And you thought it couldn't get any crazier?

A lot has happened in the last month and I’m not quite sure where to begin. David is doing well but the last couple weeks have been more than a little eventful. It’s strange, it’s been absolutely insane because of the non-stop stuff going on but at least none of it was critical. It was just difficult because there was so much being thrown at us and it was constant.

We had a recurrence of colon issues due to the steroids, an ER visit for continual hiccups for 15 hours, which precipitated nausea and David was unable to keep his meds down. Once it became that critical we went to ER and they gave him a muscle relaxant and sent us on our merry way. We didn’t know what to do; we’ve never been to the ER and then sent home again…I didn’t know how to get out! We ended up right back there in another week for different colon issues, probably due to the muscle relaxants. Lovely. So, David’s GI tract developed an Ileus…basically a sleepy Gastrointestinal Tract. They took him off the muscle relaxant and sent us home again. So, we had a couple scares this month but nothing we couldn’t muddle through and David was home...and that’s what counts.

Inter-mixed throughout all of this, the household had 2 rounds of flu come through. And not just your run of mil flu…this was the crazy nasty flu! Everyone but David got it. We think that the strong antibiotic he’s on for the C-Diff, which stays only in your gut, pretty much killed anything that happened to wander into his GI track. The rest of us weren’t as lucky. It was a puking party for days around here. I’m sure mom never realized that when she was coming up to help she would be doing this! And Alec, being three, doesn’t really understand when he’s going to be sick. So we were cleaning up puke in beds, on stairs and in the cars. Good Times…

We had that monster of a storm that dropped 14+ inches on us. I never realized until that day how very stubborn my mom is. She said I must have forgotten my childhood because she's always been this way! Now at least I know where I get it from! When it hit, she said she was going out to help me. I said “no” and that I worried about her knees. We’ll, when I came out from getting geared up, she was dressed and said, “I’m coming out.” And I knew that voice, because I use it so often myself. And I also knew that there was no arguing with her…this wasn’t a discussion. So, out she went and she’s a workhorse! She was shoveling like a maniac and went back out and helped me do it two more times. She also helped me dig out the mini-van when it got stuck in our driveway the next morning and ended up face planting in the snow when the mini-van became unstuck. So, you would have to ask her, but I think she’s had her fill of snow and puking.

We also had a broken sewage line, which intern involved large machinery, plumbers and the excavation of a 10’ hole in our front yard. Good times! The sewage line looked like a log from what I hear. We have an adorable old bungalow and at some point in the last 90 some odd years, the pipe shifted and cracked. And over time slowly filled with little tendrils of roots. So, the pipe became completely filled with roots…which intern backed up our sewer line. Thankfully my mom happened to notice a small puddle of water forming in the basement in one of her many stints down there doing laundry, and we were able to nip it in the butt before our basement completely flooded. So, with that pricey little adventure behind us…we now have a fully functioning water system once again.

As for David, he’s doing phenomenal. We’ve meet with his Neuro-surgeon numerous times, his Neuro-Oncologist and his Radiologist and we now have treatment plan…Huzzah! David will be beginning his Chemo treatments of Irinotecan and Avastin on Friday. This was the treatment plan I had discussed in my February 19th post.

As for me, I’ve have had a tough go of it the last couple months. Our life changed irreparably a year and half ago…and it has been in total utter chaos for the last seven months. And through all of this, I’ve discovered that one cannot continue in “fright or flight” mode indefinitely. Running on adrenaline continually has begun to take its toll on my body and I’m starting to get a little frazzled around the edges. I’ve lost weight, which isn’t a bad thing, but probably not the way I should have. I was working on an ulcer it seems...big shocker?! So, my doctor put me on something which reduces acid production. The stomach pains I was starting to have all too frequently have disappeared, so at least we caught it in time before I had a full-blown ulcer. I'm trying to take better care of myself. I won't be any good to anyone, let alone myself if I keep up at this pace. I don't know how I'm going to do it...but I'm going to need to start slowing down a bit, taking better care of myself, resting when I get moments and accepting the help of our friends and family...because I need to be able to take care of the boys and I can't do that if I am falling apart as well.

We've definitely had better times...but we've also had much worse times. So, we'll get through this like we always do and hopefully we're on the upswing!