Fighting The Dragons: Daddy's birthday!

Eleanor's health and energy and general well-being are much improved. She has been on an elevated dose of her Prednisilone steroid since our hospital stay and it has helped tremendously. She is happier, hungrier and so much more fun to be around. We had an oncology appointment for her monthly blood draw and we had a bonus visit from the endocrine nurses. We reviewed her emergency dosing of steroids for mild, moderate and severe situations. It was incredibly helpful. We have been through all of it before, but it was so great to have a refresher course. I feel so lucky to have such a fantastic support system for Eleanor's condition. The doctors and nurses here on the island are awesome.

So today is Kris's 30-somethingmuffled birthday (we don't need to share which one, just rest assured that he is OLD!), and we had an impromptu gathering of the Barry clan. I splurged a little and bought him a new (used) bike. He's been wanting one forever and since his birthday last year was so awful (alone, while E endured her second round of chemo with me in Vancouver), I felt like he deserved a little spoiling. It's a beaut. 1974 Raleigh Superbe in Jaguar racing green. I'm lousy at buying gifts normally, so I was really pleased to see him happy with it.

A big highlight of the day was seeing Bea hold Eleanor like a big girl. Every time I see them together, it's like a bucket of cold water that this child is supposed to have a sibling. Or twenty. These girls are nuts for each other. Look at this face!