I’ve discovered it simply isn’t possible to take care of David properly, get him to his appointments and therapies, look after the house and cat, communicate with everyone I’d like, take photos or write, make up cards and packages, and hold on to my sense of humour or sanity at the same time. Something had to slide down the priority ladder, and that would be this site… and other things, like returning phone calls and replying to e-mail. It’s not what I want, but something has to give and it takes a huge mental effort sometimes to do something as normal as making a phone call.
But I’m working on a new website, too, which will be revealed once I get all my Christmas stuff to the post office. That’s been my priority, after David, Hugh, and the house. I’m still sticking to my guns about writing everything out by hand, which is grossly inefficient but I’m not taking any shortcuts on this one. The cards haven’t been as elaborate as some, but they are all handmade.
David had a massive dose of radiation last Thursday, the largest dose to date. In fact, they had to take him off the table to give him a break, in part because there were multiple fields (his hip/back and leg/knee) and it was painful for him to lie on the table.
Thursday’s radiation has turned David into a semi-zombie. I managed to get a photo of him here, on Friday night, while he was feeling up to working on his trains. But much of the time he slumps over in delirium after a few minutes and even mid-sentence. It’s bordering on narcolepsy, and I try and be near him to make sure he doesn’t endanger himself while he’s physically unstable.
Both of his ankles are still swollen and we try to elevate them to give him some relief. David’s hands shake, but he’s doggedly determined to work on his trains when he’s not too lethargic. We went to Lowe’s (home hardware store) last week to buy wood for his train platform, so it’s coming together. For both of us, working with our hands gives us something to concentrate on.
Tuesday, 13 December 2005
Good to hear you are both keeping busy in spite of everything–but bad to hear about everything. I’m sorry things haven’t been going better for you both.
I was going to ring you both today, but since David is in such a condition, it’s probably better if you guys ring me when you’re feeling more up to talking.
I’m looking forward to seeing your new website. Are you going to put a section for photographs, or keep it for your blog? Well, I suppose I’ll find out soon enough, eh? Ha, ha. Oh, the neighbours’ bird is really loud this morning. I think it might have gotten out in the hall. Better go check. So, anyway, you guys take good care of each other, there!
Wednesday, 14 December 2005
Yeah, phoning the house is going to get you the answering machine 9 times of 10, so probably an e-mail is best. I’ve been thinking of turning off the ringer on the phone when David’s feeling this badly, but we get phone calls from the clinics, too, and I don’t want to miss those.
The website is partway done, I’ve been squandering a lot of time installing and modifying plugins — a rather slow process since this morning was the first time I ever set out to tweak PHP. The next step is to install the Flickr album plugin for WP. I installed Gallery, too, but it seems redundant to host photos on both sites when I could just take advantage of Flickr’s API. Overall, I’m finding WP very user-friendly. I can’t wait to launch the site and finally get away from Blogger.
Thursday, 15 December 2005
Hey, the new site is looking very nice! I just thought I’d check and see if anything was posted here yet, and it looks great.