Madelyn Jill: Mon Dec 20

The weekend overall was a bit hard on Madelyn. She was not feeling well, but she did have some distractions. It was my family Christmas weekend or "MacDonald Christmas". This year it was switched from my parents home to my sister Jen's house, for us. They live not far from our apartment, across Lake Washington, in Kirkland. I was really looking forward to having this Christmas party at my parents new home in Anacortes. After 35 years in Port Angeles, they moved a few months ago to Anacortes. It has been soooo wonderful having them close by. Even more so now. Jen's home is great though - very kid friendly with lots of large open space for playing.

Madelyn had Chemo on Friday so she was not feeling well on Saturday. She did a lot of sitting and resting. She had trouble with stomach pains, heart burn, leg pains and tiredness. It was a sad day overall for Peter and I. Usually my family Christmas is very relaxing and fun with lots of laughing. It was hard for us to see Madelyn hurting and just laying there watching all the kids play.

Madelyn felt a little better early in the morning on Sunday but then started to be very tired in the afternoon. After a good nap and because her ANC was so high, we decided to take her to the Seattle Aquarium in the afternoon. We were there for about 1.5 hours and she walked almost the whole way. This was seriously big stuff for her. She continued to be in a good mood over the course of the evening.

One of her chemotherapy drugs is a steroid call Dexamethasone. This is one of the worst for side effects. It makes her moody, sad, eat ferociously (even getting up around 1-2am for a meal), it makes her belly protrude, gives her moon face (they call it... basically large, round cheeks), she has insomnia and is antsy (it's hard for her to sit still). Poor thing.

Miss Tina came to visit this morning (her teacher from San Juan Montessori) and spent three hours on projects and reading books. She seemed so much like her old self. She was happy, happy the whole rest of the day.

Her hair is definitely on the exit. It is falling out more and more everyday and she is getting quite thin on top. Tina brought with her large posters with all her friends from San Juan Montessori, AND Erika and Ashley, wearing a pink wig. They heard Madelyn was getting a pink wig (a bright blue one too by the way) and decided this would be fun for her. It sure was. We have them hanging up on the front door closet so we see them whenever we walk in the door.

Here are some pictures from MacDonald Christmas:

Jen's boys, Soren and Wyatt, have a cool huge train set. Phia was in heaven. She carried around train cars all day.

Our goofy Beckett Ray. Getting for his 7th Birthday in a few days.

Miss Kelsey Jo coloring with MJ. Age 5.

MJ trying to participate but not feeling too good...

Wyatt with his new jumbo dump truck.

Check out his special Christmas mohawk.

That's Courtney there on the left (Kelsey's twin sister) playing a game with Uncle Peter.

Jen's living room. A big play room. Everyone is playing basketball and football.

Soren and Wyatt (both getting ready to turn 3 years old in a few weeks) trying to figure out what I am doing with my camera while setting up for a quick family photo.