Apologies for my extraordinarily long last post, there has been so much happening the last two weeks, it's hard to keep up. Thank you again to everyone who continues to text, comment, donate, send things, stopping by to see me and have a coffee, etx. It all makes us feel loved and supported and less alone.

As for the update, things are moving in a generally positive direction. Ronan has not had to have dialysis since Monday afternoon. Electrolytes and fluid balance and etc all look better, like his kidneys are recovering. Some of his renal numbers are still a little high, but they're beginning to trend in the right way and are also impacted by meds, etc. The renal team has been very positive. So, yay kidneys! 

A new beast we are dealing with is essentially drug induced diabetes...the steroids Ronan is on to suppress his system and one of the chemotherapy medications he got this past Monday are realllllly messing with his blood sugars. The chemo also hammers on the pancreas a bit. So, we are (hopefully temporarily) having to manage diabetes for Ronan with way too many pokes and insulin. 

Even with my experience as a nurse and a former gestational diabetic, it's a lot to learn. We've had an educator coming daily to give us bits at a time. We've been practicing with the nurses on drawing up both long acting and short acting insulin. We have been calculating high sugar corrections anf carb corrections. We've been tracking all the things. They are not restricting his carbs at meals, just treating for them. Snacks are very restricted though and that's hard for our grazer.

Diet has been a hard issue our entire stay...finding foods that are low potassium, low phosphorous and now for snacks at least no/low carb is a little crazy. Poor guy is constantly hungry on the steroids and also fills quickly with that belly so...it's a shitty pickle to have thrown at us with everything else. As usual, Ronan is doing amazing handling it. I think of all the things though, these pokes are the hardest so it's extra shitty. Hopefully, this is temporary!

Jack went to visit his cousins in Idaho for a few days to help the time we're stuck here go faster. He is living it up over there. We got some good time with him yesterday before he left and that is good for my heart. He also had a good visit here yesterday when he and Ronan got to ride pump cars in the hallway together. That was so fun to see it made me cry. Jack is growing up before my eyes in all this which aches a bit. He asked me last night if we were giving him away 😭 and he was reassured repeatedly that no way, he is stuck with us forever. ❤️ Talk about heart breaking though. Sheesh. 

Ronan has collected every small airplane we can get our hands on (he had maybe 4-5 pre admission.) He has also gotten special messages from pilots when people we know have  flown. ❤️ He is planning various flight related make a wish wishes and it's fun to watch him dream and think about what he will pick. Before this admission, I thought Make a Wish was only for kids who were dying and I was initially super upset when it was brought up. BUT it's not just for dying kiddos, it's for kids with a life threatening illness. His diagnosis alone gets him a wish. 

We are taking all our wins where we can right now in between the hard moments. We are hoping that we are moving closer to discharge. We'd all be at Ronald McDonald together while Ronan finishes induction over the next couple weeks. On July 15, he will have another bone marrow aspiration where we hope to will see no evidence of disease. The next phase of treatment and its intensity depends on that. 

Keep us in your thoughts as our tough little Ronan bug continues to take all these curve balls with more grace than most of us could! He's my personal super hero ♥️