Med center visit update - Oct 31

I truly have not intended to let it all go to neglect, but life the past few days just snowballed and I am finally getting to update.  Thank you for covering our backs in prayer and checking in with us even when I don’t have it together, not that I really ever do, just might occasionally look like I do.

We ventured back into the med center yesterday.  I suppose I could call it uneventful, but it’s always just crazy stressful between traffic and the infernal wait.  I could just count my blessings that we weren’t in the line of folk that were sitting in the transfusion room waiting on chemo or blood that was running hours behind.  We were privileged.  We could be prodded for blood, see the doctors and leave.

Overall, Asa is good and we are on a forward moving path.  The results of his AFP, cancer blood marker, were up a tiny bit yesterday from 10 to 15, but not a concerning jump.  As his liver grows and things adjust, this is very possible.  He weighed in at a whopping 25 ½ pounds and for those of you who have been along for the entire long ride, you know this is a huge move toward full return to normalcy.  It was a very sweet thing to see the doctors so genuinely thrilled and grinning ear to ear at Asa’s progress.  My heart often hurts for them, as I know they are so often the bearers of bad news.  I know the names and faces and parents of so many who’ve not won the race in the here and now.  I can’t imagine being their doc week in and out.  Dr. Heczey was telling us how he was using Asa’s case this week to encourage another mother that kids to come the other side of the really hard stuff.  I wish I could give her a hug.  I’m sure victory tastes sweet for not only us.

Fruit Salad! Yummy! Yummy! - October 28

Hair, Selfies, and Prayer - October 21

Andy came home last weekend from college and took one look at Asa and asked in passing, “Who gave him a buzz cut?”  At first I was very confused and had no idea what he was talking about.  “Buzz cut?”  And then, face palm, it dawned on me.  Andy hasn’t been here to see the daily miracle transition from bald to beautiful, so at first glance, he was thinking haircut, not hair growth. 

So, here is a few pic of the miracle hair growth.  We are still a bit unclear as to the color.  My personal guess is that it is a color in the range of my strawberry kids, a bit lighter than Asa’s original more auburn headful, but whether it’s a lighter blonde or brown version of either of those two choices depends upon the day and light or what color shirt he’s wearing.  Time will tell.

For those of you over 40, this is Asa's

"what you talking' about, Willis?" look.

Sticking points - October 10, 2014

Yesterday I really wrestled with what was important.  Today, too.  Every day is a juggling game.  It’s always a juggling game in this house.  How early to rise, do I dare a moment in quiet before the earth shatters downstairs or someone forgets to sort laundry or take out the dog?  What do I expose my kids to?  Do we wrestle with headlines or do we just stay put and wrestle with one another?  How do we sort all the sticky junk that just seems to ooze under the door and seep into our lives, even if we try to stay in bed, hide under the covers, shut it out.

Battle complete. Well done. - October 7, 2014

Many of you who have been along for Asa’s big, long journey, know that there are a lot of sweet people, docs, nurses, volunteers, patients, and families that we have gotten to know along the way.  You just can’t help it.   We are very sad to report that our precious friend, sweet saint, Caroline, the one that we probably reported on most, requested prayer for most, lost her battle with leukemia yesterday.  We celebrate in ways as she is free, free from the pain and torturous treatments, the ups and downs of chemo and pits of side-effects, finished forever with the days of trying to survive being a teen and living like a bubble kid, day after day of needing transfusions.  We celebrate that she was born again and is with her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoying every minute of a new and perfect body and all the freedom and joy in His presence.  How exciting!  We sorrow with her family who loved and encouraged her (and us!) so and fought so hard.  Caroline’s presence influenced so deeply all of those who met her.  She was a funny and delightful kid who just gleamed a holy content whenever you saw her, pain or not. 

Back in Hair - Oct 3, 2014

We’re back in hair around here again.  It’s part of recovery mode, the return to whatever normal might be for one’s pate. Unless you are blessed with the male pattern baldness gene, I’m not sure most of us think so much about hair or the lack thereof, until cancer, and then hair is a hot commodity. 

Redemption now? Redemption later? - Oct. 1, 2014

My box has been filled to overflowing.  I like it.  I like the warm fuzzies.  Fat babies, soft newborn skin new on mommy’s chest.  Long awaited.  Prayed for. Surprised with.  Joyed over.  And the pics of grandbabies, apologies for the obnoxiousness of dumped whole albums on social media for the world to see, but none of us perceive joy as obnoxious.  We just lament that we are not there to squeeze the warm flesh ourselves, share a bit in a grandparent’s pride.

But there’s other stuff there, hiding in my feed, lingering in my email.  A different joy.  I’ve shared some of their names in the past, but I can’t capture them with a lens like I can Asa.  Sometimes hospital protocol, privacy acts are so restrictive that you and I can’t even venture into their world unless they venture out.  But they followed us home.  Not to be insulting, but it’s sort of like a friendly mutt with mange that loves so unconditionally, that you attach to with a first love such that you can’t forget them, leave them out of your story.  So you make more space.  You think you don’t have more space because you’ve already lived and written three lifetimes of chapters of your own saga, but you do, you shove over and make room for more.