Today was spent in full celebration mode as Austin has made it yet another year and is now a big strong four-year old. I parent-helped at school this morning, armed with pirate cookies. Then we had a picnic in our backyard and went for a run before picking Braedan up from his after-school tennis class. […]
Braedan handled Austin’s first bout with cancer beautifully. He made it through the entire thing unscathed, as if it was just another thing you deal with when you have a little brother. He was remarkably happy, well-adjusted and trusting. The second time? Not so much. I’ve been hesitant to write about this because I felt […]
We are indeed home. There were no additional delays yesterday, despite a worrisome IV line that required some tiresome arm positioning, but the transfusion was finished by ten past one. I woke up my sleeping boy, who roused himself long enough to scream bloody murder in my arms as said IV was finally removed, spurting […]
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Now that the hand has (mostly) healed and the kidney is (mostly) bouncing back, we’ve allowed ourselves to fully embrace our normal lives. We’ve allowed ourselves to believe that we lead normal lives. But we don’t. When Austin had all his scans two weeks ago, his hemoglobin was […]
Pediatric Surgery, known to we hospital insiders as “Peed Surge,” a place I’ve visited far too many times over the past three years … is somehow where we ended up yesterday. No, there is not another freak accident to report, just a freaky sort of day, where everything seemed upside down and backwards and I […]
There were a lot of other doctors’ appointments that took place on Thursday and Friday … or didn’t take place. The vein mapping for placement of a dialysis catheter was postponed. It had been double booked with the chest CT, which obviously took precedence especially due to the concern with the liver. The vein mapping, […]
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 […]
Well, a few stitches can’t slow this boy down. Aside from missing his last week of swim lessons (which he did not complain about), he’s doing everything normally: running, playing, climbing. Here he is at Horseshoe Lake Park a few days ago climbing higher on the rope structure than he ever has before. The boys […]
Austin’s appointment this afternoon with the orthopedic surgeon went well. We soaked his hand in sterile water and peroxide until we could peel the bandages off and the doctor was quite pleased with how it looked. He could tell right away from the way Austin was holding his fingers that there was no nerve damage […]
You’re not really gonna believe this one. Back in the winter, during those long dark days spent cooped up in the hospital, Austin announced that when his PICC line was removed he wanted to go to Kalahari. No, not Africa; the “world’s largest indoor water park” located about an hour west of us. We’ve been […]