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List of random updates
Dec. 8th, 2008 10:08 pmGosh, it has only been about two weeks since I last posted, but it seems like forever. Here is what has been happening with me:
1. I have been helping my brother move into his new house that he is sharing with one of his oldest and closest friends, Greg. It's close to my place, which is nice. It is also at least 3 times as large as his last place since it is a house but it will be more affordable for him since he is splitting the cost. I think that he and Greg will be good for each other as roommates. They act like an old married couple now and claim that they are hetero-life-mates, which makes me crack up. Moving them into the new place has been an experience. There were lots of people that helped, which was really the test of friendship and family-bonding. Needless to say that at the end of the day, people were ready to kill each other, or at they were ready to kill my sister and possibly my mother. There are only so many times that you can hear, "Derek, do you want me to pack this stuff in this box?" before you are ready to smack someone. Add in the fact that I was having a massive allergy attack (thanks to dusty furniture, packing dust, lemon furniture polish, cat hair, and ferret hair combo) and it was not pretty. Everyone banished me from the room because I had lost my voice, my eyes were almost swollen shut, my neck had broken out in hives, and I could barely breathe. Therefore, I went on food patrol and got dinner for everyone. My nephew thought that it was hilarious that my head was basically swelling up like an over-ripe tomato, and he seemed quite surprised when I told him that I loved him enough to tell him to fuck off. It took a couple of weekends but we officially have everything moved to the new place. I have volunteered to help unpack, but that tends to be a personal kind of thing, so I don't know how much help I can be.
2. I am PMS-ing so hard right now. I am completely craving Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, so I bought some. It's not often that I have these cravings when I PMS, so when I have them, I will indulge them. Unfortunately, I now know how many oatmeal creme pies it takes to make you feel queasy. Oddly enough, it doesn't stop the craving for them. What a catch 22!
3. I have managed to catch yet another cold. I haven't caught this many colds in a school year in a long time. I think that I have been doing too much and my body's resistance is down. I am now catching every sneeze, cough, and sniffly nose out there. It seems manageable with medicine right now. The worst part is the headache, which seems to be gravitating to a sinus migraine. As long as the medicine is working and the sinus pressure is not bad, I am fine, but as soon as the medicine wears off, I feel like someone is driving a mac truck through my head.
4. I have a student that is only 16 years old and quite literally, deathly ill. He has aplastic anemia, which means that he has no immune system. This just developed over the summer. Since then, he has been in the hospital more times than you can count on one hand. They have tried chemo in hopes that his body would start to rebuild his immune system by creating white blood cells. It hasn't. His mother and brother have already checked and they are not bone marrow matches. The only "cure" for his condition is a bone marrow transplant. He will be placed on the national registry in hopes that there is a match. However, he can't even be placed on the registry until they clear up the massive infection that has developed in his colon. They are feeding him through an IV and keeping him sedated because of the pain. His platelets are low (only a count of 4 when it should be around 150), and they are giving him transfusions for that. On top of it all, they had to go in and do minor surgery because he had a fungus in his lungs, which they had to manually clean out. His body can't do it because he has no immunity to anything. They are hoping to be able to have an answer about his next course of treatment by the end of this week, assuming that the infection begins to get better. If it doesn't get better, there is a good chance that he won't make it to Christmas. If the infection doe clear up, there is a good chance that he won't live out the school year without a bone marrow transplant. It breaks my heart to think about it. He is such a sweet kid and very intelligent. No child should ever have to deal with this kind of illness at his age. So, that leads me to: Public Service Announcement: If you want to help out people like this student you can do two things. One is that you can be placed on the national registry for bone marrow transplants. It requires you to have your tissue typed through either a blood sample or a cheek swab. There is usually a fee for processing. If you can't commit to that, you can always donate platelets, which only have a shelf life of 5 days. If you are unable to do that because of pre-existing medical conditions, you can always donate money to offset the cost for marrow donors (www.marrow.org).
I think that is most of what is going on with me. I am so tired now that I can't think. I am going to take more medicine and sleep. Good night Flist.
1. I have been helping my brother move into his new house that he is sharing with one of his oldest and closest friends, Greg. It's close to my place, which is nice. It is also at least 3 times as large as his last place since it is a house but it will be more affordable for him since he is splitting the cost. I think that he and Greg will be good for each other as roommates. They act like an old married couple now and claim that they are hetero-life-mates, which makes me crack up. Moving them into the new place has been an experience. There were lots of people that helped, which was really the test of friendship and family-bonding. Needless to say that at the end of the day, people were ready to kill each other, or at they were ready to kill my sister and possibly my mother. There are only so many times that you can hear, "Derek, do you want me to pack this stuff in this box?" before you are ready to smack someone. Add in the fact that I was having a massive allergy attack (thanks to dusty furniture, packing dust, lemon furniture polish, cat hair, and ferret hair combo) and it was not pretty. Everyone banished me from the room because I had lost my voice, my eyes were almost swollen shut, my neck had broken out in hives, and I could barely breathe. Therefore, I went on food patrol and got dinner for everyone. My nephew thought that it was hilarious that my head was basically swelling up like an over-ripe tomato, and he seemed quite surprised when I told him that I loved him enough to tell him to fuck off. It took a couple of weekends but we officially have everything moved to the new place. I have volunteered to help unpack, but that tends to be a personal kind of thing, so I don't know how much help I can be.
2. I am PMS-ing so hard right now. I am completely craving Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, so I bought some. It's not often that I have these cravings when I PMS, so when I have them, I will indulge them. Unfortunately, I now know how many oatmeal creme pies it takes to make you feel queasy. Oddly enough, it doesn't stop the craving for them. What a catch 22!
3. I have managed to catch yet another cold. I haven't caught this many colds in a school year in a long time. I think that I have been doing too much and my body's resistance is down. I am now catching every sneeze, cough, and sniffly nose out there. It seems manageable with medicine right now. The worst part is the headache, which seems to be gravitating to a sinus migraine. As long as the medicine is working and the sinus pressure is not bad, I am fine, but as soon as the medicine wears off, I feel like someone is driving a mac truck through my head.
4. I have a student that is only 16 years old and quite literally, deathly ill. He has aplastic anemia, which means that he has no immune system. This just developed over the summer. Since then, he has been in the hospital more times than you can count on one hand. They have tried chemo in hopes that his body would start to rebuild his immune system by creating white blood cells. It hasn't. His mother and brother have already checked and they are not bone marrow matches. The only "cure" for his condition is a bone marrow transplant. He will be placed on the national registry in hopes that there is a match. However, he can't even be placed on the registry until they clear up the massive infection that has developed in his colon. They are feeding him through an IV and keeping him sedated because of the pain. His platelets are low (only a count of 4 when it should be around 150), and they are giving him transfusions for that. On top of it all, they had to go in and do minor surgery because he had a fungus in his lungs, which they had to manually clean out. His body can't do it because he has no immunity to anything. They are hoping to be able to have an answer about his next course of treatment by the end of this week, assuming that the infection begins to get better. If it doesn't get better, there is a good chance that he won't make it to Christmas. If the infection doe clear up, there is a good chance that he won't live out the school year without a bone marrow transplant. It breaks my heart to think about it. He is such a sweet kid and very intelligent. No child should ever have to deal with this kind of illness at his age. So, that leads me to: Public Service Announcement: If you want to help out people like this student you can do two things. One is that you can be placed on the national registry for bone marrow transplants. It requires you to have your tissue typed through either a blood sample or a cheek swab. There is usually a fee for processing. If you can't commit to that, you can always donate platelets, which only have a shelf life of 5 days. If you are unable to do that because of pre-existing medical conditions, you can always donate money to offset the cost for marrow donors (www.marrow.org).
I think that is most of what is going on with me. I am so tired now that I can't think. I am going to take more medicine and sleep. Good night Flist.