Living In Grace

Go Forth and Giggle.

Hat tip to Doug for this linky dink !

So, go forth and giggle.

I insist.

Sleeping Beauty had the right idea…

You guys overwhelm me with your kindness. It's amazing. Thank you for all the cards, letters, emails. Wow.
I wanted to hop on real quick and just say I'm ok. Still, still haven't heard from Dr. Infectious Disease Guy, but I know that my doctor has his number and hopefully soon, things will connect.

Thursday we saw a different nephrologist for monthly reports. My Dr. had to be at a conference, so we saw Dr. Stand In. Actually, he was beyond thorough. Oh my goodness. he was like. oh my gosh, a real doctor. We ain't seen one of them since crossin' over to the Arizona territories. Yee-haw!

Ok. So, I was alittle giddy at the whole thing.

Of course now, we thinking, do we love Dr. Stand In well enough to make the horrifically long four hours each way to Phoenix once a month drive to see Dr. Stand In? Ugh. I'm not even thinking about it for a week. The only thing that would certainly stop us is if we cannot see the dialysis nurse I'm seeing now. If I had to change to the unit in Phoenix- no go. Uh uh. Won't happen. Sorry, thanks for playing.

I think you get the picture.

Anyway, to get back on the point (I know, I know, where's the point) -

I'm ok. I still tire easily, and take 2-4 hour naps almost every day. I did get out and go grocery shopping, alone all by myself, one day last week only to spend that afternoon and the next day recuperating. WalMart will do that to you, I guess.

Tomorrow we prepare the house for the cleaning people. As much as I feel the need to present them with a clean house (is it just me that feels this way) I am making the kids do the basics. Like put the laundry is, oh heck, the laundry baskets and little things like that. Oh, and Kati cleaned out the science experiment refrigerator, which was holding leftovers from before I went into the hospital. Yep, you remember correctly. It was three weeks ago this Tuesday.

So, posting this week may be, well, weak. But, I should be back with lots of stories, pictures and stuff.

And I'll leave you with this picture. It's from the last day of the move out of the old house in June. I just found it, and it cracked me up.

This is John, Big Fat Louie (no kidding, he weighs 14 lbs.) and Louie's bed (otherwise known as Jonathan's beanbag chair). I swear it's not staged. This is what he does when he's sleeping on it and we go to move him. It's like his portacrib.

I think werewolves are a fantasy .. however, werecats? Totally different story.

Meet Truff.

She came from a rescue shelter at the age of 4 weeks. We named her "truffles" because of her sleek, black fur. For the first six months, she was adorable. Playful.Loving. She slept with Jonathan every night. She was "his cat".

Then?

Truff got married. She fell in love with Bo (Beauregard), our silver chinchilla Persian. It was upper class meets the other side of the tracks. Immediate attraction. There was nothing we could do. They married, and THEN had babies. well, that's the story the kids will tell you.

Truff became, well, let's just say she wasn't the most happy camper while she was pregnant. We worried about her rejecting every last one of the kittens on birth, because of the way she was acting. So, we stocked up on kitten formula and bottles, and heating pads and waited.

One night, she hopped in the tub and started pushing out babies. Fortunately for me, the resident cat midwife, she did her duty popping sacks and disposing of them in her way ('nuf said). After a couple hours, we had three beautiful kittens . It was late, so we hit the hay. By morning, the tub was full of mom and six little meow meows- Walker (first to walk), Binky, Pollack (Kati thought people from Russia were called Polaks, don't ask), Spitz (as in Mark Spitz- he fell into the toilet at two weeks and almost drowned. The cat, not mark Spitz), Marbles (for the perfect white circles on each side of his stomach), Dogface Bunny Chow (Growing up she looked like a puppy first, then a bunny) and Sapphire.

Everyone was happy and healthy.

Truff was the perfect momma. For six weeks and two days.

Then, she went to the dark side.

And never returned.

She is now the one who chases you through the house for no reason. Attacks your feet from her hiding place when you sit on a bed. Don't get me started on trying to put her in the cage at night. She runs in very happily and quietly, then sits in the back of the cage screaming and howling at you while you try to close it.

Today, she has spent the day laying on the hearth of the fireplace, growling and screaming at everyone who walks into the living room. Then chases them around abit before returning to her post on the hearth.

Jonathan loves her death, and plays with her all day.

But seriously, once the sun goes down? He won't go near her.

For those of you who have seen "Anastasia", you will appreciate that every night Kati picks up Truff to put her in the cage singing " In the Dark of the Night", albeit with her own lyrics ...

In the dark evil has found her (oo-wa-oo)

In the dark of the night, she will change ...

Sweet Truffie is gone, and the Dark One has come ...

In the dark of the night...

Anyone else out there blessed with a pet like this?

A Proclamation and Marking of the Day -because I was told to. Hmpf!

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May today forever and always be known as

 

(cue trumpets in the balcony)

 

THE DAY JONATHAN WAS FINALLY AS TALL AS HIS SISTER KATI

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After 13 years, he has finally caught up with his sister.

 

As babies, Kati and Johanthan were both in the top 100 percentile in height,

and were prognosticated to be 5'11" and 6'2", respectively.

 

They both now stand 5' 4.5 ".

 

At 5'7", I'm doomed to be the shortest of the bunch very, very soon.

 

Sigh.

 

 

 

Ok parents … need your input

Updated Saturday:

Thank you everyone for all your great comments. There are so many different opinions about it. They've helped me look at this is so many different ways I wouldn't have thought of, so thank you all!

I will let you know that the teacher and I have spoken. She is young and fairly new to teaching. And, this is her first year doing it virtually. She brought up the fact that she hadn't addressed this issue with her pupils before this email went out, and she acknowledged that as junior highers (and alot of first time virtual students) they probably were clueless as to how to leave a proper message. Seriously? I work with our kids constantly to remember how to talk on the phone. It's really more than just a serious of grunting. Seriously.

That said, she had intended this to be light and funny, but having had a colleague read it after she sent it, the colleague had mentioned some of the samt things that had concerned us. Without the benefit of a face to face relationship, sometimes things in writing can be misconstrued.

I found her to be delightful to talk to, and think she is just growing as both a teacher, and someone in a completely enclosed environment. We talked at great length about the struggles of working from home (for the last several years, I've worked from home managing hundreds that work from home all over the country) and we shared the frustration that is can bring.

So, all in all, there is a kinship and desire to work together which I think will be a great thing for everyone involved.

Next time, I will remember to heed my own council (slap to the forehead) and take a minute to remember this and try to see all sides.

Nice lesson. Thanks for helping me though it!

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As you know, Jonathan and Kati both homeschool. This year we have chosen to enroll them in virtual academies where they have teachers assigned for each subject. There is no face to face contact; everything is done through email or live lessons. These are virtual lessons where they log on a website and communicate with a headphone/microphone.
That being said, we received this email from one of Jonathan's teachers today (names have been removed for privacy). Understand this is being addressed to 12-14 year olds (although frankly, I don't think it matters):

Hello MS Students,

Ihave a couple of short stories I would like to share with you today.

1st story:

Last week, I received a call from a student who did not leave a name but wanted me to call and help with math. Today I received a call from a student who left a name saying that I had not called back regarding a message they left last week. I wonder if it is the same kid.

Moral of the story: Tell me who you are so I can call you back.

2nd story:

Today I received a call from a student who left a first name and needed help with math. I have many students with the same first name and three different math classes. I would love to call you back, but I would have to call several students to figure out who you are. Maybe next week, you will call me to tell me I never called you back. Don't forget to leave your last name too.

Moral of the story: It helps if I know who you are and what math class you are in so I can call you back.

3rd story:

I had a student call me when I was in a livelesson to get help with math and another student called me 20 minutes before my next livelesson. Livelessons are every day except Fridays and there are two on Tuesdays, wednesdays, and Thursday. Today is Thursday, come to a livelesson if you have questions.

Moral of the story: If you have a math question, come to a livelesson.

I hope you enjoyed today's story time and learned some valuable lessons.

What I'm wondering is - how did this make you feel as parent? Was the manner in which the issue was communicated proper? is this was delivered face to face to your child, in front of you, how would you feel?

Seriously, let me know what you think. I'm open to all thoughts and opinions.Don't. Hold. Back.

Time to Lift Up

Many of you have been praying for the Farley family.  Today, Copeland went home to be with her Saviour.  Would you please go over and leave a comment of support for her family?

Quick Update

Hey, hey peeps!

It's been abit quiet around Case de la Pasteurella ... sorry about that. I've been really wiped out the last few days, so I've taken the opportunity to just rest. Lots of naps, going to bed early and laying down watching TV. Let's hear it for DVR! I'm trying really hard to rest up so I'm on my feet next week when our family arrives from out of town. We only have three days with them, and want to make each moment count.

In medical news, we have located the Infectious Disease guy. What a nightmare- but, now hopefully my doctor will be able to get the info form him needed to ensure I get over this quickly, and most importantly, completely. I'm still fighting a cold and cough (sorry for all the hacking on the phone today Shalee), but this too shall pass.

Otherwise, it's business as usual. Trying to get great dialysis, get over the anemia and rest. Rest, rest, rest.  On a good note, mom and Sandy are having someone come in the day before they get here and do a top to bottom clean on the house. Woohoo! What a gift! I can't keep up with it and the cleaners really get to me, and the kids are fully immersed in school now and electives start in two weeks. So, needless to say, they have a full load, too.

Well, that's abit it from here. Thank you for all your cards, phone calls, emails and everything. It's such a huge, huge blessing :)

Tap … tap … is this thing on? *Updated*

*Updated Saturday, September 22* 

It's a miracle!

Somehow, someway ... comments are fixed! Woohoo!

In the last couple of hours, I've started getting all your precious, wonderful comments IN! MY! EMAIL!

Which means CONVERSATION! DIALOGUE!  RESPONSES!

Oh oh oh ... I can hardly contain myself!

So, man your emails friends ...  the silence is about to be over :)

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Hmmm.

We seem to have a problem, Houston.

For some unknown reason, comments to this blog have come to a dead stop. I mean, you sweet, sweet people come and talk to me ... leave me all these wonderful little conversation starters ... and ...

Nothing.

They sit here. Dead to me. Lost in the interwebness that is my blog.

In times past, I would get all these lovely emails with your precious comments in them, and I would RESPOND! and CARRY ON A CONVERSATION! and ANSWER QUESTIONS! and PLAN PHONE CALLS! and STUFF LIKE THAT!

Now.

Nothing.

My email is as lonely as the Maytag Repair Man.

Methoughts (the proper past tense of methinks) that my spam filter had plotted and hatched a plan to abscond with my comments.

But no.

I've checked, checked and double-checked everything, and I'm stumped.

So.

Please don't think me rude. Please don't think I don't care.

I DO!

I'm simply at the mercy of WordPress and it's evil, evil technology at the moment. I'm trying to figure out how to get to your comments attached to the email that I can respond to.

Whew. That was a mouthful.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

The Joys of Volunteering

The kids have come to love being volunteers. They used to volunteer at our local library, and spent this past summer helping out at the annual Summer Reading Program. They were there several days a week helping out the younger kids with various activities, including teaching the little ones to read.

After we moved in June, we discovered that our local library here doesn't have a teen volunteer program. Both were abit upset at this loss of opportunity.

But alas! My stay in the hospital has proven to be a blessing in disguise.

Turns out the hospital has an in-depth teen volunteer program. The kids brought home applications and were filling them out the other night.

One question they had to answer was "Why do you want to be a volunteer?"

Jonathan (13) immediately answered: "Because everybody needs a hug".

That's my boy.

Good, Great, EXCELLENT News! *Updated*

*Updates:

• My blood counts just came back. My red counts are back down again. So, at least it explains why I'm so tired and crabby. Epogen is my friend. Transfusions are not.


• I finally made a call to the attending nephrologist that saw me in the hospital last week to try and get the name of the Infectious Disease guy. He won't talk to me. He's evidently still bent that I wouldn't agree to surgery and hemodialysis or staying in the hospital for absolutely no reason an extra 5 days, just because he said so. So now, on Monday we'll call the attending Internist that was in charge of the case, and see if he knows the name of the ID guy. Then we'll call him, and have him call my team in Phoenix. And then? I'll take a long nap.


• And the really good news? The insurance just informed us they approved 2 days in the hospital. I was there 4. Yet another dragon to slay Monday.

Happy, happy, joy, joy.

But, I'm home and frankly at this point, that's all that matters.

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Finally, finally got a call from my nephrologist. We never did hear from the Infectious Disease guy (ugh) so he did his own research.

At this point, I'll stay on both antibiotics indefinitely. I'll need blood-work every other day to make sure my levels stay out of the toxic range (no biggie, it gets me out).

But, and it's a BIG but ... if my dialysis bags stay clear I won't need to have surgery.

YEAH!

We will re-test my bags each week for signs of pasteurella. The plan is we should see weaker and weaker showings each time.

I will still have to be extra vigilant about exposure to alot of things, but for now the pets stay (although we cage everyone before we set up dialysis) and by next week if my blood counts are up and my white counts are down, I can leave the house for short periods of time. If I stay level, I can work up to longer times out and about!

This is great because mom and Sandy are due here the 2nd of next month and we really want to take a day trip to Sedona and show them around.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get back on the list for transplant in a few months. The last thing we can do is think about that while this silly bug is living well inside me.

So the current plan is continue on both antibiotics, gets lots of sleep (I'm taking 3-4 hour naps every day) and get better. Oh, and stay out of the hospital - cause that is no place to get a bit of rest.