Thousand Dollar Pyramid

Lets play a round of Thousand Dollar Pyramid, shall we? I'll give you the clues, you guess what the box says. Remember how it goes? Ok.
Ovulation
February
How long a rabbit's gestation period is
The number of days in February
Guess it yet?
Answer:
How long it takes for you to treat Acute Lymphoblasic Leukemia with B cells.
I'm not sure that would have all fit on one of those adorable little squares, but that is what the oncology team here at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin has decided will work best to cure our darling, Katherine, of cancer.
28 days
So it begins. Day 1 is August 27.
I wanted to put a big calendar on the wall and put a big red X on each day as it goes by, figuring it'd be inspirational and that it'd help us keep our sights on the goal and off of the tricky and unavoidable side effects of chemo for Katherine. I wanted poster board and markers and I wanted to hang it up as this will be our home away from home for a whole month... But my nurse said, "No." Her voice said no and her face said no. Her body language was a pitiful expression of sadness that expressed to me, "Darling, no amount of cheerful disposition, calendars, or red X's will make this something that will be fun to wait for and anticipate like tickets to Disneyland."
My friends who have made it through this have suggested, you can make it through this.
And as a side note, the doctors have suggested that at the 28 day mark we sure as heck hope we got it all and that when we recheck her bone marrow we hope that no cancer cells are detected... But there are no guarantees... So even if I have 28 red X's... There might be more months of red X's in our future.
That being said, do you really think you can beat the cheerleader out of me? I think not.
So we'll try to take it one day at a time. We'll manage our divided home life and the logistics of our former life with the help and blessings of all of our family and friends and we'll keep that red pen close because I start making red X's tomorrow.
Now to hit on a few highlights of Katherine's day yesterday. What a show off. She waved at everyone, showed off her new signs, pooped in the potty, and had two more bone marrow draws and a PICC line placed. She visited with Dad, met the research nurse and had dinner with mommy's really good friend who brought her a copy of Goodnight Gorilla on steroids... And by that I mean, it was a huge board book. Huge! Thanks, Casey! Speaking of steroids, we start steroids tomorrow, which will likely change Katherine's appearance quite drastically...but until then here's what she looks like pre-treatment:

Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes... You have no idea how much they mean to us.
A piece of advice: go to the store early tomorrow. They just might run out of red pens!!