spoken for

Monday was K’s appointment with the neurologist. He asked lots of questions, observed her, and checked her out. Since she still has the nystagmus and sometimes holds her head in a strange way to look out of the corner of her eyes (rather than straight ahead) and since sometimes when she turns her head her eyes will follow late, he’s ordered an MRI. We know that the nystagmus is not caused by a problem in her eyes (according to the pediatric ophthalmologist) so this is the next step. The neurologist says that it could be caused by something in her brain but the other end of that is that if they don’t find it with the MRI, then it’s “just one of those things” and we may never know why it happens and she might grow out of it. A good thing to hear, too, was that he said the grade 1 brain hemorrhage is pretty much inconsequential. He said that almost always those grade 1’s amount to nothing. That is very good to know, the back of my mind has always been concerned with that maybe causing problems for her in the future. He also said that the main concern of the nystagmus, at least right now, is that it could cause tracking problems for her in the future, such as when she’s trying to read and needs to follow along a page in a line, etc.
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I’m so lame when it comes to updating lately. It’s to my own detriment, however, as I’m really the one who cares and am the one likely to read the archives for various reasons. So I guess it doesn’t really matter. :P

Um, first round of chemo went well for my father-in-law. In fact, first they’d told him 3 days in a row, then when he went in, they said once a week, then afterward they said he didn’t have to go back for about 4 weeks. I take this as a good sign. Right? So he’ll be back in there in a couple of days and hopefully this time will go well also.

The job didn’t pan out. They sent me some lame letter that didn’t make any sense. Whatever, I wasn’t really looking forward to the 50 thousand tests and vaccinations I’d have to get to work in a hospital, anyway, even if it was just clerical.

Steve’s still laid off and it’s been almost 2 months. He doesn’t see anything turning around any time soon. So far, we’re ok, but I’m going to have to learn to pay the vehicle bill earlier, or something, so it doesn’t fall so close to the mortgage. Since we’re on a smaller budget now, of course. On one hand, the union sucks in this respect because with him laid off, they’ve essentially taken all his chances at a livelihood in his field. We’re starting to look at options outside of what he’s been trained to do. He can’t work as an electrician unless it’s through the union. It’s a catch-22.

I suppose that’s really it as far as lameness goes. I’ll have to try to update more often as there are good things in my life, too. Really, I’m pretty happy and content. I just get nervous, here lately, when I think about what is going to happen when unemployment runs out if neither of us have found something? That scares me, but a day at a time…

Lots of stuff going on lately, my head is spinning.

1. First and foremost, we were hit with the news this week that my father-in-law has cancer, lymphoma, to be exact. From the link above:

“Lymphoma is a cancer that begins in the lymphocytes of the immune system and presents as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. It is treatable with chemotherapy, and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable, depending on the histology, type, and stage of the disease.”

However, I sort of take that as good news as compared to Monday when they told him he had lung cancer. Apparently, the prognosis is better for lymphoma than lung cancer. He certainly seemed in much better spirits when he called and told me the updated news yesterday.

I don’t really know about lymphoma, or the lymph nodes for that matter, but I’m starting to read. It is interesting to think about the lymph nodes having to do with the immune system as he was not very long ago battling some very nasty cases of bronchitis and pneumonia.
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