6 Left

Sierra has only 6 more rounds of chemo left. If she has no delays, she is set to be finishing chemo in the middle of November, right around my birthday. wouldn't that be the best birthday present ever, to know she is done with treatment, and can get back to living a somewhat normal life. Although she will have to deal with using a prosthesis, and have scans for the rest of her life to watch for the cancer to return, we hope that Sierra will be able to live a normal life, and do all of the things that she wants to do.

I have been very bad about posting updates regularly, and posting pictures. Life with a child with cancer is very busy, not to mention having 2 other kids to take care of as well, and a house to keep clean, and errands to run, well, you get the idea. We have a busy house, and when I get time to relax and unwind, I just don't always feel like having to think about what has been going on. Sierra has been doing really well. She is responding much the same to every treatment that she has had in the past. We have got a good routine down, and this life is getting more and more normal to us. Getting things packed for the hospital is a breeze now, and we know exactly what we need and what we can do without. Dave and I have a good system, rotating between the hospital and home, so that neither of us gets burnt out. Having Sierra and Reece in school again is helping to get some routine into our lives, which is very helpful, although it is hard to not be able to lounge around the house and sleep in until we please anymore.

Sierra is happy to be back at school with her friends, and I know it is good for her to have some normal life things going on. We aren't focusing as much on her academics at this point, though of course that is important. We will work really hard on that once her treatment is over, but for now, we want her to just do as much normal stuff as possible without overwhelming her. Now for picture overload:

Excited to get to work on the molding for her prosthesis.

She had to wear this funky unitard thing, here she is all wrapped in the molding material.

Even though she had been very excited to get started, she was not thrilled by all of the touching an maneuvering that went along with molding.

She was very happy to get back to our room afterward.

Waiting for the first fitting.

Smiling as the upper piece is fitted.

Both pieces on.

Sierra's 3 feet:) she was excited to see the knew foot that would be on her prosthesis.

trying on the temporary prosthesis, once some hardware had been added. She was not a happy camper for much of this part.

Standing up on a jig for the first time, not that she was actually doing much standing, her hands did much of the work, but she was in the position:)

Passed out cold on our way home from Portland.