Colin Loves Tractors » neurological effects

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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 [...]

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 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 [...]

Marathon, Not a Sprint

Mom — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:25:03 +0000

We and others have often commented that cancer treatment is a marathon, not a sprint. Today, the literal marathon supporting St. Jude took place, including a half-marathon and the 5K that I participated in. The connection between treatment and the marathon is more than casual, something that we observed and felt first hand through the course [...]

Chemoed Out

Mom — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:35:38 +0000

Colin is officially chemoed out. After blazing through Tuesday’s drugs, he sagged on Wednesday, and the latter half of the day through early Thursday he spent either sleeping or very green around the gills.

Despite talk of a possible discharge, Colin’s queasiness made that impossible, though we are still entertaining the idea for Friday. We welcome [...]

The Little Engine

Mom — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:15:55 +0000

Colin has made some big leaps ahead, and we can now really see the strength of his determination. He vehemently resists activities and treatments that he does not like and resents being subjected to uncomfortable procedures.

Unfortunately, we had to put him through two of those today. The first was the upper GI study, essentially a [...]

Our Colin of the Contradictions

Mom — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:22:56 +0000

On Sunday night, Colin spiked a fever and the team immediately started him on antibiotics that they were poised to deliver. His morning bloodwork showed that his Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) had dropped to zero, an abrupt change from several days before, when it had been at 3,400.

Also, Colin’s hemoglobin level (7.6) showed that he [...]

Levy Butt Paste

Mom — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:44:38 +0000

The weekend has been eventful in many ways, and Colin now hovers at the brink of the next step in his treatment, installation of the shunt and replacement mediport. Medically, he is stable yet not trouble free. The most pressing issues are terrible diaper rash from continued diarrhea and fluid/chemical imbalances.

The diaper rash is the [...]

Signs and Omens

Mom — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:52:34 +0000

The unlayering of knowledge and understanding that comes with the process of an unfolding medical situation is distressing, frustrating and immutable. The challenge presented itself from the first moment when Dr. Michelin in the Danbury Hospital emergency room said, “it’s not good news.” A second instance was when Dr. Wisoff revealed that the tumor had [...]

GRRRRR = Colin’s Tummy

Mom — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:51:14 +0000

Yesterday, Colin was extubated successfully. One of the sedatives caused him to generate a lot of secretions, so his breathing sounded very juicy and uncomfortable. He moved his legs constantly and didn’t seem to settle. It was disconcerting to watch but the doctors were unable to give him anything stronger than Tylenol for fear of [...]