Kizsie update

Well, it has been 1.5 mo since we learned of Kizsie's cancer. The tumor is now VERY visible on her left shoulder. It protrudes about the size of an orange from her front shoulder. In the x-rays we had taken previously, the tumor was below the shoulder in the humerus; so we know that it has taken over most of her upper leg and shoulder areas. We have increased her pain medicine and anti-inflammatories, but she is still limping heavily. She is having a much harder time getting around and tends to flop over when trying to lay down. She fell down the stairs this morning. I believe we are going to have to restrict her to one floor, as she is just not handling the stairs well and I don't want her to break her leg trying. She is still bright eyed, loving and happy. This is not an easy time, but I don't think she has much chance to make it to spring. At the rate she is declining, I will be surprised if she makes it to Valentine's Day.

Good bread!

After a few decades in the US (almost!), I've finally found some decent bread. Not that I've been trying out every bakery wherever I lived, but I finally made it to Le Petit Outre the other day, as they are supposed to have the best espresso in the region. And indeed their espresso is thick and rich. wow. But I also discovered that their bread is surprisingly good! Today I brought home a loaf of "German Rye" (now how could I possibly NOT buy that one!), and it's delicious. BooBoo's used to have some good bread, but I guess I hadn't realized how much I miss a good german loaf of bread.

Yum!

midterm grades

The halfway point for the 2nd quarter was 12/7/07. Here are the kid's midterm (halfway) grades:

Auri: Art - A-,
English (H)- A,
Health/PE- A,
Traffic Ed- P (pass/fail only),
History (H)- B,
Spanish 2 - B-,
Geometry - A,
Chemistry (H)- B

Auri's grades show a significant improvement, compared to last quarter's midterm grades!! Much closer to what we expect from her ;) I expect to see her Spanish grade go up and her History as well. Chemistry is quite a challenge as the teacher is using a college text book and teaching at a college level!


Jamie: Art- C,
English- D,
Health/PE- C,
Auto - F (missing assignments, low quiz scores),
Learning Lab- B-,
Science- D,
History- B-,
Pre-Algebra- D+

Jamie's Auto grade has just recently fallen and he is in the process of trying to get it up!! When asked about his Math grade, which dropped suddenly, he stated "it got hard." :) English has remained a challenge and the special ed teacher has recommended he be moved into a remedial class at the end of the semester.

Jamie pass out vs seizure

I had to pick Jamie up from school this morning. It seems he "passed out" for at least a minute, according to his friends who were present. They thought he was joking/faking until they tried to get him to stand up and he fell back down. When he woke up he had no memory of the preceding events and felt like he was dreaming, foggy and confused, dizzy, his friends helped him up and he was stumbling down the hall for a bit. He went ahead to class, took a test, but then decided he need to go to the nurse. He didn't have a headache this morning but had a small one after the event. I brought him home where he promptly laid on the couch and is now sleeping. I spoke with Dr Williamson's office and they have scheduled Jamie for a 24 hr EEG tomorrow at 11am. I don't really have much more info, but will let you all know as soon as I can.

Auri's Annie

As you know, Auri was cast in the Frenchtown school play of Annie. Jan and I went to 2 performances and all I can say is WOW! I was impressed! Auri acted her tail off! She was great! You could hear her singing (leading the group even!) and her body language and facial expressions were spot on (except for one area of smiling when she should have frowned during the cast A performance :) she says Aly and Aspen were making faces at her from the audience) No sign of our once shy little girl. Those of you who went to her school dance last year will be most impressed by her transition and stage presence. She was a pleasure to watch!!! Alas, we were not allowed to take video or pics...however, the school did take a video that will be avail on DVD in the library for check out (we'll make a copy for you all). They also took still pics (without a flash-for the safety of the actors) that should also be avail. They taped 2 shows-one with each cast. Auri is in both shows/both casts. I believe over-all the B cast was the best. Also of note, the Annie in B cast is our neighbor from across the street!!

Auri had a great time, made many new friends and found a passion for theatre! She is looking forward to the next production in the spring and may even join the Missoula Children's Theatre's Teen Arts Group (TAG). As many of the Frenchtown plays seem to be musicals (not suprising since the choir and band instructors ran the show), she has also requested singing lessons. She is singing well but the higher octaves are hard for her to reach with the volume necessary to reach the audience and still be in key. To that end, you better sit for this, she even went up and spoke to a lady about lessons, was referred to another lady and is following up with her!! Prior to the Annie show, you had to drag her and nearly pull teeth to get her to talk to an adult that she wasn't already friends or family with!! I practically had to beat her to get her to talk to her teachers about missing assignments!! Her new confidence is fabulous!

She is also excited that she should be starting to play the tuba again. She spoke with the band director and he is very excited to have her in band next semester and has been trying to locate a tuba (or 2) to purchase for her use. Hopefully, he will be able to locate one in the next couple of weeks.

Who knew moving to a small town would bring such big changes!! It has been so nice to watch our children bloom right before our eyes. I, for one, am glad we came :)

First Snow

Today we've gotten the first real snow that actually stuck. I posted some pics on our picture-website.

Kizsie

As Jan mentioned, Kizsie has canine osteosarcoma (bone cancer), which is a very aggressive, metastatic disease in dogs. Our vet gives her 4-6months. It is 100% terminal, with 90% dying within 6 months of diagnosis-whether treatment is given or not. 10% survive 8-12 months with treatment (thousands of dollars). There are a few treatment options aimed at prolonging life and reducing pain. However, due to her recent surgery (on her ACL-knee) she is not a candidate for amputation. Chemo is expensive and without amputation (to remove tumor) does not add much time to a dogs life. Also, by the time a dog starts limping from the pain caused by the tumor, it has already metastasized-generally to the lungs, then throughout the body.

So, really our only option is pain medicine. She is already losing some muscle and bodily function/control. We will have to get our carpets cleaned :) I sincerely hope it isn't TOO painful, TOO soon as I would really like for her to be able to play in the creek again before she goes. She just loves trying to catch the water as it flows over the river rock. She is bright eyed, sweet and loving all the extra attention. It is hard to lose another pet so soon, but c'est la vie. Romeo will probably be the most affected by her passing... he will be lost without her. They are sooo cute together!! Well, that's all the info I have for ya, take care, Sara

And the drama continues

If it's not one thing, it's another: Sara just picked up Kismet, our rottweiler, from the vet (she's getting physical therapy for her back leg she had surgery (torn ligament) on), and it turns out she has cancer on one of her front legs, which is pretty big, and very likely already metastasized. We had noticed her limping on her front recently, and of course she's still recovering from the surgery and torn ligament on her back leg, but we never imagined it would be cancer.

She's apparently got 6 months.

Panorama pics

I just added some panorama pics I took from above our house to our picture site (click pic above to go there).

We bought jamie a new camera to replace one he had previously (and which he no longer has through no fault of his own), and I took these pictures with it to play and test, but I'm pretty impressed, so I took these pictures.

Work around the house

The last few weeks have been sort of non-stop work around (not inside; mostly) the house. We're getting lots of little (and not so little) things fixed and new things worked on.

First we finally hired an electrician to sort out some of the potentially dangerous electrical wiring around here. Turns out some of the wires coming up (seemingly at random) out of the ground here and there were actually LIVE (or at least hooked up). One in particular showed spark-/burn-marks from where people must have turned on the breaker it was connected to, trying to figure out where it went. Could potentially cause a fire in the wrong conditions. Also, we had a 100amp line going from the garage to the electricity pole, where it went into the same 200amp breaker that the house was connected to! That's another potential disaster.

Fortunately we now have a new pole (apparently the old one was rotten), a new electric-panel on the pole (the old one had been gutted by the previous owner and it was cheaper to just replace the whole box rather than try to fix it), and pretty much all of our wiring has been sorted out and made safe (lots of junction boxes without covers, overstuffed, etc). The electrician also cleaned up some of the wiring directly attached to the outside of the house, so most of it is now gone, making the house look a lot nicer, too.

The electric company got out here in record time (under 10 days, I believe) and everything aligned perfectly, so we didn't have to wait too long for the new pole and box, and they got it all done in most of a morning, and the house was back to full power by 2pm or so.

The day before the pole showed up, Justin showed up to start work on the lean-to for the horses in the lower pasture. Also, Herb, the back-hoe-guy showed up and dug the foundation for the barn we hope to get done soon!

Today, the phone company-guy showed up with a 'ditch-witch' to replace my bad phone line (the temporary line has been laying on the ground for the past week or so).

Then yesterday, I got the electric-fence hooked up to the new electric outlets by the new pole (this is basically what started us down the path of having to clean up the electric stuff in the first place), as well as the water-heaters for the horses (submerged in the water-trough to keep the water from freezing). Now I no longer have a LOOOONG extension cord running from the garage to the field for the water, and we can stop moving around the temporary electric-fence-zapper to the lower pasture.

Also today, the concrete guy came by to take a look at what needed doing, and he'll show up monday to start on the concrete foundation and frost-wall. Once that's done, we'll have at least the bottom of the barn done, and presumably framing can start, though that may not happen until April, due to scheduling on Justin's part (the reason he's building us a quick lean-to so the horses have SOMETHING to stand under during the winter.

With all this work, we've had to redo our alarm clocks and timers for the heaters every couple of days, and everyone was getting sick of that!

So thing are coming together and are looking pretty good! It's nice to get all this done in jut a few days/weeks, rather than stringing it along for months and months.

Poor behavior, abnormal EEG, Neuro behavior specialist

(posted by sara)
Well, Jamie had a really rough week...problems with his girlfriend, problems in class and problems at home. It started with an over-packed weekend, leaving a very tired, hypoglycemic child struggling against having to do homework or chores. It continued on with ups and downs of anger, frustration and acting out which of course did not go over well in school. He got detention for problems in class then came home and on the way to an MD appt had a very abrasive verbal attack of his sister and I. I was quite shocked and surprised at the anger and hurt he was feeling and inflicting. All in response to a perceived attack from his sister. He has a super over active defense mechanism. He recovered quickly and felt very, very bad for the pain he caused....however, it is hard to repair burned bridges...and I once again became very worried about the path he was walking.

Many of his behaviors reminded me of 2 years ago...not a pleasant memory. On the up side, his recovery time (to return back into my sweet little boy) is very short, generally within a few minutes (as opposed to hours or days) which is a significant improvement over a few years ago. Even his teachers and the assistant principal (like a dean) have commented on how well he was behaved after the initial incidents were over.

At any rate, I became very concerned about his behavior and about how it is affecting him. It is very easy to see that it is bothering him alot. So, I made an appt with his Neurologist (who is part of a neurological behavior specialty group). At his appt, we learned that Jamie's EEG was abnormal. Where a normal EEG has a nice small even wave pattern, Jamie's had periods of very large waves. Meaning he has periods of disorganized electrical currents (which may or may not affect his behavior) and he is at a much higher risk for seizures. Once again, we were told that all we can do is wait and monitor for changes.. :(

He also spoke to Jamie about the importance of taking his headache meds at the onset of a headache, the general headache pattern and the common trend of men who have chronic migraine headaches (as men are not as strong as women and do not handle the strains of headaches well). When I requested help for Jamie with coping with his behaviors (as he is not likely to have a miraculous recovery from his brain lesion or his abnormal brain waves), we were referred to a doctor who has his PhD in child neurologic behavior therapy and is well respected in his field. We have an appoint for the Thursday after Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, I have spent a lot of quality time with Jamie (while Auri was away with VB for the last 3 days) and we have done a lot of talking, hanging out and playing games. He has decided to "chillax" a combination of chill and relax. He has been completely stressing over school, grades, tests, friends, girls, others opinions etc. to the point that he comes home from school completely exhausted requiring a nap or he becomes over tired and can't sleep (sound familiar to anyone??) So far, the last few days have been pretty nice. I hope it lasts for a while :)

Colds, wiring and Auri driving to church!!!

(added by sara)
Well, the past couple of weeks have been cold on many levels. I started it off by catching a cold. Jan became sick about a week later. Jamie has been coughing, but denies being sick..."I'm not sick, I have to go to school!" Auri has been so busy she is rarely home and hasn't had a chance to get sick ;). Jan and I are doing much better, but it seems to be just hanging on... The weather is also getting colder. The leaves are falling. The horses are getting fuzzy. Still no snow, but I guess winter is on it's way!

The electrician has been out working on our house for the last week :) As we were already aware, we have some crazy wiring in this place...some of it unsafe, some of it just a nuisance. We will be getting a new utility pole from our electric co-op as our old pole is rotted out at the base. We will also be getting a new utility box (updated to this century :) which will make using our electric outside much easier and safer (ie to hot wire the fence or run electric equipment like the horse water heater).

Auri is doing well. Volleyball season is over. YEAH!!! She missed several Annie practices, but has learned her parts and choreography and should be ready for the show at the end of the month. She is adjusting to the harder curriculum in this small town school and her grades are returning to expected levels. I expect she will do even better next quarter. She aced her written driving exam and now has her driving permit. She is doing quite well and is enjoying driving with her classmates and teacher. She is not enjoying driving our car...which is a stick shift. I keep reminding her that it is a challenge for everyone who learns to drive a stick shift and that it is a valuable skill to have. She has decided to start attending the LDS church and it's related activities including seminary every morning before school. She started church today and will start seminary tomorrow.

Jamie has had 1-2 headaches in the last couple of weeks. I will dedicate a new post to update you on his current medical status. The 1st quarter is over for school. He pulled up many grades, but not all. This was partly do to some behavior problems which I will expound upon in the next post and partly of course due to the harder curriculum.

Frenchtown Mornings

Mornings here are pretty cool lately.



I think the fog comes from the Clark Fork River, and then creeps up into our valley. Of course sara sees much more fog, as she gets up way before me. When I get up, it looks nice!

Long drive

This past week, Sara and I spent in Las Vegas, packing up the rest of our stuff. As always, it never seems like there's all that much, but when you start packing and loading the moving van, it takes forever. On the bright side, we got all three motorcycles into the van, as well as everything else that still needed going, with room to spare. Our garage now looks much better:




Every garage benefits from a few motorcycles in it!

The drive itself was, as the title says, long. We loaded up thursday evening with the help of friends, and had breakfast with the Mihy's friday morning, then headed out right afterwards. The damn truck basically shook itself apart above 65mph, so it was slow going. Weather was fine all the way up to Salt Lake (roughly), where we stopped first to say hello to Jen and Kent, then drove the short distance to Shaner's house where we stayed the night.

Pleasant evening spent with Shane and Paula, who had a fantastic dinner waiting for us when we got there, and made a fabulous breakfast the next morning before we once again hit the road (thanks guys! Yummy!). All through the previous afternoon and evening, the radio was announcing a bad storm, which had us worried. But the next morning, no storm had materialized, though it was now predicted for that day. We thought about it for a while and decided to ignore the clueless weather people and go ahead and go.

We hit Pocatello, ID a few hours later to pick up the kids at Giz and Brew's place, which is really cool. I liked the views. We didn't spend a lot of time there, so I didn't get to see much of the property, which is a bummer, but what little I saw, I really liked. It was starting to snow a little just as we were driving up to their house, so we wanted to get back on the road.

Off we headed again, with Romeo in the back and the kids and sara in the front with me. At the bottom of the hill we stopped at a gas station to fuel up and check on romeo, who, we were sure, was just scared as hell after being put in the back of the uhaul, where it's dark and cold and bouncy (down the hill), and we were right. Poor Guy was shaking like a leaf when we let him out and it had only been maybe 10-15 minutes. But we expected this. We calmed him down and reassured him, then headed on. The next time we stopped and checked on him, he was shaking MUCH less, and the time after that, he wasn't shaking at all, and even jumped up into the crate all by himself.

Just north of Pocatello, we started hitting some serious snowfall, as well as slushy snow on the highway. No real problem, however. it's not the first time I've driven in snow, and this was just a bit of slush, though visibility was down somewhat. It also didn't last too long, and the rest of the drive up to Butte, MT (over a pass) was uneventful and devoid of snow.

We hit snow again after Butte, once we turned onto I-90 to head west to Missoula. Visibility was pretty bad, since it was now night, and the blowing snow in the headlights can be pretty disorienting. A good lesson to talk to kids about, who are both going to be driving this next year (auri is already taking classes!). But all in all, the rest of the drive was uneventful as well, and we made it home to frenchtown by 11:30pm.

Before hitting the sack (we were all exhausted, not just from a long drive, but from being cooped up in the uhaul for so many hours in close quarters), we unloaded maybe 1/3 of the uhaul, so we could create some space in the back around the freezer full of food we had packed 3 days previously. Most everything still seemed to be frozen pretty solidly, with only a few juices liquified. We plugged in the freezer, made sure it was working, and went off to bed.

The next day, we unloaded most of the rest, including the motorcycles shown above (yay!), and made good progress distributing it throughout the house. The heaviest items we left for monday, when our neighbor Bob could come help us with them. Then we returned the uhaul and I was glad to be rid of that shaking monstrosity.

Now we have the house full of boxes again. We had JUST pretty much unpacked the last of the boxes and got the place cleaned up, before going down to vegas to get more junk :-) Now the house is once again full of boxes, which we'll spend the next few weeks unpacking.

Isn't moving fun?!

Back Home

Just a short note: We're back home again, after going down to Las Vegas to get the rest of the stuff from the house, we are now back home. It was a long and not always comfortable uHaul ride..

More later.

Beautiful Fall Day

I just uploaded some new pictures of our little valley here, because the colors are just beautiful. I don't remember living in such a colorful place in a LONG time. Certainly not California, which has two colors: Brown and green. Colorado certainly had nice colors, but i don't remember much of them, especially not in Denver (I do have some fond memories of turning aspen).

These pictures are pretty much what we see out of our living room/dining room window (though the pictures were taken from the patio/balcony (adjacent to the dining room).

The pictures can be found on our photo album page here.

A Very Long Day - Part 2: Midnight, PTC, Soccer

Previously: "A Very Long Day - Part 1"

While Jan was resting from his fall, I spoke with the vet about midnight (11am). Jan and I discussed our options, taking into account all the information we had on Midnight, her diagnosis(s), age, health, preferences and tried not to be selfish at the expense of our beloved friend. Many tears, and a couple of choked up phone calls later, the vet gave her the injection while we held her in our arms (2pm). The kids came home from school and we shared tears, regrets and memories of our beloved cat (345pm).

Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC) started at 430pm. Yes, same day. All the teachers sat around the edges of the large common room (where the kids eat lunch) and the parents took turns chatting with each teacher as they came available. It worked amazingly well. In summary, the teachers seem to genuinely care about the kids. Many of the teachers love our kids and believe they will be successful in their classes. Each of them have things to work on...organization topping both lists : ) I sent an email with the PTC results/grades to those I thought would be interested.

We rushed home at 715pm to pick up the kids, heat up some baked beans and head for the End of the Season Soccer Potluck at 730. Amazingly, we were on time :) The beauty of a small town:) Due to some unkind words he had received during the homecoming assembly, Jamie had not wanted to attend the event; but we didn't give him a choice. A couple of players & mothers had gone out of their way to call and come by to be sure Jamie was invited. As we walked in the door, Auri disappeared to hang with her friends. Jamie was more of a butterfly flittering here and there, returning to stay by us, only to leave again. Over the course of the evening, Jamie received a Letter in soccer (YEA!!!), a CD of pics, a photo collage of him playing on the team and a Frenchtown Soccer Sweatshirt (which we can take down and have his name put on). As they gave out awards for the best players, all-conference, most improved etc.... Jamie leaned over and wispered, " I'm going to play next year." It was a good night. :)

As we finally collapsed (gently in Jan's case :) into bed, it was hard to believe that it was only One Very Long day.

A Very Long Day - Part 1: Jan's Fall

Some days are just longer then others and yesterday was one of the longest days of my life. I swear that by the time we went to bed, it felt like we had lived through several days.

It all started with a loud CRASH, followed by an eerie moaning of obvious pain. I flew out of bed and found my own little nightmare. Jan had gotten up to go to the bathroom around 5 am, felt a little lightheaded, slipped on the rug, tried to catch himself (in the dark bathroom) and landed hard hitting the tub and toilet on his way down. I helped him to a sitting position. He was delirious. "Jan, Look at me." He did not know me, or anything else, he could not focus his eyes or follow a thought, "Do you know where you are?"....."Where I are?".... He started sweating profusely, skin clammy, pulse thready, he kept trying to get up, I made him stay on the floor. The phones were all downstairs. The kids were asleep, three floors down. "Shit" I waited for him to sit calmly and ran downstairs for the phone. I was going to call my neighbor to help me (he is a pharmacist), but I knew Jan would need x-rays so, I called 911 instead. They were on the way, I toweled Jan off and stayed with him. After 10 min (can we say eternity??) from the initial crash, Jan was suddenly back with me. Like a flip of a switch, he recognized me. "Do you know your name?" "Jan (his voice sounded like he thought I was out of my mind)" "Do you know my name?" "Sara" I started to tear up. "Do you know where you are?" "the bathroom" He thought I was crazy. I told him that he did not know the answers to those questions a few minutes ago, that he had fallen. He had no memory of the fall. I told him that 911 was on it's way and that I felt he needed to go the hospital to be checked. He stayed on the floor, while 911 showed up. I ran down to let them in and let them by Kizsie (our rott) who is still on house arrest since her surgery. Emergency personal stayed for about 40min (including waiting for the ambulance to arrive from Missoula) and then loaded him up and took him to the hosp. Auri woke up from the dogs barking and the flashing lights. I gave her instructions for the morning, leaving her responsible for the animals, her brother and getting to school on the bus and flew to the hospital (ok technically I was in my car). CAT scan, xray.... diagnosis: Concussion, poss fracture ribs (x-ray inconclusive), no major head injury, no punctured organs, lots of soft tissue injury. He has an abrasion on his cheek, a small cut on his hip, and multiple aches and pains, but he is otherwise ok.....whew. We were back home by 845am.

Goodbye Midnight

We had Midnight, my cat of 17+ years, put to sleep yesterday. On monday night, I noticed she wasn't doing so well. She wasn't really eating, walking around very little, and basically just laying in dark corners. We'd noticed some other signs in the preceding days, and I kinda got scared. She weighed next to nothing (5 pounds, I'm told, which is down 2 from her usual 7 pounds).

So we took her in to the vet first thing tuesday morning, and left her there to run some tests and see what's going on. To be honest, I was surprised that she was still with us tuesday morning. That's how bad she seemed to me. Heck, when we got to the vet, I wouldn't have been surprised to find her passed away in the cat carrier.

They tell us they gave her IV water and glucose, as she was dehydrated (I tried to get her to drink, to no avail). We waited all day for the vet to call us with some news or results, but they never did, which kinda pissed us off. We finally got a hold of a night-shift vet at the hospital, who told us what the chart seemed to indicate: kidney failure, as well as liver failure. Both of those basically lead to the cat not eating or drinking.

Wednesday we finally talked to the doctor in charge of midnight, and the prognosis was pretty much what we figured. It's not like you can cure liver and kidney failure. To extend her life, we could do an IV therapy and see if that kick starts the kidney again (chances not good), as well as take her home and do months (or weeks) of subcutaneous fluids. I did that for one of Val's cats a few years ago, and it was no fun for the cat or us, and the cat just wasted away slowly anyway. I didn't want to put midnight through any of that.

In addition, we could try to force-feed her to see if the liver comes back. Chances there are equally slim. Also, she's had irritable bowel disease all her life, meaning that anytime she eats more than a few bites, she generally throws it all back up. So force-feeding combined with that didn't sound the least bit appealing.

Plus we didn't want her to hate us the last part of her life, constantly being force-fed and needles for subcutaneous fluids stuck in her. I've done some of that when she was younger (she had an episode of diabetes, so I had to give her insulin shots every day), and everyone's given medicine to a pet, i.e. shoving a pill or dropper down her throat. Anyone who's done that knows that the pet learns very quickly what's coming and generally disapproves, to say the least. I didn't want to have to do that to her in her last days.

Also, consider that midnight always hated other cats and dogs (darn prima donna..), and now she was stuck in a noisy animal hospital. I didn't really want to leave her there either, nor could I really bring her home to let her "waste away" at home. That ain't right, either.

So with a VERY heavy heart, we had a neighbor drive us to the vet (neither sara nor I figured we'd be in any shape to drive home afterwards), and had her put to sleep.

I know it was the best thing to do, but it still breaks my heart. I've had midnight for a very long time. You kinda grow attached. I'll miss her.

Homecoming and all

Well Auri went to the Homecoming dance last night with some girlfriends! She had a great time, stating it was "AWESOME!" She has made a nice group of friends and seems to be doing well. She has decided to join the school band and start playing the tuba again! I know I was surprised too! Most importantly, Auri has made it into the school play "Annie" (the musical) she will play the part of Ms Greer (one of Warbucks servants). The play will be Thurs Nov 29 thru Sat Dec 1.

Jamie is still mega-migraine free; Although he states that he has had little headaches off and on. He chose to stay home and "chill" instead of going to the dance last night. He is still working on his makeup work. There seems to be some confusion there....I will be speaking to the teachers this week. Parent- teacher conferences are Weds & Thurs. The soccer season is either finished or they may have a last game next week (divisionals). Jamie remains ineligible so he won't be able to get back on the team this year. Odds are that will probably affect him receiving a letter (i.e. letterman's jacket) this year...bummer. But, worse is that it decreases his bonding with the friends he made on the team :(

I think we will have to do something about that aspect, maybe the coach needs a manager like Auri does in Volleyball... I wish I had thought of that earlier! Maybe I will talk to him about having a little weekend movie party over here...

Kizzie (the dog) is recovering well from her ACL repair and remains on house arrest :) She gets very sad when we put the "lamp shade" collar on her and refuses to lift up her head (as if it weighed 20 lb. instead of a few ounces).

Everything else seems to be progressing well. There is always so much to do around here.... I will probably go find a part time nursing job to help with the bills. I looked into substitute teaching, and may follow thru with it, bit the pay is around $60 a day...that breaks down to $7.50 an hour. Nursing pays much less here then Vegas, of course, but I am sure I can at least double that wage. I am going to start rebuilding my massage skills and practice, starting with the kids and Jan (they are happy about that :).

Jan and I will be going to Vegas Oct 16 to pack up the rest of our stuff, load up the Uhaul and head back to Montana before the snows arrive (or at least before it gets bad). Grandpa Brew will come up and stay here with the kids Tues/Weds so that they can go to school, then take them back to Idaho for a few days till we pick them up on our way through. (No school Thurs/Fri).

Kid update

Well, it has been another interesting week in the Vilhuber home :)

On the bright side, Jamie has not had a headache in the week!!!! Yeah. He did however, have the flu (vomiting/diarrhea) on Monday and therefore missed school-again :( His teachers seem to be working with him and the special ed paraprofessional is great! I have received word that since we restated the slim fast break his behavior has improved significantly in his last period class. His first & second period classes state that they have not seen any behavior issues so far this year :) He is trying hard and doing well. We went to the chiropractor this week. Jamie has been complaining of neck, back and ankle pain. The doctor did scans along the spine to check for inflammation and muscle tension to help assess problem areas related to spinal/nervous systems. Jamie adjusted easily (MD is quite gentle and effective) and immediately stated he felt better (and his posture was notable better).

Auri is behind in a few classes and is working on getting the work she missed with volleyball turned in. She missed Tuesday as she was not feeling well (general yuckiness) She has skipped practices this week to focus on school work and so that we could go to the chiropractor after school. She has been complaining of neck and back pain and the doctors scans concurred. She was easily adjusted and states she feels much better.

I have been emailing the teachers and staying on top of the kids to do their work. The have a system similar to the ones in Vegas to follow school progress. It is called the PASS system. Bob, I can send you the website/ID & password; so that you can follow their grades if you like.

Kizzie is back from surgery today. Her ACL was repaired successfully :) Now she has 2 months of recovery. She is currently on house arrest with an Elizabethan collar to prevent her licking her wound open (I'm sure you all remember that she is a compulsive licker!) She is a bit depressed about the collar, but that's life. We have to ice her leg 2-3x a day and passive ROM 2-3 times a day. She will probably require some PT as she has not walked on her leg in a month and she is not using now either... we shall see...

The animals are enjoying Montana as much as we are.... we keep receiving 'gifts' from the cats... mice, bats, huge caterpillars, birds etc. Dogs and cats both love bounding through the tall grass :). Jan and I went riding yesterday and had a great time! Sypreme and I enjoyed our first trot and canter, it was great! We did have to walk them down a hill (side of mountain) that we went up as they were to upset to go down by themselves (it didn't help that it was a burned out area and we had to be careful of the holes where roots had burned out underground.) The rest of the ride was great.. too bad we can't go everyday :)

We are trying to plan a trip to Vegas to pack and haul the rest of our stuff up here. Aiming for 2-3rd week of October (to beat the snow and take advantage of "no school" days)

Jamie Update

I have included some technical info for those in the family that are familiar with the lingo and may want the more technical/supporting details.

Jamie responded well to treatment at the ER Sat night. No complaints Sun-weds

Weds-
He had his MRI done Weds evening.

Thurs-
He work up Thursday with a severe migraine HA (headache) scale 1-10 it was a 9, with blurred vision and dots in vision/eyes, loss of peripheral vision. Jan gave him phenergan, ice pack, TLCTLC (I am still in Vegas until Sat) the headache decrease to a 7 on same scale. Jan tried to give him a Coke (for the caffeine effect) but jamie did not drink it--so you KNOW he isn't feeling well when he doesn't want a Coke!!! Jan took made an appt. with the doctor in Frenchtown. On way to MD, I received a call from MRI dept. at hospital requesting another MRI with contrast (a dye placed in vein/blood to determine venous flow/involvement). This was scheduled to for that afternoon. Jamie received an excellent evaluation-very thorough-by the nurse practitioner (the very one I was hoping to get to be our primary MD). Her assessment agreed with dx of migraine. She gave him a dose of Imitrex which worked very well (decreasing pain at 1-2 min with pain decreased to 2 (same scale 1-10) within 10 min). This med is effective only on migraines as it effects the spasming vessels and has no effect on muscles (tension HA) or sinuses (sinus HA). He went home feeling much improved. He was back to being the cute inquisitive Jamie we all love. Jan took him in for his second MRI that afternoon (thursday). That night Jamie's headache (same classic migraine symptoms) returned and he was given another dose of Imitrex.

Fri-
He work up Friday with a HA level 6 (scale 1-10) with vision problems (of course) and nausea. He stated that his head throbbed all night. It was too soon for another dose of Imitrex so Jan gave him the ibuprofen & phenergan. He tried to go to school anyway, but was unable to make it to school before the HA worsened again. Jan took him back to MD. She had MRI results (to follow) and called neurologist for followup. We were unable to get in today and have an appt. for Monday morning at 10am. While waiting for the MD's to confer, Jan and Jamie went home. His headache continued to increase (spike) and subside this morning/afternoon. The MD called and discussed options with me; we agreed completely; I called and talked Jamie into returning to MD office for an injection to basically "knock him out" put him to sleep the rest of today and possible some of tomorrow in order to give his brain a rest and allow him to recover and break the HA cycle. He was given a Toradol & Vistaril injection and a script for another type of Imitrex that is long lasting and would stay in his system (longer half life) and help fight off recurrent headaches. I believe it is called Axert. Jamie was not knocked out by Toradol/Vistaril but it did relax him (he takes after his mom a little too much in all this :) So, Jan gave him a dose of this med (Axert) this evening (on MD recommendation) to help push Jamie over the edge and let him sleep. As we all know it is awfully hard to sleep with a migraine. Jamie woke up after a couple of hours feeling much better, watched Forest Gump and returned to bed.

I will be flying back to Montana tomorrow (Sat morning) and will of course, keep you updated as this story progresses.

*Severe/debilitating migraine headaches run in Sara's family (maternal grandmother's side) and have affected nearly every family member for many many generations.

MRI results
I can send the MRI report to any who would like to read the actual report findings. A Dr. of radiology read the CAT scan and both MRI and the findings are related to all 3 scans.

The short version is that Jamie has a 5mm x 6mm hypo-intense lesion on the immediate sub-cortical right anterior frontal lobe of his brain. The lesion demonstrates a small rim like area of contrast enhancement with 2 central areas of decreased signal intensity suggesting non-enhancement. remainder of parenchyma is unremarkable.

translation: he has a small area that is darker then the surrounding tissue in the right front area of his brain. The area around the lesion has increased blood or venous support (contrast mentioned in the dye placed in his veins/blood for the procedure) which is worrisome as it could indicate a venous network to support a tumor. The rest of his brain is fine.

Basically, Jamie has a small low grade brain tumor (neoplasm). The findings are nonspecific and could be a number of things including a calcification from an infectious lesion like tuberculoma or cypticercosis--but it unlikely as none of the surrounding tissue is affected or edematous. It could also be an atypical cavernous hemangioma or post traumatic calcification with gliosis except again there is no evidence of hemorrhage or trauma in the surrounding tissue (and Jamie has never had a severe head trauma). Which leaves us with the initial hypothesis-- a small neoplasm (low grade brain tumor).

The plan: we will follow up with the neurologist Monday. We will treat the symptoms as the arise and try to keep Jamie as functional as possible (related to the migraines). The migraines may or may not be related to or enhanced by the tumor. We will do a repeat MRI in a period of months to re-eval the area and see if there are any changes (i.e. growth) and correlate the MRI results with his symptoms over the same period. We can not really decide what to do or even if we need to do anything about this little tumor until we know more about it's nature. It is my understanding, at this time, that he is not in any immediate risk of death or other adverse effect. All you can really do right now is to keep him in your prayers, thoughts, mantras, whatever your philosophy and wait. I will be keeping you all informed as we progress through the next few months.

*of note for those of you who are LDS-my mom will have his name placed on the temple prayer roll.

An interesting correlation- the general area of the brain where the tumor is directs planning, motivation & attention. Lesions in this area are noted to cause: apathy (occasional brief anger or aggressive outbursts), indifference, psychomotor retardation, motor preservation and impersistence, loss of self, stimulus-bound behavior, discrepant motor and verbal behavior, poor abstraction and categorization. Hummmmm, interesting, makes you wonder how long this little tumor has been there...

Jamie Migraine

Here is your kid update for this week.<br /><br />Auri is doing well, still very busy. Chemistry honors is making her stretch her brain muscles (esp. the math) :) It doesn't help that she has missed so many classes due to Volleyball. She is planning to go to Missoula this afternoon to see a movie with some friends from school. (Update- movie was moved to next weekend) She has found a group that she gets along with well-they even have seen Monty Python!! :) We opened her bank account in Frenchtown and she has full access to withdraw and deposit and even has an ATM card. We discussed the premise and rules of banking and that she had only 1 chance to have an ATM card-one overdraft and she would lose the privilege. She has been babysitting and wants to deposit some money in her bank. I am proud of her and support her growth. We will transfer 1/2 their money from Vegas to Frenchtown, but leave the LV bank open for when she goes there for the summer; as she will need a bank to put her paychecks in (she plans on working this summer) She may even get a job at the Frenchtown grocery or restaurant when she turns 16. She will have a learning lab/study hall next semester and therefore a lighter academic load. So, she would be able to work part-time.<br /><br />Jamie is also having to make up a lot of missed work from missing school related to Soccer. The school sends out letters to parents when their child is at risk (weekly). I got one this week for Jamie related to his English- at risk and Science- failing (due to missing assignments/low scores/incomplete). He has since turned in this work, but with soccer straining his time in school and for homework, he will have to buckle down a little harder. We are not riding him about this, as he is well motivated to stay eligible to play with his team. He seems to be doing well even without any allowances at this time (excepting a small learning lab class-only 6 students). I have a meeting set up with the special ed people (and his teachers) to discuss, assess and redo his IEP to fit into the FHS system (as it is much different thin the Vegas system and his current IEP is not feasible or even possible at FHS).<br /><br />He is progressing well in soccer and is now very proud that he is better then 5 other team players (almost half) according to the team captains.<br /><br />Of importance to all: Jamie had a bad day yesterday (saturday), but not related to behavior or grades. Around 1pm he complained of loss of peripheral vision in his right eye. He also admitted to a headache so he took 3 advil (he also has a sprained ankle) and left for the soccer game. On the bus it hurt to move his eyes, so he kept them closed. He played on the game for about 10-15 min then blacked out on the field. He was only out for a brief moment and woke up on the ground looking up at his team captain (who was closest to him when he fell). He sat the rest of the game out. We picked him up afterwards, and he stated he was fine (of course). We had dinner and ice cream (at <a href="http://www.bigdippericecream.com/">Big Dipper</a>-Yummy!!!) and Auri and Jamie were being silly in the back seat. Jamie suddenly cried out and stated that his head hurt when he laughed.<br /><br />3 strikes: off to the ER we go. Upon arrival he added that his head hurt when he turned quickly, but moving slowly did not bother him. All head pain was in the back on his head toward the left side. The MD did a good assessment, EKG &#38; CAT scan. EKG was perfectly normal. CAT scan showed a calcification in his right frontal lobe that requires further follow-up but is probably not related directly to Jamie's current problem (maybe his other problems?? or maybe even just an unusual anatomy (i.e. a bundle of vessels and not a calcification at all).<br /><br />His diagnosis: new onset-Migraine headache. Welcome to the family curse :) Although I freely admit a strong family history of migraines (everyone in my family has terrible migraines) I thought Jamie too young... then I remembered that he was 14.5 yrs. old... and we all started having HA in our teens... bummer :( They gave him phenergan and that helped. He has a slight HA this morning. He will be scheduled for a MRI on Monday to evaluate the area of calcification in his brain and I will try to find an MD to follow-up with next week. I will keep you up-to-date as we followup with the doctor. HE IS IN NO RISK AT THIS TIME.<br /><br />I will be in Las Vegas this week for MD appts and follow up. Jan is taking care of the kids, animals and home :) Our montana home is definitely keeping us busy. This week: electrical problems, and the well went out and had to be repaired, the same day as the pump for the creek went out (of course) so we had no water for a day, until Jan was able to get it repaired the next afternoon. He is so handy (with the help of some very nice neighbors)!!! <br /><br />The horses and Kizzie have been going through health issues but seem to be improving. Kizzie seems to have caught Giardia which is surprising until your see her in the creek attacking and biting and practically drowning herself trying to catch the water as it flows over the rocks.... silly dog! She has soo much fun; she goes crazy!!! Romeo is doing much better since he started obedience classes. Auri is doing better also; she is learning to have patience and control her temper... good skills for her to develop.<br />

Post fire update

We are home!!! We can still see a multitude of 'hot spots' (little fires) in the hills around us. However, the major body of the fire is a couple of canyons down our little valley( ~5mi) and moving away from our home :) It is pretty cool to sit in our bay window or on the porch and watch the fire as it adapts to the water and retardant and other tactics used by the firefighters. The night is especially graphic as the fires really stand out in the darkness. Last night, I tried to take pics of the fire with our little camera. Unfortunately, it was unable to capture the depth and beauty of the fire. Bummer.

There are still firefighters all over our area working on these "hot spots". The firefighters have lifted the evac orders, allowing us back into our homes, with instructions to be ready to evac again in under an hour, if the fire changes directions again. An hour! What a luxury! Last evac we had no more than 5 min.... "Mandatory Evacuation- Get out NOW, the fire is already in the draw." Heck, we saw the fire come over the mountain and were already in the process of loading the animals when the police showed up with the evac orders! Even though the fire caught them by surprise, I must say the firefighters have done an amazing job! We were sure most of the houses in our area were lost Thurs night as we watched the fire come roaring down the mountain. Amazingly enough, no occupied homes were lost! Some people lost their garages, barns, shops etc. also various animals including at least 1 horse that had to be put down related to burns. There are many sad stories, but none are as bad as it could have been and we have a much different view of "wild fire".

We brought the cats and dogs home with us, but the horses are still at our realtor's home. We will bring them home when we are a little more assured that the fire is not going to return this direction. The winds have been so erratic, that the firefighters are having a terrible time getting the fire under control. Also, there are so many fires in the area/state, that fire fighting resources are severely taxed and sometimes not available.

We are no longer the #1 priority fire in the nation. So. California's national park fire has taken over that spot as of yesterday.

Black Cat Fire

Well, we were evacuated from our home on thursday night. The fire I saw building while on the phone with my work on tuesday afternoon (now dubbed the "Black Cat Fire", and Black Cat Road/Canyon is right up the street from our neighborhood) became erratic in behavior due to erratic winds, and doubled back.

It changed directions from where the firefighters were fighting (east, towards hwy 93), and came back in our direction, sometimes traveling up to 45 mph! We saw a bunch of smoke coming our way, but that had been happening for weeks now from various directions. Then we saw burnt pine needles and pieces of (presumably) bark falling from said cloud of smoke, and next thing we knew the ridge to the east of our house (other side of the creek) was on fire (loud roar... VERY impressive in its own way).

We packed all the animals into carriers, dogs into the car, had to hunt for one more cat that was freaked out, and I drove the car, the animals and the kids down out of the canyon. Sara took the horses to a neighbor's house, who was planning on staying, but then decided that was crazy, and walked the horses out of the canyon as well (being bucked off and then crunched between the horses along the way). We don't have a truck nor a horse-trailer...

Basically we had NO official warning. We were pretty much in the process of getting out when the cops finally raced all over the neighborhood telling everyone to get out NOW, or they weren't going to get out. They were also caught by surprise by the speed of the fire. Note that the entire area was blanketed by a lot of smoke all day long. The fire-people hadn't been able to make any flights to assess the location of the fire all day, so ground observations was all they had, so I'm sure not blaming anyone.

Shortly after she had boarded the horses with another neighbor at the bottom of the road (near the frontage to hwy 90), she received a call from our realtor, who had sold us the house only 2 months ago. He had heard from a friend that Mill Creek (our main access road) was evacuating, and he basically hung up on his friend, saying "Gotta go!", and called us to see how we were doing. He drove home to grab his horse trailer and truck, and came to pick us (2 adults, 2 kids, 6 cats, 2 dogs, and 2 horses, and nothing else!) up around 11pm. We've been staying at his house ever since.

While waiting for him to arrive, we watched the fire come down the grassy slopes in multiple fronts (rings of red making their way downhill in the excessively dry grass). Again, this was VERY impressive in its own way. Very beautiful (in a deadly way). Mother nature at her most angry is still pretty beautiful, I must say.

Also, as far as I know right now, NO houses (at least not 'occupied' ones) were lost, which impresses me almost as much as the fire itself. The hill to the east of the creek (we are on the west; the fire came at us from the east) looked to us to be a goner, i.e. all houses etc. But the next day when we went back to see the status (and so on), all houses were still there! Very impressive work by the firefighters.

My house is also still standing. We were let up for an hour to gather some stuff yesterday, and I talked to neighbors that never left at all (crazy folk). The whole little valley around my house including all the immediate neighbors were lucky as the fire seems to have bypassed us completely. Not even the bone-dry pasture above my house (between me and the next neighbor) was burnt. Not even singed. Untouched. Very lucky.

Of course that was yesterday. I try not to get my hopes up TOO high, as montana is the driest it's been as far as white-man records show, record breaking heat and all. The fire is just going where it pleases, for the most part, but we are the number 1 fire IN THE NATION right now. Highest priority (closeness to Missoula is a big factor I think). If the fire manages to jump hwy 93 (runs north south to glacier national park), it's got a pretty easy run to missoula...

Here's a newpaper article (frontpage of the paper yesterday!!), which talks about some of this. Sara was interviewed for this, so you'll find her name and our last name in there in a few places. She's also in that first picture, helping load some horses from the stables further up Mill Creek from us the day after (and during) the fire (she's the second from the right, holding the gate).

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/08/18/news/top/news01.txt

I HOPE we can go back home today (sunday) or maybe tomorrow. In which case my network access will be restored to something better than the 36K dialup I'm using now :)