Colin Loves Tractors » St. Jude

Summer Kick-Started with a Scan

Mom — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:47:21 +0000

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. I packed instead for the climate-controlled stasis of the hospital and the expectation that our days would devolve into a mad dash of [...]

Full Circle

Mom — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 07:20:29 +0000

Colin returned home, nearly a year from the completion of radiation and two months short of his fourth birthday, with a good scan and no trach. Well, we have plenty of trachs, but none actually inserted in him. Anticipation of the possibility that Colin would come home without that annoying, formerly life saving appliance swept [...]

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 [...]

Survivor: Target House

Mom — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:10:43 +0000

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. So many families that were planning to leave after us are by now long gone.

The Simkins, who have [...]

Happy Mother’s Day

Mom — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:51:57 +0000

Mother’s Day is billed as an opportunity for fathers and children to express their gratitude for the other 364 days a year that mothers devote to their families. However, I see it as yet another day to appreciate the two beautiful children that I have had the privilege of taking care of and getting to [...]

Winding Down*

Mom — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:53:06 +0000

Our family’s time at St. Jude is drawing to a close. On Friday, April 16, Colin had his last MRI before he goes home. The suspected tumor, as we hoped/anticipated, remains stable, and the spinal scans are still clear. Furthermore, the blood clot has resolved significantly, with some pieces remaining and very good blood flow [...]

Operation Radiation

Mom — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:45:57 +0000

Colin’s final radiation treatments found us at Methodist Central, an adult hospital not far from St. Jude in midtown Memphis. The final dose of radiation was delivered on Saturday morning, when a normal child of his age is watching cartoons. We are in the home stretch of our time here in Memphis and the more [...]

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 [...]

Ode to Lady Liberty

Mom — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:31:34 +0000

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled [brain tissue] yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my [high-energy photon] lamp beside the golden door!”

On Wednesday, February 24, Colin had his first radiation treatment. We had originally expected therapy to begin a week sooner, but the complexity of [...]

Predator vs. Alien

Mom — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:08:38 +0000

Since finding out about Colin’s blood clot, we have settled into a normal non-medically intense lifestyle punctuated by the possibility of crisis. On Superbowl Sunday, Colin became inexplicably agitated and then very spaced out, eyes unfocused and suddenly falling asleep sitting up. The pseudomeningocele on the back of his head had become an even larger, [...]