Author: Roger Howard

Signposts of his illness

We’ve never been helicopter parents, hovering over our kid worried about every little sniffle and scrape, but there’s no escaping the necessity now of careful monitoring. His weight, his temperature, how quickly incisions and...

Never home for long

Last week’s hospitalization shook me. Because Wes seems healthy – all of his visible symptoms are related to treatment more than the underlying leukemia – it was easy to get comfortable after returning home...

Thankful

I have been thinking a lot lately about how thankful and fortunate I feel, and what better day to say so? This blog is about a deeply personal struggle, but I no longer feel I’m...

The new normal

Over the weekend Wes seemed to be rebounding from the end of his dex treatment – mood, interest in food, and activity were all getting better than they’d been in two weeks – but...

Soon to be four

In late summer we shared the great news that Stephanie is pregnant again, an incredibly happy moment we’d been waiting for ever since we found out just how great this parenthood thing fits us....

Cutting the dex

Yesterday’s chemo visit went well – it’s about an hour drive in traffic, and the first snow of the season was in the forecast for the afternoon, but mom and Wes were home earlier...

Stress management

Stress management

I’m going to have to do better, somehow, at managing my stress levels. Over the past few years my work has been fairly solo, and the challenges mostly technical – activating some extra neurons,...

A little bug can be a big deal

Neither of us have ever been germophobes with Wes, and fully bought into the notion that a little filth was good for his immune system development. We let him play barefoot all over Long...