Flu, flu, gotta swine flu
Gotta swine flu --
How 'bout you?
I wish I could blame that bit of nattering on drugs of some sort, but alas I'm not even on cough syrup at the moment. Sleep deprivation, though, is a definite possibility.
The last hold-out in our household finally succumbed to whatever had been ailing Z, then me, then her big brother for the last few weeks. Miss K was fine when she woke up from her nap on Weds, and a half hour later BAM!! 102.8 degree fever. Which climbed up to 103.7 before the ibuprofen kicked in...we had just gotten paid, so we were able to take Miss K to the doctor (a luxury her brother and I did not have -- Daddy had his appointment and meds nearly a week before A started feeling crappy, and we just didn't have it to take A in at that point...Z's actually at his follow-up appointment right now so we'll know for sure what he was dealing with).
But we DO know what K has. Congratulations! K has H1N1, a fever we've been trying to keep under 104 (104.2 is the highest so far), and some rather pricey medicine. It was a long night last night. We have been hit so hard here in this area there is no more liquid TamiFlu available in a large radius around us, so I have to take adult capsules, mix the contents in a specific amount of liquid (apple juice), and then only give a portion of that to K, discarding the rest. (In our county, 99% of all flu and cold-like issues are actually H1N1, according to our county's health department which is tracking things like mad, especially in the elementary schools). K's been doing much better today, hovering around the 101 degree mark, although she's napping at the moment and I haven't checked her in about an hour or so.
Her congestion is actually concerning us more than the fever at this point...she sounds like she's swallowed mud and is breathing through it. So, prayers over the next few days are appreciated, K is taking this much worse than any of the rest of us did. T'anks.
There really will be a "Ketchup" post soon...but it may be another week, depending on how K is doing.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Greetings!
Just to let you all know, I have just gotten a computer that I can use to update the ol' blog.
It's been, what, two months?
Don't have time to do much more than say "I'm still here!"
More to come. Soon...probably Monday.
But I'm back! And there's lots to update you on -- our 1800-mile trek back to MD; A's kindergarten experiences; the play-doh blue our tenants painted our living room, among other interesting discoveries in the house...
Soon.
It's been, what, two months?
Don't have time to do much more than say "I'm still here!"
More to come. Soon...probably Monday.
But I'm back! And there's lots to update you on -- our 1800-mile trek back to MD; A's kindergarten experiences; the play-doh blue our tenants painted our living room, among other interesting discoveries in the house...
Soon.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Sorry, Wrong Number
We have discovered why we hadn't heard back from the hospital about Z's manogram yet: they put the wrong prefix on the phone number. Our area code for his cell is 240; the local area code is 254. The lady taking down the information was either on autopilot or thought Z had mispoken, so the phone number they had was not correct.
After two weeks of playing phone tag with the hospital and his PCM, we finally heard from the surgeon late yesterday.
Results:
There is a tumor present, but it does not have the resonance signature of a cancerous tumor.
Now we have to wait until Monday to find out what they plan to do with it.
BUT this is Great! Fabulous! Terrific! news.
Other news that's making our collective heads spin: we are moving back to Maryland, in two weeks. Due to some unexpected events involving our tenants, we are going back home to take possession of our house and eliminate paying for two places at the same time. Our tenants were supposed to be in the Maryland house until the end of next March, when they were going to be purchasing it. We were not planning to renew their lease. After discovering they would be unable to purchase the house, they gave us their thirty days' notice to be out on the first of August. They have a large family and finding suitable living quarters can be a challenge for them, so when they found something they jumped on it.
Our house is in no condition to get a new tenant at this time, so back to Maryland we go. We have actually gotten phone calls from two different people -- one neighbor, one friend from church -- in the last week expressing some concerns about our property. We're not entirely certain what we're about to walk into. Our lease in TX runs out in September, so at least that part is easy. Z will have to stay in TX until work can move him up here, though, so he may be sleeping on couches for a while.
Initially it was looking like he'd be in TX until March of next year, but an opening has occurred in the D.C. area and hopefully Z will slide into it by the end of September so we can be a family again. Z will continue working with the church here until he leaves.
We have accomplished what we came to Texas to do as far as getting the new church started, we have done all we can do at this point. Any future progress is out of our hands; it's up to the people who say they want this church to get rolling. Ball's in their court to do what needs to be done.
It's still surreal and such short notice, but luckily I can pack things in my sleep. This makes move #21 for me (in 32 years) and #26 for my husband. Guess our military brat pedigrees (and six years as a military wife) come in handy once again, right? There is still the "freak out" element present, though. I do that really well, too.
Our kids are actually excited to be heading back up there. A gets a little grin on his face when we mention moving back to Maryland, and K flat out shrieked with joy the first time we told her. Now she asks multiple times daily if we're "going to Maryland today?"
We are hoping beyond hope that we will land in one place and just stay there for a while. Contrary to popular belief, we do not actually enjoy moving. We moved twice in Maryland -- once to a home closer to Z's work, because he was getting up at 3:45 in the morning and getting home close to 9 p.m. and by moving closer he could sleep in until 5:00 and get home around 7 -- more family and sleep time. Then we moved a couple of years after that because we'd bought a house; Z was getting out of the military and we were planning on staying put for a long time.
We said when we bought the house that we were there unless God Himself moved us. Famous last words, she said, as the H family drove to Texas a year later...
Sooo -- now we're coming back, hopefully for good this time. Both Z and I really love western Maryland, from the people we have befriended to the gorgeous scenery. At the risk of sounding like a complete freak, the land out there just has a beautiful, peaceful spirit about it, whether you're at the river or up hiking through the mountains. Maryland feels like home. It's the first place either Z or I have felt that way about, in all of our moving around.
And, hey! Maybe I can have that garden and chooks yet. I think the chickens will have to wait at least a year, though, until we can get everything squared away with the house. I suspect that repainting will be on "the list"; we're hoping drywall repair and replacement flooring are not on "the list".
If we can swing it, one of the things we'd like to do in late fall would be to take down the "office tile" ceilings and put up good ol' drywall ceilings. That will make a tremendous difference in our abilities to insulate and soundproof, because the ceiling tiles we currently have are rated at about a 2 to a 4 as far as R-value goes, and it's not so easy to put in insulation over a ceiling with a bunch of cracks and holes in it.
It will also look about a thousand times better, which will do wonders for my mood. Amazing how aesthetics can do that. I'm not a fancy schmancy person, but I would like things to at least have a nice finished look. Some of the tiles have holes in them, and whoever installed them didn't put the frame in straight, so we have a crooked grid all over our ceiling with views of the roof around the edges of some of the tiles. It's just enough off to irritate me. Functional, yes, but not energy efficient, and they're ugh - lee.
My husband believes that every house needs an ugly something, if for nothing else then as a conversation piece. Perhaps we'll leave the genuine circa 1960's scalloped wooden cornice in the living room for him...that way I can update the kitchen and ceilings and still have an ugly thing for Z. Or maybe not.
After two weeks of playing phone tag with the hospital and his PCM, we finally heard from the surgeon late yesterday.
Results:
There is a tumor present, but it does not have the resonance signature of a cancerous tumor.
Now we have to wait until Monday to find out what they plan to do with it.
BUT this is Great! Fabulous! Terrific! news.
Other news that's making our collective heads spin: we are moving back to Maryland, in two weeks. Due to some unexpected events involving our tenants, we are going back home to take possession of our house and eliminate paying for two places at the same time. Our tenants were supposed to be in the Maryland house until the end of next March, when they were going to be purchasing it. We were not planning to renew their lease. After discovering they would be unable to purchase the house, they gave us their thirty days' notice to be out on the first of August. They have a large family and finding suitable living quarters can be a challenge for them, so when they found something they jumped on it.
Our house is in no condition to get a new tenant at this time, so back to Maryland we go. We have actually gotten phone calls from two different people -- one neighbor, one friend from church -- in the last week expressing some concerns about our property. We're not entirely certain what we're about to walk into. Our lease in TX runs out in September, so at least that part is easy. Z will have to stay in TX until work can move him up here, though, so he may be sleeping on couches for a while.
Initially it was looking like he'd be in TX until March of next year, but an opening has occurred in the D.C. area and hopefully Z will slide into it by the end of September so we can be a family again. Z will continue working with the church here until he leaves.
We have accomplished what we came to Texas to do as far as getting the new church started, we have done all we can do at this point. Any future progress is out of our hands; it's up to the people who say they want this church to get rolling. Ball's in their court to do what needs to be done.
It's still surreal and such short notice, but luckily I can pack things in my sleep. This makes move #21 for me (in 32 years) and #26 for my husband. Guess our military brat pedigrees (and six years as a military wife) come in handy once again, right? There is still the "freak out" element present, though. I do that really well, too.
Our kids are actually excited to be heading back up there. A gets a little grin on his face when we mention moving back to Maryland, and K flat out shrieked with joy the first time we told her. Now she asks multiple times daily if we're "going to Maryland today?"
We are hoping beyond hope that we will land in one place and just stay there for a while. Contrary to popular belief, we do not actually enjoy moving. We moved twice in Maryland -- once to a home closer to Z's work, because he was getting up at 3:45 in the morning and getting home close to 9 p.m. and by moving closer he could sleep in until 5:00 and get home around 7 -- more family and sleep time. Then we moved a couple of years after that because we'd bought a house; Z was getting out of the military and we were planning on staying put for a long time.
We said when we bought the house that we were there unless God Himself moved us. Famous last words, she said, as the H family drove to Texas a year later...
Sooo -- now we're coming back, hopefully for good this time. Both Z and I really love western Maryland, from the people we have befriended to the gorgeous scenery. At the risk of sounding like a complete freak, the land out there just has a beautiful, peaceful spirit about it, whether you're at the river or up hiking through the mountains. Maryland feels like home. It's the first place either Z or I have felt that way about, in all of our moving around.
And, hey! Maybe I can have that garden and chooks yet. I think the chickens will have to wait at least a year, though, until we can get everything squared away with the house. I suspect that repainting will be on "the list"; we're hoping drywall repair and replacement flooring are not on "the list".
If we can swing it, one of the things we'd like to do in late fall would be to take down the "office tile" ceilings and put up good ol' drywall ceilings. That will make a tremendous difference in our abilities to insulate and soundproof, because the ceiling tiles we currently have are rated at about a 2 to a 4 as far as R-value goes, and it's not so easy to put in insulation over a ceiling with a bunch of cracks and holes in it.
It will also look about a thousand times better, which will do wonders for my mood. Amazing how aesthetics can do that. I'm not a fancy schmancy person, but I would like things to at least have a nice finished look. Some of the tiles have holes in them, and whoever installed them didn't put the frame in straight, so we have a crooked grid all over our ceiling with views of the roof around the edges of some of the tiles. It's just enough off to irritate me. Functional, yes, but not energy efficient, and they're ugh - lee.
My husband believes that every house needs an ugly something, if for nothing else then as a conversation piece. Perhaps we'll leave the genuine circa 1960's scalloped wooden cornice in the living room for him...that way I can update the kitchen and ceilings and still have an ugly thing for Z. Or maybe not.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Dog Days
We are in the dog days of summer -- we've had over 30 days of temperatures 100 degrees or higher this year. That does not include the days that it is, say, a balmy 98 degrees with a heat index of 109; those simply don't count. Who does that counting stuff anyway? By my book, those heat indices should count.
We have only had a couple of days dipping below the 100 mark since June 1st, but you really can feel a difference when it does. Hopefully the tease the weatherman threw us about Friday and Saturday will actually happen: highs 97 to 99 with a chance of thunderstorms. I sure hope so; we're so dry we've been pretty much under a constant burn ban for our county, and our air conditioning system running full blast only keeps it between 85 and 90 inside, depending on the external temperature. It also freezes up a couple of times every day, and we have to switch it to "fan" for a while to melt all the ice -- about 10 minutes generally does it -- before turning the air conditioner setting back on.
A is in ESY summer school through the middle of next week. It's hot enough that if his bus is only 4 minutes late, it's enough to exhaust you. Luckily the bus is air conditioned, so A is just fine once he's on board. He's loving school and is actually doing the work now that his teacher has learned what he's capable of, and A has learned that his teacher isn't a pushover.
K has sprouted like a weed and is actually fitting into 3T clothing comfortably; when we arrived here in March, she turned three but was still wearing 24 month clothing. We're thrilled she's catching up to others in her age group, but are having to alter our clothing schedule of hand-me-downs and reassess her needs for this fall. (Based on her past growth times we figured it would take until at least November to even keep the 3's up on her butt, but she's surprised us all. And she's tall and thin, not a chunk at all).
In other news, there is a disturbing practice in this town that, while it's present in a lot of places in the United States, is made exponentially worse here where there are a lot of military moves. What I'm referring to is animal dumping. People find out they're moving across the country or out of the country, take the collar off their animals, and boot them out the front door to fend for themselves.
I was so angry when I came back home from my walk this morning -- I'd seen yet another dog, a yellow lab this time, that was so thin you could see every one of its ribs and vertebrae wandering the streets looking for shade and water. If you call the local animal authorities, you get a wearied response that they'll canvas the area sometime in the new few days and try to pick them up. They get so many calls and don't have the staff to keep up with it all. We also have rabies and other diseases running rampant due to the large feral animal population, too, so I didn't dare approach the poor beast.
We are now taking care of a black lab that showed up at our house about a month ago in a similar situation. She had no collar, and despite calling around, asking neighbors, and posting a notice in the paper we have had no "hits". She was never quite skin and bones, but she has filled out nicely since her time with us. So sweet, puts up with all K's attentions, and is well trained. We didn't even get a leash for her until last week, on Saturday, because she stays at your knee when you walk and will stop when you do. If she wanders all you have to do is pat your leg or say, "Come", and she's instantly back.
She does not bark at people coming to the door or other dogs outside our fence either, which is strange but really great at the same time. She is an awesome dog, someone lost a really good one. The only possible issue that we've discovered is she loves to dig -- especially in my big tub that houses my zucchini plant. She gets along fantastically well with our male Siberian Husky -- once she set him straight that chicks don't like guys all up in their junk all the time.
When we took the collar and leash out of the store bag on Saturday, her butt hit the floor and her tail started wagging so hard it looked like she'd wag it clear off. She is so happy to have a collar, and I think she knows that she has a family again. I took her for a walk on the leash for the first time Monday morning and she was so excited when I pulled it out she was jumping up and down and wriggling her entire body. She pranced along past all the fenced dogs on our route with her head high and her tail out behind her all pretty, smiling the whole time.
Z and I ran through every dog's name we could think of (and made up a few out of desperation) just to see if she'd answer to something. All of our attempts were dismal failures. We asked the kids what they'd like to name her, to include them in the process because we can't just keep calling her "dog". A's contributions were "black dog" and "water". K came up with the dog's name, mostly because she most emphatically refuses to call her anything else. Our new pooch now has the most unlikely moniker of, "Princess". Smart dog, it only took her 2 days to start answering to it.
So, "Princess" is now sporting a lovely red collar and a tag with her name and our phone numbers engraved on it, and has a red leash to match.
As far as we can tell, she has never been fixed; neither has Mischa. Z and I were contemplating this the other day and are wondering just what any puppies would look like if they occurred between a male Siberian Husky and a female Labrador Retriever. The pups would likely be uglier than homemade sin, but have fabulous personalities. My mother suggested that we could call any offspring "Labrarians".
....yeah....
That tidbit of family knowledge probably gives you all some valuable insight into why I am the way I am.
We have only had a couple of days dipping below the 100 mark since June 1st, but you really can feel a difference when it does. Hopefully the tease the weatherman threw us about Friday and Saturday will actually happen: highs 97 to 99 with a chance of thunderstorms. I sure hope so; we're so dry we've been pretty much under a constant burn ban for our county, and our air conditioning system running full blast only keeps it between 85 and 90 inside, depending on the external temperature. It also freezes up a couple of times every day, and we have to switch it to "fan" for a while to melt all the ice -- about 10 minutes generally does it -- before turning the air conditioner setting back on.
A is in ESY summer school through the middle of next week. It's hot enough that if his bus is only 4 minutes late, it's enough to exhaust you. Luckily the bus is air conditioned, so A is just fine once he's on board. He's loving school and is actually doing the work now that his teacher has learned what he's capable of, and A has learned that his teacher isn't a pushover.
K has sprouted like a weed and is actually fitting into 3T clothing comfortably; when we arrived here in March, she turned three but was still wearing 24 month clothing. We're thrilled she's catching up to others in her age group, but are having to alter our clothing schedule of hand-me-downs and reassess her needs for this fall. (Based on her past growth times we figured it would take until at least November to even keep the 3's up on her butt, but she's surprised us all. And she's tall and thin, not a chunk at all).
In other news, there is a disturbing practice in this town that, while it's present in a lot of places in the United States, is made exponentially worse here where there are a lot of military moves. What I'm referring to is animal dumping. People find out they're moving across the country or out of the country, take the collar off their animals, and boot them out the front door to fend for themselves.
I was so angry when I came back home from my walk this morning -- I'd seen yet another dog, a yellow lab this time, that was so thin you could see every one of its ribs and vertebrae wandering the streets looking for shade and water. If you call the local animal authorities, you get a wearied response that they'll canvas the area sometime in the new few days and try to pick them up. They get so many calls and don't have the staff to keep up with it all. We also have rabies and other diseases running rampant due to the large feral animal population, too, so I didn't dare approach the poor beast.
We are now taking care of a black lab that showed up at our house about a month ago in a similar situation. She had no collar, and despite calling around, asking neighbors, and posting a notice in the paper we have had no "hits". She was never quite skin and bones, but she has filled out nicely since her time with us. So sweet, puts up with all K's attentions, and is well trained. We didn't even get a leash for her until last week, on Saturday, because she stays at your knee when you walk and will stop when you do. If she wanders all you have to do is pat your leg or say, "Come", and she's instantly back.
She does not bark at people coming to the door or other dogs outside our fence either, which is strange but really great at the same time. She is an awesome dog, someone lost a really good one. The only possible issue that we've discovered is she loves to dig -- especially in my big tub that houses my zucchini plant. She gets along fantastically well with our male Siberian Husky -- once she set him straight that chicks don't like guys all up in their junk all the time.
When we took the collar and leash out of the store bag on Saturday, her butt hit the floor and her tail started wagging so hard it looked like she'd wag it clear off. She is so happy to have a collar, and I think she knows that she has a family again. I took her for a walk on the leash for the first time Monday morning and she was so excited when I pulled it out she was jumping up and down and wriggling her entire body. She pranced along past all the fenced dogs on our route with her head high and her tail out behind her all pretty, smiling the whole time.
Z and I ran through every dog's name we could think of (and made up a few out of desperation) just to see if she'd answer to something. All of our attempts were dismal failures. We asked the kids what they'd like to name her, to include them in the process because we can't just keep calling her "dog". A's contributions were "black dog" and "water". K came up with the dog's name, mostly because she most emphatically refuses to call her anything else. Our new pooch now has the most unlikely moniker of, "Princess". Smart dog, it only took her 2 days to start answering to it.
So, "Princess" is now sporting a lovely red collar and a tag with her name and our phone numbers engraved on it, and has a red leash to match.
As far as we can tell, she has never been fixed; neither has Mischa. Z and I were contemplating this the other day and are wondering just what any puppies would look like if they occurred between a male Siberian Husky and a female Labrador Retriever. The pups would likely be uglier than homemade sin, but have fabulous personalities. My mother suggested that we could call any offspring "Labrarians".
....yeah....
That tidbit of family knowledge probably gives you all some valuable insight into why I am the way I am.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wii UnFit
Sooooo.....we have a new Wii Fit in our household.
Thanks to a car wreck a little over 3 years ago and 4 abdominal surgeries in the last 5 years, two of which sliced me vertically from navel all the way down -- let's just say that my activity level hasn't been what it used to be, my right hip does NOT have a great range of motion, and my belly has far too much motion. Walking and subsisting on salads only does so much, so here goes a try at something else.
Initial impressions: the board thing is actually pretty sensitive, and I hate how it measures your BMI. Even if it's probably true. Ahem. Even if it is true... The Wii Fit actually picked up on the differences between my balance on my right and left sides, though, consistently through the different exercises.
Using the Wii Fit is actually pretty fun to do, but due to range of motion limitations I have discovered a difficulty with some activities, like the yoga "tree" pose where I have to raise the right leg (left is fine), and some of the balance games like the skiing. I overcompensate to the left, where I put most of my weight. My right side is now a couple of inches higher permanently due to the aforementioned wreck, so that makes sense. Makes walking and running interesting sometimes depending on the terrain...the more level it is, the better I am at maintaining balance. Hiking up mountains at this point is probably not the best idea because I will trip all over myself and innocent bystanders.
Who knows? Maybe this will help with what the months upon months of physical therapy didn't, or at least maintain what range of motion I've got remaining on the right side. At least it's fun, and my daughter tries to do the things standing next to me on the floor -- so not only will that keep her out of trouble, but she'll burn off some of that dadgum energy too.
Here's to a new venture!
Thanks to a car wreck a little over 3 years ago and 4 abdominal surgeries in the last 5 years, two of which sliced me vertically from navel all the way down -- let's just say that my activity level hasn't been what it used to be, my right hip does NOT have a great range of motion, and my belly has far too much motion. Walking and subsisting on salads only does so much, so here goes a try at something else.
Initial impressions: the board thing is actually pretty sensitive, and I hate how it measures your BMI. Even if it's probably true. Ahem. Even if it is true... The Wii Fit actually picked up on the differences between my balance on my right and left sides, though, consistently through the different exercises.
Using the Wii Fit is actually pretty fun to do, but due to range of motion limitations I have discovered a difficulty with some activities, like the yoga "tree" pose where I have to raise the right leg (left is fine), and some of the balance games like the skiing. I overcompensate to the left, where I put most of my weight. My right side is now a couple of inches higher permanently due to the aforementioned wreck, so that makes sense. Makes walking and running interesting sometimes depending on the terrain...the more level it is, the better I am at maintaining balance. Hiking up mountains at this point is probably not the best idea because I will trip all over myself and innocent bystanders.
Who knows? Maybe this will help with what the months upon months of physical therapy didn't, or at least maintain what range of motion I've got remaining on the right side. At least it's fun, and my daughter tries to do the things standing next to me on the floor -- so not only will that keep her out of trouble, but she'll burn off some of that dadgum energy too.
Here's to a new venture!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Taking it Easy
A started his summer school on Monday last week. He has a new teacher for the month-long summer session, and is slacking big time. I had to send a note in to his teacher to let him know that he could read quite well, and write some things too. A doesn't like to do the writing much because it's difficult for him, but we're getting there.
When he's motivated, he has started to write things down to tell us. For example, the other day when it was 105 actual temperature, with a heat index of 112, A went up to his sister's coloring tablet and wrote "hot", got his dad's attention, and pointed to it. We're thrilled and are hoping that his developing writing and reading skills will open a window to some communication that has been nonexistent up to this point. He routinely writes his first and last names using pencils without the pencil grip. We've graduated! Woo hoo! He also spells things using the letter magnets on the side of the fridge.
In other news, he's a bean pole. Tall and skinny boy, he can wear 6/7's if only we could find a belt small enough to keep them on his butt. Lengthwise it's no problem. He just turned 5 1/2.
School is only a half day in the summer, so A is enjoying playing with his sister both in the house and in our little inflatable pool that resides just off the back porch. A absolutely loves the water and will go completely underwater with no issues, strange given some of his sensory issues. K is also a little fish and likes to hold her breath and walk on her hands from one end of the ten-foot pool to the other. I also watch her like a hawk.
My birthday was yesterday, so I got a couple of gift cards to go purchase some veggies and flowers and plant them after all. It's probably too late, but we'll give it a whirl. This part of Texas has a long growing season, so we'll see what happens. I have a container garden in the back yard consisting of a single tomato plant, two bell peppers, and some herbs including cilantro (which I could bathe in), sweet basil (which I could also bathe in), flat leaf Italian parsley, and some rosemary. I also bought some flowers for the front neglected bed.
My husband gave me a beautiful gift last night of digging up the whole thing. It would appear that nothing has ever been planted in the bed since the house was built 7 years ago, judging from the depth of the grass roots and the rock-hard quality of the soil. Bless his heart, I think that's the most expensive gift he's ever given me. It comes at a cost; Z has 3 slipped disks and 2 ruptured ones that he just lives with. The doctor won't do surgery for him yet because of his degenerative back disease -- once he starts with the surgery, he'll have to have it every 5 years or so for the rest of his life, and they want to prolong the initial surgery as long as possible.
Z just smiled at me when I ran out the front door last night. I didn't realize he was out there until he'd done the entire thing, and he said that he was going to keep doing things as long as he could. It will hurt regardless, so he's just going to do what he can do. *sigh* I love him to pieces, but it makes me cry when he does stuff like this.
Today we had a beautiful, glorious, wonderful cold front move through and instead of the 104 we had yesterday, we had highs in the 70's most of the day until this evening when it creeped up into the lower 80's. Yeeeeeesssss. I planted the entire front bed this afternoon. Then started a light, gentle rain -- perfect for the new babies in their new home. I hit the "clearance section" at the nursery and have 9 zinnias in a range of colors, an orange and red Pride of Barbados, 4 red salvia, 2 white-blooming sage, 4 brown-eyed susans, 2 purple coneflowers, 23 dark red gladiolus, 3 landscape gerbera daisies in "watermelon, pineapple, and coconut", and 3 day lilies in a deep wine color with yellow throats. And I also scored a huge red geranium in a pot that is now gracing my front porch. Wheeeee! I'm looking for some of those trailing petunias for a couple of hanging baskets, but am having a difficult time finding any this year. Two stores have had ZERO available since we got here; I'm wondering if there's some sort of disaster in the petunia industry or something this year.
My kids helped to decorate my cake yesterday. Z made a chocolate cake from scratch and then let the kids go to town using their choice of decorations. And they did go to town. I had a truly one-of-a-kind creation: broken up Oreo cookies; sugar nonpareil Santa Claus heads leftover from a Christmas cupcake project; coconut; and red and green sugar sprinkles were dumped liberally across the entire surface. I thought I'd need an insulin shot from just looking at it. And I'm not diabetic.
But it was good, and the kiddos were thrilled with it and had a ball putting everything on there. And all was right with the world.
Another odd bit of news that's relieving in a way: Z's growing mass in his chest has tripled in size since last week. This means there is a huge probability it's got liquid in it and it's a cyst, rather than something tumorous and nasty -- which is infinitely relieving in its own way. We still don't know what it is, won't until next week sometime, but at least there's a really good chance it's not an ugly kind of cancer.
When he's motivated, he has started to write things down to tell us. For example, the other day when it was 105 actual temperature, with a heat index of 112, A went up to his sister's coloring tablet and wrote "hot", got his dad's attention, and pointed to it. We're thrilled and are hoping that his developing writing and reading skills will open a window to some communication that has been nonexistent up to this point. He routinely writes his first and last names using pencils without the pencil grip. We've graduated! Woo hoo! He also spells things using the letter magnets on the side of the fridge.
In other news, he's a bean pole. Tall and skinny boy, he can wear 6/7's if only we could find a belt small enough to keep them on his butt. Lengthwise it's no problem. He just turned 5 1/2.
School is only a half day in the summer, so A is enjoying playing with his sister both in the house and in our little inflatable pool that resides just off the back porch. A absolutely loves the water and will go completely underwater with no issues, strange given some of his sensory issues. K is also a little fish and likes to hold her breath and walk on her hands from one end of the ten-foot pool to the other. I also watch her like a hawk.
My birthday was yesterday, so I got a couple of gift cards to go purchase some veggies and flowers and plant them after all. It's probably too late, but we'll give it a whirl. This part of Texas has a long growing season, so we'll see what happens. I have a container garden in the back yard consisting of a single tomato plant, two bell peppers, and some herbs including cilantro (which I could bathe in), sweet basil (which I could also bathe in), flat leaf Italian parsley, and some rosemary. I also bought some flowers for the front neglected bed.
My husband gave me a beautiful gift last night of digging up the whole thing. It would appear that nothing has ever been planted in the bed since the house was built 7 years ago, judging from the depth of the grass roots and the rock-hard quality of the soil. Bless his heart, I think that's the most expensive gift he's ever given me. It comes at a cost; Z has 3 slipped disks and 2 ruptured ones that he just lives with. The doctor won't do surgery for him yet because of his degenerative back disease -- once he starts with the surgery, he'll have to have it every 5 years or so for the rest of his life, and they want to prolong the initial surgery as long as possible.
Z just smiled at me when I ran out the front door last night. I didn't realize he was out there until he'd done the entire thing, and he said that he was going to keep doing things as long as he could. It will hurt regardless, so he's just going to do what he can do. *sigh* I love him to pieces, but it makes me cry when he does stuff like this.
Today we had a beautiful, glorious, wonderful cold front move through and instead of the 104 we had yesterday, we had highs in the 70's most of the day until this evening when it creeped up into the lower 80's. Yeeeeeesssss. I planted the entire front bed this afternoon. Then started a light, gentle rain -- perfect for the new babies in their new home. I hit the "clearance section" at the nursery and have 9 zinnias in a range of colors, an orange and red Pride of Barbados, 4 red salvia, 2 white-blooming sage, 4 brown-eyed susans, 2 purple coneflowers, 23 dark red gladiolus, 3 landscape gerbera daisies in "watermelon, pineapple, and coconut", and 3 day lilies in a deep wine color with yellow throats. And I also scored a huge red geranium in a pot that is now gracing my front porch. Wheeeee! I'm looking for some of those trailing petunias for a couple of hanging baskets, but am having a difficult time finding any this year. Two stores have had ZERO available since we got here; I'm wondering if there's some sort of disaster in the petunia industry or something this year.
My kids helped to decorate my cake yesterday. Z made a chocolate cake from scratch and then let the kids go to town using their choice of decorations. And they did go to town. I had a truly one-of-a-kind creation: broken up Oreo cookies; sugar nonpareil Santa Claus heads leftover from a Christmas cupcake project; coconut; and red and green sugar sprinkles were dumped liberally across the entire surface. I thought I'd need an insulin shot from just looking at it. And I'm not diabetic.
But it was good, and the kiddos were thrilled with it and had a ball putting everything on there. And all was right with the world.
Another odd bit of news that's relieving in a way: Z's growing mass in his chest has tripled in size since last week. This means there is a huge probability it's got liquid in it and it's a cyst, rather than something tumorous and nasty -- which is infinitely relieving in its own way. We still don't know what it is, won't until next week sometime, but at least there's a really good chance it's not an ugly kind of cancer.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Manogram
Unusual situations have a way of showing up in our household; it's almost like we're a lightning rod for medical weirdness. Here's yet another instance:
My husband had a nodular fascitis three years ago that had attached itself to tendons, muscle fibers, etc on his left forearm. By the time we'd waded through all the necessary red tape and insurance paperwork to actually get it removed, it was turning from "normal" to something more sinister. What was supposed to have been a 30 to 45 minute procedure, start to finish, turned into a 4 1/2 hour ordeal due to all the adhesions.
He's been "cyst free" for the last three years...only now something has (literally) popped up. Or, I should say, three somethings.
The noticeable one is under his right nipple, close to a lymph node. It simply wasn't there last Friday; by Sunday Z was noticing a distention and it was painful. Now, you can see it if you look at his bare chest. Well, at least, I can and the doctors can. Z doesn't generally run around shirtless, even though it's 105 degrees so far today. It is definitely a firm lump, and still painful. The doctor found two more rather suspicious lumps in his abdomen during the physical exam. Z has lost 14 pounds after getting out of the Army, despite no exercise whatsoever and eating all manner of stuff he couldn't get away with while he was still in the service, another point for concern.
Long story short, Z has an appointment at the hospital on Monday, July 6th in the Women's Clinic so he can get a mammogram and ultrasounds done. He's taking the news pretty well, and it doesn't really bother him or threaten his manhood any. He will follow up with a surgeon and could be having surgery as soon as a few days after his visit to the Women's Clinic. He's taking it all in stride. So why am I the one who wants to cry?
Z's doctor is a Christian, which is nice, and he was very blunt and to the point. He looked Z straight in the eye following his exam and said that we needed to pray that this goes away as quickly as it has shown up. And then he explained about male breast cancer statistics, which is apparently 1 out of every 100 cases. I had no idea, all I generally hear about is women's breast cancer issues.
So -- I guess I said all that to say this: please send up some prayers for my husband and his doctors, that this whole situation gets taken care of pronto and without lasting effects and NO CANCER.
Thanks. *sigh*
Lord, if you're testing us, what is it we're not getting? Or are we "getting it" and being used as examples somehow, or so we can help others in similar circumstances? I wish we knew, instead of floundering through all this stuff blindly sometimes. We don't feel completely rudderless, we know we are inexorably drawn by You through whatever our life situation is. And our faith remains firm, is strengthened even. But it would be nice to know the light at the end of the tunnel is not, in fact, a train in this instance. Amen.
My husband had a nodular fascitis three years ago that had attached itself to tendons, muscle fibers, etc on his left forearm. By the time we'd waded through all the necessary red tape and insurance paperwork to actually get it removed, it was turning from "normal" to something more sinister. What was supposed to have been a 30 to 45 minute procedure, start to finish, turned into a 4 1/2 hour ordeal due to all the adhesions.
He's been "cyst free" for the last three years...only now something has (literally) popped up. Or, I should say, three somethings.
The noticeable one is under his right nipple, close to a lymph node. It simply wasn't there last Friday; by Sunday Z was noticing a distention and it was painful. Now, you can see it if you look at his bare chest. Well, at least, I can and the doctors can. Z doesn't generally run around shirtless, even though it's 105 degrees so far today. It is definitely a firm lump, and still painful. The doctor found two more rather suspicious lumps in his abdomen during the physical exam. Z has lost 14 pounds after getting out of the Army, despite no exercise whatsoever and eating all manner of stuff he couldn't get away with while he was still in the service, another point for concern.
Long story short, Z has an appointment at the hospital on Monday, July 6th in the Women's Clinic so he can get a mammogram and ultrasounds done. He's taking the news pretty well, and it doesn't really bother him or threaten his manhood any. He will follow up with a surgeon and could be having surgery as soon as a few days after his visit to the Women's Clinic. He's taking it all in stride. So why am I the one who wants to cry?
Z's doctor is a Christian, which is nice, and he was very blunt and to the point. He looked Z straight in the eye following his exam and said that we needed to pray that this goes away as quickly as it has shown up. And then he explained about male breast cancer statistics, which is apparently 1 out of every 100 cases. I had no idea, all I generally hear about is women's breast cancer issues.
So -- I guess I said all that to say this: please send up some prayers for my husband and his doctors, that this whole situation gets taken care of pronto and without lasting effects and NO CANCER.
Thanks. *sigh*
Lord, if you're testing us, what is it we're not getting? Or are we "getting it" and being used as examples somehow, or so we can help others in similar circumstances? I wish we knew, instead of floundering through all this stuff blindly sometimes. We don't feel completely rudderless, we know we are inexorably drawn by You through whatever our life situation is. And our faith remains firm, is strengthened even. But it would be nice to know the light at the end of the tunnel is not, in fact, a train in this instance. Amen.
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