one week

My updates have been abysmal. It's not because I don't have any - I do. It's really because we are in the last stretch of what feels like the longest leg of a marathon relay race. In one week we will pass him off to the next team, who will fight like mad to get him taken apart and put back together. After that, new teammates will take over, and the fight continues.

It always continues.

Part of why we haven't posted has to do with pre-op meetings.
Have you ever been to one?

Doesn't really matter if you're having cancer removed from your body, an ACL replaced, or your tonsils out - the speech is pretty much the same. It starts with the risks - which always includes death - ALWAYS. I mean I also signed that waiver when my kid went to gymnastics and swimming lessons, but still, nobody wants to be reminded of that.
Then they make sure to tell you every
other
single
terrible
thing
that
could
possibly
happen.

Everything.

Again - nobody needs that right now. Though we understand that legally, it's his right to know, and he's got to make an informed choice about his body, it's not like the world is brimming with other options, so would it be the worst thing for the doctors to keep this stuff on the down-low for a while?

It's dangerous - we know. But leaving it there is worse. So here we are.

So for now, Rico is on his second to last round of radiation before his December 3rd surgery. His last round will be inter-operative (or is it intra-operative? I don't know). If all goes well, near the end of his 8-12 hour surgery, they will insert Brachy tubes into his leg, where they will shoot tiny seeds of radiation directly to the sarcoma site for three days. After that he'll have a follow up surgery to close the site, which means he's not going to be totally stitched up for three days - and that's plan A.

We don't talk much about plans B or C or D, E, F, G - but we think about them constantly.

We do try to just enjoy the time we have right now:
Dancing in the living room while he still feels good enough to be up;
Counting the new hairs on his head and beard - because yeah, they are growing back - but not nearly fast enough for him;
A homemade Thanksgiving on Wednesday, because the big kids are always gone on Thursday;

100 Kind Deeds day with Tiny and her This Life Rocks Project and our amazing friend Nickie and her group The Spread Sunshine Gang. Doing good is a nice distraction, and makes us realize how lucky we really are. Tiny's favorite kind deeds were buying a truffle for every person in the chocolate shop and visiting the animals at the humane society. Kooka's favorite was playing the guitar and singing at the VA home were my dad used to live;

Having Punk home and putting up the Christmas tree (and the menorah - because we celebrate everything we can around here);

Giving Rico a gift from Little Love Jar, which he said was the best present ever. We always do a little box of love whenever someone in the family is going on a trip, into the hospital, etc., but this allowed us to expand our reach and invite a lot of people to contribute. At first he said he was going to savor it, but then quickly realized that the meds he'd be on in the hospital would leave him incapable of appreciating them fully, so he binge-read the entire jar in one sitting. We cried a little and laughed a little, and as he pulled the very last note from the jar, we did both. It read:

When we were younger, we believed we could do anything. 
We still can.
Love, 
Joe

We love you all back. Thanks for being with us.