We had taken the salt-caked rocks out, soaked them over the weekend and then on Monday, we hand washed them-one by one. The smell was like stagnant water and I will admit it, I gagged once or twice. Once the rocks were clean, we left them to dry in the glorious sunshine and attacked the gravel and tank.
My husband, Ed, hooked up the hose, pulled it around to my office window and handed it in. Mylinda and I had poured some water on the insides of the glass while Ed was hooking up the hose, oh the stench! It was ten times worse than the rocks! This was dehydrated filth assaulting our senses. We donned industrial strength gloves and Mylinda started loosening the gunk that was stuck on the glass. While she was doing this, perched on a step stool, I climbed to my perch. We noticed that the small amount of water we had added to the tank had been absorbed by the dead greenery,(that suddenly didn't appear so dead) and I started picking it up gingerly and discarding it in the trash. It now felt kind of rubbery and even through the gloves, caused waves of nausea.
I think Mylinda held her composure much better than I did as I threatened the owner of the tanks life on more than one occasion. Mylinda kept me laughing throughout and helped us stay on task. Anyway, after we picked out as much slimy goo as we could, we filled the tank. We had purchased a large gravel vacuum at the local pet store and started sucking out the putrid water. Most of you know how a siphon works. You use a hose, place it in the container to be drained, apply suction and then place the other end of the hose in a receptacle well below the height. Normally, you suck on the tube to get the process started (yuck) but this vacuum had a hand pump, yay! After getting it started, I was managing the vacuum and Mylinda was scrubbing away. Ed would take the tube and move it from bucket to bucket and then empty them. We made it through the first tankful then disaster struck, Ed had gone to dump a bucket and the vacuum tubing came apart! That nasty water spilled on my carpet. I looked at Mylinda and we both cracked up. Water had spewed everywhere and it was going to smell so bad. I told her it would be okay, I would bring my steam cleaner in and fix it right up.
Ed came in, looked at the two of us, and just shook his head. The pump wouldn't work much after that and Ed had to use electrical tape to hold it all together and I, (much to Mylinda's disgust) had to go old school and suck on that tube to get it started. Yes it was gross, but the tube was clear so I was able to detach before the nastiness got to me! We filled and emptied the tank three times that day and felt the filtering system would do the rest. So, moral of the story is - don't let your aquarium dry up in the first place!
On our other front, I've been sharing our journey after our teenage daughter was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer, inadvertently, after an injury playing softball. It was an absolute shock. Cheyenne was hurt on March 7, 2015 and was formally diagnosed on the 20th. Now it seemed like we were on a rollercoaster with no brakes.
Last time, we were heading into the Friday night softball game on the 27th. Earlier that day, I received a call from Dr. Athanassaki, Cheyenne's endocrinologist.
She asked how we were handling things and then said, "I wanted to let you know the tumor board met and we would like to schedule the surgery for Good Friday. Will that be okay?"
'Boy, they aren't playing around,' I thought. "Yes, my office manager said we would work around anything and school will be out for the holiday anyway. We said this had been a God thing and Good Friday fits right in."
She went on to tell me that they would also be scheduling Chey for another ultrasound before the surgery at the radiologist’s request. "Alright then," she said. "Alli will call you with all the details" and with that, we disconnected.
As usual, Alli called back promptly later that day, and gave us all the details for the upcoming appointment. We were to arrive in Houston on April 2 and we would meet Chey’s surgeon, Dr. David Wesson, have the ultrasound and then the following morning she was going to surgery. Oh my little heart was going pitter-patter, pitter-patter again. Chey had surgery before, on her foot, but this was a totally different ballgame and I was frightened. I started making a mental checklist of things to ask the surgeon, how long would it take? Would you be able to tell if it had metastasized? What happens if there was other disease in her neck? What about her vocal chords? I had to tell myself to stop, just write down the notes and ask the doctor when you see him. These were things Dr. Google couldn't tell me. I called my husband to inform him and we decided we would tell Cheyenne after the softball game that night.
After work, I met my husband and we hauled it to Eastland for Chey's last Friday night softball game. They were due to have another game the next Tuesday but when we got to the game Cheyenne informed us that game had been moved to a later date. So we had to tell her this was her last softball game.
"They've scheduled surgery haven't they?" She asked me.
I said "Yes, next Friday on Good Friday."
I could see the instant fear in her eyes as she quickly looked down to the ground, she took a deep breath and waddled back to the dugout. She was already in her catching gear, minus the helmet. I did what I always do, I got my books and went up to the announcers booth and got all the names of the other team and their lineup. I waited for Coach to give me ours. Then I sat down and tried to absorb every moment, every movement, every sound, every smell of this night. I watched Chey warm-up wondering how would she play knowing this was her last game, what would happen?
I told you earlier the girls had been struggling. At the last game they played hard and together and they lost by one run. It was tough, but they played well and we wanted to see if they could put two games together and they did. Chey had a pretty good game considering everything she'd had to deal with - an injury, a cancer diagnosis, an impending surgery and all the hell going on with the school in the grievance. She went two for five with two RBIs, one run scored and eight putouts. Not bad at all! We went into the bottom of the sixth tied up at four each. We got the first two outs but then after a couple good hits on their part, and three untimely errors on ours, they went up by four. We had our half of the inning to try and tie it up or better yet, win it!
We started the inning with a double to left, followed by a base on balls. Then Chey pushed their pitcher to six pitches and bombed one to deep left field. The left fielder was playing way back after the previous double over her head and made a great running catch for the out. Chey had already rounded first and was nearly to second. She slapped her hands together, knowing most of the time that would be at least an easy stand-up double. The next batter hit a blooper to the short stop and we were down to one out with two on base. All of us were on our feet cheering as KK came to bat. Now this kid had always had the potential to be an outstanding hitter and is an awesome first baseman, but sometimes she got into her own head. She was in that place none of the girls (or anyone else for that matter) wants to be in, down to the last out of the game. She worked the count to one ball and two strikes when BAM she hit a rocket to left field. There was no doubt she had gotten all of that ball and just like that, she had her one and only HOME RUN! We all were on our feet cheering like crazy people as her dad ran down the fence to grab that ball. The dugout emptied and the girls were standing off the third base line.
KK crossed that plate (I was already bawling at this point) and she turned and ran straight at my little girl, hugged her neck and said, "That was for you Chey."
They were both bawling and my heart just melted. What a class act. Chey actually carried a bruise on her cheek for several days after that, Kay's facemask had popped her during the hugging but Chey was very proud of it. She talks about that one moment fairly often, it's probably the kindest thing anyone had done for her in a long time. Thanks KK, I'll never forget it either!
The girls ended up losing by one, but they had finally gotten it together and ended up making the district playoffs. Chey didn't get to play in any more games but I don't think there were any regrets.
Next time, Surgeon Extraordinaire.
XXOO Make Everyday Count,
Bonnie
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