July 17th marked the anniversary of the day Carly’s port-a-cath, or as she called it “tubie”, was put in and her first round of Chemo. Thank goodness that yucky stuff is all over! It’s also been almost six months since her Chemo ended! Yeah!
We recently got home from a two week vacation at Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA. We all had a great time, suning, funing and relaxing! The girls loved playing in the ocean, making sand castles and going for long walks looking for shells. The weather was great and we really enjoyed doing nothing for two weeks. We had lots of visitors like Auntie Judy, Uncle Noel, Caitlin, Michael and Christina...... Jammie and Poppa came too, and Poppa went in the ocean with Daddy. Jammie said it was to cold. The Hartley’s also came down for a day at the beach and the girls loved playing with Lauren. Kathleen, Kieth & Jenna visited and so did Auntie Lisa, Uncle Eric, Megan and Katie. The girls had a ball at the beach that day. And Mimi’s friend Suzie came down, Carly and Kelcie loved Suzie and we had a great time with her.
Carly unfortunately has several dentist appointments ahead of her for fillings. Due to all the medications she took over the last year she has 6 cavities! Can you believe it?! Poor thing after all she’s been through and now the dentist.
Last week we went to visit Carly’s friend Amber & her mommy at their home in Somerville. The girls had a blast... they played dress-up, danced, and played Barbies... it was fun for all of us. This weekend the girls, Mimi, and I are going away for the weekend without daddy. We are going to Storyland with Auntie Lisa, Megan, Katie and Claudette In New Hampshire.
For the most part Carly is doing pretty good and she’s getting stronger every day. She still has days where she isn’t feeling great, and her tummy still bothers her a lot. I guess only time will tell if this is chemo related or what. Her hair is coming in fast, still blonde but a little darker, and it seems to be thicker too. I guess we’ll see. Carly’s next scans are scheduled for September 3rd. We’ll let everyone know how she makes out.
The 20th of June 2002 was the day Roy and I brought Carly into Children’s Hospital for the first time. I remember it like yesterday; it was Roy’s birthday and Carly was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t put her down and she was exhausted from crying and hurting for so long. I called Roy at work crying and saying she can’t live like this anymore. Roy came home and we drove to Boston never thinking for a minute what was in store for Carly and our family.
Two days later on the 22nd of June they found her tumor. The memory of the three doctors walking through the doors of the MRI department has been permanently seared into my memory. We both knew something was wrong but we still never, ever for one second, thought it was a tumor. This was hard enough to comprehend and deal with never mind the prospect of cancer. So we just focused on Carly healing from her surgery. We knew the pathologists had to run test after test and we just had to wait and see.
And then that fateful day came, it was July 2nd 2002, I was home with the girls, my mom and 6 daycare children, doing what I do every other day…. keeping everyone busy and happy. The phone rang and it was the neurosurgeon with the results of the pathology report. She said hello Mrs. Laverty this is Dr. Goumnerova and I have some bad news. So I ran out onto the deck because I was already crying, and she said in a stern voice you have to calm down and listen to me. Carly has cancer! I instantly lost my breath; I got weak in the knees and starting sobbing. In a split second my whole world fell down around me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She kept saying it’s a very rare cancer. You will get a call from Dr. Grier at Dana Farber and she expressed how sorry she was and that Carly would be in good hands. And then I had to call Roy at work to tell him. The whole time I was sobbing and sobbing and the girls kept saying, What’s the matter Mommy? Why are you crying? It was as if someone had died in our family that day.
I can’t believe it’s been a year since that dreadful day. As a family it’s been the longest year of our lives together and I hope we never have to experience this again. We look back over everything Carly has gone through and say’ Wow, I can’t believe this little pint of nothing has gone through all this and look at her now. We owe a debt of gratitude to so many people for all the help, support and prayers that helped us through this difficult time. You are all angels and we will never forget.
