From the 615 to the 617

We’ve had a fantastic several days exploring Boston. My 18 y/o niece, Shaffer, flew up here to visit and to bring me my baby girl, Wren. (12 is still a baby, right?)

Victoria and I were SO happy to see them and to have some visitors to keep us company! Victoria and Shaffer did some shopping on Newbury St. while I took Wrennie to an urgent care. Unfortunately, she arrived with double ear infections and was in excruciating pain from the flight. She didn’t feel well enough to come on every adventure with us, but after some meds and good sleep, she’s finally on the mend.

We went to the WNDR museum, which was equally as amazing as the one in Chicago, cheered on the Celtics with the rest of the city, took a Duck Boat tour, went to see MJ The Musical, and walked around the beautiful, old streets of Beacon Hill.

It was a wonderful change of pace from the past two weeks of being apartment-bound during Victoria’s recovery.

We found out that Victoria’s next surgery is on July 16th, which happens to be my late father’s (her namesake's) birthday. We think that’s a wonderful date for the doctors to rid Victoria of the rest of her tumor.🩷

She’ll have more bloodwork done next week and then another brain MRI before the surgery. So far, things are going as smoothly as possible for Victoria, and we look forward to exploring even more of this beautiful city.

Keep the prayers coming. Please especially pray for all those living with rare cancers and other diseases. The rarer the disease, the less attention, funding, and research it receives. We understand that putting more funding and research into the more common cancers is the logical thing to do, but I keep hearing from people with rare diseases whose programs are being shut down due to lack of funding. The only way these people can survive is to have clinical trials conducted so they can benefit from new drugs and treatment options. No one should have to hear the words, “we’re so sorry, but there are no other options available at this time.” Those conducting the research for the rare cancers and diseases could inadvertently be the ones who discover cures for the most common cancers. Pray for everyone to have the same resources, answers, and interest in their cases. We are all humans beings of equal value and we are all responsible for each other.

Much love to all of you!

Paige, Travis, Victoria, and Wren