August 21 2009

Mckenna is doing quite well. I stayed at the hospital with her Wednesday night and we had a good time. She is upbeat and bubbily as usual. The doctor came in yesterday and asked her how she was doing and she said good. So he asked me how she was doing and I said I thought she was doing pretty well. He said that they also thought from their standpoint that she is doing well. It was good to hear.

One of the hard parts of all of this is having her so far away from the house. It is about a 40 - 45 minute drive to Texas Childrens from here. Coordinating school, spending time with the other children, getting homework done, and all of the meriad of things that need to be done is a challenge. Because of all of this, last night Kenna ended up spending a couple of hours in the hospital alone. True to her character and sunny disposition she went to the Family Lounge and met a new friend, a ten year old girl who is also in the hospital for leukemia. She was so excited and bubbily to tell us all about it. This girl is 5 weeks into her diagnosis and so could tell McKenna a little bit about what he future holds.

Even though she is in the hospital and going through some pretty tough stuff herself she is looking for ways to help others. There is a family room which has a little kitchen and a little lounge where many of the families eat most of their meals. This room is stocked with a few food items, but Mckenna thought the families must be getting sick of eating ramen, Chef Boyardee etc. She called and asked her mom if she could bring up a dinner to share with the other families. We are working on that.

Mckenna's cousin Whitney flew in last night and is staying with her at the hospital right now they are having a great time.

McKenna is receiving several different antibiotics right now and will have her chemotherapy treatment today. It looks like she'll be in the hospital for about 4 - 5 more days.