CELEBRATE

I have finally sat down to get a post out to you, and I've also promised myself I will be in bed by 11:00 p.m. tonight.  We'll see.

This has been a few weeks of ups and downs and beyond.  The personal challenges, and the fickle weather have me feeling there is nothing we can be sure of anymore.  I'm happy to say the landscaping project on the front side of our city house is finally finished.  I'm going to share pics and explain what we did in my next post.  Everything turned out beyond beautiful and what I had expected.  Removing the ivy that covered all of the brick (and some windows, partially!), as well as some overgrown bushes that were past their prime, made all the difference in the world.   

Sadly, we had to have a majestic maple tree cut down this week.  We were able to get financial help on the public walkway (which we are responsible for maintaining), if we agreed to have it removed, as it's roots were the cause of the walkway buckling.  We were a lawsuit waiting to happen.  The work on the tree went on yesterday and today.  When a large limb would come down on the street, my house would shake.  The workers said they believed it was the biggest tree they had ever seen in our area.  

***Stump of maple.  Note my wee feet**


This makes me beyond upset.  Our house is surrounded by trees, and we have had our share of damage after heavy storms.  We have all of them trimmed up every few years., and this guy was definitely as healthy as could be.  I'm going to miss seeing that maple when I look out the living room window, or feel that dappled sun in the morning.  My hands were tied.  

The sidewalk will be repaired in the spring and the stump removed.  We will choose another tree (or two).   I want something that grows quickly.  I like the shade and I don't like looking across the street at other houses.  I have heard that the non-fruit-bearing pear tree is a fast grower and very pretty.  If anyone is from the Midwest and wants to chime in, please do.  

*****

Sometime after I wrote my last post I had a little 'incident'.  I've been suffering from extreme dry eye disease for years and it has worsened with the new meds I've been taking since July for the eczema.  One morning I was feeling my way to my dresser for my eye drops, trying not to open my dry, scratchy eyes, when I blinked and felt the most excruciating pain in my left eye.  I actually bent over and rocked back and forth.  When I could manage to get the drops near the eye, I couldn't bear to open it.  I called my eye doctor, and then Abby, who by the grace of God was off work that week, and she took me to the doctor.  She did remark, first thing after walking through my door, "You really need to learn to call Uber."  Uumm...what happened to family?!



The diagnosis was a large flap tear of the cornea.  My eye doctor is normally a really neat, slap happy sort of guy, and he was not acting very slap happy at all.  He said the tear was not pretty, when I blinked, the flap tissue was moving up and down.  I was started on antibiotics and pain meds for the first 12 hours and then I was back to see him.  The piece had fallen off and became an abrasion.  His biggest worry was that the scarring could cause me to lose the sight in that eye.  I can now say that all went well, and I have a tiny scar that didn't cause any permanent damage.  He is trying to get my insurance to cover the daily eye drops, they are over $300 per month.  If I don't get on these drops, I will continue to erode my eye surface.  Still waiting to hear, and using my little Refresh over-the-counter drops every few hours.  I keep the tubes on my night stand.  

So, I couldn't write a post if I wanted to.  Luckily I had a few newspaper columns in my files so I didn't miss any work obligations.  I managed to comment on a few blogs here and there when I could, without overdoing it.  

Emily and Mike had the most fantastic 1st Birthday Party for Madelyn last Saturday.  I had been on pins and needles for the weeks after she asked me if she could have the party in our backyard, since it's large.  Late October in Chicago is not pretty, and I had no room in my house for the amount of family and friends (and little ones) she had invited.  Thankfully, it was in the mid-seventies and not a cloud in the sky.  

Emily should be a party planner.  Her ideas are so unique and she spent many hours working on a lot of sweet and clever ideas to make it a party to remember.  Here are a few shots:

A pretty table with pics of Madelyn and a self serve popcorn station.  The sun is making my photo wonky, but see the cute pink boxes?

For guests coming through the gate, a table was set up with cute cards to fill out and put in a basket as a sort of 'time capsule'.   Beautiful words were written about Madelyn, at age 1, to be opened when she is 18 in 2034.   I'm not even going to do the math on how old I'll be.  As long as I'm there, I'm happy.  :) 

The food was provided by a local Mexican restaurant.  And they are excellent.  How cool is this?  Made to order and hot off the grill.  I think the neighbors were envious, the smell of grilled steak, chicken and pork filled the air.

All of the condiments were set out by the cooks to help ourselves to.  When they were ready to leave, and they stayed a few hours, all of the extra food was wrapped up as leftovers, and off they went, as if they had never been there.  No clean up, nothing.  This was genius!

And finally, the Birthday Girl!   Well her actual birthday is a little over a week from now-I bet there will be another celebration.  Hopefully not here!  That's Abby's old highchair.  Emily painted it at the lake a few weeks ago.  Pretty.  Back it goes for all the little beebies!

I have something I want to share even though it makes my throat ache to put it in words.  I took Milo to the vet this past Saturday after Abby had noticed he had a few more fatty tumors around his neck.  They weren't though, they were swollen lymph nodes and he was diagnosed with cancer.  Our veterinarian is great.  He was straightforward, but also stressed that I wait for the blood work.  Lymphoma in canines does not have a good prognosis.  Even though Milo looks healthy for his age, he had 4 to 6 weeks to live.  

I could dig not very deep at all into my heart, and write triple what you really don't need to hear.  I don't want to make this a drama, you all know Milo pretty well; we have a very special relationship.  He's my buddy.  My companion.  Every. Single. Day.

So the lab work came back absolutely positive.  Since Abby had found the lumps weeks ago, he seriously didn't have much time.  Canines succumb very quickly to the disease.  Of course I read everything I could get my hands on*, and my vet spoke at length with me.  It was decided we would start chemotherapy.  I know it's very debatable to do this with an older pet, I can't say I know anyone who has a dog or cat who has ever gone this route.  But it might buy Milo as much as 6-9 more months.  

He had his first treatment yesterday.  I brought him in the morning, he was slightly sedated, and received the meds through a catheter.  He was sent home with Prednisone and a medication to be given if he had diarrhea, vomiting, wasn't eating, or became dehydrated.  I think just the commotion  of being at the clinic made him tired, and I was definitely stressed out after 3 days of crying and grappling with decision.  We took a looooong afternoon nap--this is him in the photo after his first chemo treatment.  Today he is eating, following me around, and even chased a squirrel across the backyard.  

I've spent days feeling every emotion an animal lover can feel.  Part of me wanted to just let things follow their own course, how could I go through this pain twice?  I was about to do that when I asked the doctor, "If this was your dog, what would you do?"  He didn't hesitate.  "I'd want more time."  And then I made up my mind. 

 Sigh.  This was so hard to put into words.  

I'll keep you posted (of course), but I intend on being as upbeat as possible as we live out this time together.  And I'm going to make it the best time ever!  Please say a prayer for my Mister.

Jane x

*If you are interested in one of the many websites I searched related to lymphoma in dogs, here is a link.