So much for posting more frequently! Have I mentioned how hard these are? And how much I wonder why anybody would care what I have to say? But Karen asked us not to let her blog die with her, so I continue. I have to find a way to make sure I don’t wait so long. There’s a lot to talk about, when it’s been almost a year! We went to Arizona in April. Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Lowell Observatory, among other things. Lots of hiking, all beautiful! One of Susie’s soccer teammates was on the same flight from BWI, very randomly. And then on the way back, another teammate was on the same two flights! They were in Sedona too, but we didn’t know until we met them at the airport. They ended up giving us a ride home at midnight. Such a small world! We went to a wedding in May in Virginia. One of Karen’s friends got married, and we were invited in her place. It’s nice to see the girls going through all the steps of growing up, but it’s so hard! I’m so thankful that they continue to include us, and I hope they understand when I cry. Susie had her final high school sports season… no more track meets, no more club soccer games. The prom dress was pretty, the hair was fancy! Graduation was HOT. We had a crowd for our traditional post-graduation dinner out, since Steve’s brother was in town with his kids, and his dad and my sister also came for the ceremony. One of the conversation topics was what was the best starting word for Wordle, and it was discussed at some length. Yes, there might have been a nerd or two in attendance. After our fun sisters trip in March, we decided to go to Williamsburg for a few days in June. The four sisters, Susie, and an old family friend. Poor Susie! But we went to Busch Gardens and Water Country, so she decided it was worth the time with all the old people! There were no lines, so she had her fill of roller coasters and water rides. Unfortunately, the house in Florida was in the path of the hurricane, and is no more. So we have to work harder to make the sisters trips happen now. We missed the one that should have been this spring, sadly. Also in June, we took my dad’s ashes to Rhode Island to be dispersed at sea. He had planned to have somebody do that for him near where the submarine he served on had been scuttled, but unfortunately that person predeceased him. So my sister made the arrangements instead. It turns out that the Coast Guard will perform this service for you, and take you along for the boat ride. Nobody told us when we bought our biodegradable urn that there were sizes. We found out the hard way, when he didn’t fit in the one we got. And it’s not like we could return it… so the rest of dad went in an Amazon box, which we thought was very fitting, considering how much he liked to shop. We removed all of the tape and stickers so it was also a biodegradable box, and we took both of them out on the boat. I’m sure those Coast Guard people will remember us! The Amazon box sank pretty quickly, but the fancy urn floated for a while, and seemed to be sticking close to our boat, making us wonder if Dad had changed his mind about the whole burial at sea thing. It might not have been the solemn occasion they were expecting, but that’s not really how we operate. While we were there, we had a beautiful few days in Newport, seeing the sights. There was also a celebration of life party for Dad in July, which he would have really enjoyed. Both Camp Sunsibs and Sunrise were in person this year. It was very nice to have the kids be all together in person again! They didn’t do castle cakes at Sunsibs, but we volunteered anyway, and helped the kids make Pinewood Derby cars instead. They weren’t the official cars the Boy Scouts use, but they were kits that used a lot of glue. The activity schedule didn’t account for the drying time, so we missed the camp-wide race. There were some very creative cars! Camp Sunrise did have castle cakes, and we spent the day watching the kids make some amazing tropical themed scenes. The pictures just can’t capture how amazing they were. I love that the kids get so excited to do the activity each year! They don’t know the history of it related to Karen, and most of the current campers didn’t know her, but they all enjoy it, and that’s what matters. In August, we went to Washington and Oregon for vacation. Mt Rainier, Mt St Helens, Tillamook, Multnomah Falls, Olympic National Park, among other things. It was a great week, especially if you ignore the messed up flights at either end. Yes, both directions. Thanks, Southwest. And this was months before the big meltdown. There was a lot of hiking, lots of waterfalls, overall beautiful scenery, delicious ice cream, and at least one stressful dirt road. I don’t mind a dirt road, but there was one in Olympic that I should have skipped. Steve has the patience of a saint. Susie went off to college when we got back. There was a health scare as we were dropping her off which almost sent me into a panic… It’s never good when the doctor calls you and says to go directly to the Emergency Room, and that they’ll call ahead so they’re expecting you. It turned out not to be worthy of all the drama, but we didn’t know that at the time, and there was enough history (with Karen) to make me pay attention. Anyway, college is good, she’s having fun, and there’s a nice convenient bus for when she wants to come home. Steve and I took a trip to New England in the fall, to see the leaves. We haven’t been up there at that time since just after we moved here. It’s hard to beat that area for fall color! We visited a friend and her parents, where we did a small home repair project. It made them so happy, definitely time well spent! Sightseeing in the Hudson Valley, too. A nice few days, very strange not to have any kids along! There was a family wedding in October, with a beautiful bride and handsome groom, of course. I got to go to PA early, to help get ready, not that they really needed help. But just in case. And it was helpful to have the van there, to get things and people where they needed to be. I’m so fortunate to have a family that gets along, and actually enjoys spending time together! In October, I went with friends to visit another friend who had moved to Boston. We did all the tourist things, which was a lot of fun. Beautiful weather always helps! We spent a day in Boston and a day in Salem. A piece of advice – only go to Salem near Halloween if you are REALLY into Halloween. We were woefully unprepared. While we were in Boston, I randomly saw one of Karen’s friends, twice! She was out sightseeing with a friend of hers, and we passed each other. I also arranged to see the only family we have left in MA while we were there, so they joined us along the Freedom Trail for a bit. Wonderful to catch up in person!!! Thanksgiving was in Maine this year, and I got to go early. I flew on Sunday, and the rest of the family drove on Tuesday. My trip was much shorter. I got to do projects at my sister’s house (somehow projects at other people’s houses are better than my own) and keep the peace between her and her son, who sometimes disagree about things. It was wonderful to see everybody! Some of the Maine residents don’t get out much, so I haven’t seen them in a long time. The ride home on Saturday was LONG. Connecticut was one big traffic jam. But we had entertainment, and I didn’t have to do any of the driving, so it was all good. Once again, it was time to find a Christmas tree. We all got together on a Sunday, and had the usual discussion about where to go… back to where we went last year? A few years ago? Local? Farther away? It seems like the closer places haven’t had the right size trees in a while, but they’re close, so don’t we have to try them first? It’s always difficult to decide. We finally made a plan, and found a tree at the second farm. We had been to this place a few years ago and the trees were smaller, but now that the kids have adjusted their expectations, it was fine. I am ever-thankful for the shrub of a few years ago! Now, the tree just has to be fat, not tall and fat. We put it up on a platform, and it’s all good. As far as Christmas itself, we finally got to celebrate with family like we usually do, with a minor modification. Matt’s girlfriend joined us for Christmas morning and in PA, since her flight to Houston on Christmas eve was cancelled. Hopefully meeting a little more of the extended family didn’t scare her away! We went on our usual ski trip in January. Susie wanted to go back to the Glass Museum again, but instead we went to a park in New York with very large waterfalls. On Sunday we went on a local hike, to try to find a trail Steve’s dad had never been on. He’s been going to this place for over 30 years, so it’s hard to believe any trail exists that he hasn’t been on, but we found one, sort of. It started out as a marked trail, and then it seemed like they wanted us to turn. So we turned. There were old faded blazes on the trees, but no sign of there ever having been a trail. It was very strange. Eventually we rejoined a clearly marked trail (that surprisingly, he had never been on) and finished our loop. It was all good until the large stream we had to cross. There was a log, but you couldn’t walk across, you had to crawl or sit and scoot. Thankfully there are no videos of this process!
We got a new laptop recently. Matt came over to do his taxes on our old desktop, and was very unhappy with the speed of operation, and the inability to send himself an email. I don’t use it much, mostly just for the taxes, actually, because it has all of the previous years on it, and it’s easy. We also have Karen’s college laptop, which I use more often, including right now. Obviously, it’s not anywhere near new either. We had talked about getting a new one, but … inertia… and we hadn’t done it. So Matt did. It arrived on a Tuesday, along with some flash drives. My plan was (and still is…) to go through the two computers and take what I want to the new computer, and have a backup copy of documents and pictures on the flash drives. This is not a fast process. I started going through the laptop first, and so far I’ve found some pictures. I had skipped over Karen’s coursework, but then I remembered one of the essays I found in her papers, and now I wonder if I should go back and look for things like that? I think it would take a long time, and not get me very much, but we’ll see how it goes. I also came across a document she had to submit to Drexel about dropping the last classes she was taking, where she wrote about how she was feeling fine and keeping up at the beginning, and then she got that final chemo, and it knocked her out. She mentioned that they were the worst side effects she had ever had in all of her treatment, and I sat here crying, remembering how much pain she was in, and those final few days. It wasn’t pretty! There were also some itineraries from trips she had taken with Steve during her school breaks. He did an amazing job taking her places, so much better than I would have done. On some of the trips, they stayed in the same resorts where we stayed on later trips. He never mentioned that he had been there with her – I would have been in tears pulling in to the parking lot! I can only imagine what else I will find… but I’m sure that there will be more that makes me cry! I have a tendency to leave certain tabs open in a browser long term, usually to remind me to go back and look at them periodically. One of the tabs on this computer is for a blog by another mother who lost her child to leukemia. She and Karen were in contact about treatment options for her son before Karen died, and she had sent an email at some point, because she hadn’t heard from Karen. Anyway, she has a blog, and she’s a much better writer than I am, so I’ve kept the tab open. Her last post was about how to write a eulogy for your child. Crying, again, even though I didn’t even try to write something to say then. I know my limits, and that is well past my ability! I mentioned last time that I had gotten a letter from a friend of Karen’s, about how Karen was still impacting her life. I found it eventually, and put it aside so I could finally include it. Karen was 5 when we moved here from Massachusetts, and Kalene was her best friend there. They stayed in touch over the years, which I always found to be very impressive, especially in the days before email, social media, and texting. Anyway, Kalene told me in a letter about how she has encouraged people to give blood, and sign up for Be The Match, and has fostered kittens in Karen’s memory. One of her friends has been called twice to donate bone marrow! So many people signed up or donated after she promoted Be the Match at her wedding that the organization called her to ask why it was so important to her. Even though I cry every time I read it, it makes me so very happy to know that Karen continues to make a difference. After reading Kalene’s note, I was motivated to make an appointment myself to give blood. I haven’t gone in a long time, pre-Covid, I’m sure. It makes me very tired, so I feel like I have to plan more when to go, and then I don’t go. So now I have an appointment, on my brother’s birthday! I can feel like I’m honoring both of them! Hopefully reading this motivates you to do something good.
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11/23/2023 07:07:39 pm
There are blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. Bone marrow, which has a soft spongy structure, is involved in the production of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets in the blood. The procedure, also referred to as a bone marrow transplant, is performed to replace damaged or diseased bone marrow. For this purpose, healthy stem cells are placed in the body. According to the way it is made, there are 2 types. The method will be determined by the specialist taking into account the conditions in which the person is located, taking into account the risks of marrow transplantation.
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What sets your blog apart is your genuine authenticity. Your passion for your subject matter shines through in every word, making it easy for readers like myself to connect with your message on a personal level. It's refreshing to encounter a writer who isn't afraid to be vulnerable and share their own experiences.
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AuthorI’m Karen. I was originally diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in August 2004 when I was 10 years old. When I was working on my college and scholarship application essays two years ago, I wrote about my journey. Although it was a rough few years, it became such an influential part of my life that I can’t, and wouldn’t want to, imagine my life without having had cancer. I called it the worst best thing that ever happened to me. Archives
April 2022
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