Catching up

Finally. Time to breathe. But not much. We head to Duke on Tuesday for two appointments with a neurosurgeon and a neurologist to discuss Jack's situation. Hopefully, the two offices will ACTUALLY communicate and come up with a plan for testing. The situation with the neurosurgeon in Charlotte has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. He is the one who felt that surgery might be the best option. During our appointment he withheld a final recommendation pending further review of Jack's medical history. His nurse then told us that he was going to present Jack's case to the monthly meeting of neuro-specialists in Charlotte on Dec. 18th. Well, of course, we never heard anything. Finally, we called them and they said that actually our neurologist was supposed to do that. She knows nothing about it. Typical doctor's offices. So, meanwhile nothing gets done and we've got no further recommendation or information from the Charlotte neurosurgeon. He shall remain nameless in this blog. So, we are looking to the two Duke experts for advice. He's supposed to be the best so we may end up with him in the long run anyway. We'll see.

Now on to more fun stuff. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Christmas was at home (always the best place). We spent Christmas afternoon at my brother's along with my parents. For New Year's, we drove to West Virginia to visit Lisa's Aunt Dottie who had her ??th birthday on Dec. 29th. We all know how old she is but aren't allowed to say. She is an amazingly spry ??-year old. Had an interesting experience at the hotel we stayed in regarding Jack and CAYLIE but I think that belongs in our other blog: http://www.jack-paws4people.blogspot.com/. I'll add it soon.

Then we drove on up to Ohio, affectionately known as "the Motherland" in our family. We stayed with Lisa's sister, Jolene and had a great time watching football. Ok, so Lonnie and I had a great time watching football but we did drive over to the Ohio State campus and pick up some OSU stuff for the big game on Friday. Jolene, always colorful, was constantly being reminded by Lonnie and Lisa about little ears so the running joke was that Lisa was going to put her phone number on the school's speedial when Jack started repeating any "interesting" comments when he returned to school. So, we were constantly saying "speedial" to Jolene.

I need to point out that Ohio State won the Rose Bowl big time over a favored Oregon 26-17 and finished the season 11-2 and ranked 5th. I also need to point out to any U. of Cincinnati fans out there who actually is the best team in Ohio now? Same as every other year in history. Ok, enough ranting. Oh, also, we beat Michigan again. Oh and bye-bye Pete. Enjoy the NFL again. Ok, so now I'm REALLY done.

It was VERY cold in Ohio but actually NC is competing very nicely right now. The difference is this won't last long. In Ohio, it will last until March.

Also wishing my brother Mike a speedy recovery from surgery. Get well soon Mike!

Pictures of our trip...