All along, throughout this entire cancer journey, the function of Austin’s kidney has been a guidepost for us, a signal of which way the wind is blowing. It has given us hope, it has given us something to fight for, it has at times taken on enormous (and perhaps overblown) significance as the determining factor […]
Okay. That’s my answer. That’s the post. Okay. It’s not fantastic like it was in January. And it’s definitely not horrible like the score from last Thursday. It’s okay. And that’s good enough. I’ll give you the hard numbers, so you can make some sense of this roller coaster we’re forced to ride each day. […]
No results yet from today’s test but have a timely post to share nonetheless. Parenting is full of big moments, both good and bad. Significant decisions, momentous occasions, important milestones. But sometimes it is the little moments, those small joys of parenting, that mean the most. Snuggling in a thunderstorm, like we did last night, […]
I know that this stuff can be confusing. And of course scary. And sometimes being scary makes it more confusing or being confusing makes it more scary, so let me give you a little more information. This test, the GFR (glomerular filtration rate, words you can quickly forget) or nuclear scan, is one of the […]
After last week’s emotional high, we’ve begun that speedy descent downward. Well, no, that’s not true, we haven’t begun it yet. It’s more like we’re perched at the top of the roller coaster, having slowly crept up with the creak creak creak of the wheels and are now poised at the top, awaiting the plunge. […]
Well. Wow. What a day. I’m not usually at a loss for words (and I’ll somehow manage to find a few now), but that was just a really great day. Started off with me and Austin eagerly waiting through 50 painful minutes of the morning fluff on Fox 8 (my deep apologies to anyone else […]
A huge thank you to everyone who donated so generously on Breadan’s head and a huge bravo to my big boy who sat bravely sat in that chair and had his hair shaved off “to be like” his little brother. Despite the cold gray rain, today was a lovely day for the Gallagher family. In […]
Tuesday is Early Day. Braedan gets let out of school a full hour earlier on Tuesdays than any other day of the week, as that time is designated for teacher collaboration and professional development. This small fact was the driving force behind everything I did today and even back into last night. The surgery went […]
I was all set to post an update telling you how smoothly everything has gone. What a happy little ball of energy Austin has been for the past two days: racing up and down the hallways, flinging Play-doh balls around the room, flirting with the nurses. I was all set to tell you how we’d […]
Things continue to be mostly fine. Except (come on, must there always be an “except”?) that Austin has had small amounts of blood in his urine for the past few days. This is not unusual with one of his chemo drugs, which is why they pump him full of fluids in the first place. But […]