First of all, purrs and good thoughts and wishes for those who want or need
them.

We've been home for a couple of weeks now.  Just couldn't get online until
today.  Rob's cancer is terminal, it is a matter of months, though we hope
that he beats the odds and is one of the 14% who last longer than 6 months
after diagnosis.  He is here under hospice care and has finally been
declared at 100% disabled.  This took a lot of work and letters from active
duty service members as well as Rob's neurologist and neurosurgeon.  Guess
the bozo over there didn't believe the oncologist that has been treating Rob
for several years now.

So he gets more money a month, though they gave him half of what everyone
figured out from the information given us by the VA (including a VA rep) as
a settlement.  Oh well, it paid the re-finance fee and made it possible for
us to keep the house and at a lower monthly payment.

He has his own hospital bed, wheel chair, potty chair, bath chair, walker,
walker basket, bed table, and care chart.  He also has his own hospice
nurse, social worker, and CNA.  My house has never been so over run.  It
depresses me.  We also are getting more traffic from the religious nuts and
solicitors.  I think I need to get the swords out again.

The cats love the new toys.  There is a floating population of 1 to 4 cats
sleeping with him at any one time.  They love riding up and down on the
level and angle adjusters.  Pine Cone tried to surf the bed table, but it
wouldn't move for him.  Sonya has discovered where we store Rob's sodas
under his bed and sleep on the boxes.  Huey insists that Rob is his human,
especially now that the evil woman and the blonde wench have brought him
back.  Tanada prefers to sleep with me in the library/Mike's room.  Mike is
living on the living room sofa.  Speedy has discovered that the platform for
the wheelchair ramp into the living room is a great place to sleep.  PC is
in here with us most of the time now.  Dynamics have changed among us all.
I know that we'll find a sort of balance, but it doesn't seem like it right
now.  Right now, only Huey and Merlin are sharing the bed with Rob and his
laptop.  Glad that he can get online with it.  If you want to email him (and
when I asked if he wanted emails from you all, he said "Please, yes."  No
guarantees on answering them.

I have decided that making a scrap book is an art form and I am not artistic
in that direction.  I did make one of his cards and the pictures he
received.  Jean, we still can't get over the Christmas cactus that lives on
your veranda.  It's amazing.  Rob drooled over your grand kid picture.  I
suspect that he'd like to have one or three.  He also got a kick out of
Henri RB's fascination with TV and loved your pictures of him as well.

Am on leave of absence from work and school.  The medical staff and I agree
that Rob needs me here for what time he has left.  Not only that, but I need
me here with him.  He is doing pretty well, though he has problems with
finding the words he wants to use and his speech is slower than it was.
There is a long story about the medical mess up that helped put him that
way, but I get mad all over again whenever I tell it.

Again purrs and good thoughts and wishes from all of us here at chez Shirk.

Pam S.