First, I offer apologies for the unintentionally long silence. (From a technical standpoint, if anybody visited the site in the last few weeks and got a malware alert, Google was correct and I have fixed the website, so it is currently safe.) The very short synopsis is that Colin is doing great and his last trip to St. Jude in August went well. However, so much time has passed that we are literally back in Memphis and Colin is in his MRI, so this seems like the ultimate deadline to update for eight months of excitement and change. In Colin’s world, that is a lot of time. Continue reading Fast Forward
Category: Speech Therapy
Counting the Years
After the absentee winter thawed into spring, Colin returned to Memphis for his four-month check-up. This visit marked two years from the end of radiation and a juncture I hadn’t dared contemplate when we were still at St. Jude. We are also nearing his fifth birthday, simultaneously the third anniversary of his diagnosis. These milestones have snuck up on us, with the pleasantly mundane realities of daily life overshadowing the gravitas that cancer tends to impose. Continue reading Counting the Years
Summer Kick-Started with a Scan
Even on the cusp of summer, Memphis is unforgivingly hot, but the weather is nearly irrelevant when you’re back for check-ups at St. Jude, which we were at the end of June. Continue reading Summer Kick-Started with a Scan
True North
Colin is in remission, and it now seems easier to utter the words aloud. His scan from January was still “stable,” with Dr. Gajjar now asserting that the sliver of “whatever” that cradles Colin’s brain stem is scar tissue. Continue reading True North
Finding the Narrow Path
Life is normal, or at least a simulacrum of normalcy that is close enough to count. Continue reading Finding the Narrow Path
Put Me in, Coach
As Colin’s trajectory moves unevenly but steadily upward, we have also been taking him out into the world to finally do what he could not a year ago. Continue reading Put Me in, Coach
Reset Button
Colin’s second week of radiation was grueling: vomiting, utter fatigue, dangerous aspiration and an unexpected stay in the hospital. Continue reading Reset Button
Out of the Nest
Our little fledgling has returned to Target House for good, following his last inpatient stay at St. Jude (barring unexpected events, of course).
Home Sweet St. Jude
Life doesn’t offer real do-overs, but there are times when an experience follows the parallel track of something that has come before. Continue reading Home Sweet St. Jude
I’m In!
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.
[imagebrowser id=14]