I'm so sorry, glatt. :(

I think funeral services, or visitations, are for the living, the loved ones still here. Having said that, however, very often these things come up when something else important is planned. And it's a big distance to go; it's not like it's in town.

Could you send an arrangement, or cards to your niece and nephew? Maybe a phone call? I think in this circumstance that is more than acceptable and welcome.

And you and your son will relish those trips for the rest of your life: I bet your ex sis-in-law would want you to be able to do those things with your family. Life does go on.

And fuck cancer. :(

Don't go. Call them. They will understand.

Sorry for your loss, glatt.

And yeah, what Monster said.

Maybe you could call your niece and nephew and ask if they'd like to come spend some time at your place after everything is done and dusted? Use the money for that instead. I would think they'd understand, and probably even not really care if you're there or not anyway. They'll be in grief, and they still have their Dad, so he'll be the one they'll be leaning on. (I assume he's going) When it all comes down to it, there'll probably be a lot of people there if she was youngish and the kids will probably have friends go along to support them too.

Don't feel bad. Just let them know they're in your thoughts and that you'd love to see them as soon as they'd like to get together with you.

I called and had a really good talk with them. I'm not going, and it's fine.

Glatt, sorry for your loss, and glad that the niece and nephew are OK with you not going to the funeral. I think the idea of inviting them to come and visit you for a while is a good one.

My hand tremors have gotten worse recently, to the point that I feel I need to discuss it with my neurologist the next time I see him. Rationally, I'm pretty sure it's the same benign aspect of epilepsy that it's always been, and they are only worse right now because I'm not getting enough sleep (which in turn is because I am acting like a child and refusing to go to bed at the appropriate time, as if somehow tomorrow will be magically different and I won't have to get up at 5:45 after all.)

But.

The irrational hypochondriac part of me keeps shouting from the back that this is the first sign of early onset Parkinson's. I have it on both sides of my family--not early onset specifically, just regular old Parkinson's--but one of those cases is the uncle who used to only have mild epilepsy like me.

No doubt lack of sleep is making the anxiety worse too. Oh, and, I woke up with a sore throat, which is just pissing me off. I would go to bed right now, but Mr. Clod isn't home yet.

That would upset me too. Sorry, Clodfobble. I hope you're just tired. Go to bed as soon as the Mr. gets home.

Glatt,
a) I am sorry to hear about your ex sister in law's passing.
b) A moth ate your only suit? That must have been a big ass, hungry moth. It was probably a good thing you weren't wearing it at the time.

Clodfobble.
a) I am sorry about ur tremor. That sucks.
b) Just say NO to Parkinsons.

Go to the doc. Put your mind at ease Clod. I'm sure it's just lack of sleep, so also, GO TO BED!

It's a choo-mah

now, calls from bill collectors, asking me my number, my info, and "are you married to a mrs tink?"

fuck. no. stop bothering me about this shit, I don't want to have anything to do with mrs tink, leave me alone.

Oh man, that sucks. Those phone calls are never really going to go away until she pays the debt, or dies. Mr. Clod's brother has tons of bills in collection, and about every 1-2 years, the debt gets sold to a new collection agency, and they diligently re-run all the potential paths to find him, including us. We tell them he's never lived with us, and we haven't heard from him in years and honestly wouldn't know where to find him, and they are polite and cross us off the list... but then a year later, the calls start again.

Get your sleep and talk to your Doc. Don't screw around with this stuff.

SonofV's epilepsy had become merely a historical fact for a couple years. That's the timeframe the doctors set for seizure free activity in order to consider stopping his medication. He went off the medications according to the doctor's instructions. Another couple years passed with no seizures. Then, another seizure about a year ago. Back on the medicine and during the followup, the only definite causal factor in his situation was fatigue. Getting a teenager to bed early (and up early) is not an easy thing, but it was "doctor's orders". He had a couple more seizures (but none recently) and every time he'd stayed up late the night before. It's a strong correlation.

I'm no doctor. I am not a doctor. But, lack of sleep does increase the risk of seizures in my experience. I hope you take good care of yourself. You're the person in the best position to get you to bed at a good time. Perhaps you can enlist Mr Clod in enforcing bedtime?

I would so enforce her bedtime...

Hold it, that should have been posted anonymous. I didn't really say that; I was just thinking it.

The biggest problem is this new phone. I can lay in bed, and watch shit on Netflix right here in my hands. I get all ready for bed, and then I see my tempting little phone sitting on the nightstand, and I think, "Man, that show is so funny..." and I'm a goner. Like I said, I'm acting like a child and I know it. So far my solution has been to find ways to speed up the morning process so I can sleep later. Which does technically count as getting more sleep.

Charge the phone on the kitchen counter overnight.

Sure, that's what an adult would say. :) I did resist temptation last night, you'll all be so proud and interested to know. But in unrelated events (also belonging in the upsetting you thread, actually,) we've figured out our bus driver and monitor this year completely suck, and are shouting at the kids all the time. Minifob's off the afternoon bus for good as of today, since there's an older, more aggressive kid at that time who guarantees problems, but I'm close to pulling them both off the morning bus too, since that would give me another 25 minutes in the morning. Though it would mean I'd have to put on real pants.

House dress and slippers are time-honored, traditional apparel for dropping off the kids at school

And hair rollers. :lol:

Diz has some sort of paw/ claw infection.
We've been treating it with salt water since the weekend, but he's seriously limping now.
This probably means his second trip to the vet in as many months. I am still paying the 'rents back for his cat flu.

Looks like the Glasgow GTG won't happen this year for me.
Which will hurt. Badly.
But my boy has to come first.

Awww, poor Diz! I hadn't seen this til now. How's he doing? Did he have to go to the vets?

I came in here to have a moan.

I'm ever so slightly upset to be on the treatment trail with Carrot so soon. Doesn't seem five minutes since I was back and forth for this and that therapy, this and that scan, with Pilau.

Poor Carrotchops. He's so young and we're already talking about trying to push back the arthritis to later in his life and hoping to avoid hip surgery.

He had his second tip to the animal rehab centre today. Second go on the underwater treadmill too. Which is kind of cool. Carrot likes it, and seems to have got to grips with what is expected of him really quickly. We're not in the pool yet. Don't know if that will come into it at some point.

At present the goal is to try and correct his walking. He needs to learn how to walk properly. He's pushing his back feet too far forward, under his belly as he walks, and that means he is unstable, is creating additional impact within the joint, and isn't developing normal muscle tone around his hips and bum. Instead he's taking the strain of movement on his back and abdominal muscles.

The sensitiviy I I'd detected around his back end is not a sign that his hips are painful, but his back is. He's almost certainly been dealing with low level pain for quite a while. My poor little boy. To try and avoid introducing him to painkillers so young, we're going to try acupuncture. It seemed to help Pilau quite a lot with his bad back, just loosens it all up a bit. Hopefully that will help.

We have exercises to do for homework and he'll be going to the rehab centre twice a week for the next few weeks then dropping to once a week, then hopefully once a month.

For the next few weeks whilst he's building up those muscles and relearning how to walk, he's only allowed lead walks, no free running. And no careening around the field with other dogs, wheeling and dodging and changing direction suddenly...and being bowled over or pinned down at the back by bigger dogs.

I also have to train him not to go up onto his back legs. Which is a bit of a bitch, frankly. Carrot is typical of his breed and one thing most beardie owners will tell you is that their dogs spend half their time up on two legs!

Ach damn. Here I am again on the worry-go-round.

So sorry to see two tales of woe about Cellar pets. Sending healing vibes!

Make that three.

Pearl has been suffering cardiac arrhythmia events. She lies down and loses consciousness, because her heart beats irregularly. She is down and out for about a minute, breathing hard, and then takes five or ten minutes to recover.

This is a well-known thing in dogs, and she may survive because she has been given a new round of medications, but she has lost it at least once every day for the last four days.

It is her last innings for sure, and it is terrible. I mourn her every time, even though I know it will not make the final mourning any less painful.

This is the girl who has stayed with me as the others have left.

Aww damn !!!
Cellar pets Get Betterer !!!!

So sorry, it's so sad to know fur friends are suffering ... wishing everyone the best. Hoping things turn out for the best.

:(

:apaw: and :heartpump for all our cellar pets.


Oh, and a :flower: too.

Oh UT, that's so hard for you. Pearl is such a sweetie! My thoughts are with you.

Ach damn UT, I feel for you, I do. It's a hard place to be, seeing it coming from a distance. And it is natural and helpful (I think) to future pace grief in that way. Almost like trying it out a little at a time.

But right now, she's still with you. And she's a happy little dog, despite the health problems. Hard as it is, try not to let the sadness of what is coming eclipse the happiness that's still there.

*hugs* to you both.

Sorry about Pearl, UT.
Some good advice above though.

Today I am upset about a real life issue (ie not something that happened on the Cellar or involves any Dwellar).

I tried to talk to someone today about health issues and concerns. Only to get a rather hostile response. I knew about most of it, but they had kept some things back. I always ask about their health and have a good idea about appointments and procedures coming up. So to get a passive-aggressive "attack" when I was trying to keep up to date was pretty horrible.

I didn't let it escalate of course. The person in question does have more to worry about than me, and has been hiding more problems and for longer. But I came away bruised and feeling worse about myself emotionally. My only consolation is that they felt a bit better afterwards. At least better than they would have done if I had shouted, "Why didn't you fucking tell me, I'm not psychic!"

I didn't get on to my own (minor) health worries.
Didn't seem the right time to raise them.
And reassurance and sympathy were obviously Sold Out.

Passive agressive is always horrible, so sneaky. I hope you're doing OK, SG. How's Diz?

Kudos to you, SG. Maybe that person couldn't help taking misery out on you today, for reasons you don't know. It takes a big heart to take the brunt like that. But please don't feel worse about yourself. Any imputation that you should've been psychic was wrong, and another time you could quietly call him/her on it.

we love you Sundae. ''''Lots!

Seems like almost everyone's got something to be upset about lately. Not a lot I can really say to add to the rest, but I hope things turn out for the best. xxx

Cheers people. Today I feel much better about it of course. Last night was the trough.

Diz had his qualified all-clear from the vet yesterday. After a course of antibiotics, painkillers and surgical wash for bathing. Although I am warned to keep an eye on it, as it's not completely healed, so the wash is to continue and he mustn't go out (the easiest part of the routine to follow).

Luckily the boy is such a gannet that giving him pills is never a problem. Break them in half, roll them in Philedelphia and the only worry is he will bite my fingers off thinking they are part of the deal.

Still concerned about December though, financially. I have to make a decision in the next two weeks whether I can come or not, as you'll need to make alternate plans re accommodation and selling my ticket. All the money I saved went to pay off Diz's vets bills, and I still owe more, as well as having to find money to pay for Christmas dinner. Have applied all over the place for Christmas work but nothing back as yet.

seeing as I already have the bitch of the year/decade award on here.. Shouldn't it be you making plans to sell your ticket? And the accommodation thing... you spearheaded it, you have responsibility. Step up!

Yeah, ya know, just not fucking helpful really.

Not your job to police how Sundae interacts with her friends. Speaking as one of those friends, I don't much appreciate the intervention.

um...er...I think Sundae meant the accommodations would have to be changed since there would be two and not three and 'selling my ticket' is something that she herself is planning on doing as in "should I sell my ticket or not?"

that's how I read it.

Yeah you're right I'm sure. Sorry. I shouldn't be interacting with anyone right now.

I bought the ticket for Sundae and gave it to her as a late birthday present. It's not helpful to make Sundae feel any worse then she does already when all she's trying to do is be financially responsible by paying back her parents for cat meds. I'll sell it if I have to but I'd rather keep a hold of it in case Sundae can cone to Glasgow after all.

Sent by thought transference.

Eva is constipated. Poor little thing. It's upsetting her more than me really, but it means she's not really settling very well this morning. Oh well. I'm sure it'll all come out sooner or later. Probably in a massive nappy blast. lol

Pic's or it didn't happen.

lol...if you want a pic of baby poo you can have it. lol Don't say you weren't warned! haha

FUCK CANCER!

goddamn it. my great bud and flying friend. liver. fuckinsonofabitch.

So sorry to hear that, plthi ... damn. Sorry.

Sorry, man. Fucking Cancer!

found out on the way home today. knew strange things were afoot at the circle k for the last few months but found out for certain today. it's advanced. unconfirmed source said stage 4. but that was not a too reliable source. talked to my old manager today and got the jist. now, the last 3 or 4 flights we've done, i have taken over flying to let him rest. hell, the first time i flew his new plane (with the barrel rolls? i'm not looking for them now to post a link to the vid) he asked me to land. hell i passed it off as air sick. nope. that was the initial growth on his liver starting to take it's toll.

been 4 months since then and he's lost probably 35-40 pounds.

my dad was taken back in '04 from liver cancer. i know it can be either fast and done or long and painful.

i hope for a miracle.

Well fuck fuck fuck the fuck out of cancer. Dammit. So sorry plt.

Shit, man. Sorry.

Bad news man, I'm sorry

Sorry man.

goddammit.

so sorry man, :comfort:

Aw crap, fuck cancer.

Shit. That's rough. *hugs*

Fuck cancer.

In my prayers...

Cancer - it's better not to have it.

sorry for your pal. :(