Day +67 (I promise. It's not day +68)

Clinic day. More of the same. There wasn't much change in blood counts, but with today's medication changes things should go up a little. I might have explained this before, but Claire has been on two different immunosuppressant medications to make sure that her blood counts don't recover too quickly. Things need to go nice and slow to prevent heavy graft versus host disease. Today we stopped one of the immunosuppressants, and in a few days we will stop her IV anti-fungal medication. The fewer the better, I say. Her platelets are not yet high enough to start her 10000.00 medication (Dasatinib) which we keep in a locked safe that we have buried in a snow cave in the back yard guarded by our fierce guard dog Jemma. (Just kidding. We keep it with the other meds. You wouldn't really want it if you didn't really need it. Trust me on this one.) We were done in an hour and twenty minutes, our shortest BMT clinic visit to date! Afterwards we went to the zoo to try and see the new baby giraffe (it is apparently too cold for her to be making public appearances just yet) then went to an Irish pub type joint for some fish and chips. (Claire had been craving them all week.) All in all, a pretty nice day. I'm sorry for the overuse of parenthesis in this paragraph. (Apparently I have run out of more effective writing tools.)

Once again this week I was asked, "So, what's the prognosis?" It was as casual a question as "So, what's the weather like outside?" I was silent for a few beats, then said, "Claire is hanging in there." Seriously, why would you ask that? And what makes you think my child's chances of living or dying are any of your business? Or that I would want to discuss it so casually? God has brought us this far, and He will carry us through whatever the future holds. I can't emphasize enough how much a cancer parent hates this question. Ok, rant over.

On a happier note, I was very excited to start the process this week of setting up a scholarship. Woohoo! It is The Claire Driggs Family Survivor Scholarship, and it will be offered to a survivor of childhood cancer or the sibling of someone who battled childhood cancer. Right now it is just for Olympus High School students, but I hope in the future to be able to have one Olympus only scholarship and one Utah scholarship annually. I know several incredibly bright and talented cancer survivors, Claire included, who didn't receive any of the national scholarships they applied for. Claire ended up getting a full four year tuition scholarship from her university, plus two Olympus scholarships, so she is in good shape. This scholarship is my way of giving back, expressing gratitude, including my kids (who will hopefully make up the selection committee. I could never choose!) and honoring some of the most amazing human beings I have ever met. I feel like I just had a baby :) So, if you ever need something to donate to...(last parenthesis of the post- I now have something to tell people when they ask what they can do for us!)