Where the ordinary and the anything-but-ordinary collide Two years ago today, I was pacing. Wandering. Killing time. Wired on I-don’t-know-how-many cups of coffee, but exhausted from “sleeping” in a hospital recliner – that didn’t stay reclined – the night before. My husband and my son were both in surgery, at the same time. Mark to […]
There is nothing natural about a baby with cancer. I think pretty much everyone would agree with that. But taking care of a baby with cancer is actually a completely natural, extraordinarily ordinary act. It is everything you do when taking care of a baby without cancer, just multiplied in both practice and reverence. You […]
Every time he gets into the car and complains of a headache, I’m pleased. When he’s out of breath after climbing a single flight of stairs, I feel relief. And when he’s too exhausted to drag himself out of bed even after 14 hours of sleep, I think, “Oh, good.” No, I’m not an evil […]
You know what they say about those, right? During Austin’s second bout with cancer, when he was 3 1/2, we were told that his kidney would probably last until he hit puberty when a growth spurt and added muscle mass would put it into overdrive, causing it to eventually peter out. At the time, we […]
In the eleven and a half years that Mark and I have been parents, we’ve heard the words “Your child has cancer” on three separate occasions. And each time, it stunned us and terrified us and brought us to our knees. But every day we know that we’re the lucky ones because we’ve never had […]
Some of you may have seen this yesterday when I posted it on Facebook, but it’s worth a click to enlarge: It provides us all with some fairly good reasoning for why we need to fund pediatric cancer research. Not that many of us actually needed that reasoning, but there it is. But you know […]
Mark said that it took him about ten days before the bad news about Austin really sunk in and he could fully grasp the possibility of what lay ahead. Now it’s taken him another ten days for the good news about Austin to truly sink in so he can fully grasp the possibilities that lie […]
Austin had an appointment with his nephrologist today. That’s the kidney doctor for those of you not in the know. While we don’t have any official results from his labs yet, she did say that his estimated GFR is now about 60. If you remember back to last spring when we were trying to decide […]
I’ve just finished reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, an author whose books I’ve been disappointed by in the past. Not this one. It’s been out for years now and I was actually encouraged to read it by friends before Austin was even born. Then my mom read it following Austin’s first round of […]
Did I really say that I don’t mind washing the sheets every other day? Okay, fine, I take that one back. And another thing (this one positive): Austin’s doc said we can ease up on the dietary restrictions, which is obviously great news. Especially since we’ve already been easing up on the dietary restrictions. Now […]