In September 2003, Mark and I went to Boothbay Harbor, Maine for the wedding of his best Peace Corps buddy. I happened to be both six months pregnant with Braedan and one week shy of losing my beloved grandmother, so I was, to say the least, a little emotional. We were tooling around the town […]
. . . home! Did I really complain two days ago about how tough this little guy has had to become? Well, today I am ever so thankful for that toughness because he is recovering beautifully and they released us this morning. So much for ten days! Austin’s napping in his own bed, I’m about to go […]
Ah, somehow this boy keeps surprising us all. And this time with good news. The lymph nodes came back clear, negative for cancer, which is the best possible outcome we could have received. The tumor that we originally went in for was Wilms’, but it looked similar to typical Wilms’ tumors after they’ve been treated with chemotherapy. […]
No official news yet. We are meeting with Jeff at 5 o’clock since he’s working in the PICU today, and I am getting increasingly nervous. I’d been feeling pretty good, mostly because Austin wowed us by taking a few steps and eating a plate of mac and cheese! Did I mention how tough he is? […]
First of all, many of you (with the possible exception of my mother, who believes that a run is always the right answer) will be pleased to know that I took a nap yesterday afternoon and saved my run for this morning, when the snow was only on the ground and not blowing recklessly through […]
Well, the surgery was considered a success. He’s recovering just fine, right now lying in Daddy’s arms asleep to the sounds of the Indians season opener in the background. No PICU, just a nice big room on our regular floor. His kidney looks fine and does not seem to be involved in this recurrence, which is good. […]
Last night as we were leaving Braedan at my parents’ house and were all standing around hugging and saying long goodbyes, my dad and I hit upon the realization that today could be the day that we finally rid Austin of his cancer. Today is our day.
Here we go again. We’re packing our bags, bringing Austin’s comfy pillows (which are so much better than the plasticky, flat ones the hospital uses) and all his lovies, who he refers to as “my guys.” His guys include, among other assorted stuffed animals, Cookie Monster (“Cookie Mah-mer”) and Koala (“Kah-wa-wa”). This time we also have the single-cup […]
You know, as a person who likes words, I am a little disappointed with the word “relieved.” There is no superlative form, nothing to make simple relief that much greater. Happy can turn to ecstatic, angry to enraged, hungry to famished. But relieved just becomes very very relieved. So that’s what we are right now, good […]
First things first, the chest CT came back negative, which is positive. One sigh of relief. Also, we’ve scheduled our meeting with Dr Auletta (aka Jeff) for tomorrow afternoon, after which we should have at least the beginnings of a plan in place. As for now, the boys are thoroughly enjoying themselves. Yesterday, my parents […]