Day 6

I woke Raul Matthew just in time to head downstairs for Santa's visit to the Ronald McDonald House. There were so many huge bags down there that it resembled an overloaded New York City garbage barge, just with fewer seagulls. We got a large gift bag featuring an eclectic mix of gifts ranging from a tye-dye NASCAR t-shirt to baby wipes. Most interesting was the Charlton Heston "Pry this Rifle from my Cold, Dead Hands" Action Kit. This was odd, but I won't "punch a gifted camel in the mouth." It's just a motto I live by. This was all in addition to another gift bag of goodies that we found waiting in our room last night.

While at the Riley Ronald McDonald House this morning, I met our neighbor from the other RM House. She and her husband have a one-year old daughter who has been struggling to stay alive in Intensive Care. This little girl with a heart condition had to be resuscitated yesterday, so this family has been in my thoughts and prayers throughout the day. There are many people here who are in worse situations than we are in.

Raul Matthew and I headed to Riley at about 9:30 where we found Melissa and Myla asleep in their dark hospital room. To give them more time to sleep, we headed down the hall to the activity room where we played several games of Foosball. While the Cleveland Crabs were no match for the Florida Oranges, they were ultimately crushed by the New Jersey Eggplants. Don't ask.

We are among the few people left here in the cancer ward today, but are very thankful for how well Myla is doing. She has been a bit on the fussy side this morning, but she is not running a fever and seems to be doing well overall. There are just three more days left in this second round of chemotherapy, and that will be followed by another 3-4 weeks of recovery time here in the hospital. After that, we'll head back home for about a week before beginning the 3rd round.

Here's a family picture of us from today.