Thanks Everyone

[CatherineM]

Zach's doing better. He got to come home from the hospital today. They took more X-rays and scans of his neck first. There was a large blood clot there when he was first admitted, but it had disappeared by this morning. Prayer is powerful. Thanks to everyone who prayed for him.

It's hard for me to look at him all bruised and swollen. His right ear is actually black. I want to cry or just hold him but he hurts to be touched right now. I want to track these guys down and take a baseball bat to them. I want to find the kid who left his shoe print on my son's face and make him eat that shoe.

What I did instead was get him some chocolate milk and cheese pizza and a new video game. He wants to spend tomorrow driving around with me while I do errands. I'm going to keep him close for awhile.

[maximillion]

Out of props but so pleased to hear he is home and healing......

 

Prayers.

[Spem in alium]

So glad to hear he is improving. Prayers.

[AnneLine]

I saw elsewhere that you use the mobile version of Phatmass and may not be able to see props.  YOU ARE PROPPED by a lot of us.  We're praying for Zach and for you... glad he's doing better... glad BOTH of you are doing better!

 

Hope rest of your brood AND your studies are doing well... has been a while since an update... and always interested.

 

Prayers.....

[CatherineM]

An update.

James finally got a job. He ended with his shopping cart job after a new manager began calling him names like retard. Took him a long time to start looking again. He delivers a local newspaper. No bosses. Stacee is on a construction job. Doing roofs in summer isn't easy even in Canada, but when you are bottom rung, you take anything. Zach is working at Tim Horton's. That's a Canadian Dunkin donuts kind of place. He was working the drive thru until his family found out he was there and started coming to the window drunk/high to harass him. He really likes it.

I lack one undergraduate class and one graduate class to finish my masters. That and the thesis. Have to get with my thesis advisor in the fall to iron out the topic.

This summer I've got a couple of books coming out. Screwballs a collection of stories about clients and people I've known through life with mental illnesses or querks. A kid's book called Gandy and the Princess about a basset hound and a girl waiting on a bone marrow transplant. And we are doing a series of books for kids about mental illnesses. The first is called why is my momma sick? or at least it was before the students got ahold of it.

Austin gets a federal grant every summer to employ university students as interns. He teaches them how to get papers accepted in academic journals and conferences and they do editing for us. Editing with a little E because I normally change everything back. As an example, I talked about how things were before we had a blood test for Aids. Since this happened before she was born, she took that part out because she thought I'd made a mistake. I also talked about one of my clients who'd bought an old mansion from the Oil Baron days. Never heard the term, so assumed I'd written it wrong. They have to do this stuff to learn. I suppose. They always want to change the titles. Might as well ask me to rename one of my kids.

I'm trying to learn violin. I got an electric one so I can practice with headphones on and not have my neighbors show up at the door with flaming torches and pitchforks. Catching up on sewing since this is the first summer in three years that I'm not renovating something. I promised Austin I wouldn't this year, but next year, I'm doing our bathroom.

Gandy is staying close to the air conditioner. He spends mornings on one patio and afternoons on the other depending on which one has the least sun. He's worried about wrinkles from sun exposure I suppose. We are only a couple of blocks from our version of the state fairgrounds and the fair is going on. Fireworks every night at 11:00. Gandy isn't scared of them, but does feel it necessary to join in.

Austin got elected a fellow in the Royal Society. He's very excited. It means a trip to Quebec City in the fall, and travel is hard on him. We're giving lectures in BC in September. It will be a nice working vacation. Catholic Social Services pays someone to watch over the kids when we go out of town. He makes sure everyone takes their meds and is around in case of emergency. The boys have forbidden me to call him a babysitter.

The hospital trip notwithstanding, things have been rather calm, or as calm as things ever are here. I get a new hearing aid tomorrow. The hearing in my left ear is going out. One sided deafness with a certain kind of throbbing noise in it is usually this kind of tumor on the ear nerves back where they put those cochlear implants. 95% benign tumor, 4% malignant one, and 1% something else. So I had an MRI and prepared for brain surgery. It showed no growth. I have labyrinthitis an inner ear thing. I had a bad case of it in my early 30's. No real treatment just a hearing aid to deal with the symptom. With the head injury and a childhood history of swimmer's ear, it wasn't out of left field.

So as ordinary a summer as is possible.

[maximillion]

Out of props but this sounds like there is some hard work behind the statements!

 

Hope all the books go well. Can you pm me the titles? Thanks.

 

 

Prayers...

[Lil Red]

how's he doing, Catherine? how are you doing? 

[CatherineM]

He's not back to work yet. The shoe print on his face has faded thankfully. His mouth still isn't right. It's like one side is swelled more than the other, and his teeth won't meet. I think he's still in shock. At least he isn't talking about trying to retaliate.

I'm feeling better. There are times I'd like to pack a bag and hop a bus to Mexico to sleep on a beach for awhile. I'm not single, young and fit anymore without baggage though. They'd starve to death in short order.

I don't have to tell anyone who's a parent that kids are a blessing, but the stress of worrying about them can sometimes be crushing. That's the double edged sword that comes with love.