Dance Marathon tired, and Dance Marathon elated!

Where are my Hope College Dance Marathon Exec Board alumni? You know that feeling of floating just above your body and that adrenaline pumping through your system is all that is keeping you on your feet? Remember laughing and not remembering what was so funny, and that in and of itself made you giggle harder? We were up for 24 hours during Dance Marathon, and there were so many intense feelings surging through us all... "Giving Hope to Kids." I will never forget loving on so many families who came through our gymnasium in that period and how those children plagued with Leukemia gave me an extra dosage of energy. That was the most tired and the most elated I have ever felt at one time.

Until now.

Gideon had NO headache last night. None. He woke up early this morning and proclaimed, "My head is OKAY!" and "I need to poop." Oh. Both of those comments filled me with such relief. Yes, even the poop part. Chemo constipates, did you know that? Now you do. Just to be forewarned: I tell it like it is without much of a filter. You WILL receive TMI while reading this blog at some point... Anyway, I am so relieved that the ONLY reason I was up constantly was because Gideon felt nauseous and because his chapped lips were bothering him. These two things I was expecting from the chemotherapy, but not the intense pain. So, this tired girl feels like one blessed girl. Prayers have been answered!

Yesterday's MRI was clear on its initial look-through, we will find out the rest today...hopefully soon.

May I tell you a moment of human weakness? Maybe this was projecting my disappointments on a tangible thing, or maybe I was in the right to be shaking in anger when Tom told me this story... I was overcome by annoyance yesterday because of a carpet cleaning service (I will not mention names since I don't believe in bashing). Yes. My child has cancer and I was annoyed about the carpet. Tom was told to be home from 1-4 p.m. yesterday and that a service guy would be there. I manned the hospital. By 2:30, he was getting nervous and called...He was assured someone would be there. By 4 p.m., no one showed. When Tom called, they said someone came but no one was home. I bet you could guess how annoyed Tom was... They finally admitted that they gave the wrong address to the service man. Tom asked how they would remedy the situation since we were hoping to be taking our sick boy home the next day (today). They said they would give him some free bottle of cleaner, or something like that. Some people, even when told about your present difficult situation, could not care less. This was my first encounter with greed and it made me feel horrible. I was shaking, I was so mad. Projection? Maybe.

THANKFULLY, Tom called another company, Servpro, last night and this company not only promised to be there THE SAME NIGHT (having their people work overtime), but also charged HALF THE AMOUNT since they felt so horrible about how we were treated. Please, please, please USE Servpro if you ever need any cleaning done. At this point it wasn't about the carpets being cleaned, it was about good souls helping. Once again: My faith in humanity has been restored.

Okay. Off my carpet tangent. Ha! That kind of sounds like "Off my rocker" - one of my favorite phrases. I told you I was tired.

So....Today. We will focus on today and how grateful I am that Gideon just smiled at the nurse drawing his blood. Pain is not clouding his eyes, and my heart is brimming over. He will have a lumbar puncture again today, spinal chemotherapy, and a bone marrow extraction at 8 a.m. We are praying, and again: WE FEEL YOUR PRAYERS. They work, work, work!