Phin's Phirst Remission Anniversary

Hey there, Phin phans! Dustin here with an update on Phin for August. It's been a long time since we had a photo-based update here, and we took a lot of photos this month so let's do this! 

Phin had to go into the clinic at the very beginning of August for his bimonthly checkup and bloodwork, and this time the trip included extra stops for additional scans that were a part of the arm of the study Phin was enrolled in when he began treatment. It'd been a while since Neesha and I had seen him all hooked up like this. Definitely brought back some memories, but we managed to get through it. Phin was a champ. 

Medical update: Everything looked good! He posted the most boring, normal-looking numbers we've seen since we arrived in Leukemia Land back in March of last year. He put up some blood counts that would absolutely put you to sleep. Of course, we were practically doing cartwheels when those popped up. Remission is holding!

In a month when Barbenheimer captured the zeitgeist, the only movie on Phin's radar was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Phin has been mainlining all five seasons of Nickelodeon's 2012-2017 turtles (of which I, admittedly, am also a huge fan) endlessly, so this new Seth Rogen relaunch had its work cut out for it, but Phin gives it two big green mutant thumbs up! Cowabunga!  

When Phin was in treatment, the spotlight was constantly on him, and most of the time he couldn't even be there for his friends and family when they had their celebrations. Now, though, he gets to be a part of the crew when it's time for others to shine. Here he is with his fam sending off his cousin G on her last first day of high school. Go G! 

Phin and his sisters got to hang out with their buddy, Carson, at Fun Zone this month, courtesy of Camp Sunshine, an amazing Georgia nonprofit that supports childhood cancer patients and their families. Phin met Carson last year around the holidays at another Camp Sunshine event, and throughout the year the organization has helped them stay connected through the cool events it hosts.    

(You're probably like, Is he wearing the same TMNT shirt ... again? He is, dear reader. He is indeed.) Here's Phin and sisters with longtime family friends, the Yochs, at what would become Phin's first sleepover. More good times with good friends. More memories. More milestones. 

Phollowing in his sisters' phootsteps, Phin enrolled in theater camp at the Savannah Children's Theater. He's been a co-star in his sisters' at-home productions for most of his life, and an audience member at their shows for nearly as long, and he's excited for his onstage debut! 

It's been a busy month, but the main theme that we tried to keep in focus was remembrance. We wanted that to reverberate through everything we did. A small thing we did to show this was to send some lunches for the patients on the unit with the utterly phenomenal Cure Childhood Cancer on the anniversary of the day Phin left the children's hospital, which last year on August 17. On that day, Phin and Aspen rang the bell, and the confetti flew, and they left the pediatric oncology unit after months of treatment where they met lots of friends and overcame incredible obstacles with the aid of many helpers. We have not forgotten the friends we made, or the friends we lost, whose names are engraved on our hearts. We have not forgotten how close we came to losing Phin, or how far he still has to go. Nor have we forgotten the many people who helped us. We have not forgotten the people who work in the children's hospital, or the care and comfort that they provide, or how the ears that listened to Phin's heartbeat might very well have heard the soft patter of earth on the lid of a tiny coffin mere hours before. And we have not forgotten that there are others who have gone into treatment after us--other Phins and other Aspens and other Mileses and other Myleses and other Kashis and other Carsons and other Lilys and other Seths--each the most remarkable person you will ever meet.

Lastly, to mark the one-year anniversary of Phin's remission, I celebrated by getting my first tattoo. It's an interpretation of the Phin Phans emblem that we all know and love, which was given to us by Terri Foote in the days following Phin's diagnosis. We have rallied around that symbol for a year and a half, and I will never forget the way it lifted our spirits when we'd see it in traffic or on our friends' profiles, in our time of darkness, when hope was flickering. Marcus Dove at Kustom Hustle suggested a slightly more fierce-looking shark and designed it using elements of the original. I love how it pays homage to the logo but also adds just a tad bit of edge!