Catching Up?

Hi again everyone. Steve has been wanting me to do another post for a while now, but there always seems to be a pile of other things that really need my immediate attention. (I'm sure no one else knows what that is like, right?) I finally decided to just put everything else on hold and try to catch all of you up on my last six weeks. (I can't believe it has been that long!)

Ever since we got back home from the hospital, it feels like all I have been doing is playing catch up. It began with my trying to get caught up on my sleep. I have decided that hospitals are not the place to get a good nights sleep. There are far too many beeps, bells, nurses, etc. to allow for that. By the time Steve got to go home, I was thoroughly exhausted! I pretty much just crashed and went into minimal survival mode for the first couple of weeks. When I finally had a bit of energy to work with, there was a backlog of housework, paperwork, and last minute Christmas projects that all needed my attention. (All I can say is thank heavens for the internet. I was able to order the last few items I needed for the kids, mainly books, and they were delivered to my doorstep. It doesn't get much more convenient than that.)

Christmas was exactly what I needed it to be, simple and relaxing. We have had a tradition for years now where our breakfast is in our Christmas stockings. This means the only work involved for me on Christmas morning is washing up a few breakfast bowls and spoons. The breakfast serves dual purposes. The kids always get a kick out of eating their way through the items in their stockings and it helps fill up the bulk of their stockings. The problem with knit stockings is they stretch and so it takes quite a bit to fill them up. By putting breakfast in the stockings it means there is less room for junk food and chocolates. Once you put in oranges, apples, grapefruits, nuts, hot chocolate, an individual sized box of cereal, etc., there isn't nearly as much space to fill. (The stockings we use were hand-knitted by Steve's mom for each of the children and play a big part in our family Christmas traditions.)

The week following Christmas is a bit of a blur to me. I tried to get things in order around the house before the new year started up. What I can remember is that I managed to get the Christmas decorations down and put away just before New Years Eve and I organized the storage area in our basement. I'm afraid I slept through the New Year's celebrations. We usually bring in the New Year at our neighbor's across the street. I managed to eat dinner over there and then had to come home and lie down. I slept clear through until morning. Actually it was probably the best New Year I could've had under the circumstances, I just missed spending it with my sweet heart and getting my traditional New Year's kiss.

I went back to work on January 3rd, but fortunately only had to work on Monday and Tuesday for the first couple of weeks. We had to test the entire school's student body for their mid-year assessment tests. I was part of a team of 7 - 9 people. It was a nice way to get back into the swing of things at the school. I had been gone from the school since Thanksgiving break (Nov. 23 - Jan.3). My job this year has me working specifically with the second grade as a teachers aid. I work with kids who are behind in their reading skills. The school staff has been really supportive of me during all this cancer craziness. When Steve got sick with his chemo and radiation treatments, they allowed me to take a three week leave of absence and then again while he had his surgery. Anyway, the testing helped me pinpoint where there are problems and I'm now starting to tackle them in small group settings.

I really needed the shortened work week at the start of the year. I had been trying to get on top of all our financial paperwork and bills, but that is next to impossible with a house full of kids. Thank heavens, I was able to get on top of it before I returned to my regular work schedule. My mom came and helped me to organize all of the billing paperwork from Steve's cancer treatments. I had organized what had arrived before Steve went into surgery, but a huge pile showed up over the next several weeks and I felt too brain dead to make sense of it.

The last area I've been trying to get caught up on is Steve's health. His poor body has been through so much these last few months. I have been trying to feed him healthy food and vitamins, gone walking around the neighborhood with him to build up his strength and endurance (He has a one mile loop he likes to do, but had to work up to after surgery.), given him massages, stocked up on drinks with protein and electrolytes (Those are extremely helpful with his ostomy.), etc.

I have been amazingly fortunate in my dealings with Steve's ostomy. Over time, we have learned a few tricks that have been helpful in taking care of it. Anyway, I think we have it down pretty well now. The trickiest part is when we have to replace the wafer. We have learned that we need to swap his wafer out on a three day rotation. If we try to go longer than that he starts to burn. We ended up staying with the same brand of product they used at the hospital. We tried a couple of other styles, but they would start having problems within a day, which is way too stressful! (I won't go into any more details about all of this, but if anyone needs to know the tips we have picked up, leave me a comment and I'd be happy to share them with you.)

Our most recent adventure has been Steve starting up chemo again and returning to work full-time. Neither one of us is happy to begin chemo again. If Steve was in his 70's or 80's and we were done raising our children, I think we would both choose to probably skip it, but Steve doesn't want to risk a possible recurrence. He wants to make sure he does anything he reasonably can, so that he can finish raising his kids and dance with me at our 50th wedding anniversary. (That just proves how very much he loves me and the kids.)

Sorry this post was so long, but it is catching up on six weeks. Thanks for all your comments and the support so many of you have given Steve and myself. It has really been a blessing in our lives. God Bless You All . . . Carla