savageinfidel

I was listening to the radio on the way home from my office the other day and heard the story of Dax Locke, a 13 month-old child diagnosed with terminal Leukemia. Since it was unlikely he'd make it to Christmas (it was in early autumn), his family started putting up the tree and the lights. Then the neighbors followed suit, and then the whole town. For obvious reasons, it stuck with me. So, I tracked it down and found this YouTube video by Matthew West. Caution - it will most likely bring tears to your eyes, so be warned. And if you're looking for a place to contribute to, this would be a good one. So open your checkbooks and spread a little cheer.

A serious and sad note today - Mark Bertus (a finance prof at Auburn University) passed away early this morning at the age of 38 after a long battle with cancer. He leaves behind a wife and three children, and is now pain free and in the presense of Joy Himself Those of you who knew him can read the story of his last couple of years as chronicled by his wife Rhonda at their blog . I was fortunate to have known Mark these last few years. He was fun to hang around with at conferences, always quick with a laugh and a wisecrack (upon hearing that the Unknown Wife was pregnant, he immediately said "Congratulations - who's the father?"), and absolutely in love with his wife and kids. He was also an amazing teacher - just read a few of the comments at their blog, and you'll quickly get a sense as to how much his students loved him. For those who knew him, here's some info from the blog: The funeral will be held 10 a.m. this Friday morning at St. Michaels Catholic Ch...

Since Unknown University starts (and ends) their fall semester a bit late, I'm just putting the finishing touches on my grades - two classes down and one (the smallest, luckily) to go. It's been a tough semester - three preps (for the non academics among you, a prep is a unique class - so three preps means I taught three different classes), and one was a brand new one (Fixed Income) for me. I took it because the senior faculty who regularly teaches it took a sabbatical, and it's required of all our students. The new prep took far more time than I'd thought, so I didn't get as much research done as I'd hoped. The winter break will be dedicated first to getting two papers completed and submitted to journals. I let things slide a bit these last few years due to the Unknown Son's illness, so I'm glad to be finally working on things that have the potential to go to decent journals - these two will likely be sent to Financial Management and Journal of Ban...

I just did the a bikeathon for The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp . Today would have been Jonathan's 11 th birthday, so being able to do a fundraiser for the camp had special meaning. I had initially planned on riding the 60-mile course, but they canceled that ride due to inclement weather(it was raining heavily, and riding for 4 hours soaking wet and doing 15-20 mph could lead to hypothermia). So, I did the 30 miler instead. It started with a 3 mile, 6% downgrade in the pouring rain. By the bottom of the hill, my feet were soaked, my butt was frozen from the water thrown off by the rear tire, and my glasses were completely covered with water. Since it wandered through Northeast Connecticut, the course was extremely hilly (close to 10 hills of over a quarter mile and greater than 5% grade), and rained most of the way. Since they mismeasured the course, it turned out to be more like 38 miles than 30. Still, it was a blast. I'm actually glad they cancelled the 60 miler. ...

At 1:55 this morning, the Unknown Son (his name is Jonathan, by the way) eased away and stopped breathing. Our son has finally let loose the bonds of earth and gone home. No more suffering, no more limitations, and no more cancer. He now rests in the lap of the Father with his cousins Jacob and Jennifer. And that's NOT a figure of speech - it's a description. It's been a tough time - 2,439 days since his diagnosis on 10/1/2002. After gallons of chemotherapy, multiple surgeries, and visits to six hospitals, our son is finally free. After years of pain and limitations, he can now run without tiring, jump without limits, and stay up as long as he wants. We miss him, and will every day for the rest of our earthly lives. But believe it or not, it's not all grief (but there is that). We're glad that his pain and struggles are over. But now he doesn't just have the absence of pain. He has JOY. For him, this isn't the end - merely the end of the begin...

About a week back, the Unknown Son had a CT scan that showed some suspicious spots in his right lung. He had his biopsy today. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good. His cancer (Wilms Tumor) has recurred. According to the surgeon, there was at least one clear tumor (pea-sized) in his right lung, and clear evidence that it had also metastasized into some of the lymph nodes. I'm currently in the ICU with him as he recovers from the biopsy, and I'll spend the night (the Unknown Mom will take over tomorrow). He's awake and in good spirits. Looks like we'll be watching Sponge Bob DVDs for a while longer, followed (hopefully) by sleep). I'll post more information as I get it. update: It's the morning after, and he's doing well - his fever has broken, he's talking up a storm, getting all the tubes out except for his chest drainage tube, and about to start drinking fluids on his own.

It always seems strange to see someone post that they won't be blogging for a couple of days - it's like saying that your readers need your regular spewage so much that they'll have troubles without their regular fix. I have no such illusions. Nevertheless, some weeks just need to be mentioned. The last cycle of the Unknown Son's chemo went fairly well – by the end of the week, they’d figured out the right mix of drugs to knock down the nausea, and he was doing pretty well. He had minimal nausea or other issues in the day or two later. This time, it’s a different story. First off, the cocktail he’s on this time had to be infused over a 7-8 hour time frame (instead of the 4 hour infusion time last cycle), so it involved us getting there by 9 and not leaving until about 5 o'clock. Add in the 1 hour commute each way, and it made for a very long day. In addition, this time around, the chemo cycle only ran over three 3 days of infusion, so we did it on Tuesday, We...

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of the Unknown Son's Chemotherapy is that his hair has fallen completely out. Everyone says it increases our resemblance. But, as he often reminds me, "Daddy, at least MINE will grow back". So, I looked around on the web, and found this company JKaye Designs (actually, a one-lady shop) that makes colorful surgeons caps. Yesterday, he showed up at the clinic wearing a cap in this pattern: I wore one with multiple Snoopy characters on it, but unfortunately it's out of stock, so I don;t have a picture. And the Unknown Daughter has this one on order: Unfortunately, we can't convince the Unknown Wife to wear one. In any event, if you know anyone undergoing chemo who wants to dress up their noggin, give JKaye Designs some business. A small one fits a kid pretty well.

It's a chemo week for the Unknown Son, so things are a bit on the crazy side. While I don't usually get into the details too often, I thought it might be instructive to walk you through a typical chemo week. U.S. gets the chemo every day for five days (the clinic where he goes is only open on weekdays), so we make the 45 minute drive every day. We leave the house at 7:30, armed with a backpack full of whatever his latest video obsession is - for the moment, it's classic Pink Panther (the cartoons, not the movies). Monday's are the long days - he first has to get his fluids up to snuff, so they take about 2 hours to put in lots and lots of saline. Then they start the chemo (two separate drugs, proceeded and followed by various other meds to protect him from side effects) usually around noon or so. I get the morning shift, and the Unknown Wife relieves me around noon (after her Ladies Bible Study) and takes the afternoon slot, which allows me to go into my office for ...

We just got som bad news regarding the Unknown Son. As many of my regular readers already know, he's gone through a lot - he's a two-times cancer survivor. In 2002 he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma , a particularly nasty and resistant childhood cancer. After a great deal of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, more chemotherapy, and experimental treatments (including an autologous (i.e. "self") stem-cell transplant, he went into remission in 2005. In January of 2008, he was diagnosed with a Wilms ' tumor (a kidney tumor), which resulted in the removal of his right kidney and, after more chemo, he was given another clean bill of health this summer. Now it looks like he has another tumor - in the lower part of his right lung. We just found out about it two days ago as a result of routing follow-up scans. He's scheduled for more surgery this coming Monday (the 29th). He'll get the tumor removed, which will give us the best information as to what exac...