They are not one-dimensional, these boys. Braedan is not all blue to Austin’s all red. They each have varied, and sometimes contradictory, personalities. Braedan, the “sensitive” one, is not at all shy. No, ask any teacher he’s had over the years, this boy is not quiet and not shy. He’ll talk your ear off, in […]
We are ever-so-slowly making our way through the boxes and putting together one room at a time (or in my case, putting together a tiny corner of one room and then one tiny corner of another, as every time I wander away looking for a screwdriver or curtain rod, I end up getting sucked into […]
I know why Austin enjoys the hospital so much. He has my complete attention when we’re there. All the usual distractions are erased: laundry to fold, computer to check, big brother to care for. Nope, when we’re there, even just for our twice-weekly clinic visits, I have nothing but occasional phone-surfing to draw me away […]
You should’ve seen me trying to put Austin down to sleep last night while he kept insisting, “We are NOT sleeping at the hospital!” It was after ten when he finally conked out only to be roused a few hours later and whisked off into the cold dark night. But he happily watched the empty […]
The past day and a half have been a little better. Austin learned (through some trial and error) that flying into a rage wouldn’t prevent him from being re-hooked to his pole, so he makes the most of his few minutes of freedom and then begrudgingly allows his nurse to screw that IV tube back […]
Did I mention that this is exhausting? Austin has been extremely feisty today and feisty is a bit of a euphemism. He is full of anger and bluster at being “hooked up” to his IV and insists over and over at the highest volumes that we unhook him. Last night, when he’d finished his chemo […]
I always feel the need to put you all at ease right away and start my postings with “All is well,” particularly after a day or two with no update. So, yes, all is well. We checked into the hospital yesterday morning after confirming that Austin’s platelet count had tripled and settled in for our […]
All is fine. The waiting was ridiculous, indeed the hardest part, trust me. But all is well. The radiologist and oncologist noticed some spots on Austin’s kidney on yesterday’s ultrasound that weren’t present on the previous one and wanted to check with the surgeon to make sure they were expected post-operative marks and not a […]
No final results from the ultrasound yet. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Our oncologist wants to review “post-operative changes” with the surgeon. Of course, this kind of vague waiting makes me nervous, but if I step back and think of it from an objective perspective, I know that what remains of Austin’s kidney does […]
One little thing I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post is that Austin has an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow morning. This is the first time we’ve actually looked at his kidney since December 7, when we confirmed that the tumor was, well, indeed a tumor and, in fact, a growing tumor. There’s no specific reason that […]