Another Trip to the Doctor

Last night Alison was starting to complain that her throat hurt. This morning, she was doing the same thing so I took a look at her throat and her tonsils were swollen and there were deep red splotches on her uvula. SO instead of going to school, we are going to the doctor. With Ali's recent bouts with strep throat, I am worried that she has it again. Unfortunately we couldn't get in until 11:00. The doctor's office is apparently down one physician, so I had to take what we could get. With any luck it'll just be a a result of allergies or something. I would hate to think she needs to be on antibiotics again. I asked her doctor back in February after she caught strep throat if he thought that her tonsils needed to come out since she had had so many problems over the last year or so, and he didn't think it was warranted. Maybe this will make him change his mind.

Downhill

We found out that Kris's parents had to call the hospice nurse overnight because she was having difficulty breathing. As a result, we ended up spending a total of about six hours there yesterday.

First we stopped over there late in the morning and her mom did not look good. We had to make sure that her dad took all of his pills (which of course he didn't). Then as we were trying to get Carole readjusted in her bed, she got up and decided to walk across the room. I had to grab her arm to stop her as she was about to rip her catheter out. Then as she had stopped she turned around and said she was just going to sit down and rest while we readjusted her bed. The only problem was that she wasn't near a chair, well she was near it, just not in front of it, so she starts rocking backwards and BOOM! I was able to grab her arm and catch her so that she didn't crash hard, but she still hit the ground pretty good. It took a little bit but we did get her back into bed and re-situated a little more comfortably. Once she was settled we left and went home.

Then about 4:30 in the afternoon we got a call from her dad. He said Carole was having problems and he thought we needed to call 911 and get her to the hospital. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) he doesn't remember what is happening. So we went over to check on things and found out that Carole hadn't been taking her pain medication. We managed to giver her her medication and waited around to make sure it started working and she was comfortable enough to fall asleep. While we were there we also made sure that her dad had his dinner and took his medications. Then we left figuring we would need to go back a little after 8:00 to make sure Carole would take her long acting pain killers before bedtime.

I think that things are sinking in for the girls, especially Alison. I am actually surprised at how well Sarah is taking everything. Alison though is very upset by the thought of her grandma going away forever. I have a feeling that it might not be long. I am actually very surprised at how quickly things have gone downhill. Maybe things will be better in the morning.

The Latest

Things have been very busy around the house lately, I don't know where to even start. I have been very busy at work, so I have been putting in 10-11 hour days. I shouldn't complain in this economy though. But last Sunday we got a call from Kris's mom saying she was very short of breath and having lots of difficulty breathing. She wanted to know if w thought she should call 911. We ended up driving over to see how she was doing and I convinced her to let me call 911 for her. We figured I could drive her to the ER where she might sit for an hour or two or we could call the ambulance where they could at least begin treating her initially with oxygen and get her breathing under control.

I hope I get this right but her blood oxygen level was in the range of 65 when she was up walking about. So we have been scrambling to try and make sure someone can sit with her dad during the day and also stay with him at night time. Monday (I think) Carole was so bad she got put on a full oxygen mask. Mid week we found out that she had tested positive for MRSA which meant that if anyone wanted to visit her they had to gown up with gloves and face mask just to enter the room. After a couple of days they removed the mask restriction but we still had to gown up and put on gloves to go in the room. Also, we found out that through the blood tests they ran the doctor thinks she had a heart attack. My guess would be that maybe that happened last Sunday when we got called to go over there.

The doctors have been trying to figure out how to treat her. The heart doctor was going to to a heart cath, but after going back over Carole's history for the last few years, he said she exhibited the signs of vascular disease and that her arteries show severe calcification (I hope I got that right) and that a catheter isn't an option at this point. The prognosis isn't good. The doctor said she could have an event next week, or she could make it six months. But it sounds like it is only going to go downhill from here.

Add to this the fact that her mom is on all kinds of pain medication to control other things, like the bile duct block and the liver problems, and it just doesn't look good for her. Kris said that yesterday her regular doctor came in and told her that it is probably going to be maybe a month or so, but she isn't going to get better. They can treat the pain for her, but that is about all they can do for her at this point. It is going to be a rough next month or two I think.

Feeling Sick

Everyone around here is feeling sick. Both of the girls have what I would refer to as head colds… watery eyes, runny noses, and a cough. Sarah went with a friend to her dad’s house over the weekend to work on a dance routine they will be doing at the Riverside talent show next week. She didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, and now I think it is catching up on her. Ali has a low fever and a cough, and actually stayed home from school yesterday. Hopefully she'll be feeling better today because today is her Brownie meeting and they'll be earning a dance party try-it which she was really looking forward to.

Sarah is feeling a little better since she got some rest, but now both Kris and I have come down with a touch of what they have. I hope it doesn't last long because I'll be putting in 12 hour days for the next week preparing for an audit and there is so much to do that I can't afford to be sick.

Global Warming?

Someone needs to let Al Gore know that if he is worried about the polar bears, all he needs to do is move them to WI. We are now, in the Milwaukee area, experiencing the #2 all time December snowfall. Last Thursday night into Friday we got 12 inches of snow in about 12 hours. In fact, the weathermen called it thundersnow as we had thunder and lightning along with the snowfall. This was followed up 24 hours later with another 4 inches. Then came the cold! The high yesterday was only in the single digits with 30-40 below zero wind chills. BRRRRR!

The girls got school canceled Friday, which was fine since Sarah came down with something. She spent Friday with a fever of 101 and throwing up. The same thing Saturday. In bed (or at least under a blanket resting) taking tylenol and motrin. Saturday night she was up every couple of hours with dry heaves. I took her to the Urgent Care clinic Sunday just to get checked out. Her fever was dropping, but still over 100 and she still had a sore throat. The doctor said the throat culture came back negative and it was most likely a virus. So Sunday was spent much like Saturday. By Sunday night she was feeling better except for the sore throat, so she helped with decorating this year's gingerbread house. Pictures later.