The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Summer is soooo busy! So let me catch you up on our last few weeks of craziness. We just finished swimming lessons last week and that always messes up our routine until it's over, but the kids love it. I did mom and me lessons with Cate. I don't know how much she got out of it, but I knew I would be hard pressed to keep her out of the water. She is pretty fearless and is a little fish. I think after a few more sessions she will definitely have some skills learned. Cole was very shy at first which is normal, and cried the first day, but his teacher handled it great. She didn't let him sit it out, and dealt with the crying until he was comfortable. We didn't have one issue after that. Cai started level two this year and was excited to be in the "big" pool. He is growing up so fast by the first day he had remembered where to meet his teacher, what she looked like and her name. By the end of mom and me I still couldn't remember out instructors name. What a smart boy.

Secondly we have been plotting with our contractors for the past few months and finally broke ground on our addition and garage last week. The kids nearly had a heart attack when they saw a giant trackhoe make it's way through the side yard and start breaking up the cement patio in the backyard. They were really just parking it for the night but I guess wanted to make sure the arm would clear the roof (the patio is covered). The real fun began the next morning and I could hardly keep the kids from the sliding glass door. I had planned to be gone because I thought Cate would totally freak out (she screams if a four wheeler drives by). After some initial nervousness though she started thinking it was very cool. By the time we got back from swimming lessons they had finished the basement and were working on digigng the footings for our neighbors shop. By the end of the day they had all three holes dug. They trucked out most of the dirt besides what we would need to backfill, but I was definitely naive in calculating the amount of dirt we would have left over. The excavator left most of the dirt on our back neighbors lot (they don't have a yard yet) which very frustrating. Although they were digging out a shop too and had some dirt of their own that was not the plan. I hope they forgive us, they just recently had their lot graded. Sorry Natalie! I promise we will put it back the way we found it! They had to bring a loader in as well to make some "roads" through the dirt so that the cement truck could even approach to pour the footings and walls. I just keep thinking about the extra room and hope it is all worth it in the end. They just poured the walls yesterday, and will be cutting the hole through our existing foundation to the basement sometime soon. It is amazing what people can do. I really didn't realize how skilled excavators were to dig so close to the existing walls and under the roof! So besides digging the hole a little too close for the wall form guys, and dumping the dirt in the wrong place, you couldn't help but admire the skill involved.

The good the bad and the ugly is definitely the theme of the last few weeks. I had a follow-up visit with my gastroenterologist this week to check on my U.C. He felt the medication was slowing things down but I am far from remission yet. He gave me some different medication to try, and when they do my colonoscopy in another three months he may give me some meds during the procedure to really knock it out. I have felt almost entirely back to normal however, but for some reason I did better in Europe than I have since we got home. I swear I think Americans are poisoning themselves. I think we are way too chemical happy or something. I don't know if it is the pasteurized dairy products, the preservatives, pesticides, antibiotics and chemicals in meat or what, but we are getting it wrong and it's literally making me sick. I really need to do some more research and start going organic. Well the doc had some good news too. He is from India and is a little difficult to understand, not to mention the fact that most of what he said last visit sounded like another language with all of the medical terminology. But after a much better colitis vocabulary this time I understood that the low-grade dysplasia is actually "indefinite". Which as you may recall from my last post good news. It means that the pathologist could not confirm or deny low-grade dysplasia. The doc said there is still something going on there that we need to watch carefully, but it is not as bad as I had feared. The bad news however is that he described my colitis as moderate last time which from my reasearch meant that about half the colon is diseased, although in reading the pathologists notes he called it "pan" ulcerative colitis which the doc says means my entire colon is infected. So definitely good and bad news. He also was willing to talk statistics this time, where last time he wouldn't, and said too much was unknown at that point. He said after 7-10 years of having the disease there is an increased risk of cancer, and after 15-20 years you have a 20-30% chance of getting cancer and it increases from there. I'm not sure about the odds when they find dysplasia, but fortunately they are watching closely.