Day +701: Trucking Along

Things have been going along swimmingly here in the Olsen-Olson household. We've been busy busy, doing this, that and the other thing. The kids (and adults) have had another round of colds -- runny noses and coughs, but no fevers or throwing up, thank goodness. The other day Mina, as she's done before, said with an exaggerated tone of exasperation, "When am I going to not have a cold?" It does seem like she's had an endless string of colds and coughs, but they've not been anythings that's set her back at all. She even avoided catching the nasty stomach flu that Isaac and so many of her schoolmates had. I'm stunned, but also really hopeful that this all means that her new immune system is strong. We weren't sure what to expect with Mina entering school -- in the back of my mind I think I was expecting her to miss a lot of days of school and to catch every litttle thing that somebody brought to school. But she's barely been ill at all, and she seems strong as a horse.

This is all terrific of course, especially with her fourth birthday and the two-year anniversary of her transplant coming up. Keri spent today writing invitations and planning Mina's birthday. Mina is so excited about it. She really wants to have it at our house, and she wants to invite all of her school friends, along with Bliss, Nikola, Devon, and Mikaela. That's goingn to mean about 15 kids and at least 20 adults, crammed into our little 2-bedroom flat. I have no idea how that's going to work, but there is a large playground a block away that we can use as a safety valve if we need to. I think I'm going to suggest that we have the cake early so there's nothing stopping us from all walking up there if we need to. Mina was screeching about it today just from planning it. She doesn't want to wait for three weeks, she wants it to be tomorrow.

The kids' games with the beds and couch have gotten much more elaborate over the months. The other day when I came home from work, and Mina and Isaac were so excited to show me the "car". They had taken the bottom cushion off the couch and put it behind the couch. That was the back seat. Then they had taken one of the two back cushions and set it down lengthwise, and several babies were propped up on it, neatly covered with blankets. The other back cushion was standing upright, leaning against the armrest. That was the driver's place. The footstool from the rocker was set up next to the cushion, and the driver would stand on the footstool and steer using the upright back cushion. The rest of the couch was packed full of stuff. Little toy animals, boxes of books, blankets, blocks, tools, you name it. They had packed the car really well because they were going on a long, long, long, long drive to ... Hawaii. You see, Hawaii is a long drive, so they had to bring lots of stuff. And they really wanted Keri and me to cram ourselves into the space between the couch and the windows and sit on the cushion which they had stuffed there. We did that for about five minutes, but neither of us was limber enough to last any longer.

Isaac is so into his driving games, that he frequently now says "I'm not Isaac. I'm the garbage man." Or the fireman. Or the bus driver or truck drive. His latest one is the mailman. With the couch cushion off the couch so much these days, I noticed how dirty the couch was underneath, so I wanted to vacuum it. Then I figured, Isaac loves the vacuum cleaner. In fact, he's always trying to get it out of the closet, except it has a base with a hose attached, and he can't quite get it to do what he wants, so he always gets frustrated and starts to cry. Anyway, I set Isaac up with the vacuum cleaner and had him vacuum the couch. He was *so* happy. He vacuumed the couch for half an hour, and would have gone longer if I hadn't made him stop. The only thing I had to do was dig deeply into the corners. He looked up at me one time and said "I'm cleaning my garbage truck!"

I've noticed with Mina that there are little rituals that she does, little things that she says or does over and over again at the same time. I think I noticed it first with her vitamins. She had three pills every morning at breakfast for a long, long time: a multivitamin, a gummy calcium vitamin, and a children's aspirin (now she only has two, since we stopped the aspirin). And every day she would say "Which vitam am I gonna take first?" So I would suggest she take the aspirin, and sometimes she would say "But that's the next one!" "How about the gummy one?" "But that's the next one." "How about the multivitamin?" "OK." and she would eat it. One day, after at least a year like that, I for some reason decided to do "eenie meenie minie moe" to decide which one to take first. Well, that instantly became the new ritual. Not exactly what I intended, but now every day Mina says "Can you do eenie meenie minie moe?" And I have to do it for her, even though she's fully capable of doing it herself.

She has other ones. When we read the "Mommie" book, which is a very elaborate popup book by Maurice Sendak, which is about a boy searching for his Mommie in Frankenstein's castle. He has to elude Dr. Frankestein, the vampire, Frankenstein's monster, the mummy and the warewolf, and when he finally finds his Mommie on the last page, it's the Bride of Frankenstein. And every time we get to the last page, and I mean *every time*, Mina says "She looks kinda scary herself!"

The latest one I've noticed is when she goes off to school in the morning. I'm usually just getting in the shower, so every day as she's walking down the stairs she turns and says to me "You won't be lonely because all the babies will be here to keep you company!" Or sometimes if she knows I'm going straight to work, she'll say "You won't be lonely at your work because all your people will be there!" It's very endearing, and I'm sure it says something about her personality, but darned if I know what.

The latest endearing thing she's been doing is telling me how much she loves me. She'll give me a big hug and say "I love you *so* much!" Or sometimes she'll say she loves me as high as the ceiling, or say what Auntie Teri tells her about to the moon and stars and back again. Of course it melts Daddy's heart every time. And best of all, today Isaac said to me "Daddy, I love you *so* much!"

Day +688: Stomach flu

There has been a nasty stomach bug going around Mina & Isaac's school. Isaac was very ill last week -- he threw up at least once an hour from around 11 AM to 3 AM Monday, and he didn't really stop throwing up until Wednesday. He had a pretty high fever late Monday/early Tuesday, but otherwise not so much. He just couldn't keep anything down. Poor guy. He kept wanting water, but we couldn't give him too much or it would come right back up again. We called the pediatrician's office first thing Wednesday morning, and they gave explicit instructions for rehydration: give him two tablespoons of water every 20 minutes. We figure he must have been pretty dehydrated, because he responded really well to that, and was relatively perky again Wednesday night. But he wasn't quite well enough to go to school on Friday, and I can tell he still doesn't feel totally like himself, although today he did pretty well.

Many of the kids in the school have had similar symptoms to Isaac, but Mina seems to have miraculously escaped it so far. She had a little bit diahrrea around mid-week, and complained that her stomach felt like it was being pinched. Which is funny, because that's exactly the same symptoms I had, and exactly the same description I used for my stomach. She's been out of sorts though, just not really herself for the last several days. Shouldn't be too surprising, and if that's all she gets from this virus we can be pretty thankful.

I was just glancing through my last entry and got stuck on the part where the bruising was a worry but Mina's energy level was a comfort. Right now it's exactly the opposite. Mina's bruising has magically gone away after stopping the aspirin. Now she has a small bruise here and there, just like Isaac does, instead of constantly having several bruises on her legs and one or two on her arms. But her energy level is not where it was a few weeks ago. Several weeks ago she started napping again on some days, after not really doing it at all for several months. She can really use the nap sometimes, and it can help Keri get a break during the day if both kids go down, so we're not really complaining about it. There's just always the constant worry about what else could be going on.

Grandma Lyn was here all week, which was great for us but not so great for her. It was one of the nicest weeks of the year weather-wise, with daytime temperatures in the low to mid 70s every day. But they were stuck inside the house all week, because Isaac was not up for going anywhere! We finally got everyone out of the house on Saturday, the day of her flight, but that was the first day it was cold and foggy again. Go figure. It was great having her here though. The kids adore her, and she was a huge help with Isaac. Today he was walking around saying that Grandma Lyn was his mommy. He's always got some role-playing game going on -- usually he's the garbageman, or the bus driver -- and today his game somehow had Grandma Lyn as his mom.

Mina has been going nuts with building blocks and Legos these days. She spent most of her week building big elaborate houses out of the medium-sized Legos we have. We still have "Grandma's house" on our mantel. Mina built a huge tall "house" out of the large brick-blocks at school. Teacher Julie said it must have been six feet tall. She also said the only reason Mina was able to do that was because all of the other three-year-olds were out sick, so they weren't around to distract her and to compete for the blocks.

Please take a moment to think some positive thoughts for the Aicardi family. Eileen Aicardi is our wonderful pediatrician who was so stellar during the weeks after Mina was diagnosed. She raised five sons, three of whom were involved in a brawl that injured several members of an a capella singing group from Yale during a private party on New Year's Eve. It's been international news, and a big story here in town as well. Her son Richard was indicted on felony assault charges, and the boys have now been sued as well. I know that no one feels worse about the incident than Dr. Aicardi and her husband, and my heart aches for them for all that they are going through now. Dr. Aicardi was there for us in our darkest hour, truly going above and beyond the call of duty, and she and her family need our thoughts and prayers now.

Day +675:

The kids had to go to the pediatrician's office to get vaccinations today. Last time Isaac cried nonstop from the moment they walked into the office until they walked out the door. I guess he's getting to be a big boy, because Keri said he didn't cry until they actually gave him the shot! Mina of course didn't cry at all, "not a single, ingle dwop" as she puts it, even though the vaccinations hurt more than the blood draws that she gets from the "shot doctor", which is what Mina calls her phlebotomist. We got the official word today that Mina can stop taking aspirin, nearly a year after the stenosis issue first cropped up! Here is how Dr. Loh put it in her email:

I had a chance to review all of Mina's labs and case with Dr. Huang. We both agree that she can stop taking her aspirin. It is important for you to remember that she is a Factor 5 leiden heterozygote and an MTHFR homozygote, so she does have some risk factors for clots. That being said, her homocysteine has been normal (if high, that would be a reflection that her MTHFR status was having a clinical effect on her), she no longer has cancer, nor does she have a central line. So we think it is pretty safe to stop the aspirin.

So Mina will officially be off all meds starting March 6, 2007. Stopping the aspirin may be better for her father's heart, too; it may or may not be the aspirin, but Mina bruises very easily even with healthy platelet counts, and my stress level goes way up every time I see a black spot on her shin. She's had an awful lot of them lately, and I have to keep reminding myself that her platelet counts were perfect at her last blood test just three short weeks ago. Isaac has begun to notice; he was showing Mommie his bruise the other day and remarking on it.

She has been very energetic lately too, so that's a big comfort. It was really nice this weekend, so we went to the beach at Chrissy Field on Saturday. Mina ran all over the beach with her friend Bliss. She just ran and ran. She dances around the house whenever there is music on, and she loves showing how high she can jump. Keri and I think her running may be a little bit strained, as she holds one arm close to her body in a funny way. We'll mention it to her doctors next time and see if they want to follow up with the orthopedic surgeon from the avascular necrosis she had in summer 2005.

Auntie Teri was here from Wednesday to Saturday, and the kids barely left her side the entire time she was here. Mina was so excited for Teri's arrival that she could hardly sleep on Tuesday night and she didn't want to go to school on Wednesday. Keri and Isaac picked Teri up in the late morning and went straight to school, and the parent helper that day said she had never seen Mina so excited as when Anta came into the schoolroom.

Isaac is going to school now, and he's still not quite sure about it. Keri has been staying with him most of the time, but I couldn't do that when I dropped him off on Friday. He was pretty clingy, but he did move away from me and explore quite a bit, so about 10 AM when there was a quiet moment and Teacher Julie was not too occupied, I made my getaway. He was bawling his eyes out, but Julie said he settled down and had fun. When I asked him if he had fun at school, he said "Yes." But when I asked him if he wanted to go back, he said "No." We'll keep trying it and if it turns out to be just too traumatic, we'll pull him and wait until the fall. But I think he'll be OK after he gets used to it a bit.

Mina's friend Maddie came over last Thursday afternoon while Megan was here. Megan said it was really fun and interesting for her to observe Mina with her friend. It was the first time Maddie had been to our house, and the girls were so excited they didn't really settle down at all. They were both dressed up as princesses, and Megan said she had two princesses and a garbageman. Isaac of course still likes to play garbageman, pilot, bus driver, fireman, etc. On Saturday Keri was sleeping late, and Isaac came up to me and said "Mommy's sleeping on the garbage truck and I don't like it!"

Mina is getting more and more into princess things, and now she has started to pay attention to what she is wearing. She'll point out her outfits in old pictures and ask what she was wearing, and she's gotten very particular about what clothes she puts on. She won't wear pajamas anymore, only nightgowns, and stretch pants and a t-shirt if there isn't a nightgown clean. A couple of weeks ago when I was going to take the kids to the park, she refused to put on a coat that wasn't the one she wanted. We didn't have a lot of time before dinner, so I told her I was going to just take Isaac if she wouldn't put on a coat, and she still wouldn't do it. So just Isaac and I went to the park while Keri and Mina baked bread.

We've been in contact with Sean Rodriguez, Mina's donor, over the last couple of weeks. He's a really interesting person, and Mina loves the tiara and clip-on princess earrings he sent. We're trying to schedule a phone call one of these days, so I'll post more about him when that happens. He told us some great stories in his letters and emails and he said it was OK to share them on the blog.

I want to close with a story of how Mina feel asleep last night. She was very tired around 6:30, probably still from all the running and playing she did on Saturday. She's usually pretty good about going to bed when she's tired; she pretty much just hits the wall and stops functioning about 6:00, and she knows it. Last night I was playing a great CD, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. I've owned it for about 15 years and I've always loved it, but I've recently been thinking it may be my favorite CD of all time. Beautiful, intricate sounds recorded in 1957 by Miles, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and others. Anyway, we'd been listening and dancing to it all weekend, and it was playing when Mina and I went out to the living room to turn off the lights. I picked her up intending to dance softly with her a bit and she put her head down on my shoulder and didn't move. After about 15 minutes, I got tired and had to sit down. She shifted just enough to get comfortable, and that was it. Just Mina and me, sitting in our darkened living room, rocking back and forth and listening to Miles while she drifted off to sleep. It was a truly beautiful moment.