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 […]

Unofficial

We’re still waiting for the official results, but a few hours ago I did get this text from Austin’s oncologist: “So far, so good. I’ll call later with the final results.” So, there you have it. Now you know as much as we know. And you can feel as relieved as we feel.

Tomorrow

In the Time-Never-Slows-Down category, Austin has an MRI of his abdomen and CT scan of his chest tomorrow to check for signs of cancer. These are his “end-of-treatment” scans which might be a serious misnomer. Or might not. We’re only officially scheduled for one more three-day round of chemo, which will bring us successfully (or […]

The Arc

Austin is not in renal failure. No, that’s not some miraculous reversal of the past few days’ news; I just wanted to make sure you all understood that it hasn’t happened yet. All of this action we’re taking is designed to prolong the life of that remaining half-kidney as far into his future as possible. […]

With This Too

I’m still mad. Now I’m mad at food labeling laws for not requiring measurements of potassium and phosphorous on packages. Oh, and I’m mad because the “Foods to Enjoy” sheet lists apple juice right alongside cranberry juice and yet the cran-apple I bought claims it has 15 milligrams of potassium (super) while the apple juice […]

The Dreaded Diet

Every time we are faced with a new obstacle, I feel overwhelmed and pissed off and sad and convinced that this one is it, this is the one that will bring us down, that will change who we are, who he is. And every time I’ve been proved wrong. Every time we’ve ended up okay. […]