sisters. We've all adapted even though no one wants to. Hand to God I keep hoping to have a tantrum and wake up from whatever Kate is living through. Hand to God I'm certain this is all a joke - that doctors will call us and say, "oopsie, we mixed up her chart with someone else." Hand to God I'm pretty sure this is all an out-of-body experience.

We also begin year three with two new chemotherapies. She began these at the tail end of March so they're not terribly new but we are still navigating side effects that differ from her previous chemotherapies, and one of the two drugs is a twice monthly infusion. This means more IVs than Kate is used to. She does not, nor has she ever, had a port as all previous chemo was taken orally. We are super grateful for no port but the flip side of that is an IV. And despite what her 6'1" frame would lead you to believe, she has teeny tiny veins and they've taking a beating these past couple of months.

But we are happy to be past June 27th. We are happy it is a summer with no bad news. (I almost added "yet" because we are always on edge.) We are happy we have our first full summer in three years together as a family. And those are all reasons to breathe a small sigh of relief. 

 


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