The second hospital stay is done! Everything felt so much easier this time. At least, for me. Mike finished the chemo around 4:30 and then it was his favorite part: They unhooked him from everything and he might have yelled, "FREEDOM"! Or he might have just thought it since everyone was sleeping. He was up early after that and had walked a mile before I even got up. The attending doctor rounded at 8:00 and got his discharge stuff lined up. His nurse promised we would be out of there before lunch.[...]

First of all, let's ignore the fact that it's 3:00 in the morning. I'm sure I'll sleep someday. Ok? Ok.

This week has been going as well as can be expected. Thursday morning I brought the girls to swimming lessons. They were so excited! They were telling me how they're ready to swim this summer now. I have to admit, the idea of summer being around the corner really gives me something to look forward to. Summer means no more chemo. The promise of summer feels like the promise of life starting fresh again.[...]

Round 2 has been pretty similar to the first round so far. Other than Mike having less hair, and we are a lot closer to home!

We got checked in yesterday without a hitch. It always takes so long to get settled into a hospital room. Paperwork-ACK![...]

Molly wrote her first love letter today. To her Daddy, of course. Not only was it her first time writing sentences, but she did it all by herself without asking me for help at all. My reaction? You all might want to sit down for this, but I cried. I know, I know. Get it together, Robin. I can't. I'm a crier. Have been all my life. Her Letter says: I wish you wor badr, Daddy. Hop you git badr. Love Molly. To Daddy. Translation for those of you not fluent in 5 year old's writing:  I wish you were better, Daddy. Hope you get better. Does it get any sweeter than that? On the back side of the paper she wrote, "You should get better. Sorry you feel sick." tears, tears, tears.[...]

The past few days have been amazing around here. The weather has been warm and sunny. I won't even complain about how windy it was because it was too nice for February in Kansas.[...]

Joe asked me to share this on here:

 [...]

So far, this is what we've learned about the 3 weeks of the first round of chemo.

• Week 1- It isn't fun being in the hospital for 5-6 days, but at least someone is there to help you and guide you through everything.
• Week2- The Dark Side. Painful, exhausting, lonely, emotional. Mike spent most of this week wondering when better days were going to come.
• Week3- Brighter days are upon us. Even if they're only temporary---until they're permanent.

I've also learned in these 3 weeks how amazing our communities are. So many people have stepped up and stepped in to help us. I had journaled about being nervous to transition to KC. A dear friend from my junior high and high school days contacted me about a Hematologist that works at KU Cancer Center North campus. She works there and said that she feels like he's the best and she offered to help us get Mike set up with him. We originally thought that he had his inpatients stay at KU Med, but it turns out they go to KC North Hospital. I called Dr. Mundis' office and had them send the referral. The North campus is much closer to us, as is KC North Hospital, than the south campus & St. Joseph Medical Center. The switch was easy and our new doctor is going to come in on Friday ( his day off ) to see us. My friend that works there had talked to him about our situation before all of this, so he already knew our story. He told her that he would see us because "We take care of family." My heart is so full of gratitude towards her and also Dr. Sirridge. Sometimes you might think that growing up or living in a small town isn't the best thing in the world, but  I can definitely say that it IS THE BEST. Small town people take care of each other when times get hard. We don't wait to be asked to help. We just step up, step in, and pour on the love. We are so humbled by this in all the ways we've experienced it.[...]

Well, I have good news to report! We had a very nice and quiet weekend. Each day Mike has felt a little better than the day before. Saturday night was the first night since we've been home that he felt like he got some quality sleep. The cough is starting to go away so that has helped tremendously.[...]

Pop Quiz:

Sleeping in our own bed the past two nights has been:[...]

Oh, Hello there, every emotion I could ever have. Nice to see you all at the same time. Explosively. All the little forest animals just scattered as I had a minor (major) breakdown last night. My poor mother in law probably didn't see that coming. I didn't see that coming. I should have. I mean, who are we kidding, I am NOT the kind of person who can keep herself together 100% of the time. Honestly, 40% of the time is a stretch.[...]