“Can you write the blog post? I’m not up to it and I don’t want to lose the peeps!”
Gosh, it’s been September since you last heard from any of us! My constant cajoling of Lauren to write something, anything, for you guys has become like background noise for her to roll her eyes to. She is thirteen now after all! She did ask me to drop you a line, though. She is back at school, about half the time. She has to get labs done to check levels of the medicine in her blood, and heart catheterization appointments to test for rejection. So she misses school for that. She does also catch illnesses readily, probably from school. It is heartbreaking to watch her struggling immune system, and tempting to want her to stay home instead. The heart team recently compared it to an infant going to daycare for the first time and getting sick a lot. A rebuilding year, they would call it.
Meanwhile, meet Jamie! Lauren is so excited to have a dog to love, she has been asking for one for years. She is learning to feed him and takes him out every day. He is a golden doodle, which means he should be less annoying for Abby’s allergies, and less hair to shed.
My mom passed last weekend, and instead of flowers, we’ve linked to this blog for COTA for Laurens Heart. My mom loved her so much, even in passing she is contributing for Laurens future. Thank you guys so much for the recent uptick. Lauren didn’t come, as she seems to be fighting a stomach bug, so soon after several weeks of mono. So Denise and I have some thank you cards to write now, just as Lauren does (she swears she’ll get to them when she feels better!)
Lauren has learned to use door dash, and when I talked to her this evening, she is getting some Mac and cheese on the way, as Jess has been sleeping off her dose of chemo this week, as well as Laurens stomach bug.
Abby has dodged all of this, as she is on her DC trip with her school. I told her take more pictures of your friends than of the sights and monuments. Whether she finds wisdom in this advice, or dismisses it as the ramblings of an out of touch old man, we will see!
