Home For The Holidays

It's been a little while.  Sorry about that.  I'm guessing that a lot of you, like Isaac and I, are busy with Christmas being tomorrow.

This past week and a half we did Christmas with my dad's extended family in Nebraska and then when we got back, Isaac and I headed to Iowa City for Christmas with the Hintons.  Howard (Isaac's dad) and I are in a weight loss competition, so I was glad to hear that Lynn (Isaac's mom) made him a couple batches of fudge.  Unfortunately, it looked so good that I wanted to try it, and I ended up loving it so much I'm sure I ate more than Howard.  I guess that effort to trip him up backfired.

The last two full days we've been in the van with my Iowa family--and my brother.  Glory sakes, heaven spare me.  I've wanted to kill him less this year than in the past few years, but he can still get on my nerves faster than any other human being I know.  I don't even know how his brain works to think up some of the things he does.  I guess we're just wired differently.  VERY differently.

We stopped in Tennessee last night and visited with some family that we don't get to see very often.  It was fun to get to hang out with them!  The boys (Isaac and Ike) are on a weightlifting kick right now so they were super excited to learn there was an in-home gym.  They spend at least an hour seeing how much weight they could bench, among other things.

Courtney and I lifted a little bit too, but not for long.

While we were there, Isaac and I slept on an air mattress upstairs.  Nobody realized it had a small leak in it and so midway through the night I went to roll over and just about fell off because so much air had escaped.  I felt like I was sleeping on a waterbed without any outer boundaries.  Mom came up to wake me up in the morning and said that both Isaac and I were sleeping with our backs/butts on the ground and our legs were up in the air.  And apparently when I got out of the bed Isaac sunk to the ground and the bed kind of caved in around him.  Poor guy.

Today we were in the van for another eleven hours and thankfully nobody killed Ike.  Sometimes he makes it his personal mission to see how many people he can get riled up before we gang up and beat him (not literally).  He's pretty good at getting to the edge of everyone's patience.

We arrived in Orlando at 1:00am and the plan is to make our way down to Miami tomorrow.  Then we get on the cruise ship and will be floating in the ocean for the next five days.  Ahhhh...  Hopefully it will be relaxing.  I'm looking forward to it because not only is it a vacation, it will kind of be like a honeymoon for Isaac and I since.

The plan had been to go on one in August this year when he had a break in his school schedule; however, the appearance of the cancer prevented us from going anywhere and doing anything, so this is kind of like our fake honeymoon--but we'll have guests!

Laughter is Good Medicine

Since my little incident in the shower, I've been able to hear very little out of my right ear.  I've grown rather accustomed to it by now and Isaac and I have started calling it my "bad" ear.  The other night he just died laughing because we went to bed at the same time (a rarity when you're married to a med school student) and I sleep on the right and he on the left.  I was turned on my side facing him, which meant that the bad ear was facing up and my good ear was smothered in pillow-ness.  

I was just starting at his oh-so-handsome face as he started to talk.  A millisecond into whatever he was saying and I realized I couldn't hear it because my bad ear was the one up.  Then, as yet more proof that I am really an old lady, I had to speak those dreaded words you hear from the 90-somethings in retirement homes.

"Heh?  What are you saying?  Hold on... my good ear is in the pillow."

He. Just. Died.

I hope by now you realize I'm learning to laugh at myself because the alternative lately is probably to cry or get angry, and so as he continued his guffawing, I joined him.  Really, if you think about it, I am just a miserable mess.  My body has been started more drama in the past month than I care to admit.  Let's see what we've got a count on so far (you can click on some of the following for the full scoop if you're behind):

• Excisional Biopsy Surgery
• Diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma IIA
• A million blood tests, PET/CT scan, MUGA scan, and a pulmonary function test
• Fever/headaches/sore throat/wry neck
• Ear erruption that resulted in early anesthesia at my Mediport Surgery, a visit to Urgent Care, AND a visit to the ER
• Mediport Surgery
• Tightness in my neck that Isaac had to crack out (yes, CRACK)
• Nausea and a 3-day nap due to chemotherapy
• Crack-addict-like behaviors from either chemotherapy or compazine (to be determined after the next chemo cycle)
• A yeast infection from the million antibiotics I've been on
• Claw-hand and spastic tongue muscles from a compazine reaction--aka: another trip to the ER

We can add another one after my visit with the ENT yesterday, too: surgery to put a tube in my right ear.  Yep.  Apparently there is fluid built up behind my eardrum that is behind held in place because my adenoids are swollen (lymphoma being the likely culprit of the swelling) and are holding it up there.  They're going to knock me out on July 18th, cut a hole in my eardrum, suck the fluid out, and put a temporary tube in that will fall out on its own within a year or so.

This is why we laugh.  

That, and the fact that my husband and mother figured out every loophole in my insurance policy.  Not only did we figure out how to work the "guest" status, we also ended up getting a refund of what we had paid for the month of June because my mom figured out I shouldn't have had to switch plans.  I bet the insurance people are pissed.

They told her to quit reading the policy.

All in all, when it rains, it pours... and so long as I don't have my hair and makeup done, I'm fine with splashing in the puddles.

Oh, and Em Fedderson, if you're reading this: I had to cut a little over a 1/2" off my hair yesterday to knock it back to where it was when I first cut it.  Just sayin'.