Quick Trip to Galveston

January 19, 2004

We are celebrating Walter's birthday today. Erin made him a magnificent pasta-decorated, red-spray-painted desk box for his office at work and filled it with many treasures--a glue stick, scissors, a fancy pen with a feather on it (so no one will pick it up accidentally and walk off with it), an onocular, and so on. Davis is working on a lemon birthday cake. It's great when your birthday falls on a holiday!

Erin had most of her scans and tests last week. The CT scan and bone scan were clear (hooray), we don't have results from the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy yet. Bad weather in Canada meant the isotope she needs for her MIBG scan didn't make it to Houston on Wednesday. That scan will now be on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Walter and Erin are going down to Houston for the prep on Wednesday, so that Vickie doesn't have to miss the first day of classes. We will drive back on Thursday for the actual scan. The MIBG is an important scan because it is peculiar to neuroblastoma. The iodized and dyed isotope that is placed the day before the scan uptakes to neuroblastoma cells, where ever they appear in the body. It is very thorough--head-to-toe, and 360 degrees around her body. It takes a couple of hours, and Erin must lie still the whole time.

We managed to mix in fun with tests in Houston. Our dear friends Nico, Adam, and Elaine joined us for the week. We rode the new Houston Metro train from start to finish and back again. We visited the Houston Natural Science Museum, spent a hour in the Chemistry section, and watch the IMAX movie about Life Under the Sea. We also browsed the book store for a couple of hours and each selected a special book to take home. Erin picked the first Boxcar Children book and is reading it herself!

Because the MIBG was canceled (but not soon enough for us to make it home for the night) we loaded up and headed for Galveston on Wednesday afternoon. It was foggy and breezy and sort of cool. I didn't think we would stay on the beach long. Boy, was I wrong. Two hours, three wet children, a sackful of shells, and a bunch of sand later, we were headed to WalMart to buy fresh clothes. After a meal of shrimpies, we drove out to the ferry. Even though it was dark and foggy, we chugged across to High Island and back. Everyone was delighted and sleepy on the way back to Houston.