Hannah's Surprise Party

I have not had a chance to write since we surprised Hannah with a Halloween party for her Birthday.  The poor kid was as sick as sick could be, but still enjoyed every minute of it.

The original plan was to have the party on a Saturday afternoon, when Hannah returned from dance in Buffalo. It was going to be perfect.  Hannah would arrive home, totally unsuspecting, I would have had the whole day to prepare, her friends would all be there, and her shock and joy upon hearing "SURPRISE" would fill my heart.

It figures that something would interfere with my fabulous plan, yes, Hannah got sick.  Not just cold sick, high fever, feeling miserable sick.

Hoping it would only be a 48 hour bug, I moved the party to Sunday.  Now, what to do with Hannah?  Scott and I had spent the whole week putting together an AWESOME Haunted House in the basement and had to creep around the last two  days making the final preparations.  Hannah believed we were having a family party that evening, so she didn't get suspicious of my decorating the dining room and preparing her cake.

About an hour before the party, my parents convinced Hannah to go for a ride with them in the car.  The final preparations began, me running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to finish all of the preparations.

Amazingly, all of Hannah's friends arrived on time, Hannah was clueless and was totally shocked when she entered the room.  She loved her Sock Monkey costume we had ordered for her, and the haunted house was a screaming success.

Hannah's Jason Dunn from Hawk Nelson Cake

Though Hannah was exhausted and feeling crummy when everyone left, but she had a great time and I was so thrilled that it all worked out!

Happy Halloween

Do you ever feel like you lose time?  I just can't seem to keep track of time any more.  Before my transplant, every day  dragged on into the next and time crept by.  With new health, comes speeding time, time that literally whizzes by, even when I want it to just slow down.  At times it is hard to appreciate the moments when they are gone in a blink of an eye.

I woke up this morning and, with horror, realized that tomorrow starts November.  Didn't October just begin?  That is how it feels, until I start to recount every event that has occurred since October 1st.  The trip to Pittsburgh, my Birthday, my parents' visit, Hannah's play, a surprise party for Hannah, Hannah getting very sick, etc.

There are days I wish time would slow back to that pace of before.  It doesn't seem fair that when I wanted time to fly by, it crept along, and now that I have so much to appreciate, time won't let me.  I have this growing to do list, and yet I can't seem to find the time to get any of it done, it is CRAZY!

Am I the only one who feels this way?  Am I in the Twilight Zone, or is it just Halloween?

Hello!

Dear friends, Hello!  I am sorry I have been gone so long.  One of the wonderful things about post-transplant life is that the computer takes a much lower priority than life.  It is funny how, before transplant, the computer was my way to connect with the world; but now I am out living in the world, and the computer, at times, gets totally forgotten.

Wow, it seems I have a lot to update you on.  First, I have finally kicked the Pseudomonas infection, at least for now.  We spent my Birthday in Pittsburgh, and the best gift I received was not needing the bronchoscopy that was scheduled for 5:00 a.m. on my Birthday morning.  The day before at my appointment with Dr. Pilewski, my pulmonary functions were back up where they needed to be and my chest sounded clear, so he opted for a CT instead of a bronchoscopy, hooray!!!  Now let's just hope I can maintain healthy lungs for a while.  Dr. P. wondered if I might be overly susceptible to Pseud. infections since I have had so many in the last year.  Please pray that I can keep it at bay for a long stretch now.

We have been traveling to Buffalo a lot for Hannah's dance practices.  She spends the whole day there on Saturday preparing for Oireachtas (the big regional competition over Thanksgiving weekend in Philadelphia) and part of the day Sunday for her lessons.  She also just performed in her Junior High play last night, even though she has been very sick with a high fever (102.6 this morning).  She was such a trooper and didn't want to let her cast down.  I am praying that I don't get the virus she has, it seems horrible!!!!

Here is a picture of the cast.  It was a Halloween themed play (hence some of the costumes).

These are all girls who are in my girls' group and were also in the play.  Aren't they cute!

My parents are here visiting which is always fabulous!  They came east for a wonderful celebration of the Holy Union Sisters' 125th Anniversary (for those of you who didn't know, my mother was once a nun).  I know my mom's trip back to her home in Fall River, Mass. certainly rated in the top ten events of her life.  She got to  visit with her high school friends (I want to send a big hello to all of you, I had no idea I had such a devoted group of supporters, my love to you all!) and of course see several of the women she joined the convent with so many years ago.  I am so happy she got to be there.

We had planned a surprise Birthday party today for my Hannah who will be 12 on November 2, but have had to postpone until she is feeling better.  I will look forward to sharing pictures from that if or when it happens.

I will try not to be so lax in posting, but life is too good to miss!  My love to you all!  Nancy