End of Summer 2015

So, Shao went back to college late August 2015, for her Sophomore year. I knew it would be a tough year, without Zander being there. Beginning of September I began feeling unwell. Headed into the ER clinic on Labor Day and managed to get myself taken by ambulance to the hospital for a five day stay. Remember that acute diverticulitis episode in late June? Well, seems it never really resolved. We decided it was time for the big guns to make their entrance…iv antibiotics. Fun times. I was one round short of finishing chemo. Week after week I would head to the infusion clinic, only to be turned away for low counts. My dear Uncle Bill passed away, and I couldn’t go to his funeral because I was neutropenic…ie, had no immune system. After 3 weeks of it, Dr. Levy said what I had been thinking, “I think we’re done.” So, no last round of chemotherapy, which was fine with me! 

All the time this was going on, my sister had started a go fund me. And began baking yummy things and selling them to friends and family, to benefit me! My landlord had agreed to waiting for my rent until I found a way to pay her…not to not charge me, but to wait for payment. The go fund me raised enough for a car…mine was shot…and enough for monthly expenses. My church approached me and said that they were going to pay my back rent! God provided spectacularly! And by Christmas I was going about my life again! ShaoXi came home for Christmas and Zander flew in a few days later to spend the holidays with us. It was perfect! But it was SO hard when the kids left in January. 

In talking to my regular doctor we discussed depression. And we decided that an emotional support dog would be the best thing for me. Shao had asked the landlord for permission to have a pet and was told no. But for some reason this time she said yes! Now, mind you, I had been dreaming about this for awhile, had been scouring adoption/rescue sites for the perfect dog. And my dear friend Donna, Shao’s godmother, had offered to pay the fees to make it happen! I had applied to a few, trusting that God would work it out if it was meant to be. I could always decline, right? Well, the day after the Landlord said yes, I got a call that I had been approved to adopt a puppy in Tennessee. Talk about God’s perfect timing! And it gets better! Dawn, at the rescue said that it so happened that “Princess” was getting spayed the next day, and that she could be put on a transport right after, as long as the adoption fees were paid. So Tuesday, May 17th, my new puppy was put on the transport trailer, headed my way. This was all just a few days after I was given permission to have a dog. That night, Tuesday, my landlord called and said that she had changed her mind. I told her the puppy was already on its way to me from Tennessee. She said that she was sure I could find someone to take her once she arrived. Umm…no…nope. Things got ugly. Her son got involved. He called my Doctor, and the office pretty much told him that he’d better be careful, because by law, if I was “prescribed “ an ESA , a landlord could not say no. I did ask, and I had the landlord’s letter of approval, but technically I could have just TOLD her, I didn’t have to ask. My puppy, now named Daisy Mae, arrived on May 19th. What a joy! Gave me reason to get out of bed every day! 10+ years later, she’s still here, my best buddy! But the landlord was definitely not happy, so life got a bit tough. Nothing major, but the landlord sure wasn’t being pleasant anymore. Nothing horrible, just uncomfortable. Until…she raised my rent by $450 a month, to be raised even more over the coming year. Rent was now more than I got in Social Security a month. She did not care. Ugh! More in the next installment!

Blessings!

Nancy