Back to the hospital today, for the next round of chemo. My little guy was zipping about the halls on his tricycle all afternoon, a sight completely incongruous with his balding head and IV line. But typical Austin, nonetheless. This week includes the third of his three new drugs, one we’ve never had before that’s […]
The death of your child follows you everywhere you go, hovering in your blindspot. That’s how Lorrie Moore describes parenting a child with cancer in People Like That Are The Only People Here. In your blindspot: just out of reach, never in focus, but you know it’s there. So you move along, heading for that […]
than before.” That was the subject line of the email I received this morning from Austin’s doctor containing the results of yesterday’s kidney function test. Even better than before. Three weeks ago, his kidney function was on the low end of normal, which was only surprising because it was still within “normal” range at all. […]
Another thing to check off the list, another accomplishment made, another fear overcome. Austin had his last radiation treatment today and, just like that, one big thing’s done. Radiation had seemed so scary to me; I’d imagined his skin burning or, at the very least, itching in the spot where it was zapped. This is […]
There is so much sadness in this journey. It’s not always at the forefront, simply because you have to keep going and behave normally throughout the day, but it’s there, right under the surface and when that surface gets scratched, it comes quickly to the top. I went to a wake last night (something I […]
I know this whole Mediport business can be confusing for those of you not so experienced in the world of cancer so I have some visual aids courtesy of my far-from-modest (and sometimes sedated) little guy. This first picture is from November 2007 of Austin with his Broviac line, which always dangled down like that […]
It was a good thing we squeezed in those two normal days, sandwiched as they were between much longer hospital visits. Yesterday, he had clinic after radiation, which isn’t bad except that there is so much waiting involved. Waiting for lab work to return, waiting for doctors to be paged, waiting for decisions to be […]
We’ve had two very regular, average, normal days in a row. Radiation has gone smoothly (audible sigh) and Austin has even put in two appearances at school. Yesterday, he was all excited about it at the hospital, naming his classmates for the curious doctor and eagerly guessing what they’d do for an art project. Then, […]
Today was the first Monday of the new year … and boy, did it feel like it. I did manage to wake up on time (actually, I woke up every other hour to check the clock), but found many inches of snow burying my car. We made it to the hospital (unlike many doctors who […]
We returned home bright and early yesterday morning and things have been remarkably normal. So normal in fact, that I find myself wondering if it was really chemo that came in those double-wrapped “Danger” packages that have to be checked by two nurses against Austin’s hospital name band (which he’s never ever wearing and, if […]