Sophie's World

9:52 (Texas Time) Just a quick post to give everyone an update on Sophie's last visit to the clinic. Things went very well. Sophie only needed to get "poked" once and her counts came back fine. In fact, they are as close to "normal" as they have been since before she got sick more than two and a half years ago. Only one level registered "low" on the report, and I cannot remember which one it was. We're used to seeing a great big "L" next to all of Sophie's counts, so it was surprising to see only one this time. Sophie was not at all excited about getting poked, but she did fine.

On another note, we are going to have Sophie tested for the possibility of cognitive delays. We do not suspect anything (far from it), but one possible long-term side effect of chemotherapy is cognitive delays (some research suggests one out of four childhood cancer survivors will experience some cognitive delays). What we're going to do is get a reasonable "baseline" for where Sophie is at, now that treatment is over and she has started at school. This way, we will be able to recognize and identify *if* Sophie is having difficulties in school as a result of treatment.

Elisabeth is very excited about her birthday (Friday the 14th). Her party is Saturday in Clovis at RollerWorld. She's looking forward to that. I know it's tough for her to have a birthday so quickly after moving to a new community (we kind of had limited options as far as invitations go), but she's adjusting very well and making friends just fine. As difficult a time as she had with leaving North Carolina, I'm happy to report that she's genuinely happy here in Texas.

I'll report more on the party next week!