Colin Loves Tractors » Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital

No, No, No, How are You Doing?

Mom — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:31:22 +0000

Perhaps I was naively unconcerned about Colin’s latest scan. We returned to Memphis after a month at home for a battery of follow-ups, most importantly the MRI of the brain and spine. The legendary furnace of early July in Memphis intimidated us, yet those first days turned out to be [...]

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 [...]

The Sky is Falling!

Mom — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:03:24 +0000

Oh, wait. That’s just snow. Target House Elephants: Normally, this is a fountain, and through the holidays the pachyderms were adorned with white lights.

Memphis has collapsed into pandemonium over the thinnest blanket of white that lasted long enough only for extremely fleet shovelers to find anything worth clearing from sidewalks. The snow is nestled in stalks of [...]

Our GiantKid

Mom — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Today, among other things, the family went off to a Ronald McDonald House outing for GiantKids (children with cancer). The event took place at Camp Kiwi, which also happens to be close to home and provided an opportunity for Dad and Aidan to crash at home for the night.

Much of the focus of these types [...]

Bound for the Big Apple

Mom — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:31:10 +0000

Today, we made a big decision regarding Colin’s treatment: we will be taking him to New York City for surgery on Wednesday by Dr. Jeffrey Wisoff of NYU. This may be an abrupt change in plans for many who have been following Colin’s care.

We had anticipated receiving a second opinion from Dana Farber/Boston Children’s Hospital’s [...]

Headed Home

Mom — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:37:36 +0000

On Thursday, we established the planning for Colin’s return home. He received a rapid MRI today (interrupting his afternoon nap — ugh!) and an arterial blood gas test. He passed both; the ventricles are stable and the blood gas is fine. The latter test was conducted because of rapid breathing.

The pulmonologists visited today and said [...]

…And Still Planning

Mom — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:19:57 +0000

Today, we had the meeting with the surgeons and oncologist to discuss our treatment plan for Colin. It was a difficult discussion because we also went over the possible complications and likely recovery period. It is nearly certain that Colin will lose all or some of the hearing in the right ear because of the [...]

New Digs

Mom — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:52:00 +0000

The weekend was a blur, with several visitors and the excitement of a pending move “upstairs” to the regular pediatric area. Saturday morning represented Colin’s 48-hour challenge for the drain, which he passed with flying colors. His intracranial pressure remained good during that period and he received a conditional thumbs up to leave the PICU, [...]

Changes and new experiences

Mom — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:50:18 +0000

Monday was a whirlwind. The hospital environment is very strange, where it seems that nothing is happening but different practitioners constantly drop by and the next thing you know, the day is over.

We received many visits from Colin’s neurosurgery/oncology team. The first was from Dr. Mohan, who is leaving town for a week but wanted [...]

Happy Father’s Day!

Mom — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:09:55 +0000

This has turned out to be the best Father’s Day for Ian. Colin steadily became more alert and interactive throughout the day. Finally, he has become annoyed with all of the leads, IVs, and his head dressing!

Eating was an all-day event, including everything from apple sauce and pudding to fried rice, meatloaf, chicken, broccoli, corn, [...]