Six months

How do you measure six months?  Ours has looked something like this:
12 days of chemotherapy
11 procedures under anesthesia
11 visits to the ophthalmologist
8 exams under anesthesia (7 for Anya, 1 for Reese)
5 visits to the local hospital for finger pokes
4 trips to the pediatrician
3 days with laser treatment
2 surgeries
1 treatment of cryotherapy
1 audiogram
1 MRI
1 trip to Philadelphia

Or we could measure it in:

progressing from rolling to crawling to walking
smiling to waving to signing and talking
turning one year old

Or
completing the first year of school and beginning anew
going from hair to bald to hair again
starting dance classes
writing her name
turning four years old

Six months ago today Anya was diagnosed with cancer.  At that point in time, Retinoblastoma was the most frightening word I had heard of.  It has now become commonplace in our house, and there are other words that filter through that frighten me more.  To say that the past six months have brought a lot of change to our family is a bit of an understatement.  I do believe that we have been through the worst of it, but I would be naive to think that there won't be any more bumps in the road.  The loss of vision in her right eye is something that we are all adjusting to, but the more serious issue is that Anya is still fighting for her life, although to look at her you would never suspect that.  The tumors remain in her eyes, and while I curse the poison that had to go into her body, I am also thankful for it.  Thankful because the chemo was killing that which is trying to kill her.  Her treatments will continue and monitoring will be essential for many years to come.  I hope with all my heart that we never have another six months that are quite so eventful.