Poor Gavin
Our poor old boy has always been a nervous wreck at the Vet’s office, in crowds, and in new situations. He’s our worrier, our “thinks too much” dog.
Yesterday he had his six month check up. He doesn’t mind riding in the van as long as when we stop we are at home. We weren’t, we were at the Vet’s office. I left the van running, the AC on, and on the radio/cd/mp3 player some Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo…
I went inside to let them know we were there.
Shortly after that I went out and got him. He did not want to get out of the car. I had to coax him with a cookie. I swear he blew enough coat to knit another dog while we waited.
“Meany moopants Momma taked me to the dogtor. I don’t likez to go dere eber. I stickz my tongue out at her.”
Numz are good
No PW conference this year for me
So, because of The Curmudgeon’s MS getting worse and his lovely (NOT) hospital stay, I am missing another Pennwriters Conference. When the conference is in Lancaster, it doesn’t worry me to go because if I have to get home, it is not an 8 hour or more drive.
This year the conference is in Pittsburgh and that is why I had to skip it.
It breaks my heart to miss the conference because I can’t be with my writing friends whom I only see there. It will be an entire year more before I get a chance to see all those crazy, fun people.
Stress test
No coffee. OMG! NO COFFEE! My appointment wasn’t until 1 p.m. and I was not to have any coffee beforehand.
Color me cranky and suffering from the sillies from being over tired.
I guess the Techs enjoyed me. As they put in an IV and glued heart monitor patches to my skin, I joked with them, especially about the cruel lack of COFFEE in my system.
I dozed in the machine. Then I huffed and puffed and sweated my way through the test.
I enjoyed it when they presented me with a tall cup of coffee and some cookies AFTER I was all out of breath and my legs were feeling like they were made of burning rubber.
Back to another nap in the machine and then off to home.
The MS curse
After much jangling about of our nerves all morning and well into the afternoon, and a long-winded, confusing, round about CYA conversation with an admin flunky, the hospital sent The Curmudgeon home.
No, they did not send him home with G and I after we waited around for a few hours.
Yes, they waited to break the news to him until after we’d gone to run errands and go home.
No, I was not a happy camper when I arrived home to 5 messages on the answering machine, 4 from The Curmudgeon and 1 from the admin flunky.
No, I wasn’t going to jump into my car and dash back over during rush hour to get him.
Yes, I was out of sorts, my back was killing me and I hadn’t sat down in hours.
Thank goodness for cooler head of The Curmudgeon’s best friend, who, after I begged him for help, was the one who brought The Curmudgeon home.
Funny how ALL the rehab hospitals refused him because of his expensive specialty medications. Funny how NO help is forthcoming from anyone.
Real funny how poorly this Multiple Sclerosis patient has been treated by everyone involved in his (lack of proper) care at St. Luke’s University Health Network http://www.slhn.org/
It is difficult enough to deal with your loved one falling apart, but to have no help is frustrating as hell. I think I’ve lost my sense of humor.
Is it any wonder that over 70 percent of MS marriages end in divorce?
I love him…but…
I go for a stress test today, I think I’ll pass with flying colors after this past week of crap.
I miss this man.
Another day more insanity
Couldn’t get out to the hospital yesterday.
The dogs were in dire need of extra attention so they got it.
Worked on my chair project since the Flexseal blue arrived. Took two whole cans to cover most of the chair. Not worth the $$ folks.
They removed The Curmudgeon’s chest tube today. That’s all I know.
Quality of care?
So far at the Fountain Hill St. Luke’s the quality of care sucks. It is no where as good as the Allentown St. Luke’s.
I really wish they’d bring him back to this hospital where I’m ever so much closer and they seem to care about the patients more.
The food at the Allentown St. Luke’s hospital was excellent. The food at the Fountain Hill St. Luke’s is repellant, it smells awful, and looks worse.
The nurses on his floor were loud all night the last two nights, and he’s having trouble sleeping.
I told him he needs to start insisting that they send him back to the one by us.
I misses my Daddy
I misses my Daddy too.
A day at home
You would think I’d nap or do nothing the one day I wasn’t visiting The Curmudgeon at the hospital.
Instead I was taking turns with the dogs making sure they felt as though they were getting enough attention in between doing some chores.
I cleaned the ceiling fans so they wouldn’t fling dust about when I turned them on high with the heat of the day. I then had to dust and vacuum the living room from the previous chore.
I cleaned half of the bathroom. I still need to clean mirrors, the shower, and the floor.
I dozed off on the couch with Lucy after lunch because I am not sleeping well.
Took G out to dinner and to the farmers market. I was too tired to cook and so was she. Now we have chicken sausages with asagio cheese and wild mushrooms to cook for our dinner tomorrow.
We’ll go see The Curmudgeon tomorrow too.
Did someonez sez sauzagez?
MS sucks big time
I’ve said it many times and many ways before. Multiple Sclerosis sucks and secondary progressive MS sucks even more.
Had The Curmudgeon been a normal healthy person he probably would not have lost his balance on the back porch steps while dodging a carpenter bee.
He is still in the hospital. He still has a chest tube in and he is improving a little at a time.
Today we found him more alert and his color was a lot better.
Tomorrow he’ll have to be happy with a phone call instead of a visit, I really need to get some stuff done here at home.
If I had a couple of willing slaves …er volunteers to come and help move some furniture and electronics around while he’s not here. I’d love to surprise him by having his chair and TV moved to where he’ll be happier.
They are keeping him
For how long? I have no idea.
He has a chest tube in and they are closely monitoring him.
I had to postpone Gavin’s vet appointment, call the dentist and tell them to put his dentures on hold until he’s out of the hospital, and cooked dinner for G and me.
I am hanging on by the barest of threads with very little sleep.
Coffee or caffeine in any form is welcome.
Loooooong day
Had a very busy day. The Curmudgeon fell down at 8:30 a.m. and I had to get someone from next door over to get him up and into his bed. He seemed fine other than a bit of pain in the ribs where he fell on Sunday.
Did some laundry, weed whacked the ex-pond area the yard guys stay away from, and put up the roll-up shades on the front porch.
I had to call for an ambulance for The Curmudgeon. He was having all sorts of trouble breathing. 7 hours later…Turns out the ribs were broken and he managed to puncture a lung, developed a pneumothorax, and got a blood transfusion and was transferred and admitted to St. Luke’s in Bethlehem. There they will put in a chest tube and whatever else they need to do.
I am beyond exhausted.
Now that bites
So much fun to spend the entire day sitting in a dentist office with The Curmudgeon. Not. He’s finally getting new dentures. I’ve had years of listening to him complaining and doing nothing about it. I finally told him that he needed to make an appointment and get this done. If he didn’t I was going to throw out the ones he wears the first time he set them to soak. Then he’d be stuck with some real old ones that he refuses to wear, they fit worse than the ones he wears all the time.
He got the message.
In another vein:
Years ago, while staying at my older sister’s home in Texas, a ring that was extremely valuable to me, sentimentally not monetarily, disappeared off the table next my bed. I’d only taken it off that morning because my finger was swollen from the change of climate.
To this day it still breaks my heart that someone in that household so callously took it. The ring was made from a part of a bracelet of my mother’s that matched a ring she wore all the time. Each of my sisters and nieces had a ring made for them.
I thought about that simple, lovely ring the other day with a great aching of heart and soul because of the fortuitous find I made of G’s ring that had been missing for a year.
Peace, love, and beaches.
Some bruises and clean dogs
I truly dislike this “easier to use” format. It is not.
Anyway, everything I wanted to get done yesterday? Nope.The dogs got baths. Gavin didn’t care and he really likes the massage spray on the hand held shower head. Lucy just wanted it to be over with. They both look good and smell great.
The Curmudgeon took a tumble off the back steps and thought he may have cracked a couple of ribs–he’s done it before. He sat around for a couple of hours moaning and groaning about it rather than do anything. I finally told him he was going to our Doctor’s ER and dragged his sorry butt there.
X-rays were taken no ribs were broken. He’s only bruised. 3 hours out of our afternoon shot to hell.
Gorgeous full moon. So lovely that I called G to come out and see it.
Doggonedmysteries 