Let's try this again.

Ok, so we are on the list again.

Lovely booking lady called today and thought it was a good idea to get Piper on the surgery list so that in case her blood gets much better, she will have a spot all booked up already.

She booked Piper for March 23rd. Even though that sounds like a ways away, to me, it sounds like no time at all. For a while, I was just living in this void of who-knows-when, and it wasn't a great place to be. Now I have something to look towards and count down, even though I know her blood might not get better in that time, at least there is something coming up on the horizon to plan towards.

Tomorrow we go to get her second weekly blood withdrawal. Luckily, we can do it at any BCBioMed, and there are 2 of them very close to me, so we can turn it into a nice walk or something like that. The cardiology nurses said that I can call them on Wednesday (or the day after the blood is taken) and they can let me know how the levels are looking. I am really, really wanting this whole WBC count thing to clear up, like it was just a bad dream and we can move ahead again. The surgery booking lady was great in that she really was sympathetic and completely understood that we don't really want to be having our baby poked frequently and that we do want to get surgery underway as soon as we are able. She did say that even if, say by March 23rd, her WBC count is still too low, and is being monitored and it finally goes up, she said she would get Piper in as soon as she possibly could. That makes me feel like she is really on my team and none of this is to just tick me off.

So we have an appointment with the hematologist on the 2nd of March, and then a Pre-Admission Clinic (PAC) on the 17th of March (which will mostly just be maybe some more blood tests and maybe an Echocardiogram, because we've done the rest of it: tour, meeting people etc...) and hopefully in for surgery on the 23rd of March. Done.

Again, I am not getting my hopes up too much, but I really, really would like to see her WBC count going up, even if its just a little at a time, but kinda like stocks; always heading upwards. If you are wanting something specific to pray for, that would be it :)

I just find a lot of this hard to believe sometimes because we have such a normal, healthy, strong baby. Today, she really pulled herself to standing with the help of her toy trunk, waved at her uncle Mark, pushed herself to standing on her own and has totally got the page-turning thing down with her books- and loves it! Like, she can't be sick, right? I can feel and hear her heart beat, and it is so obviously not normal, but I can't physically see or smell or touch her WBC's and so it is such a mystery to me. And there are no real signs that anything is wrong, in my eyes, anyways. I will just have to trust science I guess ("I only believe in science" - sorry, Nacho quote...).

Tonight we went down the street to watch the Olympic torch run past. It was almost kinda magical. I hate to sound corny, but it really was. I know there are a few opinions on the Olympics and they aren't all positive, but I really feel that anything that brings my neighbors out of their houses into the street to cheer for our country can't be all bad. I love that our world can celebrate together. That part is magical.

Loved watching all the people!

Anyways, there was lots of fanfare and we got some free little flaggies and Mark and Maria got some free Cokes and then we all went to McDonald's after to use our free Coke coupon. Yeah, we are all about the free Coke, apparently (and we got fries, too. Not free).

Right now, this is Piper's favorite book, from her auntie and uncle and her 5 cousins. Her auntie wanted to buy her something special on their trip to Tofino, so I mentioned that Piper loved anything orange (still holds true), and they found this book! It's so simple, but awesome. The little fish is a finger puppet, operated from the back, so the book kinda comes alive! Anyways, we read it about 4 times a day, and Piper usually flips all the pages, and goes back and forth and can really enjoy it, especially because the pages have big holes in them, so she can really grab them.

So if you are looking for a cool book for some kiddie, I highly recommend this one :) And so does Piper.