The Last Week of Summer

The last week of summer has been jammed pack full of appointments activities and projects. Sometimes I ask myself, "How do we do it?"I am just thankful that there is McDonald's and Costco to help out with the meals. At this moment I am sitting on the bed in an isolation room in the hematology clinic at Children's. Kourtney is hooked up to an IV getting a iron infusion.

Sunday August 30th . . . We had the worship teams from church over for a barbecue. The total number of people at our house was 55 (cat and dog made it 57). The weather turned out perfectly (sunny and warm). We provided the house and pool and the rest was done. Sounds easy enough, but little did people know that Todd and I did a whirl wind cleaning before the guests arrived. The deck had been redone that week, the out side of the house painted, needless to say the house was in a complete uproar inside and out. Todd worked diligently to get the stairs for our deck finished but unfortunately he couldn't get them done. We had to rely on a dumb waiter system to get the hamburgers and smokies down from the barbecue to the the "crowd" of people.

We then had Monday to regroup ourselves, had some friends over and then . . . Tuesday morning we had a trip to Children's Hospital to see the physio and have a family meeting with the psychologist. The meeting went well until the end . . . Shaelyn told the Dr. that she would prefer not to come back to a meeting like that because it was boring (at least she is honest).

After the appointments we headed to the PNE. We had fun, although Disney World had spoiled us so much that it was actually difficult for us to enjoy the rides at the PNE. Todd even hurt his knee riding on the wooden roller coaster trying to hold onto Shaelyn, who clearly was enjoying herself. Our caregiver, Brittany, got picked out of the audience to be the BC babe in the lumber jack show, which thrilled the girls, and Kourtney was able to get her picture taken with a local TV personality, Tamara Taggart, (she recently was on Regis and Kelly).

We crashed that night at the glitzy Hyatt hotel in downtown Vancouver. Early the next day Todd took Kourtney to her optometrist appointment at Children's. Shaelyn and I stayed back at the hotel and had a luxurious breakfast at McDonald's and then went swimming at the hotel. She was thrilled to have time alone with me, sat on my lap, kissed me on the cheek and told me she wished she was in kindergarten again so we could spend alone time together. After the eye appointment the girls and I went to Robson Street and hit the stores in search of a new backpack for Kourtney. The first store was Lush, where Shaelyn knocked over the displays in the store. We then moved on to the Claire's store. As soon as we were greeted by the sales associate I knew we were in trouble when Shaelyn said out loud, "Is that a boy or a girl mom?" Unsure myself, I could not respond. After two stores Kourtney had to make her selection quickly as Shaelyn began her whining, stating she was bored. We found "the backpack" and went back to the hotel where Todd was nursing his swollen knee.

We picked out glasses for Kourtney and then went on our way home (she looks sophisticated). When we got home Kourtney had a fall down the stairs and blistered her right hip and was sitting in a pool of blood . . .

So here I am, Friday Sept 4th a Children's Hospital . . . So to make a long story short we came to Children's Hospital 2 hours earlier as the blood loss she encountered during the fall was significant enough to lower her hemoglobin and possibly do a blood transfusion. As it turns out though, it is higher than it has been all summer . . . so when she said she felt good 2 weeks ago, it was when her hemoglobin was most likely at it's peak. We also got some other blood tests back from . . . get this . . . December '08. We found out her EPO levels were critically low . . . so this means that Kourtney will start on EPO shots that will most likely raise her hemoglobin significantly in the next couple of weeks. I cannot believe that it took over 9 months for the results to end up on the right desk. I am just glad that airplanes aren't run like hospital labs. I am not sure whether to feel resentment or joy that there is something else that will work to increase her hemoglobin other than just the iron. I don't know what we will do with all the extra energy that she will have.

We have an hour left at the hospital . . . and hopefully will have no more appointments until October 9th!!! YAY!! YAY!! The first month of school unhindered by appointments. What a great way to kick off a school year.

What does the fall look like . . . for the Kujawa's????

Kourtney will be starting voice lessons, and will hopefully do yearbook and drama at school. Shaelyn will be doing skipping and choir. Todd will be back at the same school under "new management" and in the same position with every 2nd Friday off. I will stay in my current position in Maternity and looking forward to some Northview church staffer deliveries.

Our next home improvement project will be our kitchen reno . . . we called in an expert who has given us a design that we would have never thought of ourselves. We asked him if he is also a professional marriage counsellor. He said he could be with all the kitchen's he renovated.) The whole kitchen will be gutted . . . no stone left unturned. I am so looking forward to having a user-friendly kitchen and hosting large groups at our house The deck stairs got finished yesterday with a good old fashioned stair raising, custom wood stairs, wide and easy to get up and down no more dumb waiter.

We are gearing up for another year . . . we feel that normalcy has once again been restored in our home and feel relieved that we have overcome a very difficult year.