Riding the Storm June 27, 2006

Things are going a little better for us. My dad had a relatively useless appointment on Monday where we basically were told to come back July 5th for his biopsy to confirm that its cancer. The oncologist won’t even meet with us until he has the biopsy.
I’m frustrated and ready for him to get his treatment started. We’re all still nervous and worried and shaken up, but the day to day is a little easier.
Oscar had a seizure last night, it was weird because it almost seemed like he was conscious during it which made us both uncomfortable because we really don’t want him to be in any sort of pain when he has them. We have had a lot of bad thunderstorms so it might be related to that, but luckily he hasn’t had any more since then. Let’s hope it stays that way!

I baked chocolate chip cookies tonight. They turned out perfectly. Maybe I’ll buy some vanilla ice cream tomorrow and make ice cream sandwiches with them. Yum!

I am almost done with Adamas. Just the edging left!
Pictures will be posted when I’m done.

Stressful Week June 16, 2006

This has been a really rough week for me and my family. We found out on Wednesday that my dad’s cancer is back and that he will have to undergo some pretty extensive treatment including chemo in a few weeks. It was a hard thing to hear because we thought that his melanoma was in remission. I’m trying to keep as positive as possible, he has great doctors and full medical coverage because of his military service. The situation is about as good as it can be for this kind of news, our family is all here in town and the rest of the summer is pretty low key for me so I will be able to go to his treatments and help out when he and my mom need me and Jered. I don’t think anyone is ever prepared to hear news like this and the past two days have been really rough, but I’m starting to feel a little better and am starting to look at the practical side of how to help my dad in the best way I can.

As if that weren’t enough, last night at 5 pm Oscar started having seizures again. I thought it was just an isolated thing but then he had another at 10, one at midnight, one at 2 am and one at 4 am. He lost control of his bowels and couldn’t seem to shake the seizures. We decided to give him his morning dose of pheno 3 hours early. Luckily he hasn’t had a seizure since (knock on wood!). He had a scheduled bloodwork appointment today at 11 anyway so we talked to the vet and considered putting him to sleep. I even made the appointment for tomorrow. The other option is to up his medication to a really high level and see how it goes in the next 2 months. The vet bills have been extremely expensive so it almost seemed like we really didn’t have a choice and euthansia was the only way to go. I talked it over with my parents, with Jered and with a few friends, made the appointment to have him put to sleep and thirty minutes later was in the car taking him to the York river for his favorite walk. I talked some more with my mom and then more with Jered and we realized that he is so happy when he isn’t having seizures and he seems to be so comfortable and healthy other than the seizures. I called the vet and cancelled our appointment tomorrow. We are upping his dose and riding it out. We are hoping his cluster of seizures was related to the high emotional stress at home the past few days or something else that was a one time glitch. We are upping his dose and hoping for the best. We are not ready to give up on him!!!

So needless to say it was an emotional morning and an emotional couple of days. I am starting to feel much better, thanks to the support I’ve gotten from Jered and my family and friends. While the news this week hasn’t been the best, it could be much worse, and we are a strong family with plenty of support and will pull through all of this. I am lucky to have such great people around me. My friend Liz is coming down to stay with us tomorrow for the weekend just to help us get our minds on something fun. We will probably head to Busch Gardens and relax.
I might even get some stress knitting done today!
Be thankful for the people and pets around you that are so easy to take for granted!

Adamas who? June 11, 2006

Hi, my name is Esther and I have been bad about blogging for a long time now. Now that its summer and my work load is somewhat lightened I am going to make a concerted effort to blog more regularly. I have been knitting about as much as I’ve been blogging… not a lot at all. I graduated in the middle of May and since then have taken on some new clients (I’m up to 10!), started teaching a human sexuality class at a local community college and started taking the two summer classes I signed up for to complete my degree requirements and maintain my status as a counselor resident at our clinic. We have to take a supervision course to keep seeing families at the Clinic, so that is one of the two classes I am in right now, and the other is a couples counseling and sex therapy class. Classes end the week of the 18th, so we’re almost done, and the class I’m teaching goes until late July.

I started knitting again a couple days ago. I have been picking things up here and there but not really doing much more than a few rows of this project and a couple of that. I have resolved to take it one project at a time, starting with Adamas. I am on the last repeat of the main pattern and then will be working on the border and will finally be done! I will try to post pictures later today.

On the pet front, our little zoo is getting along quite nicely now. Oscar has had a few more seizures since we have put him on the phenobarbital, but for the most part it seems like his epilepsy is under control. He has also discovered tennis balls. Oh holy hell he loves those things! Tennis balls are one of the few reasons he will bark. He’s quite an entertaining little fellow and has recently taken to sleeping in the bed with us. We love it.

I’ve been doing some gardening this summer too, and started basil and tomatoes from seedlings waaaay back in the beginning of March. Well the basil has really taken off and the tomatoes are ready to be attached to the trellis we are building this afternoon. We’re hoping the cool weather will hold out so that we can get a little stuff done in the yard. I’ll post pictures of that too!

Check out our graduation pics and other random stuff at flickr. More pictures later!