Not Sure How I Would Handle That!

My hubby just got off the phone with my brother. We can send emails back and forth but usually rely on hubby for phone calls! My brother said that when he went to sit with Mom while Dad went to church on Sunday Morning, that she did not know who he was! She kept saying something to the affect of....I know I am supposed to know who you are....I can't even imagine how I would handle that or rather how I WILL handle that because I am sure it will happen one day soon. On a little happier note, he took her to the doctor today and she knew who he was, so that was good!

The oncologist is about ready to give up on the chemo. He feels that it is not helping to keep the cancer at bay or to give Mom a higher quality of life so he is preparing to stop the chemo. They go back to the doctor on Friday and I expect that will be the decision that is made that day.

Mom is sleeping more and more each day and becoming more confused when she is awake. I don't think it will be too much longer. It makes me really sad! Please pray that we can weather these last few months with dignity.

Bloggy Giveaways!

I have been busy all afternoon signing up for different give aways! Since I am still pretty much a blogging illiterate, all I can do is put a picture up here, you'll have to copy and paste if you actually want to check out the site.

A while back someone sent me the info for putting in links but of course I have forgotten how. Maybe I will go try and find that post and come back later and fix things but chances are I won't......ah well, you will figure it out!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

Actually, I am having a pretty good day but needed to come up with a title for this post!

Things with Mom and Dad are about the same, Mom was able to have another round of chemo this week but her numbers were back up again. I am going to wait a few more days before heading back to Nederland, as there are some things I need to get done around here. They seem to be doing okay, so unless I hear differently I may wait til the middle of next week before I go!

I had something happen to me this week that I have never experienced before. I used one of my Credit Cards quite a bit around Christmas and as a reward they sent me an Amazon gift certificate. I bought a couple of books and got free shipping because it was over $25. The grand total was $25.10, so after the gift certificate I owed them .10, so I put it on my CC. I figured I would use the CC and that would not be the only charge on it. Well..... you guessed it, that was the only charge. So I got a bill from the CC for .10 and it said that I had a credit for .10 so I owed nothing! I thought that was interesting but wondered what they saved by doing that since they sent me a bill to tell me I owed nothing! Oh well, Thanks Amazon for my .10 credit!

There was something else I was going to post about but for the life of me I can't remember what it is....oh well, if it comes to me I will have another post! Ya'll have a good weekend. It is rainy and cold here, maybe we will light a fire tonight! Now if I only had some marshmallows!

Latest On Mom and Dad!

Dad started his radiation treatments today. So far so good, he has about 24 more to go. He will go M-F for 5 weeks instead of the 5 mega doses they originally had scheduled. This will be better, because he will have fewer side effects and be able to help with Mom.

Mom is home from the hospital. I am here helping out this week. It is good because Dad has to be gone at least an hour everyday, we need to work something out for next week when I go home though. Mom's feet are still bad. Her toes look like they have frostbite on them, they are black and the skin is peeling. However, her feet as a whole actually look better than they did because they are not red and swollen. She says they no longer hurt, which is a huge improvement over Christmas.

Mom is still very weak and needs assistance to stand and walk short distances (3 or 4 feet is about all she can manage) We have a nurses aid who comes out three times a week (at least they are supposed to, so far they don't have great track record) to bathe her. Otherwise, my Dad provides the rest of her care, he feeds her, dresses her, gets her to the bathroom (occasionally has to change the sheets) and gives her her medication. Quite a load for a 76 yr old man going through radiation treatments.

I am helping out as much as I can this week but will need to return home this weekend as my daughter is out of school on Monday but hubby has to work that day. We need to find someone to come in and help out every day, not just give a bath three times a week. Think we need to look into hospice care.

We did get some encouraging news that her cancer cells have decreased from 6000 to 3000 but am not sure exactly what that means (waiting on email from her doctor) It would seem that it means the chemo is working but the chemo is what is causing the bloodclots in her feet so the chemo is on hold for awhile.

Just wanted to let you know what was going on here. Please keep praying for us. I have been reading a blog Confessions of a CF husband, if you have a chance go read about this sweet family and offer up some prayers for them too! I am sorry I don't have the link available, I am on an unfamiliar computer and am half asleep but if you just google "confessions of a cf husband" you will find it or leave me a comment and tomorrow when I am coherent I will send you the link!

Blessings!

"What else could go wrong?"

NEVER, EVER UTTER THOSE WORDS OUTLOUD!

Because trust me......there is always something else that could happen!

I don't know if I ever blogged about my new car. We bought a new SUV in December because of all the traveling I am having to do. It is our first new car in a long time and I am very proud of it. Well.....yesterday morning I was going to meet a friend for breakfast and two Bassett Hounds decided to take a morning stroll on a very busy street. I braked for the dogs but the guy behind me was not as quick and he rear ended me! It was strange because I had time to look in the mirror and think, he is not going to stop, I hope I don't hit the dogs when he hits me! The dogs were fine...the last I saw of them they were trotting off without a care in the world. I was not hurt, but my new car does have a crimp in the back bumper now!

If you have to be in an accident, this guy was the one to do it with, he was very polite, very concern that I was okay. I don't think we are going to have any trouble with getting him to pay. He admitted that he was not paying close enough attention. We called out the police and got a police report and exchanged all the info. We got the estimate for the repairs today and unfortunately he did about $650 worth of damage.

In a way it was quite freeing because I had been having a feeling that we would have a wreck in that new car, so I was half way expecting it. Now it has the first scratch, or dented bumper on it so we can go on with life!

BUT that is not all that happened this weekend. I took the dog out this morning and was outside without my shoes on (big mistake!) I had been chasing her around the yard and I bounded up the stairs to go back in the house and stubbed my toes on the door stoop! At least I thought I had just stubbed my toes, I looked down and my middle toe was pointing due West. Toes are supposed to point North, not 1/2 North and 1/2 West. Apparently I dislocated my toe! So I reached down and straightened it out. It is turning a really pretty shade of purple now!

It is almost a game now for us, What is going to happen next? Oh well, at least I haven't lost my sense of humor ......YET!

Life goes on!

I sometimes hesitate to post anything on this blog because it always seems so negative and so down but I know there are several people out there who read these post because they love me and my family and this is how they keep up with what is going on. So for those of you wanting an upbeat post I apologize, you probably won't find one here for awhile, feel free to check back in 6 months or so!

Mom got out of the hospital today after 12 days. She is happy to be home and back in her bed but I think my Dad is worried about taking care of her, as she is just getting weaker all the time. Dad is doing well on his new medication and saw his new oncologist today. He will start radiation treatments probably next week, they are going to make his mask tomorrow.

I hope to be going back to check on them soon. I can't seem to shake this cold/allergy stuff. I think it must be allergies because I have not given it to anyone else. Seems like my hubby would have come down with it if it were something other than allergies. The weather here has been weird, very cold then up in the 80's, windy, high pollen counts, so chances are it is allergies. Whatever it is, I am tired of it and wish it would go away so I could breathe freely again! It is hard enough trying not to be depressed without physically feeling bad on top of it.

Prayers as always are appreciated. Specifically, please pray for strength for us all to get through what promises to be a very difficult year. My husbands' grandparents are both in very bad health, of course my Mom's prognosis is not good, several friends are having health issues with their parents and children. Our good friends just told us they are moving this summer. Just a lot of stuff going on right now!

I know this is just a season and things will get better but we still have to get through all of this first!

School Starts Tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Wahoo!!! Yea!!!! Awesome!!!!

I love my daughter dearly, but I am ready for her to go back to school. I have been made acutely aware that I am most inadequate at entertaining her for any sustained amount of time. This has been compounded by the fact that she has been sick and about the time she got better, her friends all got sick, I got sick AND her Dad (who is a much better entertainer than I) went back to work!

To say we have gotten on each others nerves this week, would quite possibly be the UNDERSTATEMENT of the DECADE!

So...In approximately 12 hours and 17 minutes and 2 seconds, the glorious school bus will pull away from our curb and my beloved daughter will be back in the care of those wonderful (yet highly underpaid and under apprecited) school personnel! However, if for some reason she should not be on that bus in the morning, please forward all correspondence for me to: Aggiema C/O The Texas Hospital for the Mentally Incapacitated.


PS--Dad is doing much better, Mom is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow sometime and I am going to take a few more days to get over this crud before going back down to check on them. Please continue to pray for all of us!

Update

Dad spent the night in the hospital but was released yesterday after a medication change. Mom is still in the hospital but her feet are showing some improvement. They performed a brain MRI yesterday but we don't have the results yet. A surgeon is supposed to evaluate her for a medi-port in the next day or two. She has run out of places for them to stick her. Poor thing looks like a pin cushion! Everyone seems to be over their colds except for me and I am still feeling pretty lousy. Prayers are still appreciated!