Happy Halloween!!!

Trick or Treat

Help, the printer is out of ink!

Have you ever noticed that the printer runs out of ink just before you need 100 copies of something important immediately? This weekend the black cartridge went kaput, it had lasted about 2 years, an amazingly long time in the life of ink cartridges around here. Late last night I made a run to Freddie Kroger and bought a new generic brand cartridge. Brought it home, installed it and it wouldn't work. Went to the website for help, still wouldn't work. Today I made a trip to the big box store and bought 2 brand-name cartridges. Thought I might as well pick up a color cartridge too, WRONG! They only had black cartridges for this printer, no color, what "store buyer" thought it was a good idea to only stock black cartridges for printers that also print in color? I would really like to understand the marketing philosophies in use in retail stores today.

Postponement....

Surgery is postponed until Nov. 11. Nathan has come down with a bad cold, runny nose, cough, etc. I had to cancel and reschedule everything. We've waited this long, I guess another couple weeks won't make any difference. We should not be surprised that he caught this. I was sick for 2 weeks early in the month and Larry has been sick for the past 2 weeks.

A date with the surgeon..

Hmmm, now that's a catchy title! Nathan is going to have his surgery on Monday, November 3, in the afternoon at Allenmore Hospital. I don't know if it is day surgery, or if he will spend the night. We have to go to the hospital next Monday to see the anesthesiologist, Nathan is allergic to a commonly used anesthetic (we found that out during his last surgery)so, we have to be certain they don't use it on him during this surgery. As if we don't have enough to worry about. Hopefully, one of the fifteen people we will mention this to will actually listen, write it down, and read it before they administer it. Do I sound a little cynical? After his last surgery, I actually had to get his chart from the nurse and write down his medication dosage schedule for her and he is only on 2 medications. One is given in alternating doses depending on the day of the week. I had previously written it down for the hospital pharmacist and had told several other people, but they just couldn't get it. Don't even get me started on the bowel and bladder stuff, you would think at a hospital they could handle those things, guess again. Yikes! The bad part is Nathan cannot speak for himself which adds another dimension to his trying to get care.

The neurologist gives an opinion...

Today we went to see Nathan's neurologist. He has been seeing Nathan for the past 22 years. He is a fantastic doctor and a great human being. When he saw the condition Nathan was in and the obvious pain that he was having, he told us to definitely go ahead with exploratory laporoscopy(I'm not sure if that's spelled right or not) surgery. I called the surgeon when we got home, his assistant said they had been waiting for my call, and will call me back in the next day or so to schedule it. Nathan and I are feeling ok with this decision now. Please pray for Nathan.

Not much time to blog anymore...

Being RS president takes a lot of time!!! There are lots of meetings. There are lots of reports. There is a whole computer program with visiting teaching stuff that has to be entered and corrected and entered and corrected and.....I have wonderful counselors and a great board to help me, but I can't believe how much there is to do. I make lists of my lists. I was at church and intransit for 7 hours yesterday. I'm a little tired today.

Nathan sees his neurologist tomorrow. I'm going to ask for his opinion on doing exploratory surgery.

It's been a wild week...

On Wednesday, I took Nathan to the surgeon, thinking that perhaps we would have a diagnosis. Still no idea what is causing the pain. The surgeon decided to give him two antibiotics to see if there might be an underlying infection causing the pain. I took Nathan home, fed him lunch, and gave him the first antibiotic. About an hour later he developed a severe headache. I gave him acetaminaphen rapid release, which didn't relieve the headache. After observing what looked like a focal-motor seizure, I called the paramedics. His blood pressure was way up, but came down after awhile. They decided not to transport. I had some stronger pain killers on hand prescribed for Nathan and gave one of those to him. The headache finally subsided several hours later and he felt better yesterday. I did not take him to the ER because our last trip was a 7 hour ordeal and I didn't think he'd tolerate the wait or the drive.
I spent yesterday on the phone with the surgeon's office and Nathan's neurologist. I think we have everything under control for the time being.
Thank you Edgewood fire department!

I'm getting sicker...

I think I'll have to go to the doctor tomorrow. The sore throat has turned into head congestion and an almost continuous cough, plus a fever. I am shedding germs all over the place. I hope Nathan doesn't get this. He has another appointment with the surgeon on Wednesday. The surgeon has read up on the previous surgery and conferred with the GP and they've come to some kind of decision, I think. At least they weren't sharing what they decided over the phone.

My throat is sore

I'm thinking of trying the popsicle and Musinex cure. I've already tried Sucrets (worked for as long as the lozenge lasted), hot herbal tea, cold water, steamy shower, etc. I'm going to make chicken soup for dinner. I wish my mom was here to fix me milk toast. That was our special treat when we stayed home from school with any illness. Hot buttery toast floating in a bowl full of milk. We always felt better after eating it. I'm starting to get more symptoms as the day wears on, runny nose, sneezing....I could go on and on, but then I wouldn't get that soup made would I?