Chandra's Journal

March 3, 2006

Wow. I guess I thought that after the transplant was over that the rest of our life would be like one long Calgon commercial. But no, things have been so crazy lately. Not scary crazy like the transplant time, just busy crazy. Our house is officially listed for sale and it started with a bang. It has to be ready to be shown every day (we’ve already had several calls to show it), so on top of getting three of us fed, dressed, happy, and out the door at 10:30, the house has to be in tip-top shape also! As hard as that is, I have realized that by doing it every morning, we come home to a clean, cozy home in the afternoons. It makes for a relaxing moment… and I do mean “moment”.

Canon and Drew will go to Lubbock on Sunday for an appointment on Monday with Dr. Higgins. I expect to get the same great news that we have gotten so far. Praise God that he has been doing so well. Drew and I talked the other day about the fact that we almost expected him to be sick all through this season, because of all the junk going around AND all the medicine that he’s on to suppress his immune system. But in fact it seems that Canon has been the healthiest one of his contemporaries. There have been lots of kids around us that just seem to be sick with one thing after another, but Canon has avoided it all. (This is where I knock on wood.)

Creed is amazing! He has his two bottom teeth, he’s sitting up by himself, and can feed himself a cracker! I can’t believe it. Does the second child seem to grow up faster than the first? I know it’s partly because of Canon’s condition that they seem so different; even at nine months, I couldn’t leave Canon sitting up by himself because he would fall and his head would take the brunt of it. With Creed, even if he loses his balance reaching for something, when he falls he kinda rolls through it and keeps his head up the whole time. Like a Weeble.

Drew has made some progress since the last update on his staph infection. Still, when compared to how quickly Canon recovered from transplant surgery, this has seemed to drag on forever. Thank goodness he’s not experiencing near the level of pain that he was for those first couple of weeks; he tolerates being up and around on it at probably about 75 - 80% of normal activity now. He’s still on the IV antibiotics. And it still is perpetually swollen, which bothers both of us. The infectious disease doctor that he’s seeing told him this week that “sometimes these things end up being a chronic problem.” When he told me that I was pretty perturbed, wondering if they could have prevented long-term effects by being more aggressive with it early on. And we don’t really know if chronic means that it will never be normal again, or that he’ll have bouts with it every few years, or what.

Last weekend I took Canon and Creed down to Abilene for the big fundraising dinner they have been working on. Because we have met our goal already, they are splitting the proceeds between Canon and Mrs. Phipps, who works in the ad building and it going through her third round of chemotherapy. I was able to introduce myself to her and let her know that God is faithful and we will be praying for a miracle for her. The whole evening was so awesome! I mean, I felt like a crazy person trying to keep thumbs on my boys at all times (at one point, nobody knew where Creed was! But it was okay; he was in good hands with Linda’s principal, Mrs. Farmer.) But it was just one of those nights when I had no idea what to expect, and I was completely overwhelmed at the end of the evening by how many people came out just to show us how much they care about Canon. From the moment we walked in the door and I found myself looking at a crowd of probably 300 people we were loved on and taken care of. I know that Charlie and Linda were also taken aback with the turnout and all the different people who contributed to the event. I mean they pulled out all the stops. I mean, everyone knows that the food is the most important, and they had Joe Allen’s catering! It just doesn’t get any better than that. Actually Joe Allen himself was there! I didn’t get to meet him, but I was humbled by the presence of such an Abilene icon! KTXS was there and asked me some questions about what this means to us that all the schools in Abilene came together for Canon. On the verge of tears (all night) I just told them that these people have become part of our family because of what they have done for our son. They had a silent auction going on all night. Lots of fabulous things were donated, including an hour of Mrs. King’s (a school board member and local celebrity) time to come and do your job, which sparked a pretty entertaining bidding war! Casey remarked that he ought to bid on that one (my brother-in-law that owns the landscaping and fence company in Granbury/Weatherford). Charlie and Linda have told us about many people who have really invested their heart into our family, and Mrs. King is one of them. Evidently she wears her green bracelet regularly in support of Canon, even though it’s not on any fashion must-have lists. Actually, it was really heartwarming to see lots of green bracelets walking around that night. Back to the silent auction – as we were packing up to leave, Casey brought me a baseball signed by John Lackey (an Abilene kid who is now the pitcher for the Angels and pitched for their World Series win a couple of years ago). Casey said that the man who won the ball in the auction handed it to him and said that he wanted Canon to have it. Wow. God does such amazing things in people’s hearts. Anyway, I kinda said “Cool!” or something lame and quick and handed the ball to Canon, who was playing on the dirt floor. Okay, you sports people are probably cringing right now. But I seriously wasn’t thinking! I just heard that he wanted Canon to have it, so I gave it to him! He promptly dropped it in the dirt and walked off distracted. Charlie picked it up and dusted it off carefully and he and Casey just looked at me. (When I was telling Drew about this, he also looked at me like “You did not just do that.”) Charlie calmly said, “You know John Lackey is a very successful professional ball player who…” I looked at them sheepishly and said, “So… Canon doesn’t play with this ball?” Casey said, also very calmly, “I think Canon’s daddy would prefer he didn’t play with this ball.” Anyway… just another example of me, the sports ignoramus, marrying into a very sports-wise family!

Well, I have lots more to talk about (like seeing pictures of Jordan and Canon’s celebration party), but I guess I’ll have to wait until the next time I can take a breath. Thank God for Fridays!

Chandra Psalm 145:7
“They will celebrate your abundant goodness, and joyfully sing of your righteousness.”