Consider a butterfly

Nicole started radiation this week.  Things have gone well with everything.  She walks right back to the room where they do the radiation and lays on the bed.  The anthologist (she usually gets a different one each day) thinks it is so cute that she holds out her arm for the blood pressure cuff and holds out her finger for the heart monitor.  She gets a little panicky when the sleeping medicine starts to hit her. She reaches up and says mom then she goes to sleep for the radiation.  I (Cathy) quietly leave the room to waits for them to tell us she is awake.  When we go back to get her she is usually sitting up playing with the nurses (she already has the staff at LDS hospital wrapped around her little finger).  As we leave the radiation room Nicole always says "bye bed".  It just makes everyone giggle.

This is the spot where she is getting her radiation

We spent some time this week as a family in Salt Lake enjoying that Nicole is feeling good and happy.  It was good to just be carefree.  We spent one day at the zoo and  it was such a good time.  I should have stopped to take more pictures but I was just enjoying our time so much.  I am not a picture mom, that is why Kersten is the oldest to document our family life. 

Nicole and Cathy also came home for the weekend.  It is good to be in our own home.  Nicole keeps walking around the house saying "hi" to everything.  She is enjoying her mini vacation home.  We also met Nicole's new niece Valerie.  It was fun to be able hold and snuggle her for a minute. 

We also heard from the bone marrow team to learn what the schedule will be for Nicole the next few weeks.  We will finish up radiation (she only has 6 more days).  We will also have two long clinic days (May 22 and 27) for Nicole and James to have testing and education done before transplant.  Nicole will then be admitted into primaries on June 4th (She will be staying in the hospital at this point for a long time) to start chemotherapy before transplant.  James will have his bone morrow collected on June 16 (and 17th if needed) and Nicole will have her transplant on June 17th.  These are newest dates and hopefully the last of the changes.   

Despite all that we are going through right now as a family, I know that it is bringing us closer to each other and to our Savior and our Father in Heaven.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught:
“I testify that the Man who suffered for mankind, who committed His life to healing the sick and comforting the disconsolate, is mindful of your sufferings, doubts, and heartaches.
“‘Then,’ the world would ask, ‘why does He sleep when the tempest rages all around me? Why does He not still this storm, or why would He let me suffer?’
“Your answer may be found in considering a butterfly. Wrapped tightly in its cocoon, the developing chrysalis must struggle with all its might to break its confinement. The butterfly might think, ‘Why must I suffer so? Why cannot I simply, in the twinkling of an eye, become a butterfly?’
“Such thoughts would be contrary to the Creator’s design. The struggle to break out of the cocoon develops the butterfly so it can fly. Without that adversity, the butterfly would never have the strength to achieve its destiny. It would never develop the strength to become something extraordinary” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2000, 73; or Ensign, May 2000, 59–60).