366 Days with Leukemia

Last year’s birthday and today’s birthday were in pretty stark contrast. Last year, on her second birthday, Elsa was just finishing up the awfulness of Delayed Intensification and had been discharged from a really crappy week in hospital isolation just three days prior. She had wasted away a bit from a week of not eating (though still had her chubby steroid cheeks), she was bald from the ARA-C, and had an ANC of <500, so she couldn’t really hang out with other kids. She still didn’t really speak and couldn’t tell us where she hurt or what she wanted. We didn’t want to plan her party ahead of time because there was a good chance it would have to be cancelled anyway for another trip to the hospital. That morning, we decided to have a few people over, got a bucket of wings, and made a cake.

THIS year, there was planning. There were decorations:

Elsa chose the theme which was “Balloons and Bathing Suits.” There was a house absolutely full of family and friends and the very special brand of chaos supplied by 6 kids under 6:

Last year, aside from putting a bucket of wings on the table, I didn’t have much to do besides take copious pictures of Elsa. This year, even if I hadn’t been busy chatting with friends  and putting food out enough to feed 26, I wouldn’t have gotten many pictures of the kids anyway. Elsa was much too busy running wild with her gang of friends, destroying her bedroom (and arguably the house), and playing a very complicated game of pretend that involved a lot of jumping on the bed.

Like a lot of our life these days, this birthday was about planning ahead and having a good time, cancer-be-damn. I think we’ve finally gotten to a place where we are just living our almost-normal life and accepting the fact that, if we get derailed again, then we cross that bridge when we get to it.