Hickmans, tumors, and payin the freakin taxman

From now on, Thursdays are off for planning big events -- they seem to be especially bad days for the Lawler crew.  As example:  last Thursday, mom fell ill with sepsis; a few Thursdays back, Craig had to have his Hickman replaced; and not to be outdone, yesterday (a.k.a Thursday), Craig was admitted to the hospital with probably the worst pain he’s had in weeks.  But that’s not all.  Simply vomiting six times in a few hours would be child’s play considering our track record.  To make last Thursday a worthy candidate for the bad Thursday bunch, Craig would need to, oh I don’t know, have something happen to his Hickman line.  Bingo.  Apparently, Susie what’s-her-face from the CAT scan place (sure there’s a more technical term for it) thought it’d be a good idea to stretch Craig’s catheter line across the room, and then have him hold onto the line as he entered the CAT scan machine.  Just a classic case of ‘well it seemed like a good idea at the time’.  Unfortunately for Craig, her good idea turned out to be a real-life catastrophe.  One of the lumens on his Hickman snapped just as he entered the machine.  It seemed she didn’t allow enough slack from her IV stand to the CT table.  Whoopsy.  He’s lucky she didn’t pull the thing right out.   So, down one lumen – the other lumen is reserved for his nutrition – the nurse had to put an IV in his forearm, and we know how much Craig loves those.  We’re now waiting to find out whether they can simply patch it up, or if they’ll have to install yet another Hickman, the third in almost as many months.  Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down.  Diane said that our mom’s pick-line may also need to be removed, as it’s already plugged (from what, I don’t know).  Maybe the moral of the story is don't put tubes in Lawlers.  Just say no!

And now the tumors…

It looks like some of Craig's tumors have grown since his last scan.  So much for no whammies.   Still early days, so we’re not reading too much into it, but it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed that the Torisel hasn’t at least stopped the growth.   Our money’s on the comeback kid with a strong second half finish (we're 4 wks from an 8 wk benchmark).   The family motto is to fight fiercely, and that’s what we plan to do until Craig tells us otherwise.

And here's to pouring salt on the wound …

To top off a bad Thursday, Erin learned she has to pay the IRS an extremely HEFTY fee due to some glitch with her W2 form.   It’s like the IRS just ran up and gave her a whiplash inducing push to the back.  And I’m not talking about a fake WWF sort of push.  No sir, more like an Ultimate Fighting-did I hear uncle-can't feel your legs kind of blow.  Not too sportsmanlike, but what can you do.  For me, expats are exempt from filing taxes up to a certain amount if they’ve stayed 330 days out of the country.  However, I’ve likely exceeded that as I’ve traveled back from Thailand in order to take care of C and mom.  Tough break, but I wouldn’t do it differently had I the chance.  We’ll figure things out… we always do.