Ever watch an old man battle a cat?

It's like an old cartoon that has somehow been transferred into real life and slowed down. For instance, Pop just spent several minutes holding the door open in the kitchen and yelling at the cat to "get the hell in!" or "just get out already!". Meanwhile, the cat sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and stared at the door.

Just about every night before dinner the cat lays in the middle of the kitchen floor right in front of the table. Just about every night Pop will come rolling in with his walker yelling at the cat to get out of the way. Aaaaand just about every night the cat refuses to move and Pop is forced to roll the walker over/around him to get to his chair. One of these days I WILL catch this on film and broadcast it for everyone to see. I is quite possibly one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.

It is the frequency and regularity of this dinner time ritual that tickles me pink; however, one of the greatest battles between Pop and Kitty Cat is even better. One day, the cat decided he needed to have a little nap in the living room, in front of the heating register - in front of Pop's chair. Pop rolled on into the living room and started to yell at the cat. The cat didn't even look up. Pop proceeded to poke the cat with his cane. The cat merely looked up to see what was jabbing his enormous belly. This went on for several more minutes until Pop finally gave up managed to step around the cat and get into his chair.
I never thought I would see the day Victor Debbs Politi got out-stubborned... and by a cat no less.

What to do, what to do...

Without the Olympics to distract her all hours of the day, Nana found herself missing the consistent and constant stream of engaging television. Now she has to go back to watching the Biggest Loser. Poor Nan. And poor Pop, at least when the Olympics were on he was mildly interested in what was going on. Now he's back to just sitting with his head bent down over the daily crossword.

Needless to say its been a slow day here on Flax Rd. Nothing really to write about except a few disjointed thoughts and ramblings. Let's hope tomorrow brings something good.

Today is my birthday

Yes, today, at 6:30 a.m. I turned 23. Here's the great thing about living with my grandparents: as old as I felt compared to my sister and the high school kids at work, I can still come home and feel young compared to my roommates. Even the cat, who celebrated his 21st birthday this year, makes me feel young and spry.

Another good thing about living with my grandparents: when customers at work asked what my plans were for my birthday I told them I was going over my parents' house to have a nice dinner. This made me appear like a independent young person living on my own - not like a moocher who's "landlord" doesn't really ever keep track of rent.

All in all, it was a good day. Pop was crabby but fine all day. Nana had to go to the dentist and will soon be getting a titanium "fence" to secure her three front teeth. Between the titanium fence and her metal knees, she will be the scourge of all airport security.

He's as stubborn as a mule

I only have a quick story for today due to the fact I have slept for the greater part of it. Last night I celebrated my upcoming birthday with my friends and had made arrangements to stay at one of their houses. I told this to Nana and Pop, and made sure they remembered to lock up later that night. Nana was really tired and went to bed early - she had been up late Friday night until about 3 a.m. because Pop had a low blood sugar scare. Before she went off, she told Pop I wasn't coming home, the house was locked up and all the lights were off.

Wouldn't you know it, when she woke up this morning, all the lights were on, the doors unlocked, and everything opened up. The little bugger went around the house and undid everything Nana made sure to do. Of course he claimed he had no idea what she was talking about and said he didn't remember a thing. At this point, we're not even sure if he's telling the truth or not. All we can do is just shake our heads and make sure we go to bed after him now...

So where have I been?

Well, the obvious answer to that question is not here, not writing about Pop, not trying to keep people involved and updated on his progress. The sad truth of it is that there is no progress. The chemo finished months ago and even though the cancer has appeared to "go away" and Pop no longer has any pain (that he's telling us) in his back any longer. However, the doctors have found no conclusive evidence in the follow up tests the cancer is actually gone. They have all come back "inconclusive."

So even though we here on Flax Rd are working off the old standby "no news is good news," we have in all effect lost Pop. He no longer shows any interest in doing anything with his radios or emails or even the crosswords on some days. If you ask him about his radios he will either tell you, "Oh yeah, I go down there every once and a while and tinker a bit," (which is an outright lie) or as he told me the other day, "I don't feel like it, I'm tired, I just wanna sleep these days" (which is just outright heartbreaking).

Nowadays, Pop's schedule consists of eating and sleeping. Literally. He gets up for breakfast, sneaks back in the bedroom, wakes up for lunch, and as soon as Nana turns her back he sneaks right back into the bedroom, wakes up for dinner and usually asks if he's had lunch, and on a good day he'll do a crossword and watch some television with Nana. Bed, chair, bed, chair, bed.
Its been hard for me to start up writing again because its hard to have to sit down and face what I have to write about. The cancer is gone, but so is everything that I remembered about my grandfather. His vibrancy, his silliness, his passion. Every once and a while - when company comes over mostly - he shines through again and its easy to pretend for a while the old Pop is back in action.

For instance, last Friday at the bi-annual celebration of the Politi birthdays, Pop had a grand ole time swinging his cane wildly and hitting the balloons someone brought. He also took great pleasure in blowing vigorously on the party favors - he alternated between little tunes and morse code. He had a blast until he got up too fast from the table and took a tumble backwards. He landed on his bottom and was not seriously injured, but sadly it put a damper on the party and reminded us all that he is more fragile than any of us want to really acknowledge.


Such as it is, we shall continue to muddle through as we've been doing every day and I will continue to keep this updated for you lot. Until tomorrow...

Another diagnosis

The dermatologist said erythroderma, the oncologist said he had no clue, and today the optometrist said Pop has ectropion - ectropion is a condition in which stretching of the lower eyelid with age allows the eyelid to droop downward and turn outward. Eyelid burns or skin disease may also cause this problem. The doctor also said that there was a stitch from Pop's cataract surgery leftover in his eye, a surgery that happened years ago.

So basically, the eye doctor said the droopy eyelids would clear up as soon as the rash did. In the meantime, he gave Nana a bunch of samples of eye drops and creams.

So that's our update for today. Next week we should have something else to explain this terrible rash.

Erythroderma

Anyone who has seen Pop in the last week has also seen the unsightly and disturbed rash that started on his hand, moved up under his eyes and now covers his entire body. Most noticeably his face, which is peeling intensely, is affected - along with his eyes, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Well now we know what to call it, erythroderma. Nana and Pop just got back from the dermatologist and he said the most likely cause of the rash is erythroderma. This is much worse than anyone expected - the general consensus (or guess, really) was that it was a side effect of one of his drugs, or withdrawal from a drug.

Erythroderma (also known as "Exfoliative dermatitis," "Dermatitis exfoliativa," and "Red man syndrome") is an inflammatory skin disease with erythema and scaling that affects nearly the entire cutaneous surface. Specifically, the doctor believes it is related to his cancer (or lymphomatous erythroderma), and took a biopsy to test - results of which will come back next week.

So I guess sometimes no news is good news...