A Not-So-Great Week

As I mentioned in the previous post, FIL got sick the week before Thanksgiving and they couldn't come to Mexico with us as planned. Last Monday he checked into the hospital, and Wednesday an MRI showed some dark spots in his liver and lungs, and Thursday a CAT scan confirmed that "it" (metastasized melanoma) was in his brain as well. The outlook isn't great, although apparently radiation is reasonably effective in treating the melanoma in the brain, which they were going to start today. The next step is for him to try to build up his strength and then the medical team will assess whether it makes sense to start chemotherapy for the stuff in his lungs and liver. Everyone's doing better now that there's a plan and things are moving forward. The first couple of days after the diagnosis were pretty devastating for all of us. He's 76, and has had his share of health issues...back problems, heart problems (including angioplasties and multiple bypasses) and the melanomas on his legs and feet. So now everyone's taking it day by day; the first test will be to see how he does with the radiation.

On a not-life-threatening-but-annoying-as-hell-front, I developed a toothache last week that got really nasty over the weekend. Went to the dentist today for x-rays, and the good news is that I probably don't need a root canal. She thinks it's just a cracked filling, but dang it hurts. Thank goodness for MIL sharing her Darvocet. It's the only thing that's let me sleep the last two nights. I go back to the dentist first thing tomorrow to get the tooth (teeth?) fixed.

And on a lighter note, Doug, who was (shall I put it mildly) "resistant" to getting first Byron and then especially Coco, has decided that the dogs ought to sleep in the bed with us. We've tried this little experiment for the last two nights, and for the most part it's fine, except for Byron's snoring. Of course, the dogs had no trouble adjusting, and it took them about a nanosecond to decide that the bed was now their rightful habitat.