The Past Few Days....

Well Friday was Taylor's 3rd Radiation Treatment. She will have 5 in total, so Tuesday should be her last. She has been really tired. She is not wanting to visit anyone, only Mindy, Landon and Me. I have gone to see her everyday at her request, but she gets irritated if anyone else comes by.

She has been loving her Secret Santa, who doesn't like cool little gifts?

One thing I have been thinking about is her refusal for hugging people are wanting the to touch her. She has always been a bit like this, she likes to give her Nana and Grandma no hugs, or affection. It is like pulling teeth for certain people. Right now if someone hugs her she gets really upset and it can put her in a terrible mood after. Taylor has some OCD tendencies. So I think it could be about control. I think we all need to be aware of this and not push her. If she says "No" then we should respect that, even if we need a hug, or we want to see her. I think she needs that small bit of control in her life as so much she can't control.

The headaches were really bad, and they just were not seeming to go away. Landon called the oncology doctors to see if there were things they could do to see if that would work. So she has been upped in Morphine, and then they recommend using a more concentrated infant Advil so she didn't have to swallow such large dosages.  She has slowed down a lot on the eating, so I guess we wait and see. She has been super sensitive to smells, and also tends to get in a "negative" rut in thinking at times. She can't seem to shake these easily. Dr. Witol talked to Mindy and said it is to do with short term memory (she has always had this issue, it's just getting worse). Negative memories don't take as long to get stuck in the brain, whereas good ones take longer. So she may be having her brain remember all bad stuff, forgetting the good. So they will try to do some things to reroute this, like positive pictures from the day when she is happy or things make her happy.



One other thing is Taylor's swearing. She has been using profanity, a lot of "damn" this or that. Again, not sure why, maybe anger from being sick, her brain being impacted by tumour, just something different. Its awkward when we go out and you can see the looks. In some ways as a teacher I have found this funny and sad. There are many people and kids that are different. They struggle with diagnosis and lives we all know little about. I urge everyone to next time not judge, but consider you don't know their story, so just be kind. Always just try to be kind. I know I am probably preaching to the choir here, but I had to throw it out there.
                                                                                                                                                          Thank you to everyone who has made, is making meals for Mindy, Landon and Taylor. I did finally make a google document so people can add or see what others are bringing. You can hopefully click on the address below to get to the document.

Food Sign Up:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k2XfSt05r5nNGLb_Vc8Iiym4yC3LP7kohLuc9BakRYQ/edit?usp=sharing


Okay, I will try to update again. I have been slightly busy as I am sure everyone is with the holidays coming quickly.