Andrea update from Mom

Here it is, Saturday, and I still haven't gotten this note written.
When I get home on Wednesday evening, the treadmill seems to speed up
and I don't always remember to sit down and get this written. Andrea
continues to improve a little each week. It's a little harder to
describe something new, but she is moving her legs more and with
greater strength; she is staying up in the chair for longer periods
(2-3 hours) and we are making some changes in her tube feeding to try
to allow her to get hungry and be willing to eat a little. The
speech therapist says she is able to chew and swallow safely now,
but her stomach has shrunk with the continuous tube feeding and she
gets full really easily, so coaxing her to eat is a bit of a
challenge. She was scheduled to go to McMinnville for her third
Cytoxan treatment--yes, they were finally able to make the
arrangements to have it there! There is a wheelchair bus in the
county and Marilyn found out that it would come to there place to
pick up, so she and Andrea were going to go in for the treatment on
Friday--I'll have to let you know next week how it went.
Mike has not had a good week; his colitis is acting up and he was
afraid it might have progressed to pancreatitis again. He had blood
work on Wednesday that was within normal limits, so he was relieved
about that. Marilyn called me Thursday night to talk a bit about
Andrea and said Mike was feeling a bit better. He had had a fever on
Wednesday night, so I am wondering if he had picked up some "bug"
that was adding to his misery. Because of the fever, he won't be
able to take his next dose of medicine for his colitis for a week (it
was to have been on Friday this week), but, if it was something else
making him feel badly, hopefully he will begin feeling a bit better now.
I'll keep you posted.
Jan

And... A letter from my sister!

Dear all,

This is the quickest way of letting you all know my news, sorry it's a little impersonal, but I've kinda been out of it for the last few days.

First the "small stuff:" I got laid off from Boise Blue week before last. It wasn't a surprise, and if we cut all the fun out of our budget, we'll be okay through summer, after which I can look for another part-time job. The thing that made me sad, though, was that my old Mac, which I still use for graphic jobs, bit the dust last week while I was working on an auction project for ANSER. This computer is over ten years old, but it still worked as well or better than many newer computers. If you're wondering why I would cry over a computer that old, it's because of the investment I put into it... graphics programs that would cost into the thousands to replace, a graphics tablet which will not work on newer systems, but worked like a charm on this, and the fact that replacing the system itself would also cost into the thousands.

So they say troubles come in threes, right? The worst happened on Sunday, and it was all stupid decisions on my part. We trained Caramel to run alongside the bike on the leash. No problem, she loves it. So I decided to train Keiser, our standard poodle puppy, who at seven months weighs about 85 lbs. We were riding along, doing okay, about 10 miles per hour, when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The bike came to a screeching, swerving halt, I put my foot down to catch myself and heard a terrible pop in my ankle. My foot went off to the side and I knew something bad had happened.

Long story short, I broke off a triangular piece of bone on the back of my tibia, about an inch and half long. Yesterday they found out that the fibula is broken about half way up my leg. The cartilage is compromised on the bottom of the leg joining the foot and will probably lead to arthritis. The tendons between the tibia and fibula are torn, but the cat scan and x-rays couldn't tell how much, the surgeon won't know until he gets in there. The doctor called it a high ankle sprain. I'll get to have two stainless steel pins in my leg from here on out.

I'm getting cut on today at 2:00... wish me luck! The moral of the story is, Don't ride a bike with your dog on a leash! I also found out that the pain killer Norco makes me very sick and loopy, but I do okay with Darvocet, it just makes me sleepy!

Alan took this week off of work to take care of me and get the kids to school. His parents have been kind enough to pick the kids up and take Jordan to track practice right after school while we've been in doctor appointments. Hopefully it won't be too long after the surgery before I can drive again....

Anyway, I'm happy to say my run of back luck must be over by now and it will be a good year from here on out!

Yours,
Mora

My sister...

My sister is recovering from surgery. It was rather later than she expected but there was an emergency so she didn't go into surgery until after 5:00. Elynn (her mil) called around 7:30 to let Mom know that she was doing ok but was rather groggy and having some difficulty shaking off the anesthesia. She was expected to go home last night but will spend 6 weeks in cast. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Lest you think it's all bad news...

I'm doing well. I'm happy and content. NCATE is over and I have recovered. We have a great deal of work to do but not immediately; SueAnn is taking a vacation first. There is nothing terribly interesting to share so I haven't been writing much. I'm working on a pair of socks and I have one done.



Otherwise, I've been playing WoW and spending time with Carrie and Robert. Sounds really exciting, I know but I enjoy it.