kvetching up

Entry 1     9:08 a.m. Emergency is on the television as I'm working.  Two exhausted dogs from a morning of rapscallion play, lay near me, like comic book ends.  Abby is in virtual class, Leiney downstairs getting ready for work later today.  Jenny went to see Moni's new condominium in Yakima, yesterday afternoon and returns this evening.   This puppy is a handful, as puppies are. Every time I turn around, she is engaged in more mischief, most often super naughty mischief.  I have the attention span of a gnat, so that isn't helpful.  In more encouraging news, Buddy has moved from resentment to a second puppyhood.  The two of them rough house almost non-stop, chase each other down the back stairs in the yard, where they explore and wrestle as much as possible.  This has made it easier to handle a new puppy to be sure, and Buddy is in better spirits.  

Entry 1     9:10 a.m. “Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” —  G.D. Anderson   Hell to Pay Buddy has met his match in now 8 week old Willow Ruby Ida Miller Gamache.  She will weigh as much as him, likely in the next two weeks, and then forget it.   I love him, don't get me wrong, but he's a dick.  He is mean to her, and constantly tries to dominate.  Chest bumping, biting her throat, just generally asshole behavior.  Meanwhile, she frolicks, worships him, and tries to do everything he can, all while having paws three times too big for her body.  The reign of terror won't last, and we saw a bit of that last night.  We gave each of the dogs a new rawhide-like safe bone to chew.  She is incredibly mouthy, but has the attention span of a baby, so hers was barely touched during the day.  He, on the other hand, took his bone, jum...

Entry 1     10:00 a.m. The Game Is Afoot On or about Memorial Day I cut my foot with a shard of decorative glass that I stepped on in the basement while doing laundry. It fucking hurt. I had Jenny pull out the shard,  a la Androcles and the Lion.  I thought she had gotten all of it. Unfortunately, the wound didn't heal, nor did the pain subside. So, last night, after much prodding, I went to urgent care.  I couldn't bear much weight on the foot.  The x-ray showed a foreign body.  The PA who saw me decided to numb my foot and remove the debris.  Mary, Holy Mother of Jesus did the three injections into the ball of my foot hurt.  I was warned, but wasn't prepared. Fuck, who could be?  I screamed and clutched the handles of the birthing bed they had placed me on, and made sounds like I was being stabbed to death.  The needle was incredibly long, went incredibly deep into my foot.  I moved, involuntarily, from the pain of each ...

Well, support for Occam's Razor exists in the medical journals.  Her cancer is growing and the gemcitabine is no longer working, would be my wager.   I scoured the oncology journals and found this information: Finally, the change in CA 19-9 levels over a 4 week time period (“CA 19-9 velocity”) has been shown to be related to disease progression. Patients without disease progression were shown to have a slower change in CA 19-9 over a 4 week period (1 U/ml/4 weeks) as compared to those with disease progression (131 U/ml/4-weeks) ( P  < 0.001) [ 31 ]. These studies suggest that a decrease in CA 19-9 levels during or after treatment are predictive of disease remission and whether a patient will respond to chemotherapy.    From 3k to 8k in two weeks.  Not good.

Abby and Willow. Entry 2.     6:42 p.m.   Abby has her wish fulfilled. For over a year Abby has been asking and searching for a dog.  Today, thanks to someone showing an act of kindness to a stranger, the 8 week old Bernedoodle arrived.  Abby has a crate, toys and an enclosure in her room, and is spending her day with the puppy.  It loves Hozier and Phoebe Bridgers, based on the experiments of Abby "Skinner" Miller Gamache.  This is going to be work and responsibility for all of us, especially Abby and me.  I am hopeful it will work out.