The Wall of Life.

To start off with something wacky, in direct contrast to last night's morose dirge, here is a picture that Anya took of me.  She loves to take pictures, and especially loves how fast my new iPhone takes pictures.  

I'm not sure what she asked me to do, but I wanted to give her something big.  I responded with my Kung-Fu Spaz style.

This is a left over from two nights ago, and somehow didn't make it to the blog.  Too cute to leave out though.  Enjoy!

This is a pic that posted to Shelley's FB wall tonight, from her co-workers at CMH.  Love the "Wonder Twin Powers Activate!" feel to the picture.

My cousin Jackie's daughter, Karina, who I know is Jackie's daughter but sometimes I get so tired I make really dumb mistakes like saying she's Amy's daughter, donated her hair for Amelie (not directly, but in honor of her) a few weeks ago.  It got lost in the chaos of hospitalization, but I wanted to give her a little shine for what she did.  I loved that she did it, and it made us feel super special.

Beth (my sister) and her daughter Allyssa came up to the hospital tonight, and almost immediately kicked Shelley and I out to take a breather walk.

We walked to the cafeteria, so Shel could get a boughten dessert (Have I described that word, yet?  Not tonight, but I'll do it soon).  We sat outside in the warmth and she ate her pumpkin crapcake, or whatever it was (I'm sure it was good.  I don't care for dessert most of the time as I talked about before).  We went for a nice, long walk afterwards.

While on the walk, we went into the Arb, the Nichols Arboretum that dominates the landscape of NE downtown Ann Arbor.  We came upon this sign within the first few minutes and got a massive kick out of it.  We walked towards the sign and said really nice and supportive things about it.

He was sensitive after all.

We complimented the sign on it's bench, on how colorful it's leaves were in the area.  Then we left quietly.  He is sensitive after all.

We traipsed down to the river, and appreciated the view.  Did our best not to break anything as we were totally not wearing hiking footwear.  Managed to not maim ourselves.  Score!

Shel found an Oak leaf bigger than her face.  I wanted to show you how small her face was, in reference to the leaf.

Big tree.  Foreground. Background.  Photo composition time!

Anya is at Grammie's for the week, and they apparently have some leaves.  Lots of leaves.  Enough to bury lots of humans.  I wonder what else is under there....

We took a few shots at this location, but I think Shelley looks smashing here.  Don't you agree?

Shelley knit Amie a pumpkin hat, so that we could call her pumpkinhead. Amie's still on the fence about wearing the hat, but was up for a bit of fun taking pictures with it on.

A while back, Shelley found a flyer in the family lounge talking about the "wall of life" that they would be assembling in the hallways of the Oncology Peds ward at Mott.  Being the tech guy that I am, I quickly emailed them a picture of Amelie.  I kinda forgot about it.

So I walked in today and found Amelie to be the shining star of their Wall of Life.  She's got her picture, diagnosis and age on it...and a great smile as you can see.  It TOTALLY choked me up, every time I saw it tonight.

If any of you ever end up on the floor, you have to check it out.  We've been told it will be there for around 3 years.  Here's to hoping we won't be hanging around there for that long....

Ok, enough of all of the pictures, a few medical things:

• We were admitted last night for Round 2 of Chemo.  
• Amelie was too dehydrated to start Chemo last night, so they gave her a massive bolus of fluid and started Chemo this morning.
• They're doing Chemo treatments today, tomorrow and Saturday.  They'll also monitor her for 24 hours after the last application.  So we'll be there until at least Sunday afternoon.
• Once they send us home, Amelie will be on IV fluids for 5 days.  We're NOT looking forward to that.  Maybe we can work that into a Halloween costume.  Hmmmm....Super Shelley is on the case.

...and with that, I bid you good night.  I headed home tonight to sleep in my own bed.  Not sure why that rocks so much...but it does.  Night all.