Colin Loves Tractors » Physical Therapy

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 [...]

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 [...]

Sword of Damocles

Mom — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:55:14 +0000

Colin is always full of surprises and has continued to not disappoint us. It would be funny if it weren’t so worrisome, with Friday bringing the need for another burst of medical education.

Friday, Colin had his two week post-op MRI to determine the disposition of residual tumor. As we all had suspected, there is a [...]

Out of the Nest

Mom — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:20:12 +0000

Colin Mugging for the Camera at Le Bonheur (Post-Ops)

Our little fledgling has returned to Target House for good, following his last inpatient stay at St. Jude (barring unexpected events, of course).

While we will spend every week day at St. Jude, our trips to the second floor will be restricted to social calls. This milestone [...]

I’m In!

Mom — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:40:38 +0000

The news of the impending loss of Colin’s port was sobering, but we put it behind us as we launched into the holiday weekend.

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Even at St. Jude, things slow down over three-day weekends, and during this period we only had one appointment, a lab check on Sunday to see [...]

The Best Laid Plans…

Mom — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:12:59 +0000

With surgery set for Wednesday, Monday was a big prep day for Colin, but he demonstrated yet again that our careful planning can be rendered irrelevant by the result of a single blood culture. In short, Colin does not head to Le Bonheur for surgery, not yet at least. As it stands, his surgery has [...]

One-Upmanship

Mom — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:53:49 +0000

After Thursday’s flood of good news, it seemed impossible that the trend would continue.

However, Colin wasn’t having any of that. Friday’s first big event was the transesophogeal echocardiogram, which was quick but required sedation.

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Colin tries to do some damage on yogurt.

Dr. Joshi #1 (the cardiologist) came to [...]

Trick or Treat

Mom — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:41:19 +0000

The children of St. Jude are now asleep, comatose in the aftermath of an orgy of candy consumption. Halloween is the biggest holiday here, bigger than Christmas (when the doctors presumably arrange for many of the patients to return home). This year’s celebration was toned down, presumably from infectious disease concerns; inpatients and outpatients were [...]

GTA: Memphis

Mom — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:21:55 +0000

The big news is that Colin is set to discharge on Tuesday morning. We all (doctors included) feel this is important for the whole family because, once Colin goes back inpatient for chemo on Friday night, he will likely stay for at least 10 days if not more.

The better Colin feels, the more obvious it [...]

Putting the “P” in PT

Mom — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:03:49 +0000

Colin’s trip back to the hospital has been longer than we had hoped, though not for dramatic reasons. First off, his ANC has not yet bounced back. His ANC was zero on Sunday and Monday, then 100 on Tuesday and Wednesday, not enough of a gain to buy him a ticket out of here. Also, [...]