Waiting for the Ceiling to Cave In

And I mean that literally.

Remember that water leak issue I mentioned in my last post? The one where I said "the snow pack was higher than the flashing and it just got past that and into the attic...." Yeah. Turns out that may have been the case. Or not.

We now have a wet and ever growing water mark our ceiling which is much larger than the original one (which frankly I thought was big enough). It's in a different place, of course.

We have no snow but do have lots of rain.

Our roof is only 8 years old so we called the roof guy and he graciously came out yesterday afternoon free of charge to see what is happening. He crawled on top the roof and inside the attic and the verdict is: the roof is not leaking. Damn. That would have an easy fix.

While the guy was up of the roof he found several areas of concern with the siding installation - the biggie being they didn't cap the chimney which may, or may not, be allowing the water to get in. Why now? It's been 11 months, right? He doesn't really know. It could have been happening in a lesser degree for a while or it could be that the extreme cold temps changed the way the siding sits on the house. Also the siding apparently isn't supposed to be touching the roof desk and it does around the chimney.

Given the day I had yesterday up to that point, I just stood there and listened as the tears filled my eyes. He asked if I would like him to call the company who installed the siding. I did - and he did. Someone from the company will be out this afternoon.

The roof guy said that even if those aren't the sources of the leaking, they need to be fixed. If that doesn't end the leak, then the siding company will need to remove the siding from the chimney, the roof guy will replace all the flashing and then the siding company can reinstall (properly, we hope) the siding.

Fine. Whatever. So we live with a growing wet spot and the possibility of the ceiling crashing in on us in that area. In the long run, I know it can be fixed. In the short run - it's stressful as all get out.

Add to that......

Kelton.

For those of you on Facebook, you already have a good idea of what is happening. Short little sentences were all I could manage lately but I know some of you don't do Facebook and I know others who are in FB are asking for more information. More information I really do not have at this point but here is the short version.

Kelton is losing weight. He has dropped about 10% of his total body weight since a Sept. 27th doctor visit. We have noticed how skinny he has become and other people have commented on it as well. We (stupidly) figured it was growing taller, not adding weight and naturally thinning out and losing his baby look. I was nervous about it but tried to shake it off. But too many people started to say things to not wonder and then Dakota plopped him on a scale. Yikes.

I had to take him in on December 31st for something unrelated (? Maybe.) to his weight lose so I was able to address the weight lose then instead of waiting a few weeks for a regular appointment.

The end result is the doctor is concerned and asked to begin weekly weigh ins to be sure he doesn't lose anymore. If he did lose, then she would run some tests.

I took him in yesterday morning for his first weigh in and even after a week of shoving food at the boy and him doing his part of eating just about everything - he still lost half a pound. With all the food we were putting in him, there is no way he should have lost. He was crushed and I was without words.

They got us in to see the doctor within 30 minutes. after another examination and lots more questions, we were off to the lab to have NINE(!) vials of blood drawn. My amazing child was a trooper! Not a whine or a cry. He stuck out his arm, did what they asked of him and walked away with 4 stickers for his bravery. I was so proud of him!

The doctor said she was "throwing out a broad net" hoping to figure out what is going on but more importantly to rule out things that are not the problem.

And now - the waiting. Which is complete torture.

The urinalysis came back quickly as did a glucose result (I assume from the urine sample). They are fine.

It could be up to a week for all the results to come back.

In the mean time, I'm completely falling apart while working so hard to keep it together for the kids and Dakota is barely keeping it together. This is not good. Whatever it is, is not good. We just have to hope it's a simple fix.

So that ceiling problem? Quite the metaphor for life right now.