Day 433

      We have reached another milestone.  On January 13, 2014, exactly one year from today, Katie will be done with her treatments!  (Katie will get her last chemo treatment on January 12th).  Yay! Just one more year to go!  We have come a long way.  Another year still seems long and daunting, but reaching this point once sounded far away and daunting.  We made it here, one day at a time...and we will get there, one day at a time.
     After next January, Katie will still have to go in monthly for blood draws, but no more chemo.  We have been told some parents ask for "just one more treatment...just in case, just to be sure."  I understand that request and that feeling.  I don't know if anyone will remember my posting last year about Todd White, a man in Utah, battling his 2nd battle with colon cancer... But I was recently told he completed his chemo treatments and that his wife expressed how hard that is.  (Chemo is hard, but ending treatments is also hard in another way). I was told she said, "At least when Todd was getting the chemo we were doing something...now all we can do is wait and see."  Yes...that wait and see period...where you just wait and see if the cancer comes back.
      As I have posted before, Katie will get regular cancer check-ups until she is 18, checking to see if her cancer comes back.  I have been told the greatest chance of it reoccurring will be during the first 2 -3 years after her treatments are complete.  That is the wait and see period.  Katie's friend, Orie, had his cancer come back - it was found during his check-up, 6 months after his treatment was complete.  So, while I am eager for Katie's treatments to end, I know my worry won't end.  BUT, it will be great to end the chemo and other meds.  It will be a time for celebration.  I think we will have a cancer free/chemo free party!  And we will plan something with Make-A-Wish.  We have saved our "wish" until Katie got better and older - so she would remember it.  She has been through so much and she deserves a special wish!  We are looking forward and are hopeful that there are better days ahead.
     Yesterday and today Katie has said, "Today is a hard day!"  They have been hard days for her.  She is doing okay, but she doesn't feel well and her cough is really bad, she has a crackling sound each time she exhales, and her breathing is a little laborious.  We are worried about it turning into pneumonia.  Please pray for her!
     We finally got a chance to put away our Christmas decorations yesterday and Katie said, "Christmas was really fun for me.  I am happy I will get to have another one!"  I am glad she will get to have another one too!
     "There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what the lighthouse of the Lord can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, 'This way to safety. This way to home.' It sends forth signals of light easily seen and never failing. If followed, those signals will guide you back to your heavenly home."  Thomas S. Monson, "Believe, Obey, and Endure", Ensign, November 2012