Things are going swimmingly

Getting out of the deep end: It sounds like things are continuing to improve for Claire. She's been out of bed a few times. The bleeding in her lungs apparently left some residue behind and they want to get her moving around as much as possible to break it up. She's really looking forward to the jello, although she is mildly nauseated much of the time. Sarah clarified that the mild chemotherapy is a treatment she'll need on a weekly basis for a while. So she's not plugged into it all the time and the dose is low enough they don't seem to be expecting serious side effects.

Sarah also reported that Claire misses her home and her friends a lot and is very eager to get back to them. Which leads to the best news: There is a possibility that she will be released to home sometime next week! She'll still have to go back for treatments and such. Her biggest goal right now, says Sarah, is to get to her prom in six weeks. I'm sure there are obstacles to that I don't know about, but from where I sit that sounds like a reachable goal.

Treading water: I'm sick, but it's coming on slowly. I can feel the fever sneaking up on me and my whole head is feeling clogged up. If I can hold on through the weekend while parenting and simultaneously doing some complex programming needed for work before Monday AM, work a solid day Monday preparing data for a vitally important state report that's due Tuesday, be well enough to attend a Microsoft launch event Tuesday that I've been eagerly awaiting for months, get some other important work done at work Wednesday, then I'll be able to recover on Thursday for a few hours (with Grace) before we leave for an ultrasound in Dayton.

Now that I type that I realize I'm completely screwed.

Going under: Harrison is sick. It came on quickly. He wasn't feeling well this morning before he was to attend a birthday party at the Saline Rec Center (pictured above) at noon. When we got there, he reported he thought he was going to "barf" and he wanted to go home. I attributed it to nerves, although I had a feeling there was more to it. I left Harrison and came back two hours later. Sure enough, I felt quite smug when the Mom In Charge reported that as soon as they started swimming Harrison perked right up. In fact, I had trouble getting him to get out of the pool to come home.

When we got home, Harrison walked through the tiled laundry room, past a bathroom, through the tiled foyer and hallway, across the wood-floored kitchen, entered the carpeted family room, and -- you guessed it -- barfed. He's been laying on the couch ever since and he definitely has a fever. I'll get him to bed early tonight and hopefully he'll be better tomorrow. I was counting on Grandma taking Harrison out during Grace's nap time tomorrow so I could do my work programming. If he's not well enough then that's off. We would all be disappointed.

We'll see . . .