July 23, 2012

Today marks one year since the day of Ava's admission to the hospital.  I remember that day so clearly. Her future was uncertain and we were terrified of the road ahead.  I remember walking through the hospital with all of her things, pushing her in the stroller and being shown to our room.  For the following 3 nights Ava was given chemo and we watched as her little body was prepped for her bone marrow transplant. I think about that time now and I can't believe it has been one year. So much has happened since!  Ava has grown up and is turning into a beautiful little girl. She keeps us extremely busy and makes mommy very tired at the end of the day.  I have been wanting to do an entry for so long, but the longer I waited the harder it was to start. I felt that today would be a good day to just sit down and do it!
The last I wrote was in March. Since then she has had her monthly visits to Sinai, and a couple visits to Hopkins. Her one big visit to Hopkins was at the end of April when she got her port out!!  That was exciting, to have her free of that after all those months. Her blood is tested monthly and looks great... still moving in the right direction. Today she has her one year appointment with Hopkins. We will see Dr. Chen (who we haven't seen since December) and Ava is also scheduled for an EKG and some other tests that are standard for the one year appointment...today is a huge milestone :)

1 yr ago today, Ava moved into this room

I obviously have so much more to write, but will wait until my next entry in a couple days. The 27th will be 1 year post transplant!! I will get into more detail then about life at home with her and how the family is doing.