Returning to "ab" Normal

I realized in the past few posts, I focused a lot on what I was thinking, feeling, doing, etc...and thought those of you who follow Lucy and are not on FB might like to hear what and how she's been doing in the past few weeks.  Well, I'm happy to say that our life is returning a little to normal as possible.  Jack started first grade, and he LOVES it.  Although we are having a few discipline issues with him at home.  He never has done well with change.  Which is so funny because usually children adapt to change a lot better than adults, but Jack seems to be the exception to the rule.  He is also have some temper issues and anger issues. I think its part DNA, and part related to what has been going on the past 9-10 months.  He's had to deal with a lot of change.  I have him seeing a counselor, so hopefully that will help him deal with his anger and temper in a different way than lashing out at us.
We have started a construction job to the house.  Since Lucy is going to be home bound for the next 2 years, along with one of us parents who will be working from home, we decided we needed more living space in our tiny 1000 sq ft. home.  We are turning our garage into a play room/living room/home school room for the kids.  We also added a bathroom and had to re-do our laundry room since our water system took up most of the space in there.  We could hardly reach the washer and it was a real pain, so we are moving things around and making it a little bit bigger to accommodate.  We also are trying to winterize our home.  We have NO insulation in our attic over bedrooms.  No wonder our heating/cooling bills are always so expensive for a small house.  All the air is going out the roof!  Zach has also had to do a lot of electrical work.  We discovered a lot of fire hazards when we were trying to do some maintenance and add a ceiling fan and few new lights.  The electrical in this house is just plain awful.  We found live hot wires just sitting in insulation, some wires were wrapped with duct tape and newspaper, and then there were junction boxes filled with live wires that connected to no outlets or light switches.  Good thing we found these fire hazards!  We have been living here close to 5 years and are very lucky we didn't have a fire!!  Anyhow, the garage is coming along nicely as a new room. I hope that gives the kids space to put their toys, so we can remove them from their tiny rooms and actually have space to put dressers in there for their clothes.  Neither has one and there is no room for them right now.
I am toying with when to go back to work in the office.  I am struggling with this for several reasons.  The first is that I don't want to make a commitment and then something happens to lucy where I have to go back to working from home, and the 2nd is just leaving her.  We have been virtually inseparable for the past 7 months.  I have very rarely left her for anything.  And she is quite attached to me.  I find I am having anxiety attacks when I leave the house without her just to go shopping or something!  Let alone trying to go to the office for 9 hours a day.  So I'm trying to work on that.  And my boss and SF have been wonderful to me and Zach about that.  We feel very fortunate to work for a company that has compassion and understanding.  I know I have to make that leap soon....sigh...
Lucy is doing great.  We are all done with all the "BIG" chemos and long intense periods.  She has been through 8 weeks of induction therapy (hard hitting chemo to kill all the leukemia cells head on), 8 weeks of consolidation (making sure the leukemia cells don't come back and with a vengeance), We have done Reinduction 1, which is a mini version of what she did the first 8 weeks, and Reinduction 2, which is the same.  We are now in what they call Continuance or maintenance.  And this is where we will be for the next 2 years. It consists of chemo every night at home.  And then once a week we go to Peoria for IV methotrexate, and she will also have to start physical therapy for the nerve damage she is having with vincristine.  Every 4 weeks, we do our steroids (dex monster) and vincristine.  Then every other month we head to Memphis for spinal taps that include an injection of methotrexate, Ara C, and hydrocortizone into her spinal fluid.  We also get the spinal fluid tested to make sure we don't have a CNS relapse (Central nervous system), which is the most common relapse for these kids.  And basically we do this for the remainder of 95 weeks.  Her counts should remain "stable" still low, but not always neutropenic.  But the cold/flu season will still be hard because we have to try to isolate her as much as possible so she doesn't catch anything and land in the hospital.  Because with any fever, we still go inpatient.  That will remain that way until end of treatment and probably a little after.  So holiday season will suck.  We will be isolated in our home more than we are used to, thank goodness for the new room.
Lucy did get the clearance to go back to dance class, which she is SOOO stoked about.  She loves dance.  She is doing ballet and tap, and she couldn't be more thrilled because she has always wanted the "clicky" shoes.  Her first class is today.  So at least she will get a little socialization with that and out of the house.  She loves clinic days because she gets out of the house and gets to play with other kids like her.
so...that is where we are at....we have come a long way, and still have a long way to go, but are confident this should be easier for us and return to "ab" normal as much as possible ;)