Back to school

The kids started back to school today after two weeks and two days off for Fall break ... entirely too long to be off. Mark is out of town for work -- lucky guy gets a few nights of sleep without interruption. I was supposed to go to Las Vegas next week for a seminar, but I decided not to go because the mom in me (or is it the control freak in me?) didn't feel right leaving Mark on his own with the kids for three days. I was really looking forward to a few good nights of sleep though.

We have a consult with a radiation oncologist this Friday to discuss radiating Jack's salivary gland. We've met with a different radiation oncologist in the past, but he just kept trying to talk me out of doing it. We've tried an entire year of botox injections to the salivary glands and it's just not helping. I'd say that at least 75% of what we suction from Jack's mouth and trach is saliva --- so, it's not a small issue. I'm also really tired of the constant wiping of drool from Jack's face. I am really looking forward to getting this issue resolved. I just hope that knocking out one salivary gland will do the job. Jack's two lower (mandibular) salivary glands were ligated several years ago and that didn't help. We can't eliminate saliva completely because it's necessary for healthy teeth. He'll be left with one major gland after radiating one gland. Anyway, probably way more than you wanted to know about salivary glands and saliva, eh?

In other news -- we have a new nurse who starts tomorrow and will be working one day a week to give Kristi a day off. The most remarkable thing about our new nurse is that her daughter used to have a trach. I first met Angie at a conference for families of children with trachs that was held in St. Louis back in 2004. Angie lived in Minnesota at the time. She moved to Arizona two summers ago. Angie actually contacted me and asked if she could help out with Jack because she knew how much trouble we were having getting additional nursing help. How cool is it to have someone I know and someone whose own daughter had a trach offer to take care of Jack. It doesn't get any better than that.

The update on my mom is that she had her first post chemo/radiation MRI a few weeks ago and it was "clean" -- no signs of the tumor recurring. More great news.

Thanks so much for all your nice comments about my kids' pictures.

Ciao my friends.