46 xy del 5Q 14.3-14.3

We all probably learned about genes in biology. Some guy named Mendel I think. Something about sweet peas and cross breeding genes. I forgot about it, until Oskar was born and suddenly it became very relevant to me. When I tell people he has a chromosomal deletion, I get a lot of blank stares. A look I am sure i would have had myself two years ago. So here is short tutorial on human genetics as I understand them.

Our DNA is composed of 46 chromosomes. 23 pair. We get one from our dad and one from our mom. So we all have two 1st chromosomes, two second etc. They are the things you might remember from that biology class that look like are little worms. some are short, some are longer. Each chromosome carries a couple hundred genes organized in rows called bands. They are the little bits of information that determine our hair color, our eye color, height, I.Q. They switch off and on in the course of our development and our lifetime and make us who we are.

Every single cell in our body has this DNA in it. Every single cell has all this information in it's center.

In Oskar, ONE of his 5th chromosomes is missing one little line of this information. Band 14.3. 10 genes. Out of 20,000 in his DNA chain. It's amazing to me that this one tiny piece of information, missing on just one of his chromosomes can make such a difference. But it's missing in every single cell of his body and it has made all the difference

It makes you realize what a miracles we all are.

Stripey: Cat with a problem

The other day we went to Mc Donalds and Maddie got a beany baby in her Happy Meal. A little cat she named Stripey. ( He has stripes, you see) He had a tag attached to him and Maddie opened it up and started reading it out loud . The first sentence was " I'm a cat and that's cool!" Maddie started giggling after she read it and looked over at me and said " It's like he's drunk or something!"

Where does she get this stuff?

Divorce and other natural disasters

Maddie was playing in a dollhouse the other day at her therapists office and all of a sudden she messed up all the furniture and tossed the people all over the house. Kim asked her what happened in the house. Maddie said " there was a tornado". Kim asked her if everyone was okay, to which Maddie replied;" No one knows yet."

I think that sums up the feeling around here. We are all in one piece, but thrown about and waiting to see what will happen next.

P.S. If you see Maddie, don't mention this story, I'm not supposed to know.

Soul installation

Today I had a portion of Oskar's soul re-installed.

It started a few months ago when a friend of mine told me to go to a woman who does channeling assisted therapy. She had a story about Oskar, and whether you believe this kind of thing or not, it's a great story.

In Oskar's most recent past life he had a horrible accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He even needed a tube to breathe. He was so upset and angry about this, that when he passed from that life, he immediately jumped into another body instead of spending the time he needed in the astral plane to process that life. Oskar's problems this life are a combination of the universe needing for him to learn the lessons he needed to in an imperfect body, and an overlay of anger and frustration from his past life that doesn't belong here. Anyone who knows Oskar knows he screamed for the first year of his life. I can't tell you how many cranio-sacral people told me he had some kind of anger he was carrying around. So now here's the spooky part. Oskie was born with a scar in his neck that looks just like a tracheotomy scar. Doctors remark on it all the time and ask me if he ever had one.

This lady sent the part of Oskar's soul that needed to process the anger back to the astral plane and told me that it would be ready to return in a few months. So today, we went back and had the soul re-installed. She said it was hanging above his head and was very excited to get back in . She felt that his soul was committed to this life and excited to get to work.

I think me and this new soul are going to get along famously.

why divorce is good for children

Yesterday was Max's birthday. Al emailed me a picture of the surfboard he got Max. Surfboard? Fuck you. I got him a puppy. Top that!

The upside of pneumonia

In the end of February, Oskie was admitted in to the hospital for pneumonia. he tested positive for a virus. They kept telling me he had something that sounded like "Human metamucil virus". I didn't care, all i knew was that he was having a very hard time breathing and he looked so pale it was scary and he slept for 16 hours straight. We were in the hospital for 6 nights. So this all sounds awful, but here is the upside. The doctors put him on steroids to reduce inflammation in his lungs, and it stopped his seizures. Oskie has had between 50-150 seizures a day for the last two years. I kept telling all the nurses and doctors and they were non-plussed. I finally asked for a neurology consult and now we are trying this thing called steroid pulse therapy. Steroids are very bad for you, but if you can get your dose down low and only have to give them every few days, you can stay on them for 1-3 years without significant side effects. So Osk had been seizure free since march 1st. He is laughing and smiling like never before and I am so hopeful! Hooray for pneumonia!!!!

Looking for Gato

In my twenties, oh so long ago, I had two cats named Gato and Cujo. We were very close. I was really crazy about them. I suppose I was not very careful with them, though because they got lost a lot. Cujo especially. One time he was lost for a week until I found him closed up in the utility closet under my neighbors house. Another time... well, I'll make a long story short, but I found him after looking every day for three weeks. He was five miles away from where I lived in a small hole in the drywall of a chinese family's house on Clement street in San Francisco. When I finally got him home, he looked pissed that it had taken me so long. Another time, Gato disappeared from our house in Mill Valley. After a few days, a neighbor told me that some people down the street had moved away. So I stole mail out of their mailbox, found their new number in the phone book and tracked them down. They had taken Gato, thinking he was homeless( he apparently spent a lot of time at their house talking trash about me). They kept him in the garage, but he had run away into the hills in San Rafael, and they had no idea where he was. That weekend, My sister Jennifer, my brother-in-law Ben and I spent every daylight hour walking around that neighborhood shaking boxes of kibble, calling Gato and posting flyers. Late Sunday evening, I remember hanging our last flyer at Scotty's market. At least 5 miles away and down in a valley below where Gato had disappeared. We all went home defeated. Two days later, a lady called. She had seen that VERY LAST FLYER and Gato was in her yard. WE FOUND HIM!

So why am I telling this story? These experiences have had a profound effect on me. The life lesson I learned is that, well,the cat is out there. You just have to keep looking.

This is the way I feel about Oskar. I keep looking for the person who is going to know how to help him. I truly believe that the cat is out there. I don't know if there will ever be day when I will give up. I almost gave up on Cujo , and all I had to do was intimidate a crazy chinese woman and get into her crawlspace. Some nights I cry because I feel like I can hear the cat, and I don't know where to look any more . Some nights I can't sleep because I can hear the cat and I can't wait to get up the next day and start looking again.

I will find the cat!