Not Good

Hello:

By the photo of the lemon tree, you can see I am still in Southern California. 

The news about my brother is not good.  It is hard to write this, but, as I have shared a bit about what is going on, I will do my best.

One of the horrible things about ALS is that you lose your ability to breathe.  The diaphragm is a muscle, and since ALS attacks the motor neurons, the nerves that move your muscles, eventually, it stops working and you can not breathe.  There is a new, experimental procedure where they use a device like a heart pacemaker to help with this.  Instead of shocking the heart muscle, the device shocks the diaphragm, causing it to contract and force air into the lungs.  The device stays outside the body, with electrodes going into the body to the diaphragm muscle. For this to work, the diaphragm must be still at least partially functioning.  See, when the muscles stop working, they atrophy (waste away).  When they tested my brother for this, it was inconclusive, but his breathing was still above the level they use to decide who can have the operation.

What happened is, when they implanted the wires, and tested the device, they discovered that his diaphragm had already stopped working.  How could this be?  He was still breathing fairly well.  How could he breathe without using his diaphragm? It seems that he has been using his chest muscles to breathe.  He was in such incredible shape, he had been a marathoner, tri-athlete, and often rode his bike to work.  Only someone with super strong core could do something like this.

We are all devastated at the failure of the surgery.  It was certainly not a cure, but, it could have given him 6 months to a year more of breathing.  He is no worse off than he was before the surgery.  It is just that hope has gone.

Peace,
f1bercat

Bad Blogger

Hi there,

I'm sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately.  The truth is, I am down in Southern California helping out at my brother's house for possibly the whole month of August.  We started with a great week of most of the cousins getting together for a "staycation,"  that is a vacation where you stay at home.  My 3 youngest kids, Moogie, Himes, and Pookie, are with me.  For us it is not a staycation as we traveled down, but for the cousins who live in So. Cal., this is very different from what they are used to.

The sad truth is that my  brother was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease last year, and he needed some help this month as his wife is in another state for military training.  They have 3 kids, and well, I didn't want my brother to be home without an adult at night as he is basically a quadriplegic now.  He is in great spirits, but has crummy internet (perhaps he has other things on his mind...), so getting on to post is a pain.

As I will likely be here a while, I need to figure out how to post, especially photos which take forever to download.

I have finished the 3 projects/entries I had planned for the Ravellenic Games,

Red Hot Lewk Sweater for WIP's Wrestling

Moon Squares for Modular Relay

Yoga Socks of Glory for Sock Put

and am working sporadically on the 4th, a reversible cowl.

I am not sure if I will finish it, as I am pretty busy right now.  But things should slow down next week, and I hope to get in more knitting.

Honestly, if you knew how long it took to put those photos on this page... well, it is very slow.

Anyway, I still plan to blog regularly while I am down here.  I hope to find a knitting group to crash.  And I really miss my Eastside Stitchers!  (as well as my darling husband, the Doc).

However, I did get to see my nephew, Nino, hit 2 homeruns last Sunday.

 So, internet aside, I am having a wonderful time with my brother's kids.  And it is great to get to spend time with my brother, and help him this way.

Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 3. count them 3! Medals of glory from the 2012 Ravellenic Games.