A Little Good Luck

I didn’t want to jinx myself, so I waited a few days before updating with my good news. Dr. Karian removed my catheter on Thursday. Yay!!! And the plumbing all seems to be working just fine. There is still a small leak, but he wasn’t concerned so I won’t be either. I haven’t slept through the night since he pulled it, but eventually I think I’ll stop getting up every two hours – I’m just afraid to let too much accumulate for fear of bursting another stitch. Dr. K said not to worry about it, but I’m taking no chances. Eventually I should be able to sleep a few hours more and then maybe even move back to my side of the bed. I think we’ll all sleep better once that happens.

Pat and I decided we needed to celebrate this momentous occasion. Going out to dinner just didn’t seem like enough, so instead we bought a house! OK it’s not really to celebrate me losing my last tube it’s something we’ve been trying to do for 7 years, but the timing was appropriate. It’s been a good week for the Gasbarro’s. Pat is into his second week at his new job and he really likes it and they seem to really like him – so much so they want to send him to see clients in California, Ohio, and Vermont. So far he’s only been to Vermont, but eventually one of these trips will work out especially now that I am feeling stronger and less dependent on him for everything. But I digresss….

For the past 7 years, off and on, Pat and I have been checking out properties in Massachusetts. We both knew we wanted to stay in New England. I plan to continue working in Boston and his jobs have always been within the 128 circle. We love our current apartment and have lived here since our beginning. It’s a great amount of space, terrific landlords and an awesome deal on rent. However it’s Somerville – just outside of Boston so street parking from which our cars have shown the scars, neighbors right on top of you who know your every business and whose alarm clocks wake you at all hours, and no place to sit outside and take in the sun. We missed being able to relax outdoors. We both love the ocean and dreamed of living nearby it, but housing prices there were and continue to be prohibitive. So we decided to look towards the country or at least further outside the city than Route 128. We looked north in towns like Andover and Reading, south in towns like Kingston and Pembroke, and west in towns like Hopkinton (the starting point of the Boston marathon, hence 26.2 miles from downtown Boston) and Holliston. In all of the communities we saw properties we liked but nothing that grabbed us. The housing market continued to rise, my health continued to fail, and the timing was never right.

Until now. We set a deadline of December for moving. It’s no longer a seller’s market, prices are starting to fall within reason and since its spring there lots of homes to see. We thought we knew exactly what we wanted – something old with lots of charm and character – we love hardwood floors, beautiful moldings, pocket doors, butler’s pantries, built in china cabinets. If we lived in California our ideal home would be a mission style bungalow. But this is New England and while we have lots of old and charm, there wasn’t a lot of it in our price range. However an interesting property popped up a few weeks ago (my online shopping has expanded from Amazon.com to Ziprealty.com – slightly more dangerous in terms of our pocketbooks) and at the same time a realtor we had met last year also called to check in. I thought it was fate, so set up an appointment to see this charming Victorian along with a few other properties in Holliston and Hopkinton. All the houses I set up to see were different styles – figuring it would help us decide what we liked and disliked about each type.

We saw the Victorian that we both absolutely adored and drooled over, but realized that the land was a complete disaster and would be a huge project – one neither of us really felt we could tackle. The other houses were unremarkable, but the final property on this first day out caught both our eyes. It was a contemporary built in 1982, lacking all the extras that we so vehemently insisted we must have, was painted every color of the rainbow on the inside, but sat on an acre and a half of the most beautiful lush green land that we had ever seen. We went home that night without making any decisions. We talked about what we liked and didn’t like during the week, both realizing that this contemporary home had really caught us by surprise. Could we change our expectations for our future home?

We set up an appointment the following weekend to see a bunch more homes in the same area and decided to go see this one again as well. The first 4 were once again nothing striking, but as we pulled into the driveway of this contemporary home once again, I knew. It just felt right. We walked around again, checked for water damage since this was right after the weeklong torrential storms we had and found none. The small stream in front of the house was larger than at our last visit, but the house itself was dry. I wandered and let Pat wander in a different direction. Finally he came to me and said he wanted to put an offer in that day – I instantly agreed. And less than 24 hours later our offer was accepted. The home passed inspection last week and we are about to commit to both the P&S and a mortgage this week. Whew…It’s been a whirlwind process, but we are both thrilled beyond words.

It’ll be a little tough on me at first since its 2 stories with a basement which means a fair amount of stairs, but I know my knee will eventually heal and so I’ll make do until then. It also means I might not be able to do as much as would like in terms of packing (oh darn) and painting (every room in the home will need to be repainted) but it will all get done. Don’t worry we’ll be calling in all our favors over the next few months. I can live with the colors temporarily and we can take our time making this our home. We plan to live there for the foreseeable future. We both have a lot to learn about home repair and more importantly yard work. It’s a beautiful lawn but since I can’t exactly mow it, poor Pat will get stuck with that chore at least for now. In case you are interested, here’s the outside front and back and our shed and backyard.

We realized moving to this community means at least an hour commute for me, but that’s something we knew was coming someday. I’ve never wanted to move too far away from Mt. Auburn Hospital and that has been an issue for the past several years. With my weekly Erbitux treatments last year a move outside of the city was almost impossible. I didn’t want to do my treatments elsewhere so changing doctors or treatment centers was not a possibility. However last month, together with Dr. Lange we decided not to do any further treatment. My body just can’t handle anything else and we have no evidence that the Erbitux was effective. Instead we are going to do CT scans every 3 months and follow any disease progression this way. It’s the only option right now and one that both Pat and I are comfortable with. I know that Dr. Lange has not given up on me and we will all continue to monitor the medical journals and clinical trials for any treatments that might be effective. I am looking forward to getting back to my old self. It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve felt good. My skin is back to normal, no rash, no dryness, my hair is no longer brittle, no bumps in my eyes or ears, but the diarrhea is still around and annoying. Hopefully this too will one day pass. I am at peace with this decision and am looking forward to taking these next steps in our lives and maybe leaving a bit of this disease behind.

Sorry this was so long, but I had so much to share and the time was right to fill everyone in. Later…

Posted by jean at May 28, 2006 10:06 PM