Home at last!

Abby is enjoying being back home, as we all are. It was refreshing to all of us! We really enjoyed being with my parents, but there is just something about being home. We are now working on getting back into our routines and schedules, which, for Abigail, includes starting physical and occupational therapy with speech therapy starting next Tuesday. Abby is enjoying being back in her bed. We have set the baby monitor up in her and Mary-Beth’s room since Abby is on the top bunk and the ladder is still a challenge. Over the weekend, on Saturday, Abby began her maintenance chemo which is 230mg, or 4.6mL. This amount has been shown effective and well tolerated, so hopefully Abby continues to handle it well and it does not impact her negatively.

On Monday, Abby had her evaluation with her physical therapist at Southeast Hospital Health Point. Abby really enjoyed playing the games and being active, and Emily did all of the exercises with them and they all had a blast. The therapist said that Abby is doing really well with her movements and coordination, but that she needs to increase her strength to her quads and bottom muscles. We all figured that after several weeks of not being able to walk that her legs would be fairly weak. While we were finishing up her physical therapy, we noticed that there was a Nintendo Wii set up, and I asked if getting a Wii would be beneficial for Abby, and she said that there are several games for the Wii that go with the Wii Fit that would strengthen her core muscles as well as increasing her coordination. So I was sold!

Abby will be scheduled for her physical therapy treatments once a week and she is already looking forward to going back. Tomorrow is Abby’s first occupational therapy and she is very excited to go! We are glad that she enjoys going because it makes it so much easier!

Today, Abby escorted me to my doctor’s appointment where I knew that Dr. Crist and the awesome nurses there were very excited to see Abby. Since it is a doctor’s office and sick people go there (obviously), we got a mask for Abby to wear just to be safe. Abby definitely was happy to be there with me and everyone was happy at how well Abby is doing and how she keeps her positive attitude.

From there, we went to Best Buy where we found a new Nintendo Wii as well as the Nintendo Fit. I then looked through the games and found a couple that use the Fit balance pad to control everything and picked it up. Abby also got a Dora and the Ice Princess game and I got Maegan a Mario Brothers game.

When we got home, we got the Wii set up and I made the “Mii” characters for everyone. Maegan then went to get Mary-Beth from school and then we all started to play. Needless to say, it is a hit! We definitely need to get at least one more control, and possible 2 or 3! If it keeps Abby up and moving rather than just sitting down, I am for it! Plus, it comes with several other games and the Fit comes with several workout games that we haven’t tried yet. I think it is going to be worth the investment!

We got our new computer in and it took a couple of days to get things set up and to find how to get our dial up internet connection set up. Hopefully, there is rumor that we will be available for some hi speed internet in the near future! That will be awesome if it happens! We got spoiled at my parent's house with the hi speed Wi-Fi connections.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to another good day and I will hopefully get the garage cleaned out the rest of the way so that we can get the concrete guys out and hopefully get the concrete poured before much longer. It will make things so much easier when that is in and then it will open up the room for me to put up some walls and make a storage area which is much needed! The way things are now, if we store clothes or the like in the garage, the moisture comes in through the floor and starts molding things. So I am planning on possibly putting up two rooms in the garage to be used for food storage and then storage. We will see what happens and how my carpentry skills hold out.

Thanks again to everyone for the prayers for my little girl and our family!! They do help and we are thankful for all of them! Please keep them coming so that Abby can continue to do well on her higher dose of chemo for this next year.