Yes, I'm Still Alive

It has been a year and a half since I posted and quite a bit has happened.  I will try to be brief.  (HA!)

--The last day of January, a year ago, The Husband put in his retirement papers.  The first day of April, he was done.  He was going to keep working for another couple of years, but things at the power plant changed.  First, we weren't sure exactly how long the plant would stay open and it seemed as if the news was different every few weeks.  Instead of worrying continuously about when the work would end, he just decided to retire.  Also, his oldest niece--a couple of years younger than us--died on the day that he put in his papers.  This was a BIG influence in his decision...why put off til tomorrow, etc, etc, etc.

--No sooner had The Husband retired, we decided to build a new house.  The beginning of May we signed the papers and approved the plans for the house to be started.  We had our old house demolished the beginning of August and the new one was put in place about five weeks later.  (We had a custom-made modular built.)  We finally moved into the house the end of the first week in October.  It was quite interesting to try and pack up and move 38+ years worth of possessions, but we did it--with a LOT of help from our girls and their families.  While we are moved in and pretty well established, the basement is FILLED with boxes that still need to be unpacked.  I hope to live long enough to do the work.  ;)

--And the biggest news of all is that The Husband's health has deteriorated.  In 2006 he was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy and was stable until August.  He has been getting worsening blood test results and he is on the fast track for dialysis/kidney transplant.  We don't know when either will happen, but it looks as if he will begin dialysis probably before summer.  We are hoping to find a donor for a live-organ transplant, but don't know if that will happen...we are just beginning to get things started with the transplant team and aren't very far into the process.  I have been hopeful that I will be able to donate one of my kidneys, but with my own health issues, I don't know if I would be eligible.  We'll have to see what happens.

--Talking about my health:  The scare that I had about my heart a year and a half ago turned out to be nothing.  Things went from bad to worse and worser still before I finally got to see a cardiologist in person, which was about 6 weeks after I first was told there was a problem!  I went in for the appointment and the doctor told me that, after looking at all of my tests, he couldn't find anything wrong with me.  While I DO have some sort of anomaly with my heart rate, it doesn't seem to be anything to worry about and shouldn't cause me any problems.  Then he told me, "Basically, pretend none of this ever happened."  Okay, this was wonderful news, but I couldn't help but be pretty pissed off that I had to go through such stress over, basically, nothing.  However, I have moved on...

--The worse part of all of the health thing with me is the fact that I had to stop all exercising until I was given a cleanish bill of health.  With all of the stress I was under, I turned to my favorite coping method, eating.  That combined with no exercise did nasty things to me...namely weight gain...and got me completely back into old, bad habits.  Pretty much all of the great work and results from my time at the gym are gone.  I have no one to blame but myself, but it is a great disappointment.

--And finally, my Red Wings are doing okay.  They could be doing better and also could be doing a LOT worse.  We are on the downside of the season and just hope they will continue to do well and make it into the playoffs.  I'm really starting to dread the off season...there is no life without hockey.

Hey people, it looks as if I may be back!