Sushi, Preschool and Freedom

Last Monday, Emilie had a bone marrow aspirate to check for cancer as well as a chimerism test to check the percentage of Nicolas' cells, which is hopefully 100%.  Three weeks prior, they ran three tests exposing her cells to different "bugs". In order to get "off isolation", her cells had to be able to fight the "bugs" and pass 3 of 6 tests.  While waiting in pre-op, we learned that her immune system is working just like a "normal person's immune system".  She passed the first 3 tests, so she was officially off isolation.  Emilie was thrilled that she was "FINALLY FREE!!!".  Free to eat at restaurants, but not sushi.  Free to go to school, but not hang out at preschool.  Most exciting for Emilie, free to go to the mall with her friends.  We said goodbye to her mask...kind of as she will need to wear it near a construction zone (which means every time we visit the hospital).  While we were all excited and extremely grateful about the freedom report, we had 24 hours to wait until we learned about her MRD (minimum residual disease) results.  Tuesday we found out that the MRD results were negative and Emilie was cancer free!!!!  PRAISE GOD!! A huge load immediately fell off my shoulders and I felt as if I could live again.  Weird, I know, but that was my feeling at the time.  The past couple of weeks have been very hard for me and everyone in our family as we anticipated her bone marrow aspirate.  Nervous, grumpy, anxious....  I had to remind myself daily that the God who has sustained us for the last 2 years was STILL IN CONTROL. Emilie, on the other hand, didn't need reminding.  After thanking God for the good results, Emilie said she didn't know why we were so excited about her bone marrow results and that we should be more excited about her being off of isolation.  We explained that while being "free" was great in that it meant that her immune system is working well, but having no cancer in her marrow was even more important.  She responded by telling us that she wasn't worried AT ALL because she knew that the cancer was ALREADY gone.  The night before her procedure, I couldn't sleep and Emilie couldn't sleep.  I thought, great, we are in for a rough wake up to make it to the hospital by 7 a.m.  At 4:30 a.m. I went into Emilie's room to wake her up, but she was already awake.  Not just awake, but chatty and happy.  What??  Emilie is not a morning person and her "we're going to Disneyland" wake up was odd.  She knew.  She trusted.  She hoped. What a wonderful faith Emilie has...faith of a child...that she believes God for all the good things that He desires to give her.

No Joke!

As Emilie is slowly coming out of isolation, her docs are allowing more variety in her diet and while Paul (peanut allergy = no Chinese) is away at Camp Attitude, she decided she'd like Chinese food.  After dinner, she and Nicolas split 6 fortune cookies among themselves.  We don't believe in fortunes delivered in crunchy cookies, but usually make funny jokes about the fortunes or try and guess one another's lucky numbers.  After Emilie read the above fortune, she said, " Well, I already have 4 wheels and I am already happy!".  Really, it's no joke that Emilie got this message in her fortune cookie.  It is amazing that  this is a girl who has been through 2 years of pokes, prods, poison and pain but has such a positive and happy attitude.  Emilie is truly a gift and is an example of how all of us should live.

The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go.  Martha Washington

Random Erickson Numbers

132 = the number of days "post bone marrow transplant"!!!
0 = the number of central lines Miss Emilie will have in 2 days
106 = the air temperature for playing baseball in AZ
14 = the number of days Eric was out of the country in June
70 = the number of days until school starts.  Happy number for Emilie, not so happy for the boys.
600 = the number of lymphocytes in Emilie's blood (per mL) a week ago...needs to be 1000 before the above number can really be a happy number...maybe late August, early September
2 = the number of clinic visits per month for Emilie
3 = the number of "swims/day" for Nicolas and Sandy
1 = the number of "dirt rolls" following swims for Sandy
1 = the number of daily baths for Sandy
118 = the number of Facebook friends I have...told you it was random
7 = the number of days Paul will be serving families with kids with disabilities this summer
40 =  the number of days Emilie and I have been home
∞ = the amount of God's love for all of us...it's endless  (∞ is really not a number)

This is the day that the Lord has made,

I will rejoice and be glad in it. 

Psalm 118:24