Day +448: Summer in the Northwest

Everyone is having a great time on their summer vacation in Washington. Keri and the kids left on the 6th in our Honda Civic, and I flew into Seattle on the 11th. We stayed with the Paylors for a couple of days and then headed to Lake Mayfield in Southwest Washington for the annual Kaminksy family camping weekend. Paul and Harriet Kaminsky are Keri's maternal grandparents, and six of their eight children were in the campground, along with dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, spouses, and other hangers-on. We counted 61 people in campground with the Kaminsky party. Mina Brigitta spent most of the weekend with her hand clamped around that of cousin Zoe, who is the daughter of Keri's niece Karissa and who is three months older than Mina. They get along very well, and are really cute together. Zoe was mostly being taken care of by Grandma Lyn, so Mina got some quality time with Grandma as well.

Isaac loved to just wander around the campground. He would just take off down the road, talking and singing and grinning, and I would follow along behind to make sure he went into the right campsites. He was in full exploration mode, and he had a blast. We also got to go out in Uncle Bill and Aunt Kristy's boat, which Isaac loved and Mina wasn't sure about. I was expecting the opposite based on Isaac's prior reactions to noise and commotion, but he didn't want to come off the boat.

The family was of course thrilled to see how well Mina is doing. They call her their miracle baby, and I think they're probably right. I have to admit that I loved showing her off -- I try not to focus on it, but I can't help but remember where we were last year, all the worry and the doubt and the intensity of the situation. We are truly blessed to have had these last months with Mina as she has seemed fully recovered and as our lives have blended more and more into those of "normal" families.

Keri and the kids are in Wenatchee this week with Grandma and Grandpa. They've agreed to provide some child care so that Keri can get some academic work done. It didn't take a lot of arm-twisting. I went with the family to Wenatchee but flew back in to San Francisco on Wednesday and was back in the office today. Not a good summer for me to be vacationing due to the workload, but I enjoyed my week off and am looking forward to my next trip up there in early August. It's also nice to be making up for lost time at work.

Day +435: Another Milestone

Happy belated 4th of July to everyone! The 4th is the birthday of beloved cousin Kennedy, who turned 11. We sang Happy Birthday into the voice mailbox, but didn't get to talk to her in person. Keri and the kids are on their way to Seattle, so they'll get to see her soon enough. Grandma Lyn flew down to help Keri with the kids on the drive up there, and they got all the way to Ashland, Oregon tonight, which is about half the distance to Seattle. Tomorrow they'll play in the morning, then get in the car for a quick two and a half hour drive to Eugene where they'll see Lyn's sisters Bonnie and Joan, who are psyched to see them. Saturday they'll make it all the way to Lake Stevens and see the Paylors. I have to give a presentation in Boise on Tuesday the 11th, so I'll be flying into Seattle that night for a week.

The 4th of July, or really the 5th, is another milestone for Mina Brigitta. It's now been a year since she was released from the hospital after her transplant. Dr. Horn had originally scheduled her to go home on the 4th, but it was changed to the 5th after it was realized that the 4th was a holiday. Dr. Horn had scheduled her to go home on the 4th, but it was changed to the 5th after it was realized that the 4th was a holiday. Dr. Horn is originally from Croatia, so I suppose she can be forgiven for not thinking about the 4th of July. Anyway, aside from a couple of quick overnights due to viruses, Mina hasn't been back to the hospital and we're aiming to keep it that way. She's such a different person now, it's a bit weird to think back on that time and how much a part of our life, her life, the hospital was. Mina still loves to play with her "poohs", but we're sort of slowly running out of the large stash of hospital supplies we had accumulated.

The food poisoning that the kids had appears not to have been food poisoning after all, at least based on the way I felt Monday night and Tuesday. I spent half of Monday night in the bathroom, and all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday on my back on the couch. I started to feel better Wednesday afternoon, but am still a bit weak and I haven't had much of an appetite. Keri seems to have escaped it, which is really lucky with the long drive this week.

Day +430: Poohs on the tummy

Mina Brigitta woke up about 11:30 Saturday night throwing up. We had to turn the light on, get her out of bed, clean her up, put new jammies on her, get the sheets out from under Isaac, put new sheets down, and put her back down to bed. Isaac didn't move throughout that whole process, he was totally out. Then Mina threw up again, and by the time we got her cleaned up again, Isaac had started to stir. After a few minutes, he sat up and cried out, and then threw up himself! He threw up again later, and Mina threw up a total of about six times between 11:30 and 4:30. She kept saying her tummy hurt and asking me to put a "Pooh" (bandaid) on it. I finally put one on thinking maybe it would help, but it must not have because she asked for another one a few minutes later. She has five or six on there now. She finally settled in and was able to sleep for a few hours.

Isaac seemed OK when he woke up -- he had most of a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, whereas Mina didn't take even a single bite. They both slept most of the day and both have diarrhea, but neither has had a fever. Mina finally ate a little bit for dinner and seemed to be in generally good spirits, though with no energy. Keri and I are fine, so it seems likely it was something the kids ate, which means hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. It was a tough night, obviously, and it's always a bit worrisome when Mina gets sick (or Isaac, for that matter), but it doesn't exactly rank up there near the worst nights we've had. I guess that's the advantage of going through what we went through. Keri's and my biggest concern was just to try to get vomit cleaned up so we could all get some sleep.

The reason we could be so sanguine about Mina's situation is because she had her doctor's appointment this week and her blood counts looked great. Very healthy and normal counts of all types of cells. They also ran a thyroid function test, which came back in the low-normal range, which is great. She had a hearing test as well, which uncovered some pressure anomalies in her left ear that no one seems too concerned about. Her hearing is fine, and she doesn't have to go back for a year. I'm sure glad she didn't get sick last weekend when I was overly nervous about her counts. It's amazing how much peace of mind it gives me to know that her blood counts are normal.

The other bit of news is that she was 98-99 cm tall and 17.2 kg! That means she's gained about 10 cm or 4 inches since she left the hospital last July, most of it since the fall when they got her meds tapered down. It puts her between the 50th and 75th percentile in height, and still at the 90th in weight. They do say some "catch-up" growth is normal, now we just have to watch it over time to see if she starts to fall off. She is really blossoming physically these days. Keri took them in the stroller down to the Conservatory of Flowers, which is in Golden Gate Park nearly a mile from the house. After running around and playing with the kids in the playgroup, Mina insisted on walking all the way home. Mina really meanders when she gets tired, and Keri said it took two hours, but she wouldn't get in the stroller.

The kids went through a bit of a rough patch in terms of their getting along as Isaac started to express more and more of his own opinion. But they seem to be settling back in and they were really cute together this weekend. Isaac is a little chatterbox. He's always on the move, and he's always either chattering or singing as he runs around the house. He has several songs he sings from the Music Together class, in addition to the endless variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/Baa Baa Black Sheep. He's getting very tall himself, but unlike Mina is skinny as a rail. Mina seems to have inherited her body type from me, and Isaac got his from Keri.