Living on the frontlines

A while back I tried to post a video of Finley helping me find the phone. It didn't work, so I'm trying it again. 

This past Christmas will probably be my last Christmas in Kansas. It was a much understated affair – grin! Honestly, it was a nice day, even though we didn’t have a big tree, lots of decorations and presents or a huge meal. My Christmas tree was on its last legs several years ago, so it was one of the items pitched in the big purge to move. I gave away almost all of my Christmas decorations. I’m just not sure that when I get to Virginia, I’m going to have a place to store them. Mom was here, however, with Gerda, her dachshund. We just spent a few days together just visiting, playing with the dogs, and watching movies. Things have been so hectic and up in the air. I’ve just gotten over a horrible sinus infection. It was actually quite a wonderful thing to have nothing that had to be done right away. I unplugged from the Internet for a few days and just enjoyed some peaceful time with mom. Finley got a squirrel for Christmas. We have so many squirrels around our apartment complex b

I mentioned a few days ago that when I had a few moments, I would blog about my life on hold. People who have never encountered long-term health issues have no understanding or appreciation of just how much work it takes to deal with “medical stuff.” I estimate this week alone I’ve spent seven hours on hold with medical supply companies, insurance, doctors’ offices and pharmacies. This is not unusual. In fact, it is a pretty average week. Some weeks it takes more time than this. It also does not include the time I was at a medical appointment on Tuesday. This is just time on hold on the phone! If what you need can’t be bought at CVS or Walgreens, it can get complicated. Currently I have three pharmacies and two medical supply companies in my world. It often feels as though none of them have ever heard the term, customer service. My oxygen supply company is the worst in this regard. If they weren’t bad enough, they don’t have hold music for that 40 plus minutes or more you’re on hold wa

Murphy's law - just when I post the update about the Hundred People Search - H.P.S. - I get another e-mail that we just added another person today, so that puts us at 85 now! Okay, returning to your regularly scheduled blog....grin! 

Today we registered a new person to the HPS registry - this puts us at 86 to go on this year's Hundred People Search H.P.S. This is very much behind where we usually are, but we didn't do a trip to Puerto Rico this year either. We usually get around 40 on that trip. So, I'm not too worried about it. Our attention has very much been focused on some of the exciting things happening in research etc. 

 Finley at 11 months old   Finley at 13 months Finley on his one-year birthday It feels like one of the main things I do these days is sit on the telephone on hold! Groan - I'll be blogging about that when I can, but as I sit here listening to bad hold music, I thought I'd post a few pics of Fin (Since I haven't posted many to the blog yet. If you're on facebook, you've seen them! Grin). 

Yesterday I posted some short video clips on facebook of Finley helping me find the telephone. I spend more energy hunting for my phone! It blends in so easily because it's a dark color. If I call it to find it, I don't always find it before it has switched over to the machine. Finley can't bring me the phone because it is too big for him to get his mouth around, but perhaps I'll find a way to overcome that. In the meantime, I've just been teaching him what the word "phone" is by using a handset that has died and putting it in his toy basket with all of his other treasures. I'm a proud mama, but he learned this trick quickly. Granted, he gets it right more often when we are doing obedience training and he knows I have treats in my pocket, but he's getting better at finding it the rest of the time too. I have to remember, however, that if I am not going to get up to put the phone back on it's cradle, that I must leave it low enough for him to