Colin Loves Tractors

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 [...]

Homecoming

Mom — Sun, 30 May 2010 03:34:39 +0000

On Wednesday, May 25, Colin boarded a plane in Memphis and finally made his way home. As I announced the impending plans around the hospital, I was greeted with well earned superstition from every quarter. Notably, on Tuesday, Dr. Gajjar asked what time his flight was the next day. “Three-fifteen,” I responded.

“Over 24 hours,” he [...]

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 [...]

Site Maintenance Issues

Mom — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:42:56 +0000

If you get a “page not found” message when you try to view an individual post and you have signed up previously, this probably means that you aren’t logged in when you try to access the site. If you need any of your log in information, let me know.

We have been attempting to make changes to improve registration/password maintenance and recovery. However, instead we have broken the site. Oops. Also, we switched privacy protection, so the front page ends up looking quite different. Also, the contact form seems not to be working. I think all of these issues may be related, but I haven’t ferreted out the root cause.

If there is anybody out there who knows WordPress well and would like to help, please let me know (tamiko@colinlovestractors.com).

Here are some pictures of Colin to distract you from our utter failure at webmastery.

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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, [...]