Bella update

It’s cancer. Apparently an uncommon form of it. The lumps have come back so the vet consulted an oncologist to figure out where the actual source of the cancer is. They seem to think it’s in her lungs so they’ve scheduled x-rays and bloodwork to verify this before we can discuss treatment.

I’m devastated. She seems perfectly fine and is behaving normally but inside her is this monster ravaging her body. And I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to stop it. I thought I had another 5-10 years with her and now I don’t know if I’ll have another 5 months with her.

And I’m all alone.

Deployments suck. Cancer sucks more.

I’m still a horrible, horrible person

Well here I go again. If you don’t remember the first incident with Bella last year you can read about it here. Last month I noticed a bump on her head. I found a few more in other places over the next month and took her in to the vet last week to be checked out. The vet was very concerned so he scheduled surgery to remove them that afternoon. I went in knowing about 4, he found 3 more. So she had 7 removed, adding up to about 44 staples. She looked horrible and I felt so guilty I was in tears most of the evening looking at her.

So I’m still waiting for the results from the biopsies. It seems like it’s taking forever! Hopefully it will be good news. Especially since I found another lump this weekend.

Can I classify this as a deployment gremlin?

Back again

I’ve kept quiet here for the last few weeks because it’s been predeployment time and Andy’s been zipping around the country. He’s finally off and quasi-settled there after a hectic 4 weeks. He spent 2 weeks at Red Flag followed by a 72-hour layover at home prior to deploying again. Nothing like a AEF rotation that changes from every 18 months to every 12. Hopefully things will get back on track next time around and he’ll have more than 8 months between each deployment.

I say quasi-settled because the living arrangements at the deployed base have been royally messed up due to an incident that occurred this weekend and forced the squadron we’re replacing to stay grounded indefinitely. We actually have guys sleeping on couches right now because there aren’t enough rooms available until the other crews leave. Nothing like a rough start to a deployment! Thankfully there were no casualties in the incident, so we’ll take that as a good sign and deal with everything else as it comes.

Work has been keeping me incredibly busy lately with projects I never imagined I’d be involved in. It’s been a good learning experience for me, though, so I can’t complain. Anything that keeps me busy during our current down-time between contracts has to be a good thing, right?

So hopefully my postings will pick up now for the next few months. Look forward to all the stress and outrageous stories a deployment usually brings!

You have got to be kidding me

Read this

I am shocked.

And I’m also all for removing the military entirely from Berkley, just prior to giving Al Qaeda complete access to the town to do as they may. If those idiots don’t want the military there, maybe the military should just stop protecting them all together. I think we’d all be better off.

And to the one lone dissenter in both votes: hats off to you for standing your ground. Get out of that town while you still can!

State of the Union

I’m currently watching the State of the Union Address and I have to admit that the number of Congressmen that are currently asleep is shocking. I know it’s not the most exciting speech in the world but seriously?! It’s the freakin State of the Union, the one major speech of the year that is televised on almost every channel across the country. I’m sure their constituents really appreciate how attentative they are and don’t at all think thay they may just be taking up more space in Washington than they’re worth.

Here we go again

So less than 8 months after the last deployment ended we are starting the next. I have to admit I’m thankful that our deployments are much shorter than the average Army deployments, which is probably why having 2 so close to each other doesn’t really bother me.

This one will start a little different, though. Andy will be TDY to an exercise for a few weeks beforehand. He’ll return for only a couple of days (hopefully long enough for him to pack and then me to repack for him!) before leaving again for the final deployment period.

We had our pre-deployment briefing last week. That was, well, interesting. I feel like we’re missing a few links but I can’t figure out what they are! I’ve added a few things to our squadron website including some threads in our forums for everyone to pass on different types of deployment information or tips. The funny thing that I’ve noticed is that at all our meetings everyone talks over each other to get their stories or tips out and they overwhelm the new girls, which is why I was hoping they would put it all on the website so the girls could read it all later and not freak out! Honestly, if I were going through my first deployment and that was my first pre-deployment meeting, I would be freaking out afterward! I think we may have caused more trouble even though we were tying to help.

So I guess I’ll be the only one posting advice on the forums at the moment. I’d like your help with that. If you’ve got any deployment advice or funny deployment stories to encourage the new girls, please post them in the comments so I can pass them along. I’m sure the new girls thank you!

American Idol Season 7

I’d like to tentatively title this season:

“What were you thinking?!”

‘Nuff said.

Drano…for your nose!!

Ok, I’m weird, but that’s not new news for any of you.

I have sinus issues. Every now and then they blow up literally in my face. Last Wednesday I spent the day at work feeling miserable and, as several people told me, looking that way, too. I bought out the drug store that evening. I’m trying this Zicam Intense Sinus spray with Eucalyptus and Menthol. It works wonders. Burns like anything, but that just means I can feel it as it travels all the way down from my nose to my stomach (or something like that!) clearing the way for me to actually breathe.

It really is like Drano for your nose.

I’m in love.

I have felt fantastic and completely normal since I started using this several times a day. If I go too long between shooting up (in my nose, with an OTC drug, nothing bad here!) I start to feel horrible again. I figure based on my past history I’ve only got about another week left of using this stuff before I actually am normal again. But in the meantime everything smells methol-ly fresh!

I heartily recommend Drano for your nose!

**Disclaimer: I do not actually recommend sniffing Drano. It’s only a metaphor and a very poor attempt at humor. Try the Zicam stuff instead.**

UPDATE: Apparently you’re actually only supposed to use this stuff for about 3 days. They say it’s addictive. I wouldn’t know anything about that!

New Favorites

Thanks to the AF website last night we found a fun new comic strip. We spent about 30mins reading the archive and laughing at the most hilarious (and extremely accurate!) AF situations. Here are my top 3:

Minot

Need for Speed

And one for my dad

Enjoy!

Character

My fortune cookie from tonight reads:

“Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things.”

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because I don’t think major life changes should be made simply because of a specific date. I do, however, do commitments. I just bought a rowing machine I’ve been eyeing for months. I finally committed to it.

You see, I learned something from the last deployment: having more free time does not make me more inclined to go to the gym when it still gets dark at 5:30pm! For some reason my brain is wired so that when it gets dark it’s automatically nighttime and I should be home with my family, regardless of what time. So even when I have nothing better to do and no one to go home to except the cat I still feel the urge to be at home. To combat that I decided to get a workout machine of some kind.

I tried a rowing maching when we were at Maxwell for ASBC a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so I’ve been looking into them for the last 6 months. When the deployment moved up I decided I needed to make up my mind and commit. So I did!

I’m actually pretty excited! I hope I really enjoy it. The one I’ve chosen is supposedly extremely quiet and can easily be used without raising the volume of the TV. It should be here within a week or so. I’ll let you know how it goes!