Put a nail in it

Is it over? Is 2007 over? Let's recap why it sucked.

Between Sue & me, we've had 4 deaths in the family:

Sue's Aunt Millie
My Uncle Darrel
Sue's Aunt Jenny
My Aunt Alyce

Uncle Darrel's lymphoma was caused by undiagnosed and therefore untreated Celiac disease. With his illness, our family went under the scope, sometimes literally, and we found a staggering amount of Celiac among the rest of us, including my sister, Nik. Thanks to Uncle Darrel, the rest of the family can live a gluten-free life to keep healthy. He saved us, in my opinion.

I got so sick the night we flew home for Darrel's funeral, I couldn't even go! Sue had to stand in for me. My consolation prize, a nice visit to the ER and LOVELY IV. Yum.

In August, we went on out traditional vacation to P'town, and this year, it was calamity after calamity, and I got sick AGAIN. This time because the place was NOT pet free, as advertised.

We get home from vaca, and Sue's "surviving" Aunt Wanda fell and broke her hip. As Millie and Wanda lived their whole lives together, she now only has Sue & Bev. It was a struggle to care for her, and between Sue, Bev, Denise and me, we did what we could to make sure she had a visitor every week night and a couple each weekend day. Since then, Auntie has taken a nosedive into dementia. She's obstinate and stubborn and is refusing care, making everyone's life miserable. Getting her off the road was at least a 3 month struggle! It was awful. In the middle of all that, she got the shingles in early November. How awful for her!

In Oct, we waited for Aunt Alyce to pass. We were unsure if we would make it to a friend's wedding, then usure if we'd leave the wedding to go back to Maine. She survived until the middle of the following week. I wrapped up my part of a big project and left Boston around 3:30 p.m on Thursday. I drove to NH to pick up my cousin Bob's son Brandon, adding 2 hours to my trip, but very good company. He and I drove to Bangor and picked up my sister. Then we continued to the County. We made it home around 1:30 a.m. My travel was much easier than my cousin Lisa's however. She arrived at a Maryland-area airport on Wed a.m., and landed in Presque Isle either late Friday night or early Sunday morning! You wouldn't expect that in October!

I left the County on Sunday a.m., drove Brandon back to college and got home around 7 p.m. I worked for 2 hours to finish the project that was now back in my court. Then Sue & I were up at 5 to get to Newton Wellesley for her hysterectomy. She had fibroids and had been taking Lupron for months to shrink them. It's a med that's supposed to turn you into a hormonal wench, but I think she was so overwhelmed by her aunt, that didn't happen.

Surgery went well, but long. She had many more fibroids and a MUCH larger uterus than expected. When I got in the post-op, she was in a nice leather-like barcolounger. I got to sit in a wooden captain's chair. That didn't stop me from sleeping. Several times the nurses walked by and woke me up laughing. One said, "Yes, Sue, you were snoozing off and on, but YOU! You were out cold!" I slept the afternoon in that hard chair.

Thankfully, I was able to take a week sick-time to care for my recovering partner, then work from home a little longer (thank you UUA!). I needed the time to recover, myself!

Now, '08 begins. Already, there's been a stroke, and I have a cousin that will be in town next week for very serious surgery.

Things to look forward to:
Cruise in March with the family. We didn't exchange presents. No malls. No crowds. Less stress. No wrapping. No cleanup. Instead, we'll all get to spend time together doing really fun things in exotic places. Nice.