As we near the one year mark since the end of Austin’s cancer treatment, he has a series of appointments, scans and lab work scheduled. Today was a visit with his kidney doctor, our first exclusively with her since early last summer. All in all, he’s doing very well and is perfectly positioned in the […]
May seems an awful long ways away right now, as I look out at this winter wonderland, layer upon layer of snow and ice covering every visible surface. But May is the next time we’re scheduled to go to the hospital. Three months away! Everything yesterday was fine. His chest CT was clear and the […]
Yesterday went mostly well. “Mostly” because there’s never been a time we’ve had scans when the response is simply, “Perfect, great, everything’s just ducky. Go on your way now, you healthy normal people.” No, not quite that. First, he had the follow-up with the radiation oncologist which was fine (a lot like what I said […]
Interestingly, Austin’s creatinine (one of the key kidney numbers we wait for each week when we get his labs done) has been slowly going down. Which is good. It means that his kidney function is, if not returning to normal, at least improving. Of course, for us, this makes any future decision even more difficult. […]
It’s not all fireworks and ice cream cones around here, you know. Austin’s health, current and future, continues to be paramount in our minds and in our lives. At his appointment last week, his oncologist said that as long as his renal numbers remain fairly steady, we could go two weeks before our next visit. […]
People keep telling me to go with my gut but all day long my gut’s been telling me to stop and then tonight, it switched over and said continue. Here’s some more info, in response to some of your questions and comments (thank you for those) and to help me further flesh this thing out: […]
Austin’s GFR results were 34. Right … no typo there: 34. Almost as bad as the result last month that necessitated a retest. And not nearly the still-not-fabulous-but-definitely-acceptable 66. Here’s what this means in the world of kidneys: He can still get this next chemo, which is scheduled to start on Thursday, but it needs […]
We’ve been hanging in there. Despite all my complaining about last week’s wasted hours, we still managed to squeeze in some fun. Monday afternoon, the boys and I went to the Natural History Museum to check out those dinosaur bones and admire the otters’ swimming abilities. And, after all that delay, we also managed to […]
Austin is not in renal failure. No, that’s not some miraculous reversal of the past few days’ news; I just wanted to make sure you all understood that it hasn’t happened yet. All of this action we’re taking is designed to prolong the life of that remaining half-kidney as far into his future as possible. […]
I’m still mad. Now I’m mad at food labeling laws for not requiring measurements of potassium and phosphorous on packages. Oh, and I’m mad because the “Foods to Enjoy” sheet lists apple juice right alongside cranberry juice and yet the cran-apple I bought claims it has 15 milligrams of potassium (super) while the apple juice […]