Journal

Monday, May 25, 2009 7:23 PM CDT

Memorial Day is definitely a time for remembering. The pictures above were taken around the beginning of May in 2002. Somewhere between when those pictures were taken and Memorial Day that year, all hell broke loose with Shane. He had been taking Fenretinide back then for over a year and a half. While on that trial his disease remained "stable". Back then, "stable" was definitely a GOOD thing. All of a sudden he started having back pain and he had to be admitted in Ann Arbor to get it under control. Some tests were taken and they revealed that his cancer was progressing again, especially in his back/spine area. It was the first time since he had been diagnosed that he had pain again. It was definitely a wake up call, "Welcome back to the real world of cancer." We had plans that year to go camping at Higgins Lake for Memorial Day. We were going to meet Shane's God parents and their kids there. Adam and Kayla were both taking a friend along, plus Adam had another friend from school that was at his cabin up there at the time. We came very close to cancelling the whole thing when Shane went in the hospital. That was the first time ever that they gave us a timeline of how long Shane might be with us (maybe through part of that summer). Shane LOVED to camp, sit by the camp fire, make pizzas over the fire, eat smores ……… he said he would be okay and he was really looking forward to it, so we went when he was released. His pain was manageable. The mornings were always the hardest. The lake was still very cold, and of course it rained while we were there (that seems to have always been a family tradition with us). Adam and his friends ganged up on Kayla while we were there and dragged her out into the lake. She gave them a good fight and it took all of them, plus some extras, to get her out into the water. Who do you think was right there helping them……. Shane. I know that I wanted to tell him to not get involved so he wouldn't get hurt, or so he wouldn't get sick from being out in the cold water, but I just couldn't do it. I figured his mind was being distracted at that time from everything he had recently gone through, and he looked like he was having such a good time picking on his sister. Here's a picture of him after I think he realized how cold the water actually was (ha, ha). Me, being the mom that I am, didn't want to interfere with their fun so I did the next best thing. I took pictures of the whole thing. I can't find them right now, but I'll get them on as soon as I find them.