Week 2/3

Emotions have still been up and down. We have good days and bad days. Riley tends to feel pretty good during the day, but the evenings are harder. She was having some bleeding and stomach pain which was concerning us. Her labs came back fine and the bleeding stopped last Wednesday so that is good news. She has been dealing with super dry skin, rashes, and acne. She was having some scalp pain which has now broken out into a rash. She has redness and bumps covering her scalp. Her hands also got pretty red, but that flare up calmed down a bit. She describes her skin as feeling very sensitive and we have had to fiddle around with finding skin products that don’t burn and irritate her skin. So far, Cetaphil has been the best. Her doctors prescribed an antibiotic acne cream to hopefully help with some of the breakouts.
More than anything else, she misses her friends. She just wants to hug them! We are all feeling sad about having to social distance. We miss our community.

Week 1

Chemo sucks. It doesn’t matter how it’s delivered - oral, IV, low dose, high dose, daily, weekly...it just all sucks. It has such a huge mental and emotional component that is delivered right along with the medication. It changes you. It causes rashes, hair loss, GI issues, fatigue, nausea, weight gain/loss and the person taking it notices and feels everything. It is so hard to watch your child cry and mourn the loss of things. Add on a global pandemic and some days just seem unbearable.
But, every day is a new day. It’s a chance to hope that today will be better than yesterday. A new day to set your mind on the positive. Here are some positives from this week:

• Quality time with family
• Warm weather which gave us time in the pool and a daddy daughter evening trip to the beach
• Planting beautiful flowers around the property
• A date to Lowe’s and In and Out for shakes
• Mama bunny Eleanor giving birth to 8 bunnies
• Playing Yahtzee
• Eating good food
• Marco Polo with family
• Accidental new nicknames for my parents that the girls thought were hilarious 
• A drive by birthday parade for one of Riley’s best friends
• Hilarious baby chicks with fluffy feet
• A beautiful complete chicken coop and run
• Snuggling in bed binge watching TV shows

It’s easy to look over the good when things are hard. My friend Christi always makes lists to remind her of the good, to give her perspective, and to be grateful. Thank you, Christi, for inspiring me to make a list this week.

“Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.” CS Lewis
I will continue to trust in Jesus for peace.

Side effects so far are stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea. Riley needs lots of snuggles which we don’t mind at all.