Birthday Parties and Dog Beaches

Gorgeous flowers from last week from our friends Elif and Crystal. Thanks, ladies!



This weekend we went to see Timmeh's parents in Rockford on Friday, picked up a side of Hana, and went to a birthday party on Saturday (HBD again, Dacky!). While it was good for T to be out with some friendly faces, he was quite petered out and we went on our merry way after only about an hour. Little did we know, the party was not going to be the most interesting part of the evening...

We went home and Tim was completely exhausted, so Hana and I watched a movie (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which I def. recommend) and he trotted off to bed. Since he started his medication a few weeks ago he generally gets up about every hour and a half to two hours. It was no surprise, then, that halfway through the movie he was up and around the apartment only to go back to bed after a handful of minutes. What was curious was that he was up three additional times in the following hour. When the movie ended, I trudged to bed only to find T freaking out in the bedroom. It's a part of the cancer that his skin itches a lot, but when I walked in he was clawing at himself like a madman. Let me tell you, this is not something one witnesses and thinks, "Hm, I'd really like to hop into bed with that!" Cue the horns, we have a new symptom...time to find a solution.

This past week, T's aunt sent us a natural brush with very stiff bristles to use on his skin, so I broke that out and started to go over his body. Forgive me for my farm girl revealing herself, but it was a bit like brushing our pigs to show them at the 4-H fair (Sorry, honey!). After the brush, I rubbed on some Aveeno lotion with oatmeal. After a second coat, T thought he'd be able to sleep, so I settled in and was out within 3 minutes. Within four, he was scratching again. At this point, it's likely been 20 minutes and it's around 12:30 in the morning. T decides to take a shower and I was so, so tempted to roll over and fall back asleep, but with my mother's voice in my ear, I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and went on a quest for a 24-hour Walgreen's, not a difficult thing to chance upon in Chicago. Poor Hana trying to sleep on the couch probably thought we were both slightly insane.

I let Tim know where I was going and spent a good 20 minutes at Walgreen's trying to find something to help. T's mom had suggested Gold Bond and the pharmacist Benadryl, so I got some cream of both and Gold Bond foot powder. They didn't have regular Gold Bond powder, so our bedroom, our bed and both of us smell of foot powder...acquaintances, ye be warned. I can only imagine what the cashier and his three buddies standing around the checkout desk thought when I came up with my purchases at 1 a.m. When I got home, we started the application process over again, this time with Benadryl cream and Gold Bond powder instead of lotion, and we were able to finally get to sleep around 1:30 or 2. We put our brilliant minds together and realized that Tim should not mix non-prescription Tylenol-PM with all of his medicines. Who knew? Now we do.

Today we got up and Hana helped me run a bunch of errands. We later put her on a train towards Rockford and went to the Montrose dog beach to watch the pups play in the water. We couldn't have picked a nicer day. T could breathe easier near the water, so we stayed there for a few hours. He napped intermittently and watched the pooches play and I got through as much of my book as I could before school starts next week. It was a great day to bring an end to our summer break. And back to school we go...


Thanks for the cards, everyone! We're going to put them on the wall next to the bed (to smell like foot powder, too!).