A year and change

A year ago we walked down a grass green aisle lined in bright pink bows. As the year went by a lot of things happened in our home, well homes. We moved from Washington to Louisiana and then again to Texas. Brandon was gone a lot in the beginning with work, but as the year went by he was home more and more. We had a scare in November when we found out that Brandon had an infection in his year. It was bigger than we anticipated and he ended up having surgery in February. We had a second scare in April when Brandon drove himself to the ER with severe back pain. He ended up under the knife again having a kidney stone removed. All in all Brandon was home for about 6 months. During this time I worked odd jobs and ended up working for the YMCA again.
Both husband and wife learned a great deal. We studied cooking, history, current events, finance and health. We spent hours working with our animals getting our dog and kitten to get along. We hired an obedience trainer to help us refine Dukes manners and skills. Errin learned how to mow a lawn in super heat and humidity. We both learned that working out in the early morning starts the day off better.
We had a very good year. We have had only happy days thus far and have only happy days to come. We are grateful to our families for your love and support. Your examples strengthen us and have taught us how to be a loving family to each other.

Created in only 7 days

It took a full week of hissing, chasing, sniffing and pouncing but Kitty and Duke are now officially friends. We can have them in the same room with no trouble. We still need to be in the room with them, but we're confident that neither animal will go totally berserk. It's nice to have peace in the house again.

Kitty Loves Brandon. He held her all the way home then she was scared in the car.

She was hiding in Brandon's pocket.

Little Kitty.

Duke-the Dog.

Kitty's favorite non human toy.

Kitty!

Saturday started out busy as always. I had a staff meeting in the morning until 11 then needed to be at my other job at 2. Brandon and I had some time to kill and as we were driving home I spotted a sign that read "Pet Adoptions Today" we looped back in and went to the pet store where the HOPE team had cats in need of homes. Brandon and I have been talking about getting a second animal for some time and after being let down by several breeders we had been looking into dog rescues and shelters. We never found the right dog so had discussed getting a cat, but Brandon is not 'cat people'. There were several grown cats to be adopted, and 5 kittens. I spotted one with a little spot on her nose and I instantly loved her. She was playful and cuddly, and soft. Brandon relented momentarily, but we adopted her any way. Her name is Kitty, she is about 10 weeks old and close to a half a pound. She is very playful and rambunctious.

Sadly the dog and cat union of friendship has yet to be forged at my house. Try as we might to help to two be friends neither shall give way. Duke is very anxious about the new comer and the Kitty is a hooligan who likes to sneaks up on the dog, thus startling our 60 pound wimp. In truth we love them both.

We had a very laid back Valentine's Day. We didn't want to make any plans in case Brandon wasn't feeling well. So we opted to stay in and make have a romantic dinner at home. We made up our menu before Brandon went into surgery. Braised chicken with a homemade mushroom sauce served on a bed of blanched baby green beans, then we topped it all off my speciality homemade cherry cheesecake. Brandon got me 10 roses because I'm his perfect 10 and I got him a rubber duckie covered in kisses. We exchanged funny cards and spent the day just lazying around and anticipating our amazing dinner.

Post-Op Care

Yesterday Brandon went in for his ear surgery. Dr.Chang removed the infection and replaced the hearing bones in Brandon's ear. He was in surgery for 4 hours and I was in the waiting room for 7! Brandon came home that night and has been feeling alright since so far. He has some pain but it is being managed by his meds. Thankfully Brandon didn't have much dizziness or nausea which commonly afflicts patients after ear surgery. He had a large bandage over his ear until earlier today. I won't post any pictures that are too embarrassing or gross, but if you want to see just ask, we've got tons.

Not so new News

Shortly after the Diver and I got settled here in Texas the Diver went back to Louisiana for his yearly physical. The Dive Doc found an infection in his left ear. Ear infections are serious for divers and thus he could not go back to work. After several visits to our local Texas doctor and lots of medicine the ear infection persisted! So we went to the "Specialist" and had a CT scan and were then sent to another "Specialist." A cholesteatoma was found in the ear of the DIVER! REALLY BIG DEAL! You can see it here. on the left you'll see a big sponge-like area that is good. On the right you'll see a large white mass where it should be sponge-like. That white mass is the infection. It has grown into the air cavity that resonates sound. In February our ENT will be going in and removing the cholesteatoma, replacing the hearing bones and then stitching his head all back together.

Warning! Real images of Brandon's ear drum below!

On the left image is Brandon's good ear drum

On the right image- you'll see the infection in the center left portion of the image. Gross, but treatable.