Just stuff

Too many individual topics to be able to tackle them all at once with justice, but her egoes:

1. One of the little girls on our T21 online board has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. Dr. Leshin, on www.ds-health.com, says the following about leukemia:

Leukemia is more common in children with DS, being seen anywhere from 10 to 30 times more often than in the general population of children. The vast majority of cases occur in the first 5 years of life. In the first 3 years of life, nonlymphoid leukemia is the most common form of leukemia in children with DS; after age 3, approximately 80% have acute lymphocytic leukemia and 20% have nonlymphocytic leukemia. The actual treatment of leukemia is beyond the scope of this article, but it is worth noting here that children with DS who develop AML seem to respond to chemotherapy better than do children without DS; with ALL, the response rate appears to be about the same.

It's always terrifying to find out a child has a terrible illness. Our online community will hold C and her family in our hearts as they enter this new phase of their lives. For more info, see Carey's blog, Dream Big.

2. Sukkot started tonight (I promise, I'll take photos soon). Since David is on his way to Utah, I had my friend D and her girls come over. They brought a Muppet Show video - I think D and I had more fun watching it than even the kids did - and then we ate in the sukkah. But the MWJDS kids had all gone Apple Picking today, in 90+ degree temps, so they were tired and crabby, and Sam and A started melting down at each other.

3. I bought an iPhone!!!! I gave the poor sales guy a hard time, because he was new and clueless (I actually had a word with the manager, suggesting more training). BUT then I got the phone home and discovered that I don't have the appropriate version of the Mac operating system to use iPhone!!! Grrrrrrrr. Fortunately, a friend of ours has a family pack and an extra license, so he's coming tomorrow to let me upgrade. How annoying.

4. Thank you all so very much for your thoughtful comments about my previous post. It does help to know that I'm not the only mommy who sometimes forgets that their child has an extra chromosome and sometimes gets confronted with it rather suddenly.