Cancer is confirmed

Hi everyone,

Dr. Markel called today. Though it is NOT Lymphosarcoma, it is Lymphoma. Not good. There are some options, which consist of a 2nd surgery, which would have been more effective if there was only one lump to deal with, but since there were at least three (and I Have found at least one more), it seems to have spread. F*c%.

Another option is to take him in the car (which TOTALLY freaks him out) to Cornell to meet with a feline oncologist to discuss having an MRI or catscan, and see where all the cancer has located itself. IF it seems reasonable (that is relative) then we could move on to chemotherapy, which is something that lymphoma does tend to respond to... the $hitty part about that is... who has cat insurance? What the heck does chemo cost? Is it even going to help him? Damnit - I can't even begin to express how frustrated I am that this is not cut and dry. If she had called saying that there was nothing that could be done, I could, eventually, handle that. If she had called and said that chemo was a sure thing for a cure, I could handle that, and we would deal with the financial part as we could, but this is more along the lines of - well, you could try this or that, and maybe they will help, and maybe they won't...

If I sound sad, frustrated, confused... I am... I just want what is best for Obie.

Obie is out of surgery

Lanie and I are on our way to go and get Obie from the vet. It will be two weeks until we really know anything more about the lumps, but hopefully it will be uneventful once we get him home. I will keep everyone posted!

Obie has cancer

Which sucks. No better way to even try to say that. I am angry that he is sick, of course, not angry with him, but just angry, and terribly sad. Aubrey noticed a lump on him over the weekend, so Monday I took him to the vet's, which he hates going to (though, I will tell you, we use the BEST vet in the world, Dr. Balonek, and have seen Dr. Markel this time with Obie, and she has been tremendous). They aspirated two of the three lumps that I had found up until then to send the cells away for analysis. I have since found at least one more lump. He was fine a month ago when he went for his yearly vet visit, so this thing is moving really fast. He has lost his voice (and those of you who know him, he is a real talker, all the time), and has lost a pound in the last month, which is not good.

Dr. Markel (or Martin, I feel terrible that I don't even know which is her name) called me this morning with Obie's results, stating that they were inconclusive, BUT the lab felt that there was reason for concern of cancer, as the cells were very abnormal.

I am just praying that the tumors are ALL benign, and that he is able to recover.

Obie goes in for surgery tomorrow morning at 7am, and should, if all goes OK, come home tomorrow night. It will be two weeks until we know whether or not the tumors are benign or malignant, and what, if any course of medication would help.

For those of you who read this, please keep Obie, or "The Bus", Mr. Bussadon, Obidon Milosakitty, Gary Bussy (all silly names we call him) in your thoughts. He is a great guy, and we are really sad that he has to go through this. Thanks.

I have a website!

Click on the link (where it says above - I have a website) to see the website for my classroom - I am so excited - this is the first web page I have ever created - I am sure with more practice, it will get better!

Link to more photos

Our Summer, 2007 trip

This should take you to some more photos of the trip...

More Vacation photos

Vacation Photos

Here are some of the photos - friends and family... on the way to Iowa, and in Iowa

Ok - some photos from our trip

I will be adding these from time to time - we took so many photos, it is hard to choose which to put up here! I wanted to remember to put this one up though in particular. It is a sign that was hanging inside the door at a tattoo shop in Decorah, Iowa. I thought it was funny...

Sorry I am slacking off a bit on the blog

I have had many requests to get off my duff and update this blog - and I will, I promise. I have two little boys, and of course my 2 year old kiddo here with me, and life is getting pretty wild! So, needless to say, I have little time for the blog. I will update it asap (maybe even tomorrow) with some photos from our vacation this summer to Iowa and to the Soo, both of which were amazing... it is awalys so wonderful to spend time with friends, and of course with family!

Love to you all, and I will update soon, I promise!!!

Catherine

More artwork

Just thought I would share... more lithography

Mommy, Catherine, Daddy, Aubrey!

... so today Lanie woke up at about 7, and started (pleasantly) yelling "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!", so when I didn't answer, she started yelling "Catherine! Catherine" (perfectly pronounced, might I add), so when I didn't answer then, she yelled "Daddy! Daddy! Aubrey! Aubrey!"...

Needless to say, we got up and answered her...

Lanie's first sleepover

Again - just wanted to share this... Lanie and her cousin, Noelle, had a sleepover. This was when we were in Long Island for Pop's funeral. We came home from the calling hours, and the girls were in bed - poor Noelle though - Lanie is a real mover in her sleep, so eventually, Noelle was kicked out of her bed, and went to sleep with mommy & daddy...

Lithography (my artwork)

I thought I would share this with whoever reads this... I am taking a lithography class now (last class for my degree). I had other plans on what I would use as my images, but as we all know, things change sometimes. When my Pop Pop died, I wanted to do something special for my family, because he was so special to all of us. I chose one of my Fav. photos of Pop when he was young, and drew it rather largely with litho crayons (can't erase, so you can't make mistakes) on limestone. From that, I used gum arabic and nitric acid to etch the stone. From that, I printed 12 prints of my Pop Pop, one for each of my sisters, one for my Dad, one for Auntie, and one for my cousins, Kristen and Danielle (each). Today is father's day, so I gave Dad his, and one for my sister Shawna. I rarely draw, and drawing people is particularly difficult, since you lose their likeness if you don't catch the most important details. You learn a great deal from drawing too - I learned that Pop and I had the same teeth (shape). I never knew that, since he had aged, and his teeth were replaced with dentures. Even my dentist could tell we were related (I had to show her the print... I am particularly proud of this one).

I hope you enjoy. If you are one of my sisters (or auntie or cousins), I will be sending you a print soon!

Love,
Catherine

PS - these are some of the different stages the stone went through... I thought I would share the process a little with you all.

Isn't she lovely?

Of course she is. This was at brunch the other weekend in the middle of our bike ride - she was very huggy with mommy, which I always love!

"If yer happy in your nose, cwap your hands"

Just a little something cute - Lanie likes to sing - a lot. So, she really enjoys the book that Aunt Barb & Uncle Chris gave her last year - "Clap Your Hands"

Though, the other day I heard her singing it - she was singing "If yer happy in your nose, cwap your hands"...

I thought that was funny.

"It's a standing bottom!"

This is what Lanie said last night as we walked by a few nude bottom-halves of mannequins...

Damn plumbing...

So, um, last night our kitchen sink stopped draining. We tried the plunger - it didn't work. Tried liquid drainer, didn't work. Tried an auger that we bought last night from the home of pot (home depot), didn't work. Oh crap.. time to call the plumber. That is something that luckily, we have never had to do, until last night. I left a message with the answering service at Roto Rooter to have someone call me back. They called first thing this morningand were able to come out on a non-emergency call at 10am. Not too bad of a turn around time anyhow, right? So, Joe from Roto Rooter showed up and quoted us a charge of $257.95 to unclog the drain. Ugh, that seems like a lot for what was to be a 5 minute job. So, we said ok, and off he went to clear the drain. Two hours later, he is still here, and the clog was way the hell down the pipes, through the basement...

All in all, it took 2 1/2 hours to clear this thing up! He advised us to remove our garbage disposal all together, and not to use one again. Apparently in older houses with older pipes, garbage disposals are very bad. Wonderful, since we JUST bought the thing...

Nonetheless, the problem is fixed, thanks to Joe at Roto Rooter, and to be honest, that was a decent experience. He was very friendly, seemed really honest, and should we need a plumber again, I will ask to have him back out. He was really fantastic and pleasant to deal with. So much so, that I think I will call Roto Rooter to compliment his work and his great attitude.

THANKS!

Link to some photos

Occasionally I will upload photos to the web to share with y'all... this is one of those times. If you want to take a look at the graduation photos from this past May, here they are!

PS - just click on where it says "LINK tO SOME PHOTOS" to get to the pics...

Love you all!

The feeding of the giant birds

'Twas a nice day today, so we decided it would be fun to take some old bread to the bay and feed the ducks - apparently it is a nuclear bay... look at the size of those beasts!! Honestly, the swans were rather intimidating, size-wise, but other than the one that thought Lanie's hand looked like a tasty snack, all of them were really quite docile. There were some babies there too, whch are always so nice to see.

You can't see it from this photo, but the swans were actually much larger than Lanie!!