T-minus 5 & 11 & 14 days.
If only, if only, the woodpecker cries
The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies
As the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries the the moon, "If only, if only."
I had that suck in my head and had to write it down somewhere before I forgot it.
Anyway, schedule;
A - YR: Spanish IV (Honors); Coutu.
B - YR: World History (Acc); Rodgers.
C - S1: Creative Writing (Acc); Parrella.
C - S2: Study Hall; Collins.
D - YR: Chemistry (Acc); Pereira.
E - YR: IPEC Leaders (3, 5, 7); Murphy.
E - YR: Study Hall (1, 2, 4, 6); Tredeau.
F - YR: Pre-Calculus (Acc); Bliss.
G - YR: English III (Acc); Ryan.
I have the loves of my life (Parrella, Murph, and Mrs. Bliss), but I also have who the fuck is this Rodgers punk, andddd Pereira. So we'll see how well THAT goes.
I'm actually really anxious for school to start. I can't wait. I'm so excited to actually have something to do, somewhere to go every day. I'm going to work really hard this year. Last year everyone told me how much Junior year sucks and how it's so much work and I'll hate it, and that will probably be the case by the time I'm half-way through, but for now I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the work. I'm looking forward to all this time by myself. I mean, who else is going to be there? Most of my friends are either in my grade, or going off to college, with a few exceptions in the sophomore class. They're what I'm looking forward to the most, I suppose. IPEC is going to be my break from everything. I want to see who's in my class and see if maybe Anthony or Ryan is a leader with me. Wouldn't that be ideal.
Whatever, I'll deal with school when it starts. I still have two weeks to wait, and with Victoria's cancer popping up, everything else - even the hell that is going to be Junior year - just seems so small.
My dad got an e-mail from Auntie Cheryl today;
Hi all. I just want to say thank you to all of you who have reached out and been there for us during these tough times. Your love and support have been like arms wrapped around our family and we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful and warm caring friends in our lives.
Update:
As you know, Victoria has been diagnosed with an abdominal tumor via ultrasound Monday night at Newton-Wellesley's ER. The only symptoms she had was a larger belly (I thought, finally, she is getting some meat on her - not the case).
Tuesday Victoria had a CAT scan and the following were the results:
Victoria has been diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor. This is a tumor of the kidney. The tumor has taken over her right kidney and both will be removed. The good news is that the CAT scan does not show any nodules in her lymphnodesmor her lungs and her left kidney looks good.
Dr. Shamberger, Chief Surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, will perform the eight hour operation on Monday 8/25. Recovery will be at least a week in the hospital for this operation with the first few days in the intensive care unit.
Along with Dr. Shamberger we met with a team from Dana Farber/the Jimmy Fund who is directly affiliated with Boston Children's Hospital. We were informed chemotherapy (and possibly radiation) will be needed after the surgery. She will have a central line placed in her chest during her surgery on Monday so she will be able to recieve her chemo treatments with ease in the upcoming year. Chemo treatment will be based on several things, mainly what stage (1, 2, 3, or 4) the cancer is and we don't know that until they do testing on the tumor after removal which will take several days after surgery for the results to come back from the lab. She will be able to attend school while recieving treatments.
Our team from Dana Farber/the Jimmy Fund is based on what type of cancer Victoria has. Dr. Lisa Diller is the covering Wilms' tumor specialist and depending on what day we can get into the city to get chemo treatments, etc., will determine what team from Dana Farber will be assigned to us (too far in the future to think about, we need to get through the surgery).
Thursday of this week we will be going to Dana Farber so they can perform their own ultrasound in preparation for surgery. Victoria will be admitted to Boston Children's Hospital on Sunday 8/24. We will meet the anesthesiologist and surgical team and Victoria will be prepped for surgery for Monday morning. I will be staying with Victoria for her entire stay in the hospital. We are going to have a "girls week in the hospital and read lots of books and watch lots of videos."
My parents who live in RI have Michael who is doing well as expected and Mike has the next few weeks off from work. Victoria and I will take off and go to RI to spend time with Michael tomorrow. THAT'S the latest update. Many of you have guided us, called in favors and gotten us VIP status at Children's and have just been so unbelievably supportive. Mike and I cannot thank you enough. Everyone wants to know what they can do and Mike and I are asking for prayers. Please pray for Victoria. She WILL be fine and she WILL survive and I will keep you all posted as things progress.
With much love,
Cheryl.
I think the suckiness of this has been magnified because Victoria really is my Mini-Me. She is me 10 years ago. Honestly, just change the eye color from brown to blue, and she's a spitting image of me.
I'm not saying I wouldn't be as upset had it been Emily instead - no, no, I'd be heartbroken if it was Emily. I'm heartbroken that it's Toria. I just feel that Toria's been so... attacked. Emily couldn't have gotten this tumor. Michael couldn't have gotten this tumor. CJ couldn't have gotten this tumor. If I remember correctly, the Wilms' tumor only affects children aged a few months to eight years, with the mean diagnosis age being about 3 1/2. Victoria is the only one that falls into that category. If Danny or Riley or Madi had it or any of the symptoms, we would know by now. Vicky's the only possible victim.
She's always been a sweetheart. And she really is a replica of me. I wish I had gotten a more recent picture, but since my computer crashed I don't have any of her on my hard drive, so I had to scan an old Christmas card.
Here's her and Michael, within the past two years;
And here's me, age 5;
Yeah. She's a Driscoll, alright.
My brother just texted me to make sure I was okay. I've never seen him this upset. Ever.
I am not getting any sleep over the next two weeks, I can almost guarantee that.
The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies
As the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries the the moon, "If only, if only."
I had that suck in my head and had to write it down somewhere before I forgot it.
Anyway, schedule;
A - YR: Spanish IV (Honors); Coutu.
B - YR: World History (Acc); Rodgers.
C - S1: Creative Writing (Acc); Parrella.
C - S2: Study Hall; Collins.
D - YR: Chemistry (Acc); Pereira.
E - YR: IPEC Leaders (3, 5, 7); Murphy.
E - YR: Study Hall (1, 2, 4, 6); Tredeau.
F - YR: Pre-Calculus (Acc); Bliss.
G - YR: English III (Acc); Ryan.
I have the loves of my life (Parrella, Murph, and Mrs. Bliss), but I also have who the fuck is this Rodgers punk, andddd Pereira. So we'll see how well THAT goes.
I'm actually really anxious for school to start. I can't wait. I'm so excited to actually have something to do, somewhere to go every day. I'm going to work really hard this year. Last year everyone told me how much Junior year sucks and how it's so much work and I'll hate it, and that will probably be the case by the time I'm half-way through, but for now I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the work. I'm looking forward to all this time by myself. I mean, who else is going to be there? Most of my friends are either in my grade, or going off to college, with a few exceptions in the sophomore class. They're what I'm looking forward to the most, I suppose. IPEC is going to be my break from everything. I want to see who's in my class and see if maybe Anthony or Ryan is a leader with me. Wouldn't that be ideal.
Whatever, I'll deal with school when it starts. I still have two weeks to wait, and with Victoria's cancer popping up, everything else - even the hell that is going to be Junior year - just seems so small.
My dad got an e-mail from Auntie Cheryl today;
Hi all. I just want to say thank you to all of you who have reached out and been there for us during these tough times. Your love and support have been like arms wrapped around our family and we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful and warm caring friends in our lives.
Update:
As you know, Victoria has been diagnosed with an abdominal tumor via ultrasound Monday night at Newton-Wellesley's ER. The only symptoms she had was a larger belly (I thought, finally, she is getting some meat on her - not the case).
Tuesday Victoria had a CAT scan and the following were the results:
Victoria has been diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor. This is a tumor of the kidney. The tumor has taken over her right kidney and both will be removed. The good news is that the CAT scan does not show any nodules in her lymphnodesmor her lungs and her left kidney looks good.
Dr. Shamberger, Chief Surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, will perform the eight hour operation on Monday 8/25. Recovery will be at least a week in the hospital for this operation with the first few days in the intensive care unit.
Along with Dr. Shamberger we met with a team from Dana Farber/the Jimmy Fund who is directly affiliated with Boston Children's Hospital. We were informed chemotherapy (and possibly radiation) will be needed after the surgery. She will have a central line placed in her chest during her surgery on Monday so she will be able to recieve her chemo treatments with ease in the upcoming year. Chemo treatment will be based on several things, mainly what stage (1, 2, 3, or 4) the cancer is and we don't know that until they do testing on the tumor after removal which will take several days after surgery for the results to come back from the lab. She will be able to attend school while recieving treatments.
Our team from Dana Farber/the Jimmy Fund is based on what type of cancer Victoria has. Dr. Lisa Diller is the covering Wilms' tumor specialist and depending on what day we can get into the city to get chemo treatments, etc., will determine what team from Dana Farber will be assigned to us (too far in the future to think about, we need to get through the surgery).
Thursday of this week we will be going to Dana Farber so they can perform their own ultrasound in preparation for surgery. Victoria will be admitted to Boston Children's Hospital on Sunday 8/24. We will meet the anesthesiologist and surgical team and Victoria will be prepped for surgery for Monday morning. I will be staying with Victoria for her entire stay in the hospital. We are going to have a "girls week in the hospital and read lots of books and watch lots of videos."
My parents who live in RI have Michael who is doing well as expected and Mike has the next few weeks off from work. Victoria and I will take off and go to RI to spend time with Michael tomorrow. THAT'S the latest update. Many of you have guided us, called in favors and gotten us VIP status at Children's and have just been so unbelievably supportive. Mike and I cannot thank you enough. Everyone wants to know what they can do and Mike and I are asking for prayers. Please pray for Victoria. She WILL be fine and she WILL survive and I will keep you all posted as things progress.
With much love,
Cheryl.
I think the suckiness of this has been magnified because Victoria really is my Mini-Me. She is me 10 years ago. Honestly, just change the eye color from brown to blue, and she's a spitting image of me.
I'm not saying I wouldn't be as upset had it been Emily instead - no, no, I'd be heartbroken if it was Emily. I'm heartbroken that it's Toria. I just feel that Toria's been so... attacked. Emily couldn't have gotten this tumor. Michael couldn't have gotten this tumor. CJ couldn't have gotten this tumor. If I remember correctly, the Wilms' tumor only affects children aged a few months to eight years, with the mean diagnosis age being about 3 1/2. Victoria is the only one that falls into that category. If Danny or Riley or Madi had it or any of the symptoms, we would know by now. Vicky's the only possible victim.
She's always been a sweetheart. And she really is a replica of me. I wish I had gotten a more recent picture, but since my computer crashed I don't have any of her on my hard drive, so I had to scan an old Christmas card.
Here's her and Michael, within the past two years;
And here's me, age 5;
Yeah. She's a Driscoll, alright.
My brother just texted me to make sure I was okay. I've never seen him this upset. Ever.
I am not getting any sleep over the next two weeks, I can almost guarantee that.