Gentle Fire

Colin lies down on the table, head nestled in a custom head rest that still contains long strands of the hair we had to cut off a week before. I help him settle into his spot, but he knows the drill better than I do. I straighten his head and the tech puts the mask in place. He closes his eyes under the plastic mesh without complaint and she rotates clips that keep it in firmly in place during treatment. They show me how they line him up, red lines crossing to match pen marks on his skin that they redraw over small tattooed dots and lines on the chin of the mask.

Colin’s last IMRT treatment

Continue reading Gentle Fire

Survivor: Target House

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. Continue reading Survivor: Target House

Out of the Nest

Colin Mugging for the Camera at Le Bonheur
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).

Continue reading Out of the Nest

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

This Tuna’s Not Going to Japan

Many years ago (well in excess of a decade), there was a magazine article about tuna fishing and the process of selecting the premium fish caught here in the North Atlantic that would fly to Japan. Continue reading This Tuna’s Not Going to Japan