Big news! Yesterday Annika went back to school for the first time since November 20th. After nearly 20 weeks of absence, her medical team gave her clearance to return at 3 months, 3 weeks post-transplant. Hooray! Annika was SO excited to rejoin her classmates for the rest of sixth grade. 
In case you can't tell, she's grown a lot. Tall as she is, Zion can still jump higher.
Sad truth--Annika was only in school for two hours before I checked her out for a doctor's appointment. Her ears were bothering her. What started off as difficulty hearing progressed to pain overnight. Turned out she had a double ear infection and is now on antibiotics. This is actually the second round of antibiotics that she's been on since the team stopper her post-transplant mega-antibiotic less than a month ago. A few weeks ago she also tested positive for mycoplasma pneumoniae (causes walking pneumonia) and rhinovirus (causes the common cold.) I have a feeling that getting sick might be our new normal now that she is immunosuppressed and her white blood cell count is low. The good news is that she seems to cope really well. Her runny nose and cough were mild, and the doctor was shocked that she wasn't complaining of more pain with her ears.
Speaking of TOUGH kids who have every right to complain, Talia got her wisdom teeth out on Saturday. Poor girl--recovery has been rough. Dental surgery is just brutal!
At least ice cream makes it a little better. Talia had surgery Saturday, stayed home from school Monday, but is already back to the grind today.
Back to Annika, while she hasn't fussed much about her ears, she was inconsolable when I accidentally let her jumping spider Tiny escape. Annika found Tiny and Jumper while visiting Hyde Park this weekend and brought them home as pets. Here you can see Jumper (the black dot on the carpet), but Tiny is about the size of a pin head and practically invisible. Annika was deeply intent on training both, but claims Tiny showed greater potential.
I'd wanted to take a picture of the habitat Annika made for Tiny in a spice jar, including a homemade swinging bridge. I guess Tiny must have been hanging out in the lid, because when I went to close the jar, she was nowhere to be found. Talia, Jason, Annika and I spent a long while searching the kitchen floor with flashlights for any sign of movement before finally giving up.
Annika was sooooooo sad (and mad.) Aside from periodic outbursts of tears and rage, she wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the evening. Then late in the evening she came down to reconcile, giving me a hug and forgiving me because I hadn't done it on purpose. Early the next morning she crawled into our bed to snuggle. I told Jason that I hope she doesn't make sleeping in our bed a habit, all while hoping she never stops.
What is life, if not a crazy contradiction where you find yourself praying to find jumping spiders, not because you care, but because you love those who do.
1 comment:
Oh my ... sorry about the loss of "Tiny" the jumping spider. Did you look up the water spout? (The ency wincy (tiny) spider crawled up the water spout ... ).
So glad Annie is back in school though
... And, I have a bone to pick with our Heavenly Parents about wisdom teeth. There is nothing "wise" about them. Why?? Unless It would spoil some vast eternal plan, I move they be eliminated from any future worlds (as if my opinion will help.). 🤠😘
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