Good morning :)

Hi all, just thought Id give a quick update. AFs sister got released from the hospital on Friday and so far so good. Saturday afternoon we went to Niagara falls which was fun. I haven't been there in nice weather since I was a small child, so it was nice to take in the falls, the whirl pool and such.

Sunday we went down to the pride parade. I think AFs mum and aunt were a little shocked by what they saw, but all in all they were pretty cool with it. On the way back to the car we took a break and sat down on some benches. Some people came up to us all and gave us samples of lubricants. Not a comfortable situation to be in. AFs mum asked "What is this?". Talk about awkward.

Monday - hmmm... monday. Back to school and what not. Not much... nor tuesday for that matter. I'm slowly getting back into this whole excersize thing. This morning I managed to run 6 km, slowly, but I finished. Peterborough will be to finish, but I'll probably be disappointed if I get more than 1:30 since my bike and swim are still pretty strong.

Have a great day everyone!

Friday Friday

Hmm... news? Not much. AFs sister was supposed to get released yesterday but they ended up keeping her in the hospital another day. We're not sure why. I hope it isn't anything bad. We'll be heading down to TO tomorrow morning.

Other stuff? Not much. My apartment is spic-and-span right now, at least it was when I left Jenny there alone this morning! we'll have to wait and see what she manages to do today :) There was a chance that AFs family was going to come up to the 'loo this weekend, and I wanted to make sure my place wasn't a disaster. I've even tidied up the areas that have accumulated junk, and can see my desk top so I deserve a big pat on the back for that :).

Not much else going on really. Just writing away right now, trying to get my method down on paper so that the supervisor can review it before I get too far into continuing what I've been doing. Its pretty boring and hard to stay on track with this, but my goal is to get it done before the long weekend so starting July I can get back into my research. I'm hoping these days to be completely done by the end of October so heres to hoping :)

Uncreative title

Hi all, I was asked to update AFs sister, so here I am. Updating.

As of last night the drain was in her spine and collecting fluid. They are concerned that it isn't collecting enough fluid so they tried inserting it further and it wouldn't go in any more. they were going to try again later, but AFs mum went home. She is having a lot of pain again (I think it is because she is back in the hospital setting with nothing to do but lay around feeling sorry for herself all day) and is having problems with vomitting a constipation again - probably from the morphine. They are talking about possibly discharging her on Thursday. Her nose has again stopped leaking the spinal fluid, but is it because of the drain, or because it is healing? we don't know.

In other stuff, I got back the results from my Barium Upper GI X-ray and everything came back normal. For now, we are assuming it is gastritis and I have to continue on these meds for 6 weeks and then start to ween myself off them. If the symptoms come back at after I'm off the drugs than we'll do some more tests. Grrrr. I don't like having to deal with this ontop of everything else. At least the meds seem to be helping for the most part.

My excersizing is going so so these days. I feel strong in the pool, okay on the bike, but really weak on the run. I guess the time that I've been sick (3 months now) has really taken a toll on that. I guess I just have to work hard at it. IT is hard to believe where I was a year ago compared to now. I guess it'll come back with time.

UPDATE I'm bored, so I'm updating with not much. I just wanted to say that sometimes I seriously feel that if my head were not attached to my shoulders I would have lost it years ago. This morning I got almost all the way to school before realizing I forgot to take my pills this morning. I turned around (at the grad house) and got all the way to the other side of ring road before realize. Doh, no I didn't. Hmm... Longest walk to school ever! Silly me.

A mostly crappy weekend.

So as was expected, Wednesday and Thursday were pretty hard. I was glad I got the opportunity to see granny the way she was, just because it wasn't granny there, and it made me realize that she wasn't ever going to be the same and that we had already lost her. She said one thing to me when I was there it was "Has Jane made a decision about the house". Jane was my mum (who passed away 3 years ago) and the last house she bought was in 1976??? so I'm pretty sure she didn't realize who I was. Leaving on Thursday was really hard, but after getting into the car, no more real tears were shed.

Friday was pretty hard being at school and wondering what was going on in Ottawa, needless to say I didn't get much work accomplished. This weekend, was mine and Arash's six month anniversary and we went out to dinner on Friday night. I asked dad not to let me know until saturday if she passed on friday. Sure enough, 8:15 am Saturday morning the phone rings and I know immediately that granny passed away sometime on Friday. It was just before 3 pm, and both my auntie Jill and Auntie Anne were there with her. She slept all day long, and just stopped breathing at some point.

The rest of the day Saturday was busy. We were running errands and picked up AFs aunt at the airport (she is here from Sweeden for 10 days to help with the post surgery stuff). We had a nice dinner on Saturday night and a good visit. Sunday morning we had another nice breakfast and were deciding what to do for the day. AFs sister had to get her staples out (35 in total!) and they wanted to talk to a doctor about this fluid that has been draining out of her nose. So we went to emerge thinking it was going to be a really short visit. 5 hours later AF and I leave his mum and his aunt there with AF's sister being re-admitted into Neuro ICU. Turns out that the mysterious fluid is spinal fluid and that the fusing between the brain and the sinus cavity isn't working properly. They have to get it to stop because it can have some serious long term consequenses. She had to get a drain put into her spine and they will try that for a couple of days. If it doesn't work, she'll be going back into surgery (probably wednesday or so). We were at the hospital when this man was brought in. The cameramen were there before the ambulance and police man came in. It was pretty disgusting that they were there ready to record everything.

So as you can see it was a pretty crappy weekend. Now I'm back at school and I'm supposed to be handing in my Lit Review to the Supervisor today, but I don't think I'm going to be able to concentrate all that well. I guess we'll have to see.

Update: The drain wouldn't go in last night, so they are going to be trying again this afternoon. I hope everything goes well, man, my life is too stressful right now.

A turn for the worse

My granny that is, not AFs sister. My dad called around 9:30 last night to let me know that Granny was doing much worse. They fitted her yesterday with an IV so that she can go onto the Morphine drip sooner rather than later. At this point, my dad doesn't know if she is going to make it to this weekend which is when my sister and BIL are going up to visit. I'm taking off tomorrow and Thursday to go down and say goodbye and it seems like it'll pretty much be just in time. There is apparently a "no crying in front of granny rule" that I'm not sure I'll be able to hold up, but I'll try my best. I'm pretty upset about it to say the least - she is my last living grand parent...

AFs sister is doing well. She got discharged yesterday at noon, but had to go back into the hospital today to get the staples out of her head. Apparently after that happens, she is able to wash her head like normal. The only problems shes had for the past few days are from the painkillers, much the same as I had after my surgery. They gave her nausea and constipation, but apparently that is getting better.

ANY BOYS READING MAY WANT TO STOP HERE
She also ended up getting her period when she was in the hospital so she was pretty miserable in general. I offered a tampon to which I was promptly replied "Oh, no Azin can't use them, she's a virgin". I was pretty taken aback, I didn't know how to respond. I felt terrible now, I think that AFs mum must think I'm a slut or something. I think it is a cultural difference since here it isn't that much of a deal if you aren't a virgin when you get married. No one is waiting for the hymen blood on the wedding night to prove that their wife is "pure". I felt terrible though, since I've been using them since I first got my period back at age 12 (you kind of have to when you are a swimming instructor and lifeguard!)

Busy...

So I'm back from Toronto now, and it has been a pretty stressful time.

Wednedsay morning we were up before the crack of dawn (think 4 am) to head to Toronto. We were driving AF's sister to the hospital and we had to be there by 7 am. We got in at 6:20 or so and left immediately for the hospital. The pre op stuff seemed to last forever, but finally at 10:30 or so, his sister finally got rolled away into the surgical ward. Around 11 or 11:30, we headed off for a bit. the pre op was supposed to carry on for another 2 hours or so and then the surgery would last another 5-6 hours after that, so they thought everything would be over around 6-6:30. We had short naps in the afternoon and headed back to the hospital around 4:30 or so. And then the waiting continued... past 6... past 7... 7:45 before the surgeon came down to say that everything went okay, but we'd still need to wait another 2 hours (ended up being 2.5 hours) before they could get in to see her.

During that wait my dad called my cell phone. Never a good sign. He usually only calls when it is something big. Well, something big it was. He had been talking to my Uncle M in Ottawa on Wednesday and it seems that my Granny is slipping. Like really slipping. The doctor said at most that she has 1 month left, but that if she has to go onto morphine to manage her pain it will be a lot less. After losing all my other grandparents, you'd think it would get easier, but it doesn't. I'm now planning my trip to Ottawa (Hoping for the middle of next week so I can go with my dad) to say good bye to my granny. I hate to think that this will be the last time I will see her. I also feel a little selfish in that I want her to stay but I know shes in pain and that she'd rather it just end. Also, I feel sad for Sarah and Kate who might not get a chance to say goodbye. Kate definitely won't get too, and Sarah might not be able to because June is a shit month for teachers. She'll be busy doing her report cards and might not be able to make it down.

Okay, I've rambled on enough. I just have to suck it up. Granny is old, she's dying, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Edit - Oops, forgot to mention AFs sister. By yesterday morning everything was incredibly stable and all of the monitoring equipment had been removed, they transfered her to the regular care ward by noon. We last saw her around 5 yesterday and she was almost 100% back to normal behaviorly, if a little dopey due to the morphine. They were talking about discharging her today which is almost unheard of soon. All the nurses were shocked with how well she was doing.

To get in, they made an incision pretty much ear to ear at the front of her hair line. They had to shave a band about two inches thick which won't be fun to grow out for her (she has long thick hair). So, I'm planning on picking up some magazines and some type of hair covering for her to bring down with me tomorrow. Any suggestions?

So I'm a loser :)

Jenny now has a blog... yes, as in my cat :) I recommend that everyone go and visit and give her a treat :) I took another really cute picture of her this weekend and I'll add it once I download it from my computer.

Hmm... last week has gone well. I was pretty lazy last week at school just easing my way back into things after my conference. This week I want to pick it up again. Apparently if I finish by September 29th I make the fall convocation deadline. This is kind of my current goal. Hopefully I can do that. I'd also get 100% of my tuition back then.

I also took my car in last week for an oil change. I apparently have a leak in my exhaust system and to replace the part would be $1350! Way too much. I'm hoping a muffler place could repair it without replacing. even if it only lasts a year, I'll be able to afford that much better next year! I also got a new printer. It is nice, I'm happy with my purchase. I've been planning on getting a new one for a while... my old one is from first year and wasn't a great printer then, but it stuck it out for a long haul!

This week is probably going to go pretty quickly. On top of working hard again, I will be taking wednesday off to go to Toronto. AF's sister is having her neurosurgery that day so I'll be driving him to Toronto on Tuesday night and staying there the day with him and his mum. Barring any complications, I'll be back at school thursday and then back down to TO on Friday night or Saturday morning (AFs staying up at his mum's place the rest of the week).