It has been a long time . . .

 Wow, it is exactly two years since I was last here. Life gets really crazy sometimes!

Here is the short version - I will be blogging again sometime in the near future. I have not abandoned the doll world. In fact, I have bought a few more dolls and dollhouses over the past two years and have many stories to tell when I get the time. I think about my dolls every day and am looking forward to writing my blog again. (You may stop reading here now as I am going to go into the boring details of the last two years....)

At the beginning of 2019, my husband was diagnosed with scleroderma/ systemic sclerosis. This is a stupid disease that has turned our world upside down. The doctor bluntly told him that he had about a year to live due to his clinical manifestations, but I am happy to say that two years later, my husband is still with us!

After the initial diagnosis, my husband began to deteriorate quickly and spent the next three months in hospital. He came home for two months and did intensive physical and occupational therapy four days a week. However, the therapies had to be stopped as it was causing the disease to progress much faster and he completely lost the use of his body. We now have 'quadriplegia' added to his list of diagnoses.

In early August, my husband lost the ability to swallow and was rushed back to hospital. He had a feeding tube placed into his stomach and receives all nutrition, medications, and liquids through this tube. He also requires constant suctioning due to the inability to swallow. He remained in hospital for another six months, eventually coming home in January 2020 to do palliative care at home.

The doctors decided to try chemotherapy to see if we could halt the disease progression. My husband had his first round of chemotherapy in hospital in February. He was supposed to have chemo once a month for the next five months, however COVID-19 struck the world, and the doctors did not want to strip him of his immune system completely during a pandemic.

In October his gallbladder burst sending him back to the hospital for a few weeks. 

January 2021, he lost blood flow to his feet and was hospitalized again, and in February he was back in hospital for another two weeks.

So far there have been no hospitalizations in March, so we are doing well despite living with this relentless disease. He still requires full nursing care (provided by me and my kids) for everyday living, as well as two people to transfer him from bed to wheelchair. My kids have been really great assistants helping their dad with nursing care as well. The thing I find hardest of all is that he needs to be physically turned over every three hours during the night to prevent bedsores. It took me quite a while to get used to this routine, but I now can get up numerous times a night to care for him.

Anyway, I am looking forward to blogging again sometime soon. 

Cheerio, Sam