A busy, busy three weeks

So I took a little vacation from the blog. Maybe not so little--looking through the old blogs, it's been around three weeks since my last post. Luckily Sarah was able to cover my slacker ways with her post, otherwise this place would've been a desert of Eden info. In my defence, though, the World Cup is on, which has driven the one or two rational thoughts straight out of my head. But I'm back and rarin' to go now, so be prepared for an onslaught of baby news--new posts every hour, on the hour, for the rest of the week, baby. And for the unaware, my tongue is very much in my cheek, because we all know some tigers don't quickly change their stripes.

So what's happened in Edenland over the last three weeks? Lets see, Eden's had two trips to the blood clinic, but she couldn't beat her old high score--her first test came short at 440,000. 440 came the week after her transfusion, so we expected it to be much higher; it had platelet clumps in the sample, though, so it wasn't neccessarily an accurate count. We were holding our collective breaths for the following week's results to be better, but it was not to be--198,000 platelets were all she could rustle up, which follows the norm lately. She goes back in tomorrow and, if she keeps the rhythm going, we expect another transfusion Monday next.

The nice thing about having to take Eden in every week is that it helps us keep perspective--there's nothing like watching two bald 12-year-olds discuss how many doses of chemo they got in the past couple of months to help us realize that we have no idea how hard it really could be. Given the choice of a million dollars, ITP, or leukemia I'd choose the million dollars, but ITP would be a close second. Okay, maybe a distant second, but leukemia or lymphoma would be an even more distant third. The point is, none of us really get a choice in the matter--we close our eyes and pray for the best, like picking numbers for a lottery ticket. It's not until we see the cancer kids and their families at the children's hospital that we realize that regardless of how long it takes Eden to get over this--or even if she doesn't--we have already won the lottery.

Let's see, what other kind of stuff has happened over the last several days? Well, as Sarah mentioned, she and Eden went to Nashville for several days (which was a big part of my blogging neglect--when the cat's away...) and had a great time. And once they left, her Nan missed Eden so much that she followed her back to Little Rock. Janet came out and spent the majority of the week with us, and we had a blast. We watched lots of soccer, where we discovered that Eden has been a long-time Portugal fan (how did that happen?)--she cried every time they missed a penalty kick against England, and I think I saw her laugh sarcastically and point when Rooney got booted with a red-card. We also watched her Nan do lots of work in the garden, which was also lots of fun for us because it meant we didn't have to do it ourselves. Heh. And we finally, finally, finally made it to the zoo, on which I'll have another post later (unless another three-week vacation happens to crop up). So, all in all, a great week.

So it's been a fun-fulled few weeks, and it doesn't stop here: we've got another clinic visit tomorrow and an auntie and uncle getting back into town tonight that have been burnin' to see their niece. And, of course, the 4th of July is on some day this week (I always forget when), so Eden will get her first chance to be freaked out by big exploding lights in the sky.