PhIndia!

 When Phin was one year old, my dad—his birthday twin grandfather—advised us to all get passports. 

He was 76 years old then and wanted to make a family trip back to his home country of India so that his grandkids could meet relatives and see his homeland. When Phin was two, the pandemic struck, grounding us all. A few months after Phin’s third birthday, just as pandemic restrictions were beginning to lift, my dad’s back started to hurt. Four months later, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma—a cancer that had been steadily eating away at the vertebrae in his spine, causing pain so severe that it eventually became the symptom that spawned his diagnosis. 

By the time Phin was four years old, my dad’s cancer was under control and in remission, but he was still battered. Then, three months before his birthday, Phin began treatment for his own cancer—a diagnosis, which you know—rocked our family to the absolute core. Phin rang the bell at age five.

This past summer, Phin turned six. Phin is still in remission. My dad is still in remission. In August, two months after Phin’s sixth birthday, my dad presented his four children once again with the prospect of fulfilling his dream to visit India with his children and grandchildren “one last time.” His resolve had grown since we first got passports for the kids five years ago. The years had been racked with the loss of my dad’s relatives back home in India and his brother in Canada. While he and Phin had overcome their individual cancers, my dad had lost his brother-in-law in India and his dearest younger brother during the pandemic. He had lost much of his own energy and strength battling cancer. Now, with the blessing of his oncologist and the green light from Phin’s, my dad, at the ripe age of 81 years old, was finally ready and able to fulfill his dream of returning to India with his family and introducing his grandchildren to the land of his youth.

Phin and Pepop in India

In September, we scrambled to get the kids new passports—it had been just over five years since we started this journey to fulfill my dad’s dream. Just long enough for their passports to expire. So they all got new ones. They got visas and learned how to pack and keep track of their carry-ons. They all learned how to swallow pills in order to take their anti-malaria medicine—a trick we'd assumed would've been no problem for Phin, given the number of much more difficult and painful medical chores he's already had to perform (hard at first, then he got it, and now it's easy). And in mid-December, we were off!

Phin and cousins (from L to R: ages 7, 6, and 5) navigate the airport rush

From trying all kinds of Indian dishes to zooming through narrow streets in tuk-tuks to touring ancient Buddhist caves and running from snack-grabbing monkeys, Phin and Pepop did it all. They hung out with “ancestors” (aka relatives) in Mumbai. They went to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal. They went to Jaipur and to Delhi. One thing to know about Phin is this: he will find a way to play and a person to play with no matter where he is or what language barrier might stand in his way. In true Phin fashion, he played his way through India, as evidenced in the photos below of him with various friends he made in his travels.

If you ask Phin what he loved most about his trip, he might say one of a few things: tiny hot cups of chai everywhere we went, pani puri, rich real-chocolate-made hot chocolates, or the cows, monkeys, rats, and goats (wearing sweaters) roaming freely in the streets. He will tell you we stayed in five hotels, saw just as many cities, ate in "a lot of restaurants", spent many hours on buses (taking photos of the free range animals for Phin—note: this was a device-free trip save for the use of phones as cameras throughout: definitely the right decision) and airplanes, and met some of his ancestors. He liked the Lake Palace Hotel, playing tag at the art museum in Mumbai, and scoring his siblings and cousins sweets from the guard at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial: Raj Ghat (pictured above). He will tell you about "Indian toilets" and how loud the outside world in India is—full of beeping horns and speeding tuk-tuks. Phin kept a daily journal full of insightful gems of observation that only he could have—a genuine treasure trove of moments he (and we) will forever cherish. Topping the list of it all, though, Phin would tell you the best part of the whole trip was "being with my family."

Phin with sisters and cousins at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India.

Phin and Caroline blending in Delhi where the smog is so thick we had to wear masks

It was the trip of a lifetime, thanks entirely to my dad, his generosity, and his will to make this trip come to fruition. A long-delayed dream fulfilled at last. 

Medical Updates

Nothing to see here. Phin doesn't return for a clinic checkup until February 2024, so we've still got a little while to wait. In the absence of blood counts from labwork, all we've got are the much less scientific indicators of "Does his skin look like it still has color in it?" (yes, more or less?) and "Is his energy level still pretty high?" (always, even in the darkest of times) and "Does he bleed out if he scrapes up his knee?" (no) and "Is his appetite good?" (meh). We think he's probably still good.

Oh! Fun fact that Dustin discovered while Googling the drug atovaquone, which is part of the combination of drugs (along with proguanil) that was prescribed for us to take to prevent malaria, is that atovaquone is also being studied for possible benefits in AML treatment. Cool!

UPDATE: Phin’s top front right tooth is loose! I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned this tooth phenomenon yet so here it goes. To date, Phin has lost two bottom teeth; when I say “lost”, I literally mean we’ve never seen them once they’ve fallen out of their rightful places in his mouth. One minute they were loose and still in there, the next he came running excitedly to tell us he’d lost a tooth! Like, actually lost the tooth and didn’t know where it was but would the tooth fairy come anyway?!? 

Now we are on “loose tooth watch” and hoping to not let this next one get away like the others before it. 

Phin On the Daily
Phin's big family trip to India was the gem in December's crown—the whole year, for that matter! But he also got to do some other awesome things this month, like hang out with his buddies Miles, Carson, and Aspen at one of our favorite events of the year—the CURE holiday party, followed closely by another newly favorite event of the year—the LLS holiday party for visionaries where he got to hang out with Aspen again. He rounded out the month celebrating Christmas at home with his sisters! 

Phorever Thankphul

Hey there, Phin phans!

Dustin here with an update on Phin for November, a month that turned out to be super busy. There were good times, like when Phin got to travel to see relatives who live far away for Diwali and Thanksgiving. There were bad times, like when we had to say goodbye to his Great Uncle John, beloved by all, who passed away several weeks ago in New York after a long illness. It was a month where we were often reminded not to take anything for granted. 

Let's get into it.      

Phin at a tree-lighting ceremony

Milestones & Memories 
It wasn't a very pleasant milestone, but Phin got his first filling at the dentist's office a few days ago. His oncologist cautioned us that this might be a thing for him. Behold the wonders of the interconnected systems comprising the human body. You probably wouldn't guess that cancer patients who get chemo might have weaker tooth enamel, as the chemo (the kind Phin got) drips into the bloodstream, and the enamel is already formed. But tooth enamel is preserved by the saliva and the oral microbiome, and when those get nuked by the chemo, the tooth enamel can be left vulnerable and cavities can form more easily. 

Or it could be he eats way too much candy and totally half-asses it when he brushes. Also solid possibilities.   

Anyway, he got the filling and it was no big deal. I say that like I'm the dude who had the drill in his mouth. He took it like a champ, though. He's had worse. 

Medical Updates

Phin is between clinic visits, so no official medical updates right now. He did get sick for a few days just before Thanksgiving, but we think that was just a stomach bug or something. 

There are few things that parents who have more than one kid dread more than having a sickness tear through the house and put everybody down for the count at once. But a strange thing happens when you have a kid who's in remission and they get sick. You find yourself hoping that someone else gets sick, too, just so you can reassure yourself that it's not relapse, that the unspeakable hasn't happened, that the cancer hasn't returned. 

You hear that thermometer beep with a fever reading and think, Okay, this is nothing to worry about. Kids get sick sometimes. It's normal. Then, later that day, the kid throws up. This has got to be the thing that's going around at the school, you think. But is it? You can't be certain. That uncertainty grabs hold of the loose thread that's always dangling from the sweater of your mind, and then it pulls. Then, finally, blessedly, somebody else in your home spikes a fever and starts projectile blasting it out of both ends, and the next thing you know you're down on your hands and knees trying to scrub it all out of the carpet with such an overpowering sense of relief and gratitude in your heart, knowing that even though multiple people you love are doing their impression of a crap-filled donut being run over by a dirt bike and it's extremely likely that you're up next, it's not the worst thing that could happen. 

It's not even close. 

Phin On the Daily

Phin finished his theater class. Here he is with his classmates at their final performance.

He visited his Uncles Kiran and Srinivas and attended their Diwali celebration with his sisters. 

The aforementioned (probably in too much detail) stomach bug greatly abbreviated Phin's cross-country trip back to my hometown to spend Thanksgiving week with his grandmother and relatives, but he made it for a very brief visit. 

Christmas Wish's 25th Anniversary

Our friend, Mark Robertson, is once again reading Christmas Wish letters at 98.7 the River. It's the 25th year for Christmas Wish, which provides assistance at the holidays for Savannah-area families who have been affected by cancer.  

Image from 98.7 The River

Some of the Christmas Wish letters that Mark reads were penned by pediatric oncology nurses who cared for Phin while he was in treatment last year. (I type this with tears streaming down my face, having just read such a letter by Phin's nurse friend, Anna, about a baby named Latarian who is currently in her care. 

In one of the eeriest circumstances of my life, I made a post on social media about my admiration for Mark and 98.7 the River's Christmas Wish program back in 2017. The thought of this man reading on air those letters about children with cancer, knowing full well how difficult it would be to get through them, seemed heroic. (It seems even more heroic now.) I had no idea back then that our baby, Phin, who was only six months old at the time, would one day be living in that hospital, hooked up to the same machines, taking the same medicines, fighting the same enemy. At the time I wrote that post, Phin was a happy, healthy, thriving kid. He was a happy, healthy, and thriving kid for the next four years, until one day, suddenly, he wasn't, and we found ourselves living in the world described in the letters Mark reads on the radio every holiday season. I didn't know then how close we were to that world. 

98.7 The River's Christmas Wish QR code 

No. That isn't right. 

What I mean is, I didn't fully understand then that there is no "that world." There is only this world, and we're all already in it, whether we always choose to notice it or not. Thank you, Mark, for reminding us of that. And thank you, Anna and the rest of the nurses and pediatric oncology team who've written Christmas Wish letters. They are wonderful. 

If you'd like to donate to Christmas Wish, or to read the letters about the affected families, here's a QR code that will take you where you need to go. 

Child Life's Wish List at CHOS

Phin playing in the Child Life playroom last year

When Phin was a patient at the Children's Hospital, one of the best parts of his day was when he'd get to visit the playroom down the hall from the pediatric specialties unit. 

The Child Life specialists in charge of the playroom try to keep it stocked with new toys, games, art supplies, and activities for the kids undergoing treatment. Every kid in the children's hospital benefits from Child Life's care, but for kids who are undergoing long in-patient stays, Child Life and its facilities and resources are especially important. 

Child Life wish list QR code

Thanks once again to the many Phin phans who ordered off the Child Life wish list and sent them toys and presents while Phin was in the hospital.

For those who'd like to support Child Life and their ongoing work, here's a QR code to their wish list once again. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, everyone. Thanks for following along. Thanks for being there. 

We're thankful for you.  

Phin in Fall

Hey there, Phin Phans! Dustin here with an update for October. Let's go!  

Milestones

This is a new section of our blog, added to acknowledge and remember some of the milestones, anniversaries, and other occasions in Phin's life. Although some of them will no doubt seem pretty trivial, there was a time not very long ago when we didn't even dare to imagine them. We couldn't pry our gaze away from the present and cast it into the future for even an instant, out of concern that we'd miss something, or out of fear for what we'd discover there. If you've ever been close to someone who's gone through a serious illness, you probably know what that feels like. Sometimes hope can be a heavy lift. When you get to see something happen that you were afraid to hope for in the first place, it feels like a gift.

It is a gift.

So here we go! It was a year ago this month that Phin returned to school. He'd gotten discharged from the children's hospital in August, but his immune system was so fried that he wasn't cleared to join his classmates in kindergarten for almost two more months. When he did rejoin them, he lasted just a few days before falling ill and returning home...again and again for a good portion of Kindergarten. He was susceptible to everything. At this juncture of the school year, he is the only one of our three kids who has NOT been absent due to illness.

Medical Updates

Phin went for his every-two-months clinic visit at the beginning of October. The results that came back looked great! Phin got the green light to move to every-four-months for clinic visits. The next time he’s scheduled to go to the clinic is February of 2024. 

As I sat down to write this update, I opened the app that has Phin’s medical history and called up his chart. I won’t violate his privacy by reproducing those images here, but imagine a column full of abbreviations like “WBC” and “RBC,” and words like “Platelets” beside a line with two yellow ends indicating low and high ranges and a green center that indicates normal range. The line for each entry has an arrow to show the patient’s (Phin’s) level when the sample was taken. While he was in treatment, these lines and arrows were how we planned our days. They would appear in his chart in the app first thing every morning, the results from a sample drawn through Phin’s CVC, often without his even noticing. Neesha and I would watch them each day the way we always watch the graphic on the weather chart whenever a hurricane is swirling offshore, as if to say, “It looks like we’re safe for now, but for how much longer?”

Every day, the report would come. Every day, it was like we got to peek into his bloodstream and see what kind of cells might be swimming around in there. We’d scan those bloodwork updates like Captain Ahab would scan the waves – endlessly, obsessively. 

Phin’s “graduation” to every-four-months clinic visits is great news. It suggests his oncology team is pleased with his progress and confident that they can monitor him a little less closely. Phin is definitely happy about not having to get stuck in the arm quite so often. We’re all extremely happy about it. 

I already miss those bloodwork updates, though. I always wonder. We spotted a bruise on Phin’s knee the other night when he was in the bathtub. He’d been jumping in a bouncy house and running around outside for hours getting knocked around by other kids at the neighborhood Halloween party earlier that day. That one bruise was all we found, and he didn’t have the paleness, lethargy, weird fevers, or loss of appetite. 

Just a little bruise on the knee, nothing more. 

Pretty sure that’s what we’ll be telling ourselves every day until February, 2024.

Phin On the Daily 

Phin and Aspen are teaming up again! 

They'll both be serving as honored heroes of the year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Visionary of the Year campaign. They got together this month to meet the candidates and inspire them as they prepare to raise funds to support the LLS and the vital work that it does. When Phin and Aspen met up for the first time in months at the LLS Launch Party, it was as if no time had passed at all between visits, like they'd wandered down the hall on a healthier day on the pediatric oncology unit of Memorial and began an impromptu game of hide-n-go-seek with one another in the hallway. Aspen's dad rightfully acknowledged that they will be lifelong friends. Their level of comfort and familiarity with one another will likely be unmatched by any other friendship they may have.

Phin visited two pumpkin patches this year (one with his family and one with his class) and is finishing up his musical theater class at the Savannah Children's Theater. Spoiler alert on the theater class: "There's just not enough running involved!" Which is to say, he enjoys the class, but he wishes he got to run around all crazy. So he's likely going to wait to make his triumphant return when he's 7 and can be cast as "an animal of some sort" in a production.

Maybe there'll be a Looney Tunes production that needs a Tasmanian Devil.... 

While we are celebrating and relishing in each healthy moment Phin lives, we--and Phin, especially--have not forgotten our friends who continue to battle every day. Right now, we are talking a lot about our friend Myles, who has been in treatment for a brain tumor for a year and a quarter. Myles is Phin's older sister Avonlie's age. He and Phin attended the same school last year and were diagnosed mere months apart with their separate cancer diagnoses. Over the summer, Myles's tumor stopped responding to treatment, and he is now heading off to St. Jude's, where he will remain for a month, to begin a new treatment plan. Please keep Myles and his family in your prayers. 

We need more research, more options, and more cures for our children. To help be an advocate for this important work, Neesha has volunteered to help plan CURE Childhood Cancer's Catie's Gathering event, which will be held in Feb. 2024. Each year, CURE hosts this fundraiser and funds raised from this event go directly toward research that helps children, like Myles, right here. Last year, in part because of the funds CURE raised, Myles was able to be properly diagnosed and treated for his cancer. Last year's event raised $255,000+ without seats selling to capacity. Imagine how much more we could raise and do with everyone's help!

Seth and Phin's Lady Gaga table at Catie's Gathering, 2023

Catie's Gathering is an event where a seat at a table is $100. Each table has a theme (decided by the host/hostess of that table). There are live and silent auctions, as well as sponsorship opportunities, and a VIP tent. If you would like to host a table, find a seat at a table, if you would like to donate an item or even offer sponsorship for this event, please reach out and let us know or sign up here.

The first time Neesha attended Catie's Gathering was four years before Phin's leukemia diagnosis. Four blissful years before we were met with some of the worst news about our son that we could have ever imagined. In 2018, we never conceived that one day our family would be the recipient of the important work CURE does (we have mentioned in previous posts how consistent they were in supporting us throughout Phin's treatment and after--bringing meals, companionship, toys, reprieve...).

If you or your company are looking for a meaningful, truly tangible way of making a charitable donation, please consider CURE where the money raised goes directly back into the community members who need it most: our children. 

Finally, let's wrap this post up with a couple of things from Halloween. Here's Phin in his school's character parade. 

Phin and his sisters came to where I teach and passed out candy to my students. I was wearing a hot dog costume. He drew this on the dry erase board before he left. 

September ...not exactly a mouthphul

Hey there, Phin phans!

Phin's been up to more stuff this September than stuffing his mouth full of marshmallows...

...but he's also got a clinic visit in a couple of days, so we're going to hold off for a bit on posting a long update until we get those numbers back. 

Stay tuned, and thank you, pham!

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!

Phinishing Summer, Starting Phirst Grade

Hey there, Phin phans! Dustin here with an update on Phin for July. There's a lot going on next month, since August is when Phin goes in for his bimonthly blood draw, as well as for a battery of tests and scans required by the chemotherapy experiment in which he was enrolled. Plus, August 17 is his first anniversary of ringing the bell and coming home, and you can bet we'll want to pause and reflect on that. But for now, let's get caught up on what Phin's been doing this summer!

Everyone who's reading this with a functional immune system, take a moment and let it know how much you appreciate it. Without it, stuff like bug bites, scrapes, and contact with dirt, sand, and untreated water would all be a lot more problematic. One of the biggest threats to people who have cancer besides, uh, the cancer, is infection. This time last year, that was all we could think about. Even after Phin left the hospital, we tried to be super-cautious. His immune system got rocked so hard through his chemo admissions that it took months for his counts to look normal again, and we heard many tragic stories of kids who had their cancer on its heels but then got taken out by germs that they would have been able to fight off if they'd only had stronger immune systems at the time.  

Needless to say, it had been a minute since Phin played at the beach or went in the ocean. This month, however, he made his return. His grandparents live very close to the beach, and Phin spent about a week earlier this month hanging out there with his cousins and other relatives for his grandmother's birthday. He spent his days digging in the sand, boogieboarding, splashing in the surf...basically just living his best life.  

I might be burying the lede here, though, because none of that would have been as cool if he hadn't learned how to swim this month! He made progress back in June, but in July, he got it. Not like, fight-a-riptide got it, but "got it" to the level that now it's no big deal when a wave picks him up or slaps him under. In the pool, he's advanced to the point that if he's dropped into deep water, he can swim to the side and climb out. This is a small victory, sure. But it's kind of like him getting to play at the beach because he has an immune system again. It's one more thing that he gets to do that we don't have to worry quite as much about for the moment. Something bad could still happen, but that's not as likely now. Any excuse not to worry quite as much, I'm for. I know I'm usually all about the hypervigilance because it's been my jam since this all started, but listen, this regular vigilance thing is just amazing. It's like, the same bold alertness flavor, same subtle notes of wariness and concern, but without the sparking wire of panic buzzing right between the teeth. 10/10 highly recommend!

Anyway, to get back to what's been going on in July, Phin's Granny is known for doing a whole lot of adventures and activities on her birthday week, and this year Phin got to be there for it. Kayaking...pirating...minigolfing.... He was in it to Phin it!   

 

Also in July, Phin lost his first tooth! I'll let him tell it. 

Finally, Phin started first grade this month...which, I know, it's still July. Let me just say that my generation would never have stood for this when we were kids and we 100% would have burned this whole mother down at the mere suggestion of going back to school in July, but apparently this is where we are now, and one day these kids will have to explain why they hung their heads and took it instead of answering the call to revolution.

That said, though, Phin had a really great first week at school! Here he is with his sisters (and Neesha) on day one. We're hoping it's going to be a good year! 

Medical Updates

None this month. Stay tuned, though. 

Thanks, Phin phans. 

  

 

Phin's Newphound Summer Phreedom

Welcome back, Phin Phans, as we wrap up month ten of Phin (and Aspen, if you're wondering) in remission. Saying or typing that will never ever get old.

And what a month this has been! Phin and his Pepop (my dad--Neesha here, btw) spent their first actual birthday together since Phin's third birthday. The last two years they've been doing battle with their own respective forms of cancer but this birthday they blew out their candles together and in remission. The birthday celebration was for them, but it felt like it was as much for the rest of us, as well.

With his newfound summer freedom, Phin wanted to do everything, make up for all the fun he couldn't take part in last summer. Because he missed his sisters' shows last summer, he wanted to see every single performance this summer; because he was in the middle of a soccer season when he was diagnosed with cancer last year, he wanted to return to the pitch this year. In the spirit of this, he attended soccer camp the first week of June with his oldest sister, then caught every performance of Frozen Jr. to cheer on Obelia that weekend.

Two weeks later, he attended almost every performance of Avonlie's. He only missed one because the same weekend Av performed in Lion King Jr., Phin's good friend Miles turned six, too. (June is a pretty special month, right?)

He and Obelia also attended Oatland Camp. It was at about day two of that, as he climbed into the backseat during pickup he asked, "How many more days do I have of Amazing Animals camp?" 

"About three more?" 

"But, Mama, why didn't you sign me up for more? For the whole summer? For every week?" 

To absolutely no one's surprise, he loved it. In our defense, you can only sign up for two weeks at Oatland's summer camp. Next year we will most definitely be signing him up for the max.

Phin is also, to his dismay and occasional delight, learning to swim. He can kick and paddle with impressive strength, even managing to keep his head completely out of the water as he swims from the middle of the pool where he can't stand to the side, screaming the whole way that he "wants to hug Mama" because, let's face it, who wouldn't rather hug their mother than stick their face in the water when one really hates putting one's face in water? 

He hasn't broken his swim instructor's will to keep teaching swim just yet, so we're hopeful he'll be face-in-water swimming before the summer ends.

Seeing Phin in water like this is another thing that never gets old. A year ago today, Dustin had just returned to stay with Phin in the children's hospital to tag out Aunt Seale (forever our hero!) after spending a week in quarantine, I was on my second week isolated at home with his two then-Covid-positive sisters, and it had been almost 90 days since Phin had bathed with anything but antiseptic wipes, much less taken a bath with actual water or been submersed in a pool. Such was the level of caution we needed to observe to maximize his odds of survival in his immunocompromised state. For a boy who hearkens to the siren songs of puddles and water balloons, it was a time of great austerity.

But now, look at him back in the water. Look at him go!

Phin also got to catch up with his buddy Miles, who also celebrated his 6th birthday this month. Miles arrived in the children's hospital for his first round of chemo as Phin was starting his final round, and the two were next door neighbors last July and August. Their treatments are different (Miles was diagnosed with ALL; Phin was diagnosed with AML). The kind of treatment Miles has to do is spread out over several years. He was shaking off the effects of a spinal tap when we rolled up to his birthday party, which should tell you just about everything you need to know about the strength and resilience of this individual. Phin had a wonderful time helping him celebrate. It's always a good time when they get together. 

Also, big congratulations to Miles and his brother for earning their orange stripes in karate this month. Awesome job, guys!

Finally, at the end of June we were honored when Rik Zortman, the humanetchasketch™, and his wife, Lisa, visited, and Rik ran Phin's name on the streets of Savannah. Rik lost his three-year-old son, Armstrong, to brain cancer in 2009. Since then, Rik has honored Armstrong's memory by running the names of others affected by cancer, using GPS to trace the letters in the path Rik runs. He has spelled names in all 99 counties in Iowa and in two other countries, and now he is out to do all 50 states in the U.S. Meeting Rik and Lisa was an absolute delight, and it was extremely cool to be a part of what he's doing. Phin was absolutely thrilled when he saw his name. Check out the news story about it here. 

And if you'd like to request a name for Rik to run, you can do that here.   

Medical updates:
There are no medical updates to speak of this month. Phin's next scheduled clinic visit is at the beginning of August, just after school starts again.