The doctors believe my grandpa has stage II esophagael cancer, with a 10cm diameter tumor encircling (and constricting) the lower section of his esophagus. It appears that it was caused by genetic predisposition and chronic GERD (smoking can also be a cause, but my grandfather’s never smoked a cigarette in his life). He’s going to have a feeding tube and a hydration tube inserted, then undergo 5 days a week radiation therapy and 1 day a week chemotherapy for 6 weeks. After a 2 week rest, the surgeon will then go in and remove a section of his esophagus. Right now I’m planning to go to the US to look after him for most of his radiation and chemotherapy treatment.
Rainer’s dad is in the hospital. He was walking in the neighborhood and fell down and broke his hand. The doctors think he had a small stroke, but after neurological testing, there doesn’t seem to be any problem, so Rainer thinks he just tripped or slipped or something, and the doctors just call it a small stroke because they need a reason for why he fell down. I’ve fallen over plenty in my life while just walking somewhere, so I don’t think that a reason is necessary. You know, you don’t notice a root sticking out, or your foot just lands wrong, it could be anything.
Grumpy mumbles in his sleep. I’ve been aware of someone mumbling at night when I’m working on the computer for a while now, but could not pinpoint which bunny was making the noises until the other day when I just layed down next to the cage and waited for them to fall asleep. It’s hard to describe how it sounds, but it’s kind of a grumble-grumble-grumble.
I’ve started using clicker training on Charlie and it seems to work pretty well. Charlie has added a new trick to his repetoire: Touch. I hold my hand somewhere, say “Touch”, and he touches it with his nose. If I hold it high up over his head, he jumps to touch it. Not jumping on people seems to be a more difficult lesson however.
A request has been made for me to update my back status…
After rehab it was MUCH better (and I lost almost 10 pounds). I still had to take pain meds, but I had a much broader range of movement and felt pretty good. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to keep up the exercise schedule they had there when you’re living your normal life, so my back has gotten a little worse, but is still not too bad (and I’ve gained back the weight… ugh). I’m still taking the same amount of pain meds as when I left rehab on most days. Before rehab I was taking three times as much as I take now.
Well, enough for now. Later!
