Mary Lynn's schedule for you birds of pray

I'll try to put my updates on Mary Lynn first for those of you checking in on her.

Friday's appointment was for orientation. It went very well and they told her she looks really healthy and everything should go well.

This weekend was for fun with friends in Halifax. She hopefully found a dress for her son Brent's wedding in August!

Then this coming week will be about ML receiving two kinds of chemo. One kind she has tolerated well and the other was more challenging so that's something you can pray about. I believe that this time she is in a much healthier state than the last time she had this kind of chemo (her numbers are normal) and hopefully that should help a lot! ML will celebrate her Birthday on April 1st.

Our brother Jim flies into Halifax on April 2 then starting April 3rd he will receive a shot once a day for 4 days to cause his body to create extra stem cells. This might cause him to ache, but I'm guessing not more than playing a lot of squash. And anyway he doesn't care. None of us would.

The actual stem cell exchange will take place Monday April 7th. There is no bone marrow involved. They will take blood from one of Jim's arms, extract stem cells, and then return the blood into his other arm. They will then give ML the stem cells intravenously. She will likely have a picc line in her chest for the chemo as well as this.

Once this process is done Jim needs to stay till April 9th just on the off chance they'd need more stem cells but they usually don't

I will arrive on the 8th to stay with ML so her husband can head home to PEI. How long we stay in Halifax depends on how the transplant or graft is going. ML and Jim's blood need to have a little fight at first to establish who's gonna be top dog. This is where we put all our money on Jim for the win! We're not really big on fighting in our family so hopefully this will be a quiet but definite takeover.

We are hoping that the side effects of this battle will not be too severe but Mary Lynn is a trooper and we'll cross each bridge as we get to it.

We will be staying just across the street from the hospital in a lodge and will hopefully only need to go to well baby appointments at the hospital on Tuesday and Thursdays.

All of this will take place on an outpatient basis. They don't isolate you anymore though she should keep contact with groups of people down and has to be careful not to eat certain foods like vegetables and fruits except those that have thick peels to avoid germs.

I hope this was helpful to give you an idea of the timing of things to come. I'll try to give updates as I receive them.

Ok back to my usual stuff

Today was awesome beautiful!

We saw deer and geese in fields on the way home from church and the birds were busy around here too.

This squirrel seemed in a hurry and it wasn't long before I realized why.

The hawk hung out on the ground for a while. I think it was hunting fairly seriously because it wasn't shrieking. It only made one little sound in the tree that caused my friend Annie and I to see it in the first place.

On the ground it looked more like a pheasant than a hawk.

Till it stood up.

Maybe we can be birds of pray for Mary Lynn. (My spelling track record is such that I should probably indicate that I know it should be an E.)

The little birds were posing too.

They mostly hid themselves in the bushes.

My auto focus was bewildered by all the twigs so it finally dawned on me to turn off the auto focus and do it manually.

I'm sure these next pictures are enormously technically flawed but they are my favourites of the day.

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more seagulls once I'm in Halifax!

Mr Red only made a brief cameo appearance today.

Impossible to remain incognito with that get up.

I know how he feels :)

I love how Jim put it. That hat doesn't add to your look of intelligence. But Annette is hemming my Melissa hat so angry bird it was. Plus also who cares!

These little birds were playing tag. They are fast!

Harry was really anxious to get outside today.

He hates mud almost more than snow.

Our next door neighbour birds were busy.

Oh how I've missed taking pictures of this face in the sun!

Today was mothers' day in the UK Gary and Heather celebrated by having Lizzy's picture done.

So cute! It's also called Mothering Day in the UK sometimes and while I was googling that I ran across this article about holiday grammar that made me smile. As you've probably noticed apostrophes give me fits.

Okay time to wrap it up. Cooper's visit to the garden centre tomorrow. He loved it!

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