Winter Wonderland?

Well, I’m not sure where to begin this post. A lot has happened in the last month. As for the fluid on David’s brain…that seems to be going well. He has been getting regular scans and they tend to show either no-change or a slow recession of the fluid. This was expected and as long as it continues to slowly go down, the surgeon is happy. And if the surgeon is happy, I’m happy. This process may take months and months. Unfortunately, until the fluid has completely dissipated, David’s lifting restrictions will be in place. No more than 5-10 lbs. Dave’s not altogether thrilled but I told him that although it sucks…it’s a minor price to pay if he doesn’t hemorrhage again and end up in the hospital.

As for other health issues, the big “D” seems to have reared its ugly head once more. It’s not as bad as before and once Dave started showing strong signs of it, we tried to be as proactive as possible. About 2 weeks ago Dave ended this really expensive, but obviously extremely effective antibiotic. Within a couple days of going off of it, he started showing the beginning signs of C-diff again. Dave hoped it was just a bug…but by Friday it was apparent it wasn’t. We called the doctor and after a lot of hoo-ha that I won’t even go into here, they prescribed the pricey meds once again. Just to give you an idea, with insurance it’s $1,200 a month and without its $3,000 a month. Insane. Seeing as he very well may be on these pricy little gems for awhile we looked into doing mail order which cuts the cost enormously. The assistant had never done this before and it ended up quite the mess. We got that straightened out, but then we didn’t realize mail order drugs through our insurance takes up to 5 days to process. So, although we were having them overnighted, we still might not see them for a week. We ended up calling back the doctor to get a 5 day prescription from a local pharmacy to get Dave through until the rest came. The insurance promptly declined this scrip because we already had a prescription pending for this medication and they don’t really care how long it takes you to get it or if there are shipping issues. I was so pissed. We’re trying to be proactive so Dave doesn’t end up in the hospital once again, which intern will save them boat loads of money. But…in the end we ended up getting a 3-day supply of the meds at full cost…which ended up being over $300. Lovely. But it will be worth it if we can keep this nasty bacteria at bay.

The mail order stuff arrived yesterday and now we’ve got a 3-month supply. Hopefully David will begin to feel better soon. He’s not severely dehydrated…but I’m sure he is a little bit. He’s exhausted all the time. He runs a low-grade fever intermittently and all and all feels like crap. He has really good moments and then really tired moments. But his body is going through a lot and he’s back at work and I’m sure that’s taking its toll as well. We’re just trying to make sure he’s rested and getting as much food as he can muster in him.

As for me? Who knows. I’m tired. I’m extremely tired.
It’s been the longest year and half of my life and some days I feel like I will never see a light at the end of all this madness. Like Dave, I try to keep my spirits up but some days it’s harder than others. I hate seeing David so sick and pale and it’s just tearing me up inside. I feel helpless a lot. I feel sad sometimes. I feel angry sometimes. But I just keep trying to move forward and keep the family going and barrel ahead towards the light at the end of this damn tunnel. All the snow and winter drearies hasn’t helped either. We invested in a snow blower this fall, and it’s the best investment we ever made. Due to David’s weight restrictions, all of the snow blowing and shoveling has fallen on me. “Bessie” is a work horse and she’s helping save my back. Yes, I’ve named the snow blower. You may laugh, but we’re bonding out there! But Bessie has been awesome and made this whole winter wonderland a bit more wonderful and a bit less messy.

As for the other stuff going on in our lives? I know, it’s hard to believe but we actually have a life beyond all this crap. At least we try. Alec’s birthday party was last weekend. He shared it with his best buddy Matthew and they had a blast. We held it at Pump It Up again this year. It’s amazing what a difference a year makes at this point. Last year they needed help getting on pretty much everything and this year they were running amok and climbing, sliding and jumping all over. Some needed help on the big slide or rock wall, but that was about it! Alec was so excited about having cake and blowing out candles…he talked about it for 3 weeks before the party. I ended up making a dinosaur volcano cake which turned out pretty cool looking. It was quite the pain in the ass though. I’m not becky-homecky by any means…and so me baking a cake was quite entertaining. Icing it was even more so. Thankfully there was red lava glaze and dinosaurs all over to mask the wacky icing underneath. I’ll try to get a picture of the cake uploaded this weekend.

The other big event in the household right now is Christmas! Alec is so excited. He seems to get the concept of Santa and talks about him all the time. The other day he informed me that Santa was going to be bringing him new dinosaurs. Really, I said? News to me! I better get on that! We also got a neat antique looking advent calendar to count down the days to Christmas. Alec is so excited about it that it’s sometimes the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning. He wants to go check that calendar! So, although things could be going much better…we’re getting by. We’re trying to enjoy the holidays and quiet times at home. The house is all decked out and that seems to raise everyone’s spirits. The magic of Christmas! It can heal. I truly believe that. No chocolates as of yet, but I have the supplies and hope to make them later in the month. They may not be done by Christmas…but that doesn’t matter. They’ll taste just as good as New Year’s chocolates!