Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Hera and Isis! 4 years old today. Close call for Hera, glad she made it! :)

Patient Update

Had mother to the doctor today. He wants to see her again in two weeks. He had mom move her arm about, and asked her if she would be content with that range of motion for the rest of her life. Mother, who had been fearing that he was going to bring up surgery again, emphatically answered yes! LOL  Doctor said therapy would be too painful now, but they'll discuss it again after next visit, most likely therapy will start in 3-4 weeks. She is still using the sling. Doctor said in about a week to ten days take off the sling. I do not see that happening, honestly. She's doing well, just a little nausea, probably from the pain prescription, so we got something else to try today. Not as strong, but fewer side effects.

Her hair was bugging her so we went for a shampoo and a haircut yesterday. Outings 2 days in a row. I predict she will sleep like a baby tonight.

Introducing Whitey. He comes to call nearly every afternoon.  He's a real chatterbox. He doesn't want to be petted or touched. He likes the catnip, and he chases butterflies, and he annoys the hell out of Midge. I don't know where he lives, but he is clearly well taken care of and is a delightful young caller. He is very talkative, but never confrontational, except with Midge or unless you want to pet him. He wants nothing to do with that business.

John was home Saturday for his birthday lunch and to visit mother. A pleasant time was had by all. We had our favorite pizza and I made carrot cake. I don't like to brag, but I make really really good carrot cake. Really good.

Sent John home with a box of goodies from the garden. I suspect those green tomatoes got fried up! I haven't fried any yet myself. Everything is doing very well. I have this monstrous cherry tomato plant that has taken over a whole raised bed. It is everywhere. And it is producing like crazy. I'm doing my best to keep up with it. It is hard.

That's all I got.

Kay :)

Happy Birthday John!

Happy 50th birthday John!  Wow you are getting up there man! There will be carrot birthday cake this weekend!

Good old Metropolis, IL!

By this time last year I was already sort of tired of zucchini (but I was not tired of zucchini bread and zucchini chocolate cake, I just HAD to stop baking) and was pawning them off on friends, co-workers and passing strangers. This is what I got this year  . . .

Yeah. That's a quarter.

The most impressive thing I have growing this year is my Weed. I'm pretending that it is an exotic tropical plant. But yeah, it's a weed. My weed. It is making my showers feel very tropical, and one night a little creepy, growing up against the bathroom window.

Patient updates:

Finnegan: Done with antibiotic but still will not come near me for fear I'll pry his jaws open and try to drop a pill in there. Not sure how many he actually got in him really, since I saw a pill stuck on his back one night while he was running away from me.

Midge: Cowers and cringes every time I am within 10 feet of her lest I try to apply some eye ointment.

Mother: Back to doc today. Temporary cast came off and she is just in a splint. After just 9 days! Times they are a changing people. She is supposed to take the sling off a couple of times a day and gently exercise her arm. Just let me say . . . OUCH. She has a nasty looking bruise on her upper arm where the cast has been rubbing. The swelling has gone down a lot from last week. She is doing very well. Mom says she remembers watching a show on TV, a talk show or something, and a doctor was the guest. Someone in the audience asked the question, "What is the secret to a long life?" The doctor said, "Two words. DON'T FALL!" lol   Back to the doctor next week for an x-ray, and he'll decide about when she should start her physical therapy. Mother will hate that! But you gotta do what you gotta do.

A real senior moment . . . I went to the bank and was stymied when the ATM did not respond as usual when I inserted my card. It seems the bank wants me to insert my BANK card, NOT my AARP membership card. No, don't do that math, I'm not that old, but joining the AARP saved me some good bucks on my car insurance. I'm just old enough . . .

That's all folks.

Kay :)

Patient Update

Well, the doctor recommended surgery, and also discussed another option to put a cast on and let it heal, as it is not too terribly displaced, and then try some physical therapy beginning in a couple of weeks, just gentle stuff to help with her range of motion. Mom of course chose the non-surgery option. I don't blame her really. At 78, who wants to have surgery? Plus you can't smoke in those damn hospitals any more! When I was filling out the paperwork for Mom it shocked me to write in her health history that she has been smoking for about 70 years. What the hell? Anyway, the Doc said he could get her better range of motion if she had surgery, but mom isn't worried about it. Then the doctor said that if she didn't like the way it heals they could look at at elbow replacement, and that the recuperation from elbow replacement would be easier than recuperating after the surgery from this break. Wow.   Clearly he does not know my mother. Mom got a new cast on today that will hopefully be more comfortable and we go back in a week.  And we both really like that doctor, so that is a good thing.

The other patients (feline) . . .

Finn is on antibiotics for an abscess.

Midge is on ointment for a wonky eye. 

They are avoiding me like the plague.

Kay the Nurse

Summer Snaps and Independence Day Troubles

Illinois Canyon trail at Starved Rock

First garden green pepper. I whipped up a gourmet dish for supper with it, Weenies and Beans and Cornbread ala Kay.

I just want to say that this post was titled "Summer Snaps" BEFORE the calamitous event of July 4th.  I had started this post last week and since it contained nothing of substance I saved it as a draft figuring I'd fluff it up later. Perhaps I am a little psychic? I dunno. More likely . . .  psycho.

Yep, there is mom, with her supracondylar humerus fracture. She was not too keen on getting her picture taken but she looks just fine! She has a temporary cast all the way from her upper arm to her fingers. She took a tumble on the patio. Found her there with glass all around from a broken coffee cup (and some cut fingers), ciggies all around, lighter on the ground, a stick of gum, she was so close to her rocking chair, so close! She swears to me that she wasn't trying to light a cigarette while walking, like she did last time she fell! Because we have RULES against that now.  She went down hard on her right arm. She sits on patio all the time, multiple times a day, she enjoys the outdoors and to have her ciggies. She was a little shook up, doesn't know what happened. A real shame this happened to her, we are all very sad about it. She was reluctant to go to the ER but I talked her into it. I think at first the ER personnel didn't think anything was broken because Mom was doing so well, but the dang x-ray showed otherwise. The doc told her she is tough, and she is. She is doing very well. We left the ER with instructions to follow up with the ortho doc today. Of course on the way home we talked about how nice it is that you don't have to leave town anymore to see a specialist like you did years ago. But of course the ER was full of people who needed orthopedic referrals today so we can't get into the Morris office, we have to go to Joliet tomorrow. LOL  Mom wasn't even going to get a prescription for pain pills, she told the doc she'd take some ibuprofen, but I said oh yes, we need an Rx  . . . I may need to pop a pill! I was  just joking of course, and Mom is glad to have them now. The pain pills are working great and she has slept very well, considering.  She skipped supper last night,  and lunch today, but she had a nice supper, so I think things are going quite well really.

At least it was her right arm, and she is a lefty, so, as we are all getting tired of saying . . .it could have been worse!

More tomorrow after doc.

Kay :)