Wednesday, January 13, 2010

More "Dutton Drama"

Well,.....it all started last month when we decided to let Shelby go with Savannah to her NIH appointment. They were excited about taking a "sister" trip together, you know, bonding and that sort of thing.... :).....? Things heated up when"hot doctor" called Savannah, personally, on her cell phone and asked if she would mind being the NIH Diva in a piece that FOX Network is doing on cancer. She very reluctantly agreed so they rescheduled her appointment from the first week in January to the second.
Then the DRAMA started.....
Oh my word!!! FOX news! It's seen by millions of people! What would she say? How would she say it? Would they do a personal interview or a group thing? Would "hot doctor" be there?
But more importantly......WHAT WOULD SHE WEAR???? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(These are not actually her comments but I know how her mind works :) jk No, really she was so stressed about it she wouldn't even let us talk about it.
So then we had the daunting task of changing Shelby's flight to match Savannah's. Several minutes and $150 later.....done!
So, at 5:45 Sunday morning Danny was off to take the girls to XNA.
Upon arrival they found out there was something wrong with the plane. They were put on a flight through Dallas instead of Chicago. Somewhere over the friendly skies, Savannah got sick....the stomach bug type. Fortunately, we didn't hear about this until they were safe on the ground in DC. They got checked in at the hotel and stayed there the rest of the night.
Monday Savannah was feeling better so they spent most of the day at NIH doing Savannah's tests and scans. I thought all was calm for a while til I got a frantic call from Savannah saying that the Financial aid guy from school called and needed all her school information by 4:30 that afternoon or she would be kicked out of the system and not be able to attend this semester. Information that,by the way, I had been strongly encouraging her to get turned in for at least 3 weeks or more. When I mentioned that I wanted to inflict bodily harm on her for putting me thru this she almost giddily replied that she was in Maryland and I was in Arkansas and I would be over it by the time she got back. :@ Luckily she had her laptop with her so she found all the info, emailed it to us and we printed it out. By the time I had it in hand to take, I looked at the clock...It was 4:10. Hmmmm 20 minutes to get from my house to the Mall area?...not unheard of......even in traffic it shouldn't be that big a deal.....unless....of course...my gas tank is on empty...???......Anyway, after a few stressful minutes of crazy driving and praying......I MADE IT! With 30 seconds to spare.
So for a while....all was well....
Shelby says the FOX story thing went really well and that Savannah did a great job. We didn't really know what to expect. They hadn't told her much other than she would be in it. They filmed it as if Savannah were having an appointment with "hot doctor" and Dr. Rosenburg (THE cancer doctor at NIH over EVERYTHING). Savannah still doesn't want to talk about it but I'm sure she did a great job. I did find out that it is not just a story on NIH. Fox is doing a whole story on cancer so they will be in other big cancer hospitals as well. It will not air for a month or two so we will definitely let everyone know when it will be on.
OH!!!!! and in all the madness of her TV debut....we all totally forgot about the results of her tests. duhhhhh!
GOD is so unbelievably good and kind......
There were no visible tumors left in her body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only thing they saw was some dense tissue in her spleen. They think it is scar tissue but they said that IT is even shrinking! I think they are amazed at how fast she has recovered from such a severe case. I want to go on and on about God's greatness but I just keep repeating myself. I think it suffices to say that God is GOD, He sees our trials, He hears our prayers, He has compassion for us, He is gracious and merciful and JUST and He answers our prayers as He sees fit. Thank You GOD!
So....on to the next drama.....
I called this morning (Wed.) to make sure the girls were up and getting ready to get on their way to the airport. Shelby answered and said they were getting ready to leave the hotel but she didn't sound too good....although she said she was "fine". Savannah called shortly after that and said Shelby was sick....with the stomach thing. She said there was no way they could get on a shuttle or metro into DC with Shelby getting sick every few minutes and they needed to get there asap to catch the plane. Danny and I thought maybe they should stay another night and take the same flight home tomorrow to give Shelby time to recoup. That would have been a good idea if we wanted to pay about $350 extra for the flight change, hotel etc......
SO, after Danny was on the phone for....a long time......with the airlines, they will be taking a later flight today at 4:45pm getting in around 8:30.........barring any other drama!

Hope I didn't bore y'all with the trivial little dramas of our family life. It's really not all that dramatic but we've gotta spice up life somehow right?????
Again, as I've said in so many posts before.....
Thank you all so much for the support, the prayers, the encouraging words and everything else you all have done to make our trials bearable .
We love you all!