Thursday, August 19, 2010

Divorcing a Sister

I think it should be legal.

I don't even know where to start. My sister and I have not always had a good relationship but over the past few years I thought we'd become close, or at least as close as we'd ever be.

Even though I totally disagree with her relationship with a married man I haven't shunned her and when she's needed to talk I listen. I don't sugar-coat how I feel about what she's been doing but I don't damn her either. And my door has always been open when she's needed somewhere to escape to, which she has used frequently over the past two years, sometimes for weeks at a time.

So the recent issue started when I went with Ashley down to Dallas. That was the week that the boyfriend was with his legitimate family in Mexico on vacation. In the past she's always crashed at my house during those times. I didn't invite her to go with us to Dallas, in fact I didn't even think about it, and if I had I wouldn't have anyway. She's never shown an interest in softball, she's only met Ash twice, and it would have been like keeping a 3 year old entertained while we were down there.

The next issue she has is that even though she didn't show up once to help with the renovation of our mother's kitchen her nose is out of joint about not being invited to the celebratory float trip. Ok, she showed up once. Dressed to the nines, sat and talked for an hour or so and then said she had plans and had to leave. All while my brother and I cut tile and hung backboard and sweated our butts off in 100 degree heat. And in all honesty - I knew she'd be upset over not being invited and I didn't care.

So now she's not talking to me for slights she's made into molehills. And has texted me that I don't understand what has happened and that she's traumatized. Whut?! About what? When asked to explain she says she doesn't want to add to MY plate. What the hell? She uses sentences like "it takes me back to some memories from some place I don't even know". Again - whut?! My not inviting you to Dallas where I'm taking care of Kayla's big sister at a week long softball tournament and then not inviting you to a float trip where you really didn't deserve an invite has traumatized you? I wish I had her problems, but I think I could handle it alot better.

I just can't deal with her drama right now. I think the problem is she's not the center of attention, any attention.

So do you think that if I say "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you" it will work.

Yeah, I didn't think so. And I'm sure this will just be a footnote at some point. But thanks for letting me rant.

Monday, August 16, 2010

First step of treatment - complete

When her treatment plan was first given out the doctor gave us a hand out - a flowchart - with a right and left side. Kind of one of those in magazines where if you answer "yes" then you follow this arrow and "no" you follow that arrow. Well, in this flow chart you always want your arrow to follow the left-side of the page. That's the half of the page that you follow when you're responding to treatment well and it's the less aggressive side with the best results.

She's finished the first leg of treatment - that first crucial month - and been able to stay on the "left side of the page". They wanted her bone marrow to be producing 0% leukemic cells at this point - she's producing 1% but that still keeps her within expected range.

Now she starts the second leg - starting today the chemo doesn't include Prednisone but they are adding the drug that makes you really nauseated and dehydrated. So her moon face and some of the anger will subside over the next couple of weeks but she'll be sick alot more. There are no good side effects to any of this.

Some good finacial news - her dad had gotten laid off this past year and kept his insurance coverage with Cobra, he recently found another job with insurance and had sent in his Cobra letter ending coverage. They never received it. So she has primary and secondary insurance. So even though the insurance companies are fighting about who's primary in the long run the treatment will pretty much be covered. In addition, mom had taken out an Aflac cancer rider on herself this past year, she figured since she's a smoker it wouldn't hurt. She just found out that when she did that they automatically put her kids on it also. So she will get a large check with the initial claim and they will pay 900.00 for every chemo treatment. She's very relieved because she can hire a tutor for Kayla while she's out of school for these first 6 months. And even though everyone would wish that none of this had to be considered good news or needed it sure is a weight off both of their shoulders. Now they can just focus on Kayla and not worry about the mounting bills.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Good News

Kayla's test for the Philadelphia chromosome was negative. Which is really good news. ALL is harder to treat with the Philly chromosome present.

Her good counts are up and bad counts are down - which means she's responding to treatment and they're not going to have to go the more aggressive route at this time.

Her hair is not falling out as rapidly as the doctor predicted. She has a light shedding going on. I'm not saying anything but I do have my fingers crossed that she's in that itsy bitsy teeny percentage that doesn't lose it all.

Her mood and attitude is improving. Although she had a minor breakdown after realizing she has a double chin, from the prednisone. She's also gained 8 lbs, also from the steroid.

I've bought a cool scarf that I'm bedazzling and painting. Hopefully it will never see the light of day.