Step One

We're now ending day three of what can no longer be considered a horrendous nightmare; the reality of this is hard striking. No one will deny the surreal experience of receiving news that Reid, a strapping handsome nineteen year old who couldn't shake a bad case of strep throat - in fact, has an acute leukemia - with the specific diagnosis yet to arrive (due to the slow down of labs during the long holiday weekend. We're at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland in the Oncology Unit.