Another chapter

The swollen lymph nodes were in my groin, and since I was a kid they had a history of swelling.  Previous doctors had told me not to worry about it, so I didn't do anything when the lump reappeared.  A month later after a long day on my feet I noticed my whole left leg was swollen.  This was new, so I called my doctor.  My appointment was at noon, and by 3:00 she had me driving to the hospital for an ultrasound, blood work and a CT scan.  Three days later I was getting a biopsy, and four days after that I got called about the results.  "It's bad.  It's really bad." my doctor said, and then she told me I had Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  A few sentences later she asked if I had a will. 

My second chemo

It seems like so long ago, but it has only been one year and one day since I got that call.  The four days following the news were spent lying on the sofa in front of the television crying, except for an appointment to meet with an oncologist. Dr. Sprague provided detailed information on the diagnosis (Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, ALK positive) and on the treatment (CHOEP chemotherapy) I would undergo.  He was polite and concise, and he did not try to mollify me with cliched sentiments.  As we were following him out of the examination room he turned around to face me, and with a small smile on his face he calmly said "This is treatable. We can treat this."  Sadly it took a while for his words to reach me.

My second blood transfusion

The shift from victim to fighter started after I announced my diagnosis on Facebook.  The support was wonderful, and it came in the form of comments, cards, texts, phone calls, money and care packages.  It also showed up to clean my house, feed my family, do my laundry, and even weed my garden. My wonderful husband was there to pick up the slack around the house during my treatments, while working full time plus several weekends to pay for medical expenses.  He has never once complained.

My wonderful oncology nurses

My last three scan have come back clean.  No cancer.  They will do blood tests every six months for a while, and at some point they will (hopefully) say I am cured.  While the experience isn't one I would like to repeat, it wasn't all bad.  I have had several CT and PET scans (just like I have seen on TV), a biopsy, a few blood transfusions and went through chemotherapy all of which were interesting experiences.  I met several amazing people during my treatments... especially the oncology nurses.  During one of my chemo sessions the woman across from me was ringing the bell to celebrate her last chemo.  The nurses were gathered around clapping and smiling.  While this was happening an older frail woman stationed next to me was crying.  She had failed her blood test and was not well enough to receive her chemo treatment.  I watched the nurse rub her hand while murmuring words of encouragement with tears in her eyes.

My last chemo

I had a lot of good ideas until the blank screen was facing me!

Spring arrived around the second week of May.  It was preceded by one of those long depressing winters that make you feel like a dementor has taken up residence in your home.  The lethargy was chased away by the spring ephemeral wildflowers, false morels and a stray kitten.  I know!  I know!   You want to hear all about the new kitten :)  Eric got me out of bed early one morning by claiming that there was a "catmergency" outside.

  He found a sick and wet kitten taking refuge in our wood pile.  We did all the right things to find out if she had an owner, but no one claimed her.  Zakary won the "who gets to name her" fight, and Cruizer has officially joined the family.

Hello, is there anybody out there?

Okay, so it's been a while. We haven't had any big familial changes or epiphanies since the last post aside from Eric's folks moving to the other side of the world. Okay, so maybe Arizona isn't the other side of the world, but it is a lot farther than Newport. When Eric told me they had decided to move to Arizonia it took me about 3 weeks to go through the five stages of grief. It took Eric about 8 weeks, and he added a stage (grumpy). He lingered in grumpy for most of those weeks, but last Thursday he left grumpy and entered acceptance :)

One of our last days at Mom & Dad's

Zakary update: He is starting second grade this fall. His favorite things include: trains, farm & construction vehicles and Legos. Zak completed his first year of cub scouts (Tiger) and loved it! He officially became a Wolf cub last month, and meetings will start up again in the fall. So many kids participate in sports that scouting numbers have dropped. We were so happy that Zak chose to join. Scouting teaches life skills. There is a religious aspect to the program, but they don't focus on it due to the wide range of religions involved. They do focus on family, community, safety, responsibility, character development, etc... If I sound like I'm pushing scouting it's because I am.

Zaky got second place at the Pinewood Derby

Corie update: Tween.

Do I really need to say anymore? One day she is fixing her hair, and the next day she won't even brush it. One minute she is blaring Lady Gaga while reading her Discovery Girls magazine, and the next minute she is playing in the dirt with Zaky and his construction toys. She has really matured this year. We went clothes shopping together, and she enjoyed herself (yes, I said enjoyed herself). She also got into downhill skiing this year and loves it. Her Dad says she's pretty good. She loves scary movies, but has her eyes closed most of the time. She is into Mario, the name Bob, Doctor Who (we both think the best episode is Blink) and using things from the recycle bin to make gifts (I'll never forget my pencil holder made from an empty tampon box). She is NOT into seeing the floor of her bedroom :)

Corie at the National Zoo

Eric update: Eric is still Eric. His job is going great, and he finally got the raise that he deserved. He finally bought a wood chipper after years of talking about it, and he has been cleaning up our property. He tells me that it is hard work, but he looks a lot like Zaky does when playing with his construction toys.

My update: Nothing's changed. I did a lot of canning last year, and despite my worst fear no one got botulism after consuming the results. It encouraged me to increase the yield from my garden this year thus committing me to even more canning. I did a lot more sewing this past winter. Although I am not the sewing goddess that my mom is, I am really enjoying myself. Unfortunately there is not enough time in the summer to sew due to home projects, gardening and canning, but I will start up again in the fall. Here is an album of most of the things I've made: Stuff I've made. Don't expect much though... I am still a novice and usually make my own patterns, so things don't come out very professional looking.

The paint for the living room is still in the cans, but it will be on the walls by the end of summer. Eric and I did decide that it was time to start finishing some of our home projects. Eric has said he will put in a new walkway and flower bed for me this year. We also want to stain our back porch. If you ask me being a parent, owning a house and being employed are three full time positions. If you are doing any one of them right than the other two are suffering!

Well that's it. Not much for a years absence :)

Gardening Season

It's finally here. The time of the year I come out of hibernation and head outside. It's so exciting to inspect the property in early Spring and see what is popping up from the ground, but it's even better when you get to start to put new things into the ground. Memorial Day weekend was spent putting the garden in (minus some time spent yardsaling).

I've been starting my veg from seed the last few years. The first couple of times I ended up with pathetic spindly seedlings with a high casualty rate, but this year almost all of the seedlings were healthy. Although that sounds like great news I was not prepared for such a high survival rate, and being the ever frugal Sprague I could not let them go to waste. Eric came to my rescue making temporary satellite gardens to accommodate the veg overflow.
When the project was completed I consulted the sage (Hubby) and asked him if the updated garden looked Country Chic or White Trash. He said "If we had painted all the tires white it would have looked Country Chic, but we didn't..." 'Nuf said.

We have also been working on the inside of the house. We moved Corie into my sewing room, my sewing room into Zak's room and Zak into Corie's room. Which meant we had to repaint all three rooms. Corie and Zakary got to share a room, so for three weeks Eric and I fell asleep to "Zak, turn that music off and stop singing", "That's mine. Don't touch it", "Turn the light off", "MOM!!! Corie/Zak is ___ (fill in the blank)" . It was alternately funny and annoying depending on how tired we were. We have completed the painting and everyone is in their new room. The colors came out great, but I'm not posting pictures until we get the fine tuning done... That translats into as soon as they clean their rooms :)

Our next indoor project is the living room which will start with a new color for the walls. We have had paint chips taped to our walls for over two months and have finally made a decision... Behr Cloudless is the winner. We liked the blue on the front of our anniversary card and had it color-matched :)

We did take a weekend off to go visiting in New York. We hiked up Vroman's Nose and had a picnic, ate lots of good food (Pat is an excellent cook!!!), did some shopping in Albany, and best of all Eric and I got to relax. Even though it was downright cold in the pond Corie jumped in for a brief swim.

And a sure sign that warm weather is here... Zakary gets shaved.

Hello Emmy. Goodbye Apprenticeship.

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. Luckily we don't do anything very exciting, so bringing this blog up to date can be accomplished in one posting.

First let me introduce Emmy, and tell you our cat story.

We had decided that Whitney was going to be our last cat, but after weeks of daily crying bouts and depression we decided that I cannot live a full and contented life without a kitty to love. I scoured the local adoption websites and met several of the kitties face to face. We found one at our local Humane Society and filled out the paperwork. We got the house ready, picked out her new name, and waited.... and waited.... and waited for the phone to ring. After 7 days with no word I left a message. We spent the next few days playing phone tag. They needed more info, and I gave more info, and then we waited... and waited... and waited again. I called to inquire on the status of our application and was told by a volunteer that the director was out. My application was on her desk, but she couldn't tell if I was approved or not. I asked about the cat I was trying to adopt and was told that she had been adopted by someone else.

What?!

Can you believe they let someone adopt our cat right out from under us without even giving us a heads up?! Although I was furious I had to be nice because they had what I wanted and needed... they had cats! So I asked about another cat that we met there and really liked, and could I get dibs on him? She said that most of the cats had been adopted at the Adoptathon in progress at Petsmart. They were having same day adoptions all weekend, and most of their cats had been brought there. So here we were waiting for three weeks to get approved and they were handing cats out willy nilly at that very moment! Ugh!!! It was to late to head to Petsmart that day, but we were there when they opened the next morning. There were a lot of kittens available but only a few cats. Eric made a beeline to the fattest cat they had... Emmy. The representative from the shelter (North Country Animal League) told us that Emmy had been at the shelter for 4 years. We immediately filled out an adoption application, our references were checked and in less that 20 minutes we were approved. I guess the stress of the past month had worn me down because as soon as she gave us the thumbs up I burst into tears. Right in the middle of Petsmart I started sobbing, and I don't mean those dainty tears that we see on television. I mean those loud gasping sobs that make everyone turn around and get embarrassed for you. When I tried to explain to the woman about Whitney she started crying also, and then we both started laughing (but continued to cry at the same time). She said we were the "feel good adoption of the weekend".

Our other great news is that Eric completed his courses and graduated at the top of his class. Soon he will be taking the the state test which will propel him from Apprentice Plumber to Journeyman Plumber. Here's a picture of us at the graduation ceremony. Zakary was very proud of his dad, but was not happy about having to wear "fancy clothes".

Merry Christmas

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Whitney

When my cat, Bimbo, died I was devastated by the loss of such a wonderful friend. I had no desire to adopt another pet. No cat would ever live up to the memory of Bimbo, and I felt it would be unfair to adopt a new pet that would live in his shadow always falling short in comparison.

Then I met Whitney.

I first saw her in PetSmart trying to bury a turd. She scratched the wall beside the litter box, then she scratched the floor outside the litter box, and then she scratched the air above the litter box. She didn't manage to get a single piece of litter on that turd after 15 minutes of scratching. I read her profiles. She had been brought to the Humane Society the first time when she was 2.5 years old. Her owner described her personality as "crazy". In answer to the question "Describe this cat's favorite toys or games:" Her owner wrote "tearing couch apart". Whitney was adopted despite the bad profile, however she was quickly returned to the Human Society by her second owner. A new form was added to her original profile. Her second owner described her personality as "temperamental", and hand wrote on the form "Not a children's pet - biting children in house hold - hides all the time".

She had been living in that little cage for 11 months, and I knew we had to adopt her.

Whitney's neurotic personality kept her from living in Bimbo's shadow. She never pooped in the litter box. She preferred leaving her treasures on the floor about 6 inches from her litter box. She wasn't opposed to the idea of leaving a present in the living room or your bedroom either, so we had to start keeping all the bedroom doors shut. She also liked to practice low guttural meowing around 3:30 am at the top of the stairs, so we had to start putting her in the basement while we slept. She never mastered the art of retracting her claws, so every time she jumped on your lap you were guaranteed at least 5 punctures on your thighs (hence the nickname Velcro Kitty).

Whitney was my shadow, and she followed me everywhere. She was constantly underfoot, and I tripped over her more times than I can remember. Every time I sat down she was immediately there to jump on my lap (including when I was in bathroom). On those occasions when I didn't want her on my lap she sat looking up at me with squinty eyes that were so full of love until I gave in. She drove me crazy.

Whitney started to fade away this summer, and on Monday we had to bring her to the Vet and have her put to sleep.

In her seven years with us she didn't "tear up" our couch or bite our children. Instead she captured our hearts with her humble, unconditional love, and our hearts are broken with the loss of our beloved pet.

Good bye Whitney.

We miss you and love you.