Not to be a downer, but wake me when September ends

Geez, what a month. The day after our house almost burned down, Nils fell from the second floor of his wood shop and busted a rib. (Oh yeah, Nils is building a wood shop.) He's fine, but wasn't fine for about a week. Sneezing almost killed him, and let me tell you, Nils is a sneezer. Now that it's been a little over three weeks, he's given up trying to suppress the sneezes, and it hurts much less than it did. Thank goodness.

Not funny! 

I've had a rash for like 3 months, and my whole body has been itching non-stop. It's been very not awesome. I can't remember what it's like not to itch. I've been making regular visits to the dermatologist. I've been given allergy injections, allergy meds, lots of prescription lotions and creams, and watched the rash move all over my body, morphing and mutating as it goes. I scratch all night and scratch all day. The dermatologist took a couple of biopsies. One of those got infected so I had to get some antibiotics, which then gave me another infection. OY. Then the biopsy result came back as an "id dermatitis" which basically means "something is irritating your skin". Anyhoo, went back a couple weeks ago after no improvements, and after three men looked at my rash through a microscope, they decided to treat me for scabies. Even though they saw no scabies. And even though no one else in my family has scabies, including my husband, who I sleep with. And wouldn't that biopsy have shown scabies?

They had me take the dog to the vet to get treated for scabies. I did so, and the vet said the dog doesn't have scabies. She did, however, tell me that Pip is a "BAD DOG" after she tried to bite everyone's heads off at the vet clinic. It was embarrassing. The entire visit was embarrassing.

So Pip and I have been treated for scabies, which is super weird, since we don't have scabies. In all these medical people's defense, my rash has cleared up, but I am still so, so itchy. So I hope it was scabies and that was that. But it truly is a mystery, given the only symptom that matched up was/is my non-stop itchiness. Anyway, call me Job. It's been one thing after another.

A small sampling of the treatments that haven't done anything

We had a tragedy in our community this past week, when the most beloved teacher at the middle school, Mr. Thornton, was killed in a car accident on his way to school. Anders didn't have him this year, but had him for 7th and 8th grade honors history, and was his TA last year. He was Anders' favorite teacher, and as we've come to find out, everyone's favorite teacher. It's really rocked our little city. He has a wife and baby, and everyone's hearts are broken for them.

Mr. Thornton was a huge geek. He loved Star Wars and all things nerdy. His family asked the school band to play Star Wars at his graveside service, which Anders was able to be a part of. Anders and I went to the funeral, which was packed to the rafters. People were standing in the cultural hall, in the halls, in the auxiliary rooms. Clearly this man meant a lot to so many. At the cemetery as the hearse drove in, the band played the Star Wars theme song, and it was light hearted and heart wrenching at the same time. His wife came up to the band and thanked them all for being there and told them how much it meant to her. I'm glad Anders was able to take part in honoring his teacher, and Mr. Thornton's family will always be in our hearts and minds.

So this post is a downer, but this is real life, yo. Sometimes life is good with a little crappy mixed in, and sometimes it's more crappy with some good mixed in.

Someone hand me my back scratcher.