Back to School!

First, Eric had a check up at clinic today. The nice, light summer traffic is over :( But luckily the blood lab wasn't very busy so that was a win. Eric finished his 28 day cycle of oral chemo yesterday and his blood counts are still looking good. Since it didn't hit him as hard, and his blood counts remained relatively stable, he just gets a one week break and starts the next round on September 10. We are back in the clinic on the 18th at which time he has an appointment with Respirology to check his lung function. It seems stable to me, but certainly isn't 100%; they want to make sure it isn't deteriorating. At that appointment they'll do an extra blood draw to check his chimerism (DNA) from peripheral blood to ensure the treatment is still working. Everything seems fine and no reason to worry, but this kind of thing always causes a little heightened anxiety. I've learned this is called (by the other oncology families at least) "scanxiety."

In other news, we finished off the summer strong with a bunch of activities. First we stayed overnight at the River Rock to play in the pool and on the slide. We drove from there to Big Splash in Tsawwassen because when asked what else they wanted to do this summer, both boys answered "WATER SLIDES!" 

The next day, we drove out to Harrison and went on the inflatable water park there. I've seen it before, but didn't really know what to expect. It was a BLAST! Chuck and I were a little worse for wear after (sore and bruised) but we still had a good time and the kids absolutely loved it. As we were leaving, Eric asked when we could go back. 

Next Uncle Jon and Auntie Becky came to visit for the long weekend and we went to the PNE; Eric went on a few rides, we sampled all the food, watched the Super Dogs and met (Super) Mario. 

Finally, it was time to go back to school! We had such a fun summer and I'm not sure any of us were ready for it to end, but we're all also looking forward to being back to routine and the kids to seeing their friends at school. Joel's in the same class as last year, this time as a Grade 7, but with a new teacher because his amazing teacher left the school last year. Eric doesn't know his teacher/class yet; hopefully we will find out Friday, but for now he's happy to be back with his friends from last year and to be starting Grade 4. 

Now that the kids are back at school, it is time for a break for Mama. I am taking a quick 5 day trip to California all by myself for a little R&R.