September of Septembers

 The September of all Septembers is over.  This is what happened:

Thursday, 9/3: Scan results came in (see my last post)

Friday, 9/4: My birthday.  I'm officially into my 40's. Yay!

Labor Day, Monday, 9/7: A historic windstorm hit the Pacific Northwest knocking down a tree in our back yard and takes out the power service to our house in the process.  The tree missed hitting the house by inches due to the way it snapped off at the base.  We're thankful for God's protection.

Tuesday, 9/8: Our 19th anniversary.  Winds continue and eventually knock down a second tree.  This one in the front yard.  We decide to get a hotel room so the kids can start their first day of online school in the morning.  As the winds continue through the week, summer wildfires that are usually fought and contained in the forests and mountains travel quickly into the cities in the foothills. Multiple towns are destroyed by the fire.

Wednesday, 9/9: The kids start 4th and 5th grade from a hotel room not even located in their school district. I secure a permit from the city to re-hook the power then work from the hotel room since we don't have internet at the house.  The utility company cuts off power to the house so the work can be completed safely.  A friend and I do the repairs on the connection to the meter and call the utility company to come back and do the final hookup.  Smoke from the wildfires that is now moving toward the city is beginning to impact the air quality to the point where it's unsafe to be outdoors. The utility company makes it to our house to restore power a little before midnight. 

Thursday, 9/10: Power is back, so we start packing for our...

Friday, 9/11 through Sunday, 9/13: 19th anniversary trip to Astoria, Oregon where the air quality was rated as only "unhealthy" rather than "hazardous."

Tuesday, 9/15: Whole brain radiation treatment begins with the first of 10 treatments.

Thursday, 9/17: By the time the third treatment is finished, Anne-Marie is so sick from the radiation and or pre-meds, they put her on steroids.

Sunday, 9/20: Steroids have fixed the problem, but Anne-Marie gets thrush from the steroids and cannot sleep.  The smoke from the wildfires begins to clear.

Monday, 9/21 through Monday 9/28: The last 6 radiation treatments finish up with intermittent sleep. Anne-Marie starts losing her sense of taste due to the intensity of the radiation treatments.  Her persistent cough begins to return after a month layoff of chemo treatments.

Wednesday, 9/30: The month is over and I want a long nap.

Now that we're in October, the smoke is gone and the wildfires are beginning to be contained.  Chemo for Anne-Marie's lungs re-starts on Wednesday, 10/7.  We have food and power and internet. We even have active education of our children happening.

That's what we have, so I assume that's all we need for now. Signing off from Vancouver.