Well, we’re back from the vet – what an adventure! The vet wasn’t scheduled to come in today but he came in to see Marshmallow anyway. Princess and I planned to be early since he was being so nice and coming in for us, but you know how these things go…

We had to go to Hortonville, about 15 miles away, because that’s where the small animal vet in the group is. I’m not very familiar with the area, but remembered how to get there from last week. Of course we ended up leaving a little late, then Princess and I got busy talking about Marshmallow and planning to paint the girls’ bedroom this weekend. All of a sudden we noticed that things didn’t look right around us – we were on the wrong road!

I turned around in a gas station and made a big loop around a “country block” to try and hit the right road without going all the way back to Appleton. But after about five minutes of driving on the “right” road we found ourselves staring at the same gas station again. – Grrr! This time I took a good look around spied the golden arches peeking over the trees. I knew we had to pass that McDonald’s to get to the vet so we headed in that direction. We finally made it to the vet, only 10 minutes late – whew!

The vet said that he was sure Marshmallow didn’t have a tumor, but that he could continue to abscess for some time yet. He picked the older scab off, totally grossing Princess and me out, and put some surgical glue on it to stop the oozing. The vet seemed impressed at Marshmallow’s age. Apparently most hamsters are about 3 mos old when they’re put up for sale, which means Marshmallow will be 3 next month! The spot on Marshmallow’s hip is just an “old hamster” spot, and nothing to worry about. Princess and I were both relieved to hear that Marshmallow is going to be OK! Now I just need to get her to clean his cage…

We have an adorable teddy bear hamster… actually he’s our 15 yr old daughter, Princess’s hamster. We bought him for her as a Christmas surprise 2 1/2 years ago; Princess took one look at him and fell in love. His name is Marshmallow because he’s mostly white, with some tan and a tiny bit of grey – like a toasted marshmallow.

Unfortunately Marshmallow is getting old. As I understand, a hamster’s life span is about 2 years so he’s a geriatric hamster. He doesn’t act old, but I’m afraid he has hamster cancer. Last week Princess noticed an area on his neck about the size of a nickle that was swollen, bald, and had a dark spot in the middle of it. To me the spot looked like the melanomas I’ve seen in photos. (If you look carefully you can see the spot in the photo, it’s under his ear.)

Last Thursday we took Marshmallow to the vet. The vet said he didn’t think Marshmallow had a tumor, but had an infection that abscessed – either from the inside of the food pouch out, or in from an injury on the outside. He prescribed a tiny amount of antibiotic for Marshmallow – .1ml – and asked us to return in two weeks or so. Both Princess and I were relieved that Marshmallow was going to be OK and we didn’t have to make any decisions about further treatments or lack thereof.

Marshmallow likes his medicine, and holds the syringe in his little pink paws, lapping the medicine out drop by drop and sniffing for more. After a couple of days the swelling went down and the edges of the scab began to dry out. We were happy to see him getting better!

But on Monday Princess noticed a small pink sore near the original scab. I couldn’t see it on Monday but Tuesday I saw it and thought maybe his scab was itchy and he scratched himself while he was scratching the scab. But yesterday the spot was bigger and darker, and I found a third blotch on his hip.

I called the vet again, and even though he was supposed to be off tomorrow, he offered to come in to see Marshmallow in the morning. Princess will be off from school so she can come along. I’m dreading this appointment and what the vet will say.

College Boy has known that I’ve wanted to post more in my blog, but always seem to find a reason not to. (The photos I want to include are still in the camera, or not edited, or not uploaded, etc.) Since he started a new blog about his time in England, I offered a challenge to him – Every time he posted in his blog I’d post in mine.

OK, it’s more of a challenge for me than it is for him, but I’m hoping it’ll keep him posting, if for no other reason than to “make” his Mom post. Besides, even though he’s only been at Harlaxton since yesterday morning, the whole family has enjoyed reading about his experiences and seeing the photos he posts.

I’ll have to think of a challenge for him… maybe we’ll send cookies for every 5 posts or something… whatever it takes to keep the lines of communication open!

Our eldest is finally in England – probably at school by now. It was a LONG stressful journey for him, and there wasn’t much we could do except watch and tell him to hang in there.

College Boy was supposed to fly out Thursday around 4pm, from Appleton to Minneapolis to London, then get on a shuttle to the school. But Thursday morning all flights in and out of Minneapolis were canceled! He was re-booked for Friday, but the school wanted all students to arrive on Friday, and if he arrived late he’d have to find his own way to the school. Uncle J used to work at the airport and told us to go there and ask what they could do, so we went around noon. Within minutes of explaining the situation he was switched to another airline and scheduled to fly out at 4:30. Whew! He hung around the airport all day, and when his plane took off we breathed a sigh of relief – he was on his way!

But he didn’t get far… around 8pm he called to say that he’d probably miss his connection because the had to land in Huntsville, AL, due to bad weather in Atlanta. Turns out everything in Atlanta was delayed so we told him not to worry, his connection was probably delayed too. It was – but not long enough. College Boy arrived in Atlanta almost 2 hours after his flight to London left. He was able to rebook – on a 5:30pm flight.

He spent the night in the airport, and the entire next day, then finally boarded the plane around 5pm. Luckily he had his laptop and had internet access! Teacher found a cool link that allowed us to follow the progress of College Boy’s flight. It said “Awaiting takeoff” for over an hour… yup, takeoff ended up being delayed almost two hours. We cheered when he finally got into the air!

This morning we got the email saying that there were more surprises in store for him in London, but good ones this time. He was worried about his luggage, but it was there waiting for him, AND there was a driver from the school waiting for him, and 16 other students.

So now the adventure begins!

I took my “new” serger in for an owner’s class today. It’s been “sick” and I was about to throw it out the window because I was so frustrated with it. Turns out the problems were mainly “user error” (blush). Two little finger thingies broke off the stitch plate so I need another one of those, and the blades are dull and need to be replaced. She said I was a “heavy user” and need to bring the serger in for a tune-up 2-3 times a year instead of just once a year – oops! The good news is that she figures it’ll be done by Sept 1, and all tune-ups are free for the first 2 years – no matter how many times I take it in. I can’t wait for it to be tuned up and come home!