A Comment!

I received a comment today, thanks Rich. I've mentioned this blog in passing to a couple of friends but I've told no one the title or how to find it. Ronnie has something called a Care Page at Mass General. I've been directing friends and family there to keep up with his progress. I started this blog for myself as a way to vent. I checked and my profile has been visited too. If readers have found me because they are going through a similar life event, I hope I'm some help. If there are people reading this and they'd like to check up on Ronnie with more specific details, his care page is www.carepages.com/mgh and the page name is RonnieLee

Sometimes I find myself thinking the strangest things. At one point I was worrying over the fact that Ronnie will have a hard time getting life insurance later on. Ha! I truly hope that someday he has that worry. Another thing I cried about the first night after he was diagnosed was that I haven't taken enough pictures of him. I have tons of family candids but he's only had the formal "Sears Portrait Studio" type picture taken once. He still has most of his hair but he also has a shaved patch from the shunt they had to put in after surgery. Do I take him to a photographer or should I wait for it to fall out? Maybe I'll do both.

It's funny, some of the things that I think really ought to cheer me up tend to do the opposite. Someone brought me an article about the Janowers. The Janowers are friends of friends and their 6 year old daughter has a brain stem pilocytic astrocytoma, the same as Ronnie's. Her family has been instrumental in raising more that $1 million for the Brain Tumor Society. They looked at where the money was actually going and worked out a deal that at large percentage of what they raised would go directly to JPA. All impressive and good news and it should cheer me up. Certainly I plan to support Team Samantha but . . . I guess I just wish nobody had to go through this. I've said to the nurses at MGH that as much as I wish I didn't have to be there, I'd much rather be the only ones there every Wednesday. There are 7 infusion rooms in the pediatric outpatient cancer clinic. They are almost always full. I hate that.

Non brain tumor related thought of the day: I hope Peter O'Toole wins the best actor Oscar. I like Forrest Whitaker a lot and this year he might deserve it but I hope Peter O'Toole wins. It should be said that I've seen none of the movies. Usually I get to a couple but this year, well, I've seen Cars, Night at the Museum, Flushed Away, get the idea?