Week Four...

 My cousin and his wife had their second baby over the weekend. A healthy baby girl, with a unique traditional Irish name that will undoubtedly never be found on stationary or bicycle license plates. The trailer was moved, has been listed on marketplace, and was processed through the RMV for an easy sale. I've been fielding many online questions, but so far, no bites.

 Youngest and I made Orang-cello, which is like limoncello, but with oranges. Yummy, but time consuming. Making the limoncello has been put on hold until he gets more sugar. 

The Hubs and I sat through his retirement interview. Ideally, he should try and go three more years, but in the meantime, we've done some rerouting of his investments, cancelled some old insurance policies that are no longer viable, and looked at some other investment options. It's a lot, for sure, but it's better to know now than months from retirement when it's too late. He's now completely obsessed with figuring out how to retire by September. *sigh*

Youngest went to his surgical consult on Wednesday.  He has three options, he could do nothing and just live with his hand the way it is.  He could have the top knuckle of his ring finger fused, which is irreversible, but could relieve some pain, and has a 4-6 month recovery time. OR he could reconstruct his tendon.  This third option comes with a 60% rate of full success, 30% rate of improvement, and only a 10% chance that it could be worse.  This option also comes with removing the balled up existing tendon in the center of his palm which could give him some relief from the pain he currently has from that. It's an 8-12 month recovery time though, which means he'll be seriously limited in what he can do for work.  It was a lot to take in as you can imagine, so for now he has a splint that will help relieve the stiffness he has in the lower joint of his finger and a semipermanent cast to simulate a fusion.  With that he can see how it will be rock climbing, at the gym, writing, etc. before he has it fused if he chooses to.

He has not asked my opinion, so I haven't given it to him. He opted to go to lunch with me after, something we haven't done in years. I validated that it's a sucky situation but let him know I wasn't coming to his pity party.  He has two weeks in the "cast" to decide. 

On an unrelated note, he said he wanted to go as a family to the casinos for his 21st birthday, so I was able to book accommodations and get tickets to the headlining comedian for late March. We did this for Oldest's 21st birthday as well.  It was a really good time. 

As the week wrapped up, it became clear that fusing his finger would never work. Living with it is not ideal, so between fits of misery and wallowing in depression, he's thinking surgery to reconstruct. Lord help me, I know he's working really hard on changing his life, but I can only tell him I don't want to be invited to his pity party so many times a day before I'll lose my mind. 

And now, as I sit ready to publish this, the trailer has sold today, and if nothing else, I am going to sit in amazement that from the time he asked for my help to the time it was done, was a miraculous eleven days. 

What can I say, some weeks I amaze myself.  Others, I find my laundry in the fridge.