Tag: Macy Wood

Today is 22 months since you left this world.

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Ronan. 22 months seems impossible. 22 months seems like a joke. 22 months does not seem real. We all miss you so much.

Today, is also Macy’s birthday. I know you would not want me to be sad on this day. I know if you were here, we would have woken Macy up by calling her on the phone and singing, “Happy Birthday,” to her. I will have your brothers do this. I’ll think of you, while they are doing so. I know how much you love your Macy. How much we all love her. She misses you so much.

I love you, Ronan. Happy Birthday, Macy. You are my other soul mate in life. The sister I never had. Thank you for always making us smile and laugh, even on the hardest days. I always say you are one of the most special gifts that Ronan left us.

We love you so much.

xoxo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzDPKBk18Zg

My Ro. I miss you so.

 

 

 

 

Ronan. I think it’s been a few days since I’ve written. The days are still creeping along, ever so slowly. You’re still gone and I am still here. Barely. We are still at the beach. It’s getting closer to the time when we will leave this place, and return home. The thought of that makes my stomach turn. Back to reality. In a big way. Back to life going on, without you here. Your brothers will return to school and life will move forward. I don’t know how I am going to do this without you. It doesn’t seem possible.

I’m not really sure how the days have been going by; but they have. My memory is still foggy as I sit and try to recall how we’ve spent our time. A little time at the beach, eating out, seeing some movies, running….. I think I’ve slept a lot. Mostly just laying in bed, missing you. Not really living as I’m still not ready to. I had dinner with your daddy last night. It was a sad dinner. Everything with him is sad because we are both so sad about you. We talked about you a little, but dinner was mostly filled with silence and small talk. We saw a movie afterwords and it was really hard for us both to sit though it. My lack of concentration is distracting to everything I do, even trying to sit through a mind numbing movie. You would think things like that would be easy for me, but they are not. Even the simplest things have become difficult.

I think I’ve been avoiding phone calls. Crap. I haven’t called your Nana back in a week. Grandpa Steve has called for weeks and I haven’t returned his phone calls either. I’d really just prefer it if I weren’t here in this world anymore to worry about returning phone calls or having people worry about me. I just wish I were with you. Not my choice though, I know. I miss you more than ever.

I’m reading a new book. I like it so far, although I’m not that far into it. It’s called, “The Other Side of Sadness.” It’s basically about the way the mind works when losing a loved one. It is making sense to me as it’s more of a scientific approach to the way the mind and body work when dealing with so much pain. I think I’ll finish it in a few days, but it takes me longer to read books now. I used to fly right though them, absorbing everything easily. Now, I find myself having to go back and re read things and taking the words at a slower pace. It’s as if I’m becoming an entirely different person. Even the way I read a book is fucking different now. Just when I thought I had myself and life all figured out. Turns out, I knew nothing and I only really existed as the person I was, due to being your mom. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be without you. You were such a big reason to why I was the way I was. That person seems gone. I do get glimpses of her every once in a while. Certain people bring out parts of me that I miss so much. Macy is one of them. So are Liz and Olivia. I guess it’s because I feel so comfortable around them. One second I can be looking at Macy, and we will both be crying about you and a second later a song will come on and the next thing I know we are singing our lungs out together to an old school song, while laughing so hard we can hardly breathe. Thank god for those moments…. I need to be around people who make me laugh. Laughter really is the best medicine. For a few minutes a day, it makes me happy again.

I started Liam and Quinn in a camp over here today. They desperately need something to keep them busy, especially Quinn. He’s been really clingy to me which is understandable, but also not healthy for either of us. They both seemed to think it was o.k. and the will go back all week. I am hoping they will like it a little more tomorrow. I think it looks like a really fun camp, but I know for Quinn it’s just that he is separated from me and worries about where I am, what I’m doing, and if I’m coming back. He seems unsure about everything no matter how much I try to convince him that nothing is going to happen to me. What I really want to do is scream that he is absolutely right, that he is so fucking smart, that there are NO guarantees in life, and something could happen to me, as they could happen to any of us at any time of the day, because they can. Look at you, baby. My healthy, strong, baby boy who had this fucking cancer eating away at his body and nobody knew it. Quinn is completely right, completely intuitive, but that is not proper knowledge for an 8-year-old to know. It’s my job as his mom, to reassure him that everything is going to be o.k., when I know this in fact, could be a fucking lie. I am trying my best to protect the shred of innocence that your brothers have left. They have had to learn such a very hard lesson, one that a child should never have to learn. I have to make a choice with this lesson. I can either let it destroy them, or make them in to better human beings because of it. I am working on making them better human beings, trying to take losing you and the lessons that have come with it and turning it into something positive. It feels like such bullshit to me though because it’s not the truth. The truth is this is totally fucked and they shouldn’t have had to learn such a hard life lesson this way. All I really want to do is hide in bed, cry, and scream and let your brothers do the same. I can’t though. I have to go on, I have to give them what tiny pieces of me that I have left. I am giving them everything I have, but it is not much. They really are amazing little boys though. Such good, sweet, funny, smart, boys. Liam has the mind of a 30-year-old and Quinn and his memory that blows me away. I do find myself blown away during many points of the day over things that they say or do. Life has so quickly gotten ahead of me and it’s as if I cannot catch up, no matter how hard I try.

O.K. baby. I think I’m tired now. It’s 2:30 a.m. Ambien is kicking in. UGH. Once again I had so much more to say to you but just cannot do it tonight. Just know I miss you so much. I love you to the moon and back and hope you are safe. G’night my Ro baby. Love you forever.

xoxo

 

Magic Medicine, Day 4 and Day 5…. Round 7

What a beautiful, rainy day. My favorite kind of days. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I miss days like this so much. Ronan woke up happy as a clam, excited to know he was going home later this afternoon. We played in his bed for a little bit and then we went down to the cafeteria so I could get him his slurpee mix to put his oral chemo in. We came back to our room and talked to the nurse about discharge time and specific instructions as far as being back at the clinic tomorrow for the last day of cycle 7. Dr. Maze came up and sat with us for a while, played with Ronan, and we talked about the upcoming trips we are taking with Ronan to visit a couple of other hospitals. I had no idea, but his brother is the head of Anesthesiology at UCSF where we will be visiting on Wednesday. He sent him a message to let him know we were coming to the hospital to meet with Dr. Matthay. Ronan is excited to go to San Francisco and we have turned it into something really positive and exciting. I contacted somebody we were put in touch with whom works for Lucas Films. Lynne, has so graciously set up lunch on Wednesday over at the studios of Lucas Films and a little tour for Ronan. He cannot stop talking about going to visit Star Wars and New York Miss Macy, who just moved to San Francisco. It is going to be a short, productive trip. I am of course, over the moon about getting to see my love, Mace 🙂

I started this post yesterday but didn’t finish it last night due to falling asleep at 9:00 and sleeping all night long. It’s a miracle! I have not done that since before Ronan was diagnosed! My dreams were not even that horrific. I, of course, dreamt about Ronan and his cancer…. but my dreams were more peaceful than they have been in a long time. We went home yesterday around 3:30 and we are now back at the clinic for Ronan’s last day of this round of chemo. Liam and Quinn have the day off from school and Quinny is here with us while Liam is with Mimi and Papa. We will be finished here around 3 and Quinn is being such a good little helper. It was fun to introduce him to all of the people  here who are such a part of our lives now. He hears Ronan talk about them all day long and I think it was good for Quinn to put the faces that go with all the names. It was also good for Quinn to see what we do on a day-to-day basis while we are in the clinic. He likes to know what is going on with Ronan. Ronan is of course over the moon to spend the day with one of his brothers.

Fernanda came by the clinic and dropped me off a coffee (which I proceeded to knock over and spill) She called that, good luck. I of course chopped it up to nerves. I’m scattered today; nervous about meeting with the doctor in San Francisco. Dr. Eshun already told me that he spoke with Dr. Matthay and she is going to suggest we do MIBG treatment as soon as possible. I already knew this. Everybody is going to be biased in the way they want to treat Ronan’s cancer. But nobody really knows the correct answer. This is beyond fucked up to me. The fact that Woody and I are going to have to make a choice in regards to Ronan’s life and part of it is going to have to be based on a leap of faith. No parent should ever have to be put in that situation. I’m not one to get political one here because that would stir up too much shit, but HELLLLLLLOOOOO WHITEHOUSE!!!!!!! With all the money that you are spending on the world….. why don’t you throw a WHOLE bunch of it at Childhood Cancer so we can actually find a cure for this horrific disease that is killing MILLIONS OF CHILDREN?!?!?!?!?!?! They are our future and with the lack of funding, you are throwing away the lives of amazing children who would make this world a much better place.

I came across a quote by Mark Twain today and it made me smile. “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” I said at the beginning of all of this I was going to stop listening to the statistics for Ronan. I stand by what I said. He is not a statistic, he is my child. Many people do not want to associate cancer with children. It is just an unthinkable horror. It’s easy to dismiss the idea by saying, “This will never happen to my child.” Unfortunately, it happens more often than we’d like to believe. According to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer. While many children are cured, there are still many children who will die.

When you lose your parents you are an orphan. When you lose your spouse you are a widow(er). There is no name for a parent who loses their child because it is just too unspeakable.

Why is the happening to my perfect little boy? Because there was never a boy born who is more beautiful in this world; so now he has to pay the price? I want an answer for something I will probably never know and it’s not fair. I want someone to be mad at and someone to blame, but that person does not exist. If I can’t have something tangible to blame, I want a cure, god damn it! I don’t want to have to put the life of my child on the line and trust my instinct in choosing his path. This is beyond unfair. It is sick, inhuman, and cruel. He does not deserves any of this! NO CHILD DOES! For all of you out there who are compassionate human beings; and I know you are because you continue to read this blog and pray for Ronan….. I dare you to come and spend the day at a hospital full of kids who have cancer. If your life is not affected, if you can walk away from all of this and never look back, you are reading the wrong blog. For those of you who are already doing something, big or small….thank you. The time is now to make a difference and your wake up call is here. It’s time to do something, whether it be to volunteer, to make a sick kid smile, or to help in raising awareness in any way possible. I wish I wasn’t getting my wake up call in life because my child has cancer. I wish I had someone telling me to do something. I would have listened if I had known this world existed. I lived a blind life full of a false sense that everything was perfect in the world, because my world was perfect. WHAT A BIG, FAT, LIE.

An innocently good day turned into a not so good night. Let’s see….. I threw up the one little thing I tried to eat for dinner, went to try to get gas in my car (had to leave due to not being able to get the gas to pump due to my head spinning) and then went to Target were I proceeded to abandon my cart due to almost having a severe panic attack in the store. Fernanda called just as I was walking out and I started bawling to her. She was like “What at the fuck are you doing trying to get gas for your car?” “That’s what we are all here for!” You know you are in trouble when getting gas seems overwhelming. In the mist of my bawling in the car before I left the parking lot I texted my Mr. Sparky eyes whom is always telling me that I am doing a great job at handling everything and I need to stop being so hard on myself. I said to him, “People that are doing o.k. do not have to leave in the middle of shopping at Target because they cannot focus on what they need to get. I am not o.k. and I cannot believe I have to make a decision in regards to my son’s life when nobody knows the right answer.” 2 minutes later, he called and basically talked me down from the ledge and sat on the phone and let me cry. He reassured me as he always does that we are doing everything right in our power and we are going to make the best decision for Ronan. He then told me how I am alright, I had just had a shitty day and tomorrow will be better. He also told me that anything I needed at Target, I really didn’t need anyway. He calmed me down as he always does with his wisdom and words. After talking to him, I was able to go and get gas for my car without any problems.

I came home to a hectic house of boys’ gone wild. My 3 little guys are so happy to be together, that it is hard to get them calmed down for bedtime. Lots of laughing and playing just as it should be.  San Francisco tomorrow. One more piece of the puzzle to put into place. Will it fit or not?? Only time will tell.

G’nite my loves. Thank you to Fernanda, Stacy, and Mr. Sparkly Eyes for being there for me tonight. Your words helped me through the night. I love you.

xoxo


Holy Shitballs. Macy Wood makes me laugh like no other!

 

She knew I needed a laugh tonight so here she is, the infamous Macy Wood. All bundled up in her Fur, WTF? I have no idea what this thing is she is wearing but it is awesome and I want one. Love you, MACE! Thanks for the giggles tonight!!

xoxox

Goodnight moon

Home. After over a month of being in and out of hospitals, between Sloan and PCH… we are home again. So sweet. Yesterday, Ronan’s ANC was only at 80… today it jumped up to 240! That is very high for just one day. Ronan’s little body is fighting so hard to come back after being beaten down so badly. After Arica, our amazing friend/nurse, told us the great news about Ronan’s ANC.. she still wasn’t sure if we could go home or not. She said she didn’t want to get our hopes up because we were scheduled for scans as an inpatient for tomorrow, so that may mean they may just make us stay the night again. My sweet friend, Fernanda, came to sit with Ronan so I could run home and shower. She texted me about a half an hour after I left to tell me the doctor came in and told her that after Ronan received a transfusion of platelets, we could be on our merry way. I was so thrilled to hear this news as I was not expecting it:)

When I returned to PCH, Ronan was sleeping and when I walked into his room I had to laugh at the snow cone tent/stand that Fernanda bought for Ronan, along with his very own snow cone maker so they could sell snow cones to the nurses. Can you even stand the cuteness of this right now?? I can’t. It was the most adorable thing ever. What an amazing heart and imagination she has. Arica was telling me that when they were making snow cones, all of the nurses were like, “What is that all that noise?” Arica said she was laughing and told them, “Oh, don’t worry.. it’s just Ro making snow cones with his snow cone machine.” Only Ronan with the help of Fernanda would pull something off like that while stuck in the hospital. The thought of the two of them doing this together makes me so happy. Thanks, Fernanda, for everything. For all your help with Ronan these past couple of weeks and hauling all of our things to my car for me today. I don’t know how I would have managed without you, my dear:)

As we were getting ready to leave PCH, we were waiting for one of our doctors, “A” to come and talk to us about the weeks upcoming events. She arrived from the clinic all flustered, panicked and excited. She was jumping up and down about Ronan’s ANC and said how amazing he was that it spiked so high in one night. Talk about being passionate about her job. I love seeing that in someone who is caring for my child. A lack of passion in life is fatal. I have always felt this way and seeing “A” as often as we do, she is one of the most passionate people I have ever come across. Makes me love her even more. She told us that one of the scans Ronan was supposed to have this week, the MIBG scan had to be delayed due to the iodine not being able to get here from Canada due to the big storm. I told her not a big deal at all, as I know the situation is not in her hands. She was also trying to figure out a way to squeeze in one of Ronan’s bone scans tomorrow with all of his other scans, so we could limit the amount of times that he has to be put under anesthesia in the next two weeks. The only problem was Dr. Maze had a certain time blocked out for Ronan’s anesthesia, and throwing another scan in cut into something else he had scheduled. His office didn’t think he would be able to do it so they were going to have to get somebody else.  Just as she was telling me this, she looked down at her phone and started jumping up and down saying, “Yes, yes, yes! Thank you!!!” She then told me, “Nevermind, Aubrey moved whatever he had and will be there to do all of the scans.” She was smiling and saying how she was going to have to bake him cookies now for this one. What a good friend and a good man he is to us. He knows how important it is to us to have him do Ronan’s anesthesia. Thank you, Aubrey…I have decided that you are first a good man, and than a good doctor 😉

Ronan had his EKG and Echo Heart scan done today just to make sure everything is working properly. He was of course a great little trooper about having yet another thing done to him. I did have to bribe him into leaving his room to go for these scans by letting him take the 5 pounds of candy that Macy sent him from New York. Thanks Mace! Nothing like a little candy straight from Dylan’s Candy Shop to get the morning started! You spoil my child rotten and he loves you all the more for it! I love you for making me laugh the entire day with your ridiculously funny 4 minute long voicemail. You have no idea how much I needed that one today:)

Home today has been heaven on earth. To have all of my boys’ under the same roof is a dream come true. I did spend most of the night unpacking our 20 bags and doing laundry. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to wake up to them in the morning and then having to come home from a long day at the hospital tomorrow to them staring me in the face. The boys helped as much as they could and Woody cooked dinner. It was a nice, normal, happy night. It feels really good to all be together again.

Ronan knows the drill for tomorrow. I have been preparing him for it all day as far as having to get up early to go back to the hospital so Dr. Maze can give him his sleepy medicine. I find if I prepare him for things, he is less likely to throw a fit. He told me tonight it’s o.k. to go back to the hospital, as long as he doesn’t have to be “hooked up” as he calls it, to his pole. I told him he would not have to be hooked up, he was just going to get his sleepy medicine for pictures and we would go home after. He is being very cooperative with all that is being thrown his way. I am so lucky to have such an amazing little boy. He never ceases to amaze me.

Tomorrow is a big day for Ro. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He will have his audiology test first thing, his bone marrow scan, and then his bone scan. We know from the scans in New York, that the Neuroblastoma was not detected in his bone marrow, but we will have them rechecked at PCH and have the bone test done as well. When Ronan was first diagnosed, he had Neuroblastoma in everyone of his bones and 5-10% in his bone marrow. We know that it is now gone from his marrow, but his actual bones may be a different story. We will hope and pray that it has drastically decreased. It cannot be any other way.

Tonight, I am happy to sleep in my own bed with my little bug curled up beside me. I was able to tuck in Liam and Quinn which means the world to me now. Who would have ever thought something so little would mean so much in the grand scheme of things. Tucking in my little boys’ is the happiest place on earth for me. I am very thankful for the nights that I am able to do this and will cherish them for the rest of my life.

G’nite to all of you beautiful souls out there. Thank you for all the love, thoughts, and peace you are sending our way. Nobody said this was going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it. The love that surrounds our family is something we are so thankful for. Sweetest dreams to you all.

xoxo

I never understood before
I never knew what love was for
My heart was broke, my head was sore
What a feeling

Tied up in ancient history
I didnt believe in destiny
I look up you’re standing next to me
What a feeling

What a feeling in my soul
Love burns brighter than sunshine
Brighter than sunshine
Let the rain fall, i don’t care
I’m yours and suddenly you’re mine
Suddenly you’re mine
And it’s brighter than sunshine

I never saw it happening
I’d given up and given in
I just couldn’t take the hurt again
What a feeling

I didn’t have the strength to fight
Suddenly you seemed so right
Me and you
What a feeling

What a feeling in my soul
Love burns brighter than sunshine
It’s brighter than sunshine
Let the rain fall, I don’t care
I’m yours and suddenly you’re mine
Suddenly you’re mine

It’s brighter than the sun
It’s brighter than the sun
It’s brighter than the sun, sun, shine.

Love will remain a mystery
But give me your hand and you will see
Your heart is keeping time with me

What a feeling in my soul
Love burns brighter than sunshine
It’s brighter than sunshine
Let the rain fall, I don’t care
I’m yours and suddenly you’re mine
Suddenly you’re mine

Let the hiding begin….

Hello. Hope you all are well. I have officially gone into hiding. So much so, that my 3 besties had to bust into my house on Sunday morning to make sure I was o.k. I felt like I was on that show, “Intervention.” I don’t mean to shut everyone out; but it’s what I do best. Being home has been great and I have been loving spending time with Liam and Quinny. I could easily stay in my house and never leave again because when I do go out, the anxiety is still too much. Woody practically kicked me out of the house last night and made me go to a movie. I picked up Linds (my go to last minute girl… thanks mama) and we went to see “Black Swan.” Good movie, but I should have picked something a little less dark. After I dropped off Linds, I was driving home and the tears started up and I couldn’t get them to stop. I had to pull over because I couldn’t even focus on my drive. I’m not going to tell you what thoughts were consuming me…. but I’m sure you can guess. I still don’t think this is real. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that my perfect little boy is so ill. It seems like yesterday that he had a head full of hair, and was running around always looking for trouble. I can’t tell you how much I miss that little boy. The little boy that I could never get mad at because one look at those bright blue eyes and that mischievous smile and I was done. I always ended up laughing at whatever naughty thing he did. Well, most of the time:) Now, I get to watch as he is too weak to walk and wants to me to carry him all of the time. Now I get to lay next to him and know that every breath he takes is a blessing and every kiss he gives me is a dream come true. Every tear that falls down my face is for him and I think about what sadness was like before all of this. Before all of this, sadness should have not existed in my world because I absolutely had nothing to be sad about. Everyday is a struggle for our family; nothing is easy anymore. I am doing what I can do to push through the motions, I am doing what I can do to survive. I am still numb to everything around me, except for pain. I feel that every second of the day.

We got a call from Radiology today and we have all of Ronan’s scans set up. February 2nd, Ronan will go under Anesthesia for his Bone scan. February 3rd, he will go under Anesthesia again for his MIBG, Pet scan, CT scan, and MRI. These two days are going to be very telling for us. After these scans, we will know exactly where the cancer is left in Ronan’s body and from here we will find out when we start the stem cell transplant. We already know that it is clear from his bone marrow; but the MIBG scan will be the most telling of them all. A MIBG (iodine meta-iodobenzylguanidine) scan is a test used to find tumors of a specific origin. This scan will light up Ronan’s whole body to show us where the cancer is still active. Of course we will be praying that it has diminished immensely. Ronan has come too far and worked too hard for it not to.

So, this is my update for today. Tricia was officially concerned because I have gone off the radar; so here you go Tricia Boo. I’m here, or I’m here as much as I can possibly be. I haven’t been talking to anyone so I hope none of you are offended. I miss you all but just need some time to get back in a routine at home. I miss my New York Miss Macy dearly. I will think about the time I had with her and Tricia in New York when I need to smile. The time spent with those two and Ronan meant the world to me. It felt so good just to be and laugh, even though we were in a hospital with my baby who has cancer. True friends that can make you smile and laugh during the hardest times in your life, are the truest of the true. I love you both so much.

Sad to leave, but have to go

The update is we are coming home tomorrow. I am scrambling, have been scrambling for a couple of days now, mentally, I was not ready to go back to Arizona. I feel like I’ve taken these past couple of days to get my mind wrapped around coming home. I feel like I am ready now. Who am I kidding, I am not ready at all. Everything about this trip has been so positive and I am beyond sad to leave earlier than expected, but we cannot fight the COG on this. The COG is the Children’s Oncology Group and they are who is charge of Ronan being on study. We have to stay on study, we want to stay on study, because we really are hoping that Ronan is going to be chosen for 2 stem cell transplants, instead of one. If we go off of study, we won’t have any chance of getting a second transplant, and after the research we’ve done, we really feel like this will increase his chances of survival. So, in a nutshell, the COG is bigger than the doctors and we just have to follow their rules. Hard for me because I really just want to give them the middle finger. I just want what is best for Ronan, and as I said before, I feel like letting him heal fully here is what he needs. But things change and now we are coming home.

Also, Ronan has developed an infection in his broviac line. He has been spiking fevers the past few days and they thought it was just due to surgery, but they tested his blood and one of the cultures came back positive. This is a minor bump in the road considering all we have been through. It is something that Sloan has under control and has been reassuring me that it is something that is treatable with antibiotics. Well, they started the first dose of antibiotics last night and as I was holding Ronan, I looked down and his entire head was red and he started itching it like crazy and screaming bloody murder. I looked at Mace and Tricia who were both white as a sheet and said, “Call the nurse, he’s having a reaction.” Sure enough, I was told, he had developed what they call “Red Man Syndrome” to the Vancomycin. The nurse came rushing in and told me they would start him on Benadryl to get rid of the reaction. I was pissed. I wanted to know why in the world I wasn’t told that this could possibly happen, and I was informed that it happens to about 60/70 percent of the kids that get this antibiotic. Gee, I wish somebody would have told me this little piece of information, just so I could have been aware of it instead of being scared to death because I did not know what was going on with my child. What if he would have stopped breathing or something?!? We were soon able to get it under control and thank god for Dr. Maze, who I was texting during this entire thing. He took the time to calm me down and explain everything to me. We had a not so good nurse last night who did not seem to know anything and seemed very nervous about all the questions that were flying her way. Other than that, the nurses have been incredible and so has the care. Last night was rough but we got it under control and were able to get Ronan settled down and back to sleep. His fevers have stopped and we will get one dose of his antibiotic tomorrow at 7 a.m. with the Benadryl before, which takes 2 hours. We will hop on our flight after we see Dr. La Quaglia and as soon we land in Phoenix we will have to go right to PCH so we can check in and get Ronan’s second dose of the antibiotic. He has to have it twice a day for about 10 days. All of the doctors here have reassured me that we can still start his chemo, even with the infection, as long as his fever does not come back. I’m even more mad about having to leave here now. How mad is Ronan going to be knowing that we are going home, but don’t really get to go “home” and he has to stay at PCH for about 10 days. It would have been so much easier to stay here. STUPID COG. If you can’t tell I’m a wreck. My anxiety is through the roof and my nerves are shot after these past couple of days.

I sent out an email yesterday to somebody who shall remain nameless, asking if there was any possible way they could fly us privately back home. Part of my panicking was the thought of putting Ronan on a flight. Within the hour, I got an email back, and then a phone call saying, absolutely, they could get us back to Phoenix on their private jet. No worries that is was so last minute, no questions asked, they were just so happy to help. I cannot say thank you enough to you, SB and Mr. B. You have just given us such an amazing gift in helping with keeping Ronan healthy. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and I can’t wait for the day that I can personally thank you with a big hug and one of Ronan’s famous smiles. We are beyond grateful that there are such kind people in the world out there like yourselves. O.K…. SB….. I know you said no more thank you’s so I’ll stop. After one more huge, THANK YOU!!!

Last night was one of the most heart wrenching/fucked up/hilariously funny nights that I have ever had in my LIFE. Tricia and Macy (who now by the way are in LOVE with each other;))stayed at the hospital with me until about 1 a.m. Macy picked up Thai food (which was to die for) and we got some bottles of Sangria to go and smuggled them into Sloan. While Ronan slept, we ate, talked, laughed, cried, and laughed some more. Macy and Tricia got to see what my world is like on a day to day basis. Macy was bawling half of the time which in turn made me cry and our poor sweet roommate…. she had a crisis with a bloody nose, throwing up blood, and she was scared to death. She is the most beautiful 11 year old girl that I have ever met and she is fighting bone cancer. She has had 17 rounds of chemo and surgery on her leg. It was a privilege to share a room with her and her amazing mom. I tried to help with the bloody nose situation, since I have been there many times with Ronan. I went over and I tried to explain it to her and to calm her down but I wanted to just curl up and die. Her mom was on her bed holding her while her little girl sat and told me how tired she is of being sick, how much pain she is in and how scared she is. I started bawling, and when I finally went back to my side of the room, Tricia and Macy were bawling as well. In the 3 days that we spent with this little girl I heard her talk about all the things she appreciates in life and how she is so thankful for her “good days.” She is wise beyond her years and stronger than most adults. One of the most beautiful, inspiring, souls I have ever met with an amazing family who will no doubt, get her through this. Tricia, Macy and I bonded over so many things last night and Macy is now without a doubt, a friend for life.

I got all of our stuff packed up today while Tricia stayed at the hospital with Ronan. I came back to Sloan and Trish ran out to do some things. She is probably in the middle of cleaning our room at the RMH so we can be all ready to go tomorrow. Thank you, TT~ I don’t know what I would do without you. Macy came by to say good-bye to us and left me with a card. After she left, I opened it up and started to cry just from the words on the front of it. I’m an emotional wreak tonight. Ronan is depressed and told me tonight with his lip quivering, that he misses his brothers so much. Tomorrow is going to be awful. All Ro wants to do is to be home with Liam and Quinn but he can’t. I’m not even sure that the boys’ can come to PCH to visit due to it being RSV season. UGH. I don’t even want to think about how much Ronan’s heart is going to break going from one hospital to the next. Poor baby.

Tonight I say good-bye to New York with a heavy heart. I’m scared to go back to reality and back to my real world… I’m scared I’m going to lose the Maya that I have found while being in this city. As crazy as this sounds, this trip was one of the best trips of my life. Knowing that Ronan came here with a big job to do and it was so successful and positive, is maybe why it seems so hard to leave. I’m sure most of this is just my anxiety speaking. It will be wonderful to be home surround by my sweet twins, amazing husband, family and friends. I have missed you all dearly. I’ve just got to figure out how to keep this momentum going that I have found in this city. I will forever be in love with New York, Sloan Kettering, Dr. La Quaglia, Dr. Kusher, and the whole team of Neuroblastoma doctors. I will be back here next year to run the Marathon with Ronan in remission and waiting for me at mile 16. I love you New York! I feel so blessed to have had you heal myself and my baby!!

Goodnight world. Thanks for all of your love and support!!!

xoxo