Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Greetings, Earthlings

Howdy all. Nope, I haven't been abducted by aliens or some other strange fate. I just really, really haven't felt like writing anything - blog, emails, anything.

We've had an eventful last couple of weeks, in the sense that all kinds of small to medium level things have been either wrong, or just going on, and I've felt wiped out. I've actually felt the need to take an impromptu vacation from chemo in order to deal, and just to be home.

For one, our air conditioner decided to take a double crap. The first, most obvious part is fixed; the unit outside needed a new motor, and we have this neato little box with metal and heavy wiring-ish things and stuff in it, and it's freaking *melted* inside! I can literally say that the A/C had a meltdown... So, that got fixed, after much stern demanding of reasonable service appointments, not a two-week wait, but it still wasn't cooling the house very well. My intrepid husband decided to play detective and climbed in the attic and found that the cover to the big fan box up there is standing up a good four inches or more from the top of the box, and some of the ducts weren't connected right, so it was pumping cold air into the attic. The service tech comes back on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the kids came home, so there was the usual chaos of getting back, getting unpacked and getting settled back into home. And, of course, Anna had been separated from her other half/twin for the whole summer, so they weren't home a full 24 hours before we were having an extended sleepover.

Meanwhile, I took my sweet baby Oliver Pooterbug kitty into the vet last week because he'd been having some weird problems with his fur getting mats, for the first time in his life. He's not even a full longhair, more of a medium, and I've never had to brush him before - now all of a sudden, he's getting dreadlocks in his armpits. Well, Brenda examined him very thoroughly, and couldn't really find any cause for this sudden increase in dander he was having, except maybe an allergy. Checking him over so thoroughly, what she DID find was a lump on his tummy, not even as big as a pea, but almost certainly a little melanoma. ::sigh:: 'Cause, you know, we needed more cancer in the house. His surgery was yesterday, and now he's got about an inch of stitches that will be taken out in two weeks, one leg shaved in what looks almost like a poodle-cut (for the IV) with some hellacious bruises on it, and he had two rotten teeth extracted, since we agreed to the suggested tooth cleaning while he was under, and Brenda said they were seriously rotten. It could explain his atrocious breath, that's for sure.

We should hear the results of the biopsy in a few days. We've been keeping him confined in the bedroom, and not letting him into the closet (his favorite place - because we were sure he would crawl back to the farthest corner and hide) but I don't think I can keep it up much longer, because the whole "anesthesia" "groggy" thing was seriously false advertising!!! Mr. Perpetual Motion was driving us so crazy from minute one, to keep him restrained from jumping on the counter and force him to rest when we first got him home, we actually had to lock him in the shower!! You could tell he was stoned, from the look in his eyes, but it was not slowing him down ONE bit! We finally just let the dogs in and closed the bedroom door and he's been sleeping either on me or next to me pretty much the entire time since - in short, acting 100% normal. Purr, purr, cuddle, cuddle. He doesn't even act like he's in pain, but he's getting his pain meds anyway, as soon as Lloyd wakes up to help me.

And... Other than those things, I don't remember, but trust me that there's been *STUFF* going on, and there is more stuff to come, as we get closer to the kids starting school. Of course, I also have doctor's appointments, Lloyd's birthday is coming up, I'm finishing up the bathroom project & other random things around the house, and I'm not out of chemo forever. I feel like I'm doing something very wrong taking any time out at all, but we never could have got the air conditioner fixed unless I did! We were just up against a wall with needing to be in too many places at the same time. It sounds funny to say I chose air conditioning over chemo, but it's damn hot up here!

So, I think that's about it. There's nothing earth-shaking going on (except my poor kitty!), just mainly lots of minutiae to deal with and not feeling like sitting down and writing anything. The stress of anything makes my fibromyalgia just kick inti high gear, so pain has been the name of the game, and some days all I feel like doing is sitting down and falling asleep! 8•) Today I have to keep watch over my baby, so I think that's a good reason to rest...

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