Day 246

     We are officially in Maintenance.  Yesterday was long, but everything went fine.  Katie took a chemo pill last night and she will start taking her (twice a day) dose of steroids today.  She takes the steroids for 5 days each month.  We are told to expect to see the "effects" of the steroids monthly.  Katie will take the chemo pill (6MP) daily for the next year and a half.  Also, On Friday's Katie will take 5 additional chemo pills (Mexotrexate).  We asked to get any or all these in liquid forms, but the doctors said no.  So we are crushing and putting them in a syringe with a tiny bit of juice.  I told Scott I didn't want to try and "hide" any of the pills - there are too many to try and hide anyway - and especially since they can't be taken with food, milk or citrus - there is no way to hide it! 
     We had planned on giving the chemo pills to her in the morning, but they told us it needs to be evening, because it absorbs better into her system in the evening.  We think evening will be more of a challenge than the morning, because she has to take it two hours after food, and an hour or two before food.  My kids like a bed time snack - that isn't going to work anymore, because she would have to wait two hours after dinner to take the pills and then wait another hour or two before she could have a "bedtime snack". (So if we ate dinner at 6 pm, she would take the pills at 8 pm and couldn't snack until 9-10 pm - and she is in bed by then).  I guess I could try moving dinner up to 5 pm...but we would have to eat right at 5 pm in order for her to get a snack at 8-9 pm.   We will just see how it all goes, and we will do whatever we need to do.  I told Katie the same type of thing, "You are a big girl now, and you are going to have to take medicine every day, morning and night.  We have to do this to get rid of the cancer.  So you are just going to have to do it.  I know you can, because you are a big girl now."  She took it fine last night - so we will see how that goes too.
     We are going out of town today for awhile.  It will be nice for us to get away.  I will not be posting while we are gone.  The 24th of July, Pioneer Day, is approaching and I wanted to recognize and honor their lives and sacrifices. 

     Gordon B. Hinckley shared this: "Every man and woman in this Church knows something of the price paid by our forebears for their faith. I have been reminded of this whenever I read the narrative of Mary Goble Pay, my wife's grandmother.

     " 'We arrived in Salt Lake City nine o'clock at night the 11th of December 1856. Three out of four that were living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. . . .

     " 'Early next morning . . . Brigham Young . . . came. . . . When he saw our condition, our feet frozen and our mother dead, tears rolled down his cheeks... .

     " 'The doctor amputated my toes . . . [while] the sisters were dressing my mother for her grave. . . . When my feet were fixed they [carried] . . . us in to see our mother for the last time. Oh how did we stand it. That afternoon she was buried. . . .

     " '[I have thought often of my mother's words before we left England.] "Polly, I want to go to Zion while my children are small, so they can be raised in the Gospel of Christ for I know this is the true church" ' (A Pioneer Story: Mary Goble Pay, 1856, Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2–4, 10).

     "I conclude with this question: Should we be surprised if we are called upon to endure a little criticism, to make some small sacrifice for our faith when our forebears paid so great a price for theirs?"  (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Pursue the Steady Course," Ensign, Jan. 2005, 6–7).

     I am grateful for my pioneer ancestors who paid the price of faith, and who left such a exemplary legacy for us to follow!  Our Katie has some of that "pioneer stock" in her.  She is strong, hearty, and determined!  Elder Oaks said, "It is not enough to study or reenat the accomplishments of our pioneers.  We need to identify the great, eternal principles they applied to achieve all they achieved for our benefit and then apply those priciples to the challenges of our day.  In that way we honor their pioneering efforts, and we also reaffirm our heritage and strengthen its capacity to bless our own posterity and 'those millions of our Heavenly Father's children who have yet to hear and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ'  We are all pioneers in doing so." ("Following the Pioneers," Ensign, Nov. 1997, 72).