Logistics

What will our hospital room be like? Should Raul Matthew and I spend the nights in Kokomo or Indy? What about laundry? How is the cat box going to get changed? And most importantly--what are we going to eat? (It's all about priorities, you know?)

These are just a few of the questions we pondered today. We don't have all the answers yet, but we've made some progress beginning with putting our name on the waiting list for one of the 6 rooms at the Ronald McDonald House, and I was able to sell the cats on eBay to a grandmotherly-type in Idaho for $37.

Good news--I just read this on the Ronald McDonald House site: "Families of critically ill children can use the Ronald McDonald Family Room to rest, take showers, grab a bite to eat and even do laundry." That will help take care of the food and laundry, at least, at times. Another bit of encouraging news is that a colleague of mine at Indiana University Kokomo wrote to tell me that there is a 2-bedroom apartment near Riley that we might be able to use for this first round of chemo treatments, so we need to check out that option as well. Because our cars are 15 and 21 years old, it makes better sense to stay in Indy and return to Kokomo as needed, such as when I need to teach, or change the cat box (No, I didn't really sell Whitley or Britley).

At least not yet.

We also gave our approval to Dr. Kumar to be included in the Childrens Oncology Group study. Our pediatrician in Lafayette thought that this might potentially increases the chances of a cure, and since there were no known negative side effects, we said, "Sure." Of course, we won't know whether she'll get the new drug, just that she'll be either in the control or experimental group.