Hello from Santa Barbara! Life Update
Jul 22, 2023 22:34:46 GMT
Sarah*H, elaine, and 77 more like this
Post by katybee on Jul 22, 2023 22:34:46 GMT
Hello Peas….oh how I’ve missed you!
I’m so sorry I ghosted ya’ll. It wasn’t intentional. Life just became a little overwhelming, and once I had been gone so long, I felt guilty. Typing that out, it seems ridiculous—I have no idea what I was thinking. I ran into flanz Thursday and she gave me the courage to pop back in.
First of all, thank-you soooo much for all of your love and encouragement surrounding my move to California. And with setting up my classroom. I was overwhelmed with your generosity. I will post pictures of my classroom in a different thread.
I love it here in Santa Barbara. Living with my brother and sister in law has worked out very well. Our house is old and small…but we are grateful for what we have. It’s big enough that we all have our privacy. Their room is in the back of our house and mine is in the front, and there is an extra room in the middle that we share as an office. We have our own bathrooms, a nice sized kitchen and living room, and a beautiful yard. We hang out a lot on our front porch and we have a big back patio that my SIL has thrifted a table and chairs for and fixed them all up. we also have a large garden with tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, zucchini, potatoes and lots of herbs. And a lemon tree! My SIL and I take turns cooking, which has been a an added bonus.
We all get along great, and the dogs have loved being together and surrounded by their favorite people all the time. My older brother lives just a few minutes away and is over often…he works from here several days a week. Most of all, I am so happy that I’ve gotten to spend this last year with my brother. ❤️ We have been able to share the duties of getting him to his scans, treatments and appointments. Oh yeah—we literally live a block from his oncologist—we can see the building from our front sidewalk.
When we left Texas, my brother’s team was out of options for him. So when we got here, we were thrilled that his new doctor had a few more ideas. And those got him another year of good quality time. He travelled around locally, enjoyed the incredible nature around here. About two months ago (after he had returned from a trip to Joshua Tree National Park) he was having trouble breathing and it turns out the tumors in his lung were growing. He did some radiation on them, but it was then decided that there were no more treatment options available for him. He’s been fighting for 13 years. So now we’re focused on making sure he is comfortable and happy. He is officially in hospice care. He is on oxygen full time and has a hard time moving around without getting completely out of breath. We also think he might have a tumor in his knee, because he has a lot of pain there. But he doesn’t get scans anymore, so I guess we’ll never know.
We still get him out of the house a couple of times a week. Sometimes we drive around, or put him in his wheel chair and go to the park or the harbor. And always to eat (he doesn’t have much of an appetite but we can always get him to eat steak and scallops).
We cherish this time we have and are so grateful. But I still tear up thinking about what life without him will be like. We don’t have a timeline. He always blows past any timelines doctors give him. He’s been given so many death sentences it’s almost comical. His hospice nurses don’t even know. He’s way younger than their normal patients. We will take every day we can get.
So this is a book! I’ll make a different post telling you about my teaching adventures. And I’m going to have to read for a few hours to catch up on all of you. I really have missed your support and humor and all the things I learn from the Peas.
Here’s a picture of Mark from just the other night…
And him with his wife on his birthday:
I’m so sorry I ghosted ya’ll. It wasn’t intentional. Life just became a little overwhelming, and once I had been gone so long, I felt guilty. Typing that out, it seems ridiculous—I have no idea what I was thinking. I ran into flanz Thursday and she gave me the courage to pop back in.
First of all, thank-you soooo much for all of your love and encouragement surrounding my move to California. And with setting up my classroom. I was overwhelmed with your generosity. I will post pictures of my classroom in a different thread.
I love it here in Santa Barbara. Living with my brother and sister in law has worked out very well. Our house is old and small…but we are grateful for what we have. It’s big enough that we all have our privacy. Their room is in the back of our house and mine is in the front, and there is an extra room in the middle that we share as an office. We have our own bathrooms, a nice sized kitchen and living room, and a beautiful yard. We hang out a lot on our front porch and we have a big back patio that my SIL has thrifted a table and chairs for and fixed them all up. we also have a large garden with tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, zucchini, potatoes and lots of herbs. And a lemon tree! My SIL and I take turns cooking, which has been a an added bonus.
We all get along great, and the dogs have loved being together and surrounded by their favorite people all the time. My older brother lives just a few minutes away and is over often…he works from here several days a week. Most of all, I am so happy that I’ve gotten to spend this last year with my brother. ❤️ We have been able to share the duties of getting him to his scans, treatments and appointments. Oh yeah—we literally live a block from his oncologist—we can see the building from our front sidewalk.
When we left Texas, my brother’s team was out of options for him. So when we got here, we were thrilled that his new doctor had a few more ideas. And those got him another year of good quality time. He travelled around locally, enjoyed the incredible nature around here. About two months ago (after he had returned from a trip to Joshua Tree National Park) he was having trouble breathing and it turns out the tumors in his lung were growing. He did some radiation on them, but it was then decided that there were no more treatment options available for him. He’s been fighting for 13 years. So now we’re focused on making sure he is comfortable and happy. He is officially in hospice care. He is on oxygen full time and has a hard time moving around without getting completely out of breath. We also think he might have a tumor in his knee, because he has a lot of pain there. But he doesn’t get scans anymore, so I guess we’ll never know.
We still get him out of the house a couple of times a week. Sometimes we drive around, or put him in his wheel chair and go to the park or the harbor. And always to eat (he doesn’t have much of an appetite but we can always get him to eat steak and scallops).
We cherish this time we have and are so grateful. But I still tear up thinking about what life without him will be like. We don’t have a timeline. He always blows past any timelines doctors give him. He’s been given so many death sentences it’s almost comical. His hospice nurses don’t even know. He’s way younger than their normal patients. We will take every day we can get. So this is a book! I’ll make a different post telling you about my teaching adventures. And I’m going to have to read for a few hours to catch up on all of you. I really have missed your support and humor and all the things I learn from the Peas.
Here’s a picture of Mark from just the other night…
And him with his wife on his birthday:
