91) January rollup

I’m hoping that this is the last of my “rollup” posts, and that I can get caught up, and start writing about more current events, rather than trying to recall what was happening in the previous month.

At his lumbar puncture in December, E had the most “normal” counts we’ve seen in 6 months of bloodwork. January tests brought levels that were higher than what his oncologists like to see.

Steroid week began the evening of Wednesday January 16^th, and wrapped up the morning of Monday January 21^st. It’s called steroid week, but it’s actually five days, even though sometimes it feels like a month. It was a slightly worse than average week for a course of steroids. E started out not too badly, but became progressively more cranky and irritable.

Probably his worst day was January 20^th. We travelled out to visit my brother, his wife, and my nephew P for his 5^th birthday. J had a great time playing, but E was all over the place. In an unfamiliar space, he wanted to explore everywhere, and our efforts to contain him were met with screams, tears, and tantrums.

Car crash. She wasn’t injured, buy my wife ended up being in a freak wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time car accident on Friday January 25^th. She was on her way to pick up J from aftercare, and she was first in line at a red light at the end of our street. She was headed east. There was a car facing north, making a left hand turn to go west, and there was another car travelling south. The car travelling south went through on an amber light, and I guess the left hand turn maker misjudged. The person making the left hit the front end of the person headed south. The person headed south spun around a few times, and smashed into my wife’s car, but because of the way they were spinning, they hit the passenger side. Her car was hit so hard, she was pushed back into the person's car behind her. Fire, police, ambulance were all called. As far as I know there were no major injuries to any of the involved parties, which is good. Even if someone is at fault for an accident, I don’t wish them any ill will, or harm. Since my wife was on her way to get J, she was excused from the scene to get our son. The tow truck driver graciously drove my wife to pick up my son, and gave them a lift home, all with the crashed car up on the lift. My wife then had to borrow my car to return to the scene to give her statement. Many thanks to DRPS, Ajax Fire, and Region of Durham Paramedic Services for their prompt, professional, and caring response to the situation. The tow truck driver said he thought the damage was mostly cosmetic, but our insurance thought otherwise, and assessed $12,000 in damage, and wrote the car off. Many thanks to my mother-in-law, and father-in-law for watching our little monsters so we could shop for a new car on the weekend on the weekend of February 2^nd & 3^rd. I’m happy that it is now behind us in the past, and I’m more happy that no one was severely injured or killed.

My wife & son J being dropped off by the tow truck.