A Day Late!

Ok, Starting over! I had this whole long blog update done and my wifi went down just before I could add the pics of course.  The worst part about it, is that the whole post was deleted! Grrr. Today is a new day. It's up and running now! And I have more of an update. haha.

View from the shuttle ride into St. Jude's Hospital

Last Night's Blog Post (better late then never):
What a long day for our little warrior. Today we woke up bright and early to snow as I earlier posted. It was such a cool surprise for our first day here. We headed out on our shuttle all bundled up and ready to see what wonders our day would bring. Even though the snow didn't stick for long, it was so pretty while it lasted. What a great first day!

We started the day (as we will every single day here) by going to registration and getting Kayla suited up w/a blue id bracelet. It has her full name, patient ID number, and the date.   She had her vitals checked as well (which she will also have checked each day).   At 9:00 we had a New Patient Visit appointment, Hx and Screening. We got to meet Kayla's Oncology nurse. Her name is Elizabeth. What a WONDERFUL woman. Warm. Kind. Funny & just what we have been needing in this process. We spent almost two hours talking about everything. How this place turns sad and scary situations into conversations filled with positivity, love, genuine hope and laughter is truly amazing! She went over exactly what to expect for tomorrows sedated MRI and Lumbar Puncture (LP).

*Right now we are asking for prayers that after getting the results from the LP, she will still NOT have any cancer cells in her spinal fluid keeping her in a "low-risk" category. If she is in a high risk category, she will require much more radiation to a bigger area which could result in possible permanent hair loss in the top back side of her head. All though her over all health and wellness is the ultimate goal, it would be nice to have as little of the physical reminders as possible when this journey is over.

Next Kayla had a child life visit and we got to practice doing a blood draw on a doll with a bald head named "Jake". Kayla got to practice using a butterfly to see which she would prefer for the morning. Here are some pictures of the hallways and of Kayla practicing the blood draw:

More waiting rooms... How cool are these?

At about 6:00 we went down stairs to the lobby where Domino's Pizza had hosted dinner for all of the families staying in the Grizzly House. To our surprise, Santa was there too! He took his time going around to each child multiple times. The kids were handed sheets of paper where they could make a list for him. Kayla's never asked Santa for more! Too funny.

The kids got to go into a secret room divided by two big black curtains and do some shopping for mom and dad. The volunteers wrapped the presents for each child and the kids put our names on them. SO sweet!

Here are a few more pictures that we took while we walked to the gift shop.