New Year...same old place....

I don't feel nearly as down as that title makes me seem, it feels more like "steady as she goes", if that makes sense.  And its ok.  It feels good, actually, even though right now Noah and I away from home; we are in Vancouver, at Ronald Mc Donald House.  Maybe that is why it feels ok. And why I haven`t written for so long - it didn`t feel like there was anything to say....
We had a very nice Christmas here in Vancouver.  We drove down on the 23rd, spent Christmas Day opening presents, going to church, going to the beach (!) and eating a crazy amount of food that was prepared for us by a wonderful family who slaved all afternoon for us.  There were 43 people here for Christmas dinner!  The house was full and it was a very nice day.
We ended up getting two free tickets to the Oilers-Canucks game on Boxing Day, then we bought two more so that everyone who really wanted to go, could.  Alyson and I watched the game from Earls, which was more to her liking.  The seats we were given were amazing - Row 3, right on the Oiler blue line, which was, unfortunately where most of the action was.  When Alyson and I were watching, we could actually see the backs of Emily's and Miranda's heads!  Tom and Noah sat in the upper bowl, surrounded by Canucks fans who taunted them, so they didn't have as much fun as the girls, who had more Oiler fans around them.  Or maybe the other fans were so in awe of the Jersey Em was wearing, they didn't dare taunt her.  She was wearing the vintage CCM Gretzky jersey Noah received for Christmas from a donor to RMH.  Pretty sweet, eh? 

Noah wore the Nugent-Hopkins jersey that my Uncle Brian and Aunt Wendy bought for him, which he was pretty pumped about, and Miranda was over the moon that Emily let her wear her special pink Oilers Jersey. They were all really excited, they put Oilers tatoos on their cheeks and everything.  I think they had a lot of fun.  So did Allie and I, eating chicken wings at Earls, watching them on the big screen.  Apparently Noah was on the Jumbotron, meeting Mason Raymond at the hospital. Em and Miranda saw it, but Tom and Noah were getting popcorn, so they missed it.  Too bad...

The 27th we went to the museum of Anthropology for the afternoon, which everyone loved.  Noah was excited to show all the coolest things to his dad, and explain all the things he has already learned about carvings, etc. 

Noah had a treatment on the 28th, which was fine, and we drove home on the 29th. Tom's brother, Chris, his wife Elizabeth and their children beat us to Smithers that day, and they spent New Years Eve (and day) with us.  The kids had a blast with their cousins playing a new dancing game Miranda received for the Kinect.  It was the activity of choice for the duration of the visit.  (it is a very cool game- even the adults got into it on New Year`s Eve!) Tom and I had a great visit with Chris and Elizabeth, playing Euchre, as in days of yore.... fun. : )

We also had the opportunity to host my sister Jenn`s parents- in -law, Colin and Delia Cupido from CapeTown, South Africa, but for only one night, unfortunately.  They also had with them my niece, also from CapeTown, to meet her cousins for the first time.  It was so much fun.  They hit it off immediately, and they wanted to show her everything about snow.  We did a (very) little bit of tobogganing, which she enjoyed, I think.  I have heard she has since become a bit of a hockey nut.  Way to go Jordyn!

Unfortunately, during this time, Noah was quite ill.  He ended up with c. Difficile again. I brought him in on New Years Eve, but he wasn`t officially diagnosed until the 3rd, when we were at the hospital for bloodwork.  He was supposed to have an appointment at Children`s on the 4th, but when I tried to book the flight, there was only one seat left on the plane, so we had to change his appointment to Friday, which was just fine with me; I wasn`t ready to come back here yet.  We had had a whirlwind break, and Noah was still quite sick with an extremely contagious illness, so we couldn`t come to RMH, either. We stayed at Easter Seals for the weekend, and we got one of the rooms that had been redecorated with laminate floors, granite countertops, maple cabinets, the whole works!  They only have 4 rooms like that out of 50, and we got one. It was a nice weekend, though we spent most of it watching movies - I borrowed all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies from the clinic because Noah had never seen them and I knew he would love them.  It rained all weekend, so we just stayed in, and it was great.

On Monday we got the word that Noah was safe to come back here to RMH and we are very happy to be back with some old friends and some new, too.  It is never dull here!

Noah's treatments have been going well; we had a nice December we were at home most of the time, because the doctors had decided to skip his Erwinia injections for December, and just do the January ones.  So here we are.  I do have a prayer request, however: please pray the injections would be painless tomorrow.  They are usually fine, he has Emla on his legs for 2 hours beforehand so he can`t feel it, but for some reason, it was extremely painful on Wednesday.  Someone thought maybe the nurse hit a nerve, which can`t really be avoided, she would have no idea where they are.  So we are praying that that won`t happen again. He is going to be quite nervous about it tomorrow. 

We hope that we can go home again on Wednesday the 18th.  It isn`t official yet, but so far that is the plan, and we will be there for about two weeks, depending on his counts. Then it will be back here, and Noah will have to go back on Dexamethasone, the steroid that made him so sad before.  I am also praying already now, even though it isn`t until February, that it would make him hungry and that is all.  He lost 400 g over Christmas (who does that???) and then 800g more when he had c. Diff.  I am pretty sure he is down to about 30kg.  It is about time for that Dex...

It also feels like we can see light at the end of the tunnel; Noah will hopefully start Maintenance at the beginning of April, so after that we only have to come here for a day or two once a month! That will be so nice.  I have really come to appreciate home.  My family and friends, my own bed, my own food that I like, and so much more....

Thank you for reading, sorry if you were feeling neglected.  I will write again tomorrow to tell y'all how his Erwinia went.

g'nite!