Another step in the ever-winding road

Back from another great weekend at the lake and gearing up for a busy week ahead.  This afternoon, Justin has another appointment at Cancer Care.  After last week's mishap, the doctor decided that even though Justin's neutrophil counts were good on Friday he wanted him to keep taking the GCSF shots until after the weekend.  The hope is that we will be told today to stop them.  Apparently while these shots boost the neutrophil counts, they can cause the hemoglobin and platelets to drop.  Hopefully, he won't need any transfusions and we can begin chemo on Friday without incident.  We also found out on Friday that Justin will be having a CT scan on Thursday morning.  There is no plan to do anything about it at this point, I guess it's just a marker to see how the tumor is reacting after two courses of chemotherapy.  The plan is after six courses, they decide to either try surgically removing what they safely can or radiate at that point.  He would then undergo his remaining 8 or so courses of chemo afterward.  We are going into the third course of chemo on Friday.

Time Marches On

In the midst of all this chaos that has taken over our lives, we will stop and take some time to celebrate because this week Justin and Ryan turn 13!  On August 8th, I will officially have a house full of teenagers.  I'm not too sure how I feel about that!  The twins are going into their final year of middle years and Brennan is done high school and working at a job that is starting his 'grown up' career! Where has the time gone?  I remember the days when the twins were still in cribs, sharing a room.  I would walk into the room after their nap to find them babbling to each other with smiles on their faces or passing toys between cribs.  And years later, when they had bunk beds, telling them to be quiet and go to sleep because they would talk late into the night. They were best buds.  Now, with their own rooms and teenage temperaments, things are so different.  The brotherly bond is still there when push comes to shove, but they are struggling to pull away from their combined 'twin identity' and forge ones of their own.  They have always been so very different, but these differences are truly becoming more evident the older they get. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, but it's hard for a mother to see her little boys growing up and 'apart'.  They have always been the twins; a set, a unit.  I guess it's my fault for putting them in that box.  Now they want out of it.  So, I will let them.  Be your own man, because that's what you are becoming.  Young men.  Going through things that require so much strength and maturity because that's what life has thrown at you.  At all of us.  Be the men that I know you can be. But just know that you'll always be my little boys. ♥