A decade ago, Luke and I lived in Missoula, MT for a decade – also home to Snowbowl. Not only did we first meet on her slopes, but during the winter months a good piece of our lives revolved around the pitches of this mountain. There’s an undeniable, solid camaraderie amongst Snowbowl skiers. It takes two old,

The week before this all started in mid-July, we were vacationing in Montana with family.  At some point we found ourselves in Butte browsing at Murdocks. Luke found a must-have carhartt, burgundy wool, fleece-lined hat with both a brim and ear flaps. Not seasonally appropriate, but it did look like a perfect fall acquisition. He blissfully bought it.

The impending January 27th MRI has come & gone – and the news is good! The initial tumor-free read was confirmed by UCSF late Wednesday evening. We are so gratefully relieved to have a reprieve. The weeks leading up to the recent MRI were shrouded in another severe headache, swelling at the surgery site and some

Upon getting his stapes removed and making the 3 week mark of required rest, Luke immediately donned his favorite apparel – skis. He took EB out, either downhill or cross-country skiing, for 6 days straight. Granted, at nearly 4 years old, EB is not known for overly long ski sessions, but it was a great effort and

Luke moved out of the neuro-ICU in the early afternoon, the day following surgery – to nearly the exact same room he occupied during his previous stay at UCSF. The normalcy and now innate knowledge of how things go, of protocol, of where to find doctor’s offices, pharmacies, admissions, the OR, ICU’s & bathrooms is bizarre. I recognize some of the

It’s hard to know where to start – sometimes feels like it’s been years instead of four months since life took this crazy turn. There have been a lot of seemingly unnecessary obstacles we’ve had to overcome during the last few weeks. The first included a change-of-date for Luke’s surgery, after we bought airline tickets & wrapped

Monday, November 3rd, brought Luke’s first follow-up MRI since the original resection. We opted to have it done semi-locally in Jackson, WY with a follow-up consult of the scan by UCSF. Despite the forewarnings about the aggressiveness of this horrible diagnosis (glioblastoma multiforme – GBM IV), we really anticipated that the first MRI was

Despite the adages to ‘take it easy’ during radiation, Luke continued to go as full steam as his body would allow and was unexpectedly up until 4:30 am on his last night of treatment – processing a moose. Luke moves about a thousand times faster than these updates; so first, I must recount the marathon he

Luke’s just finished week three of radiation – the would be half-way point, but just like the 40 weeks of pregnancy that’s sold as 9 months, his 30 treatments/6 weeks is spilling into seven near-full weeks of weekdays. He’ll be done the 2nd week of October.            He continues

We’ve been home for two weeks now. Between doctor appointments, we’ve resumed somewhat of a routine with my work and childcare, while Luke “rests”. Rest for Luke includes 7:00 am Monday morning meetings at Lucey Electric to check in with the boys and catch up on work details, tying flies, fishing, harvesting garlic, taking