Month: May 2007

Today Sophia is 6 months old.

Wow.

Amazing.

Some great firsts today…

Sophia’s first international flight.

Sophia’s first day in a stroller without the carseat attachment.

Sophia’s first trip away with Grandma Jane.

Sophia’s first swim in the ocean.

I was at Penn this morning to see the incredible team of Steve Schuster, M.D. and Lisa Downs, M.S., CRNP, who gave me a clean bill of health, told me I could SCUBA dive all I wanted on my upcoming vacation, and gave me a going away present of a case of the highest SPF suncreen known to humankind. Post-chemo sun tanning is a big no-no for about a year so I’ll be silly-looking the guy under the palm tree lathered up in a thick layer white sunblock. But at least I’ll be sitting in the sand under a palm tree. Not bad considering just a month ago I was getting juiced up with bags of blood and platelets.

My blood counts were all normal and robust today. My counts have not been this normal in almost a year. Wow. Gotta hand it to those platelets. Just a month ago they were really struggling, and now they are relaxed, having a great time, and looking forward to some R&R in the Cayman Islands with me. Thanks platelets!!! Vacation well deserved!!! And thanks also to my red and white blood cells and my, take a deep fulfilling breath, hemoglobin.

I now officially look like a three day old Chia Pet. My hair is coming in quickly. Hopefully quick enough so that when we are in the Cayman Islands next week I don’t burn my scalp. I also started physical therapy last week and I am officially way out of shape.

We are in Boston this weekend. Jacqui is at a Bar Mitzvah and I am working.

Hope everyone out there is doing well.

Jacqui, Sophia and I celebrated Jacqui’s first mother’s day as a mother at the Mainline Inn for dinner. Historically, mother’s day has been a rough day for Jacq, having lost her mother when she was nine. Today we remembered Jacqui’s mother Teri and celebrated her and Jacqui’s connections through time as mothers. Over dinner, as Jacq talked about the joy she felt thinking about how she and her mother now shared in motherhood and how she drew strength thinking about how her mother held and loved her in the same way that she was at that moment holding and loving Sophia, Jacq acknowledged how mother’s day would be a much happier day going forward, and how a new closeness to her mother would be an important source of strength for her as a parent. See, good things can come from hallmark holidays.