Sophie's World

10:30 PM Once again, it has been a while since we posted. We spent the past few days in Virginia with Susan's mom and grandmother. Nannie was released from the hospital on Thursday and seems to be on the mend. I hope we were a help to the two of them. If anybody knows what an unbelievable burden hospitalization and a health care crisis it has been our family this past year. We have learned a lot of hard lessons, and, surprisingly, we have learned a lot of really good lessons--like admitting that we need help when we need help, and being willing to drop everything when something of utmost importance intervenes.

The girls charmed their grandmother and great-grandmother, of course. I'm thankful that they are able to spend as much time with them as possible. Susan is very close to her grandmother, and I'm glad that our girls are getting to know her and their "Grammy" so well. Sophie will wrap up her five days of steroids tomorrow. She seems a little crankier than usual and perhaps a little more obsessed with food, but it may be too early to tell. The doctors reduced the levels of her other chemo drugs in order to keep her counts from falling too low (neutropenia) and compromising her immune system. We'll see how she does this round.

This has been an amazing year for us and we want to wish everyone who keeps up with us through our little weblog a happy and healthy 2006.