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ML is home enjoying her beautiful river view and helping Philip figure out their new fancy dock.

My flight was fairly uneventful other than accidentally checking my iPad but it survived. I took a ton of pictures on the plane even though it was mostly dark. Haven't looked at them yet.

Henry was there to pick me up and managed to snap a picture of this.

Harry remains a tad aloof which for him means only cuddling 90% of the time he normally would rather than 100.

I got the biggest best group hug ever when Caleb and Emily came rushing in tonight.

They loved their gifts from ML.

Ear rings for Karen and Emily from our friendly jewelry making lady in the hospital lobby.

And a Halifax mini flash light for Caleb.

Who is the best sport ever as you can see, modeling Karen's new ear rings.

Emily made me this cool duck tape wallet!

My people:

We took it easy at swimming tonight. All of us have budding colds. My voice started rasping on the way home from the airport. I might just need to sleep for a solid week and I'll be fine. I don't even care if I get sick now that I'm not with ML. I was saying that I didn't realize how much I was on alert for germy people until I heard people cough in the restaurant and at the pool and got a bit giddy because I didn't care. Cough away folks not near pei, cough away.

Let's check in with some of our favorite babies :)

Also wanted to show you the beautiful hand made card I received from my friend Heather for the bit of help I gave her with her camera while we were in Halifax. She takes the cutest pictures of her dog.

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The details

It was a squeaker but we're going home.

Her numbers are not up all that much and the liaison nurse said after that she would not have sent her home yet as this can still be a kind of the honeymoon period before host vs graft can start sometimes but ML told today's doc that the head guy last week said she could go home today so we squeaked through.

We asked again about crowds and this dr explained that even if the ANC and WBC would be in the normal range which they are not even close, it's a part of the WBC that they can't measure that won't function properly for a long while and that while bacterial infections can be treated viral infections not so much.

She could go visit Phil's dad as he is very unwell with his cancer but only attend the wedding that weekend if she could maybe be in a balcony or her own side of the church. It's not just the people that are in a room but who's been in the room before she gets there.

She may have visitors if they are well and going outside is great.

I'm writing this down while I still remember it.

They will do blood tests on pei once a week and she is to call Halifax if she notices:

Diarrhea
Rash
Mouth sores or sensitivity
Or other changes

as these can be signs of host vs graft. It would not be a bad thing if these things happen, but it's very important that ML report them. Doesn't mean she'd have to rush right back, they just need to know.

She is to go to pei emerge with any fever 38 or higher and start the process of getting her medical alert watch either online or over the 800 number.

She may be around her grand daughter Rebekah of course but the nurse was iffy about the babysitting part which was the hardest thing for ML to hear as she is naturally so looking forward to that.

ML goes back to Halifax for an appoint probably on May 13th.

Hard for them to say how often after that, it all depends on how everything goes. Possibly every 2 weeks for a while and then tapering maybe once a month and maybe as far apart as a year eventually.

So as her friends and family lets keep up the prayers and contact via email and Facebook. She enjoys that very much and is up for individual emails though I will probably still do a regular update in my blog health wise to save her repeating a lot, but please go ahead and contact her too :)

Also she'll be posting info about the relay for life and she'd love if you'd watch for that and sponsor her if you feel like it.

Our friends we made here at the lodge had cards ready for her when we got back!

Philip is here now so time for some serious packing!

Extreme Sister Makeover - Halifax Edition

Well tomorrow, Tuesday, is a really big day! ML has an appointment to have blood drawn in the am then she meets with a doctor at 12:20. If all goes well she and Philip will be headed home to PEI till her next appointment in two weeks.

My flight home is booked for tomorrow evening.

ML has done exceedingly well through this whole process and we expect this will continue. Thank you so much for all your prayers and care, we could not be more grateful.

I'll try to send out an update after the appointment cause I doubt I'll be blogging much after my flight home tomorrow night.

Today was our look good feel better event.

We cleaned up pretty good for a pair of ol' salts.

My poor esthetician kept TRYING to let me do things but then she'd grab the wand or doohickey and just do it herself. It was just a lot easier and safer for everyone concerned.

Listen, back in the day I used to wear makeup and the stuff the kids are using these days is a lot nicer and less smelly than it used to be.

I don't know how to break this to you but they didn't give us any purple shadow.

Our swag:

ML's obligatory sad before picture:

I asked if this was going to be what we looked like when we were done:

Not sure why they laughed.

They sent us home with a user manual:

I had to take a picture of the order of events.

ML was teacher's pet for a while:

I tried on my wig again too.

Ta da!

Scary close ups:

Took a wheelbarrow to carry our swag home!

Yesterday we said good bye to dear Ella where we stayed on the weekends and headed over for an evening of good food and fun with ML's (and now mine) friends the Passeys. They were much better sports about playing parlour games for ML than we her her own family are. A prophet in her own town...

They played Bobbity Bop Bop and Upset The Fruitbasket.

So much fun!

Meantime ML and I are going to have another game of crib tonight and I'll talk to you soon from Ontario, safe in the loving arms of my disgruntled cat :)