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 get to the (crowded and hot) zoo on Saturday morning:

And, of course, there was Easter, complete with several egg hunts and lots of cousins and much candy and enough toys from Grandma to rival Christmas.

We’ve been slowly navigating the renal diet and have had some moments of success and some of pure failure. He sure has eaten a lot of plain white bagels with a light smear of cream cheese. Thank god for red grapes and watermelon, both on the OK list. Plus I just read about the cancer-fighting properties of cherries, also low in potassium, so there’s another option. I can’t quite recall the last vegetable I saw pass his lips though.

The other night, my parents stopped by right as Austin was wailing in my arms about cheese, a wreck of tears and frustration in need of a “hunk” of muenster. The next day, my mom rightfully pointed out that if we’re prolonging the function of the kidney to enhance his quality of life, we should recognize that cheese enhances his quality of life too. We had already had that particular epiphany and had not only allowed him a hunk of cheese but also some homemade pizza, which he delightfully scarfed down.

So, there’ll be ups and downs and we’ll just do the best we can. And that’s the best we can do.