A little Christmas on New Year's Day

Let me cut right to the point with the status: Carla has been responding so well to the first half of the chemotherapy that the doctors may allow her to come home as early as THIS WEDNESDAY during the recovery phase of the first treatment! If that is not a late Christmas gift, I don't know what is! Although we still have the same prescribed treatment of 5 cycles of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, we may be able to have shorter stints in the hospital with daily drives for blood count checks.

Additional info that we may not have shared with everyone...During this first round of treatment, she gets 7 full days of chemotherapy, and somewhere around Day 14-18 she will "nadir", pronounced like Ralph Nader. This is where her red, white, and platelet counts are at there lowest for a few days and Carla is most vulnerable to any type of infection and bleeding, even possibly Bindi's or my silent "butt" deadlies. Not really, but I don't know many people who would be impervious to the olfactory irritation it could cause. Anyways, the doctors will have her on antibiotics and monitor her counts daily. We expect to have her home during this most critical phase of recovery, however there is no better place for comfort than your own home and your own bed. I look forward to providing any comfort she needs or desires and the kids will have solace knowing there mother is home and well enough to be here. Day 5 ends tomorrow afternoon.

This great development would not have been possible without her strong will, all your prayers, and your positive mojo. Please continue to push it our way and to others who need a slice hope in challenging time.

Even though we are still early in our diagnosis and treatment, we wanted to share that bit a good news with you all and celebrate a small personal victory on our way to winning the war.

By the way, the word "visitors" should be replaced with "Awesome People", "People who kick ass", "Caring souls", "I love you". So, maybe next time you call a hospital to ask when you can see a loved one, just ask "When are Awesome People hours?" Thank you all, you kick ass!

With all our love,
The Hennessy Family