Various Updates

1. The puppy is alive. My sister decided that she couldn't bring herself to put her down just yet. She consulted with the vet and they are going to try her on crate rest and pain medication for 6 weeks to give her more time to heal. She'll be using a sling to help her walk when she takes her out for potty breaks. This dog is 9 months old and over 60 pounds, so...

2. My mom went to a diagnostic clinic this week to talk to someone about a tremor she's got and about some other issues she's been having. She called me today to tell me that the doctor told her she's got Parkinson's in stage 2. She seemed very upset about it, which I kind of get except she had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's before, so I guess I missed something. That's what happens when your family doesn't correspond/interact/etc. with you for weeks on end?

Anyway, the conversation went a little something like this:

Her: Well, they said I've got Parkinson's.
Me: Oh, OK, well at least you know what you're dealing with and hopefully they have some good ideas on how to treat it.
Her: You better just watch out because you're going to get it too. It runs in families and you already shake, so you've got it to look forward to and your life is going to be hell.
Me: OK...well, I guess I'll add that to the list. Did you tell your doctor that you worked around pesticides for a long time?
Her: Yeah, you inherited your momma's big butt and now this! Oh I showed her my work history and everything.

And you know what's funny? It totally didn't register that I had just been insulted until later in the day. I think this is due in part to my Topamax regimen (brain fog has set in BIG time) and in part to this kind of thing being commonplace. Usually she hits my sisters with it more than me maybe because I'm more apt to snap back without even batting an eye, but she totally slipped one in on me today. Score one for mom!

Such is life in Crazyville.

3. Did I mention the brain fog? Yeah. To the extent that I pick up the phone to call someone and if I don't get them and hang up the phone I can't remember if I've called them or if I've left them a message or if I've just thought about calling them. It's like Groundhog Day all day long in my head. And I just had an 8 day long headache in spite of it all. I'm still not up to the full dosage strength, but I'm going to tough it out until after I see my doctor again on the 10th. Up until the 8 day long headache, things were going swimmingly. Maybe now that I've broken out of that, things will go back to normal.

Also, if you try to have a conversation with me and I can't hold one, I'm sorry. I can think the words, but something gets lost between the thinking and the saying sometimes if I can't give the conversation my full concentration. I'm really smarter than I look. Or at least I used to be. :)

4. Because I never post pictures, here's a funny one. We decorated a coworker's cube for her birthday. Here is a picture of me with her new boyfriend. (Please note that he is NOT anatomically correct! He is not that kind of guy. What do you take him for?!) We did dress him later, but I didn't take a picture with him after I dressed him, so this is the best I could do.