Evelyn Horsman: November 20

I've been slacking on the blog front but this family has been busy! I'm happy to say Evelyn has been doing well these last couple months and there's not too much to report on on the medical front. Since finishing the one chemo med Evelyn has been feeling better on the whole and that means eating better and more normal - this has resulted in gaining about 12-15lbs in the last 3-4 months. The steroids she's on every third week cause her to gain weight very easily even though she eats fairly healthy. We have started meeting with our nutritionist again to ensure Evelyn gets the right foods to maintain her weight and hopefully slow down the increase in weight since we will be on treatment for another year. We want to try and prevent any further problems down the road - heart problems, diabetes etc.
The girls have battled a couple colds but thankfully nothing more. We are looking into getting our flu shots this year to prevent any type of illness that may set back Evelyn's treatment. Staying up to date with vaccines and flu shots are vital - Evelyn is at a higher risk of catching these and if she catches anything it could land us back in the hospital or worse.

Getting over a cold so we had to sit outside of clinic and wait our turn

Evelyn was on steroids Thanksgiving weekend but we were grateful for a quiet, dare I say easy, round - we were able to spend time with family and reflect on all that we have to be thankful for this past year.
Evelyn was scheduled for another lumbar puncture on October 30. It was a quiet day at clinic and everything went fairly smooth - she was a bit congested so they had to suction her airway. Unfortunately this made for a rude wake up - she was pretty angry but once we got her settled she was back to her normal self.

The nurse also found her a Mac taxi to ride back to the van in so all was right with the world after that :).

Halloween was the next day - we had planned on doing our trick or treating with the girls at MacMaster since Evelyn was on steroids and the weather was suppose to be crummy - it doesn't take long and the girls still come out with multiple bags of candy. The girls were completely overwhelmed by all the people but as soon as we were done they talked about doing Halloween there next year! :).

Since we got our fair share of candy I allowed the girls to hand out candy to all the trick or treaters that came to our door. Evelyn was very committed :)

Then steroids hit hard the next day

A couple weekends ago we received the opportunity to go to Camp Trillium. This is a camp specifically for cancer kids and their families. They have weekend camps in the off seasons and week long camps throughout the summer. We arrived Friday night with two very excited girls in the backseat.

We were shown our cabin and introduced to our Special Friends - each girl was assigned a friend (Charlotte had Marcia, Evelyn had Roberta) and they were essentially their playmate/babysitter/doers of whatever their little heart desires for the whole weekend. They were perfectly matched.

We headed over to the main building for an indoor campfire, songs and fun and by the time the girls were calmed down and into tucked into bed it was close to 10:00pm. Our special friends sat in our cabin while Steve and I headed over to the parents lounge to socialize with the other parents. The girls were up before the sun the next morning - all excited for the day ahead. We found juice boxes, made coffee and checked out the property.

The weekend was filled with crafts, dress up, various activities, lots of songs and silly games for the girls and lots of coffee, relaxing and socializing for Steve and I. I can't even begin to describe the atmosphere of Camp - everyone was so amazing, so helpful and their primary goal was making sure your children had the best time.

Charlotte was waist deep in the dress up box pretty much the whole weekend; even convinced Marcia to join in

We shared a cabin with a couple little girls and our girls made fast friends

We may have all shed a few tears as we said goobye but we left feeling refreshed, blessed and so grateful for the oppotunity. We are allowed the opportunity to attend Camp up until Evelyn is 18 and we look forward to hopefully going back this summer - Charlotte is counting the sleeps :).

On the ride home, wiped out

Last week I gave Evelyn's hair a trim, the first haircut since it's come in - she was a little nervous but the pro big sister talked her through it :)