Mulling

I know, you’ve been waiting for some big revelation or major announcement after yesterday’s meeting. Well, we’re mulling, with no decision yet. Although I will tell you that both of us walked in there leaning towards stopping chemo and both of us walked out leaning towards continuing. It’s not what we want, of course. More […]

Around the Bend

Surprise, surprise, Austin needed platelets again today. But until after a lovely morning at school. He didn’t even cry when I left him, which is a rarity. It’s been a struggle to fully acclimate him to preschool since every time he gets into a groove there, he’s pulled out again for a three week “vacation.” […]

“There’s the Boy I Was Telling You About…”

First of all, yes, we are home; Mark and Austin were released by 10 o’clock this morning after several good blood pressures in a row. His nephrologist noted that the overnight hydration coincided with the spike in his BP, which makes sense because those fluids are basically saline, containing, duh, sodium! So after all that […]

A Big Cosmic Joke

This is like some big cosmic joke. Last night was fine: typical, long, with many interruptions for checking blood pressure and administering medications. In between the two bags of blood, he was given a diruetic to lower his blood pressure so he peed through his diaper (twice) and we neeeded to change the sheets at […]

And Again, Again

Three guesses where I’m spending the night … We went in this morning for labs and found that his platelets have risen, slightly. His hemoglobin was a bit lower though, so he needed both blood and platelets. It’s not unusual, you know, to need blood products when you’re receiving chemo — it does destroy blood […]

And Again

He needed platelets again yesterday. And again today. His body just can’t keep hold of them. I don’t really understand the science behind it but something about his antigens “chewing them up.” Yesterday was actually our “quick” day as it lasted only four-and-a-half hours and we were out in time to pick Braedan up from […]

Never a “Quickie”

Isn’t there a movie where some guy says in a breathy accent, “For you, dahling, never a quickie. Always a longie”? That’s sort of how my life feels and I’m not talking dirty here. I brought Braedan along for Austin’s “quick” lab work yesterday, thinking we’d be in and out in an hour and still […]

Quality of Life

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 […]

Working Mom

Oh, the hours and hours and hours that that place sucks out of my life. It is especially hard on a gorgeous spring week like this when my kids are off school and should be going on fun family outings but instead we spend day after day holed up in that damn hospital. Let’s see, […]

Savor

Alright, finally, some details. I was just too plain exhausted last night to try to explain all this but the most important piece of information is simple and good. In terms of his cancer, in terms of growth or spreading or spots or shadows, we see nothing unusual. There is “no evidence of disease” in […]