Beads of Courage

This is a program that Seattle Children's Hospital has started participating in. It is designed to honor the journey patients take while receiving care for cancer. Each kid gets a necklace with their name in block letters to start. Specific colored or shaped beads are given every time they experience something else on the bead guide.

There is literally a bead for everything; port access, going bald, feeding tube placement, MRI, bone marrow aspirations, blood transfusions, and so many more. Hannah is going to need a necklace extension as soon as her first set of beads come in!

The nurse who set Hannah's up, told us how excited the children get to receive beads. She said most of the kids like to hang their necklaces from their IV poles when they are inpatients. It is sort of a way to brag about all they have been through. The nurse proudly told me how one boy's necklace was six pounds!

I am so instantly in love with this idea. What an amazing way to turn something that might otherwise be daunting emotionally into a tangible object of pride. The website for this is www.beadsofcourage.org and the CBS Morning Show is apparently going have a piece about it on Sunday the 12th. I don't have cable, so won't be watching, but if anyone does, could you maybe give me an update?

Waiting room cuteness!


We found out Thursday that Hannah's chemo is still on hold. Her ANC last Friday was 640. She was so close to the 750 number that I thought, this week, for sure, she would start chemo. Unfortunately, her ANC dipped down to 458. Her doctor thinks something is going on with her white blood count.

Her monocytes counts (type of white blood) were abnormally high. That might mean she has an infection of some sort brewing that hasn't presented in other forms yet. It could also mean she just fought off one. Other possibilities exist but we really won't know anything till this Thursday. I am just going to hope for the best and pray.

I try not to get too upset about the ups and downs of treatment, although every now and then, the feeling that you are playing with fire, slaps you in the face. Hannah is only four months away from her one year mark. There have been many worrisome things that she has made it through. It does help develop your confidence when faced with a new one.

At any rate, making counts next week would really rock. Please, if you get a chance, say a quick prayer for Hannah. Three weeks is the most they will let her go without chemo before they admit her to the hospital.

She was sure not minding hospital food this week, though. This was her lunch!!