Colin Loves Tractors » Local Color

Parallels and Contrasts

Mom — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:32:40 +0000

It is all too easy to feed off of birthdays, anniversaries, and other meaningful demarcations of time. How long since, how long until? In the x days since returning home, we have done y activities and Colin has achieved z milestones, giving us something to plot and chart in three dimensions.

In Memphis, I had imagined [...]

Homecoming

Mom — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:34:39 +0000

On Wednesday, May 25, Colin boarded a plane in Memphis and finally made his way home. As I announced the impending plans around the hospital, I was greeted with well earned superstition from every quarter. Notably, on Tuesday, Dr. Gajjar asked what time his flight was the next day. “Three-fifteen,” I responded.

“Over 24 hours,” he [...]

Survivor: Target House

Mom — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:10:43 +0000

There is no immunity challenge, and Jeff Probst doesn’t sit us around a campfire to discuss who is next to go, but living here is beginning to feel like a warped version of the Survivor reality show. So many families that were planning to leave after us are by now long gone.

The Simkins, who have [...]

Happy Mother’s Day

Mom — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:51:57 +0000

Mother’s Day is billed as an opportunity for fathers and children to express their gratitude for the other 364 days a year that mothers devote to their families. However, I see it as yet another day to appreciate the two beautiful children that I have had the privilege of taking care of and getting to [...]

Winding Down*

Mom — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:53:06 +0000

Our family’s time at St. Jude is drawing to a close. On Friday, April 16, Colin had his last MRI before he goes home. The suspected tumor, as we hoped/anticipated, remains stable, and the spinal scans are still clear. Furthermore, the blood clot has resolved significantly, with some pieces remaining and very good blood flow [...]

Operation Radiation

Mom — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:45:57 +0000

Colin’s final radiation treatments found us at Methodist Central, an adult hospital not far from St. Jude in midtown Memphis. The final dose of radiation was delivered on Saturday morning, when a normal child of his age is watching cartoons. We are in the home stretch of our time here in Memphis and the more [...]

Reset Button

Mom — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:43:52 +0000

Colin’s second week of radiation was grueling: vomiting, utter fatigue, dangerous aspiration and an unexpected stay in the hospital. The third week (days 9 – 13) was a completely different story. After going back inpatient at St. Jude, Colin slept for two days straight, waking on Friday morning at 4 am to let me know [...]

Ode to Lady Liberty

Mom — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:31:34 +0000

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled [brain tissue] yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my [high-energy photon] lamp beside the golden door!”

On Wednesday, February 24, Colin had his first radiation treatment. We had originally expected therapy to begin a week sooner, but the complexity of [...]

Home Sweet St. Jude

Mom — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:44:36 +0000

Life doesn’t offer real do-overs, but there are times when an experience follows the parallel track of something that has come before. Returning to St. Jude after less than a week at Le Bonheur, I had the feeling that I was given the opportunity to completely repeat the past but improved in every way.

Rewind

When we [...]

The Jury Foreman Speaks

Mom — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:35:50 +0000

When juries wrap up quickly with a verdict, it can be a good sign or a bad sign, but it usually means that they have found the suspect not guilty. In this case, the jury adjourned hours earlier than expected to report that our little suspect is not guilty of having visible tumor.

At the time [...]