Riding for Roses

This morning we let Spencer go to school with his port accessed (a needle in his chest and a tube hanging down from it) because he really wanted to go. He also brought his Tukong uniform so he could go to martial arts class….

Today, we spent an hour with a neuropsychologist discussing Spencer’s development status, and possible long term effects of chemotherapy. As beneficial as chemotherapy is, some of it (intrathecal methotrexate being a large suspect) can have long term neurological effects….

For the next two weeks, we get to try the fun adventure of do-it-yourself chemotherapy at home. Other than the injecting cytotoxic chemicals into my own son and the constant knowledge that improper care and cleanliness could infect my son and land him in the hospital, it’s not so bad….

It started with a plan for visiting a couple of state parks. It ended getting home hours late with wet sand all over the car, a wet right shoe, and a great story about our rescue.

The Children’s Hospital of Austin Child/Life staff held a party for school-aged cancer surivors at the Texas Disposal System Exotic Game Ranch. What an awesome place for a cancer event

It’s not that we haven’t tried, but nobody in the family has been hospitalized since Jacob got out on February 28. It’s been a very busy two weeks since then and I haven’t really had the time or energy to post an update until tonight.

On the 28th, Spencer was in getting chemotherapy while I was [...]

How do you give back to your community, local, state, national, or global? General ideas and specific Austin, TX, organizations.

I am on a support group for parents of children with cancer. It is a wonderful thing. I encourage anyone who is a cancer survivor or supporting a cancer survivor to examine the services offered by Cancer Care. One of the topics that has been discussed is dealing with emotions.

I find that I am an [...]

This story is weeks old, yet I wanted to put it up anyway. Mostly, it’s just the proud parent thing, though I think there is possibly some sort of interesting lesson in it as well.

Spencer attends Master Yi’s Tukong Moosul through a program offered by the Children’s School. Tuesday and Thursday, after school he [...]