A Medical February

February was even more hectic than January.

February 2 I had my medical appointment, and Feb 3 I had my eye appt. I make good use of my days off! I have new glasses with a new prescription.

Deb H. left town for a class so Cassie and I were the official catsitters for several days. Mark would drop Cassie to me at the library at closing time, then she and I would head to Deb's to feed and play with the critters. They learned quickly what time we'd arrive and were generally waiting for us at the top of the stairs. I headed over at 6am to feed them breakfast and get me back home before Mark left for work.

Saturday Feb 7 we held Betsy's 80th birthday party. She had been under the weather for several days but hadn't 'fessed up yet to the seriousness of her symptoms. I gave her a pillowcase made out of Kitty Cucumber fabric to coordinate with the Kitty Cucumber quilt I gave her last year. I also baked her a lemon cake.

Sunday Feb 8 Cassie and I were out early to have breakfast, feed the kitties, then run a ton of errands. We were at Deb's in the Highlands when Betsy in Bethany called to say she needed help. It took us several minutes to get there, then we took her to St. E's. I spent the entire day in the emergency room with Betsy while they ran tests. (It was very busy there that day with tons of sick people and I managed to catch bronchitis. This time the antibiotics worked like a charm.)

I called Mark after lunch to pick up Cassie and they went shoe shopping. Finally the docs decided to admit Betsy to St. E's and I left there at 9pm to hit the grocery store and feed Deb's kitties (who were not happy at the lateness of their meal). Betsy had a massive UTI and was on fluids, morphine, and antibiotics. Cassie and I would visit each evening after work, get our supper from the hospital cafeteria and eat with Betsy. After a week she was transferred to Tabitha.

I was very pleased with Betsy's progress at Tabitha, especially at how well she was walking with her walker. She was doing better now than she had been for a long time and I know it was due to the PT, though Betsy pooh-poohs exercising. So I expected to hear that they'd be releasing her soon yet I wasn't hearing anything from the social worker. So I made an appointment with the director of social services and got some updates from her and explained Betsy's home health care program to them. Finally got Betsy home two days later though Tabitha continued to visit to keep up with PT and OT - which was fine with me but irritated Betsy. She was only there for a week, but Betsy was very pleased to leave Tabitha.

In the meantime Mom had several dr appts and Mark took her to a couple as well when I didn't have my Mon/Tues off to compensate for weekend work. She's still weak and has trouble walking. The diuretics aren't working as needed so she's now wearing special socks to try to get her feet and legs back to normal size. Her cardiologist and her primary physician are still sorting out her meds.

President's Day I was off work and Cassie had no school. She had a morning dental appt, we had to stop at my doc's for a follow-up, stop and get my new glasses, then we had lunch at McDonald's. That afternoon Cassie had her eye appt and she needed to order glasses for reading. I managed to trick her into choosing the $105 frames instead of the $145+ Hannah Montana frames by continuing to show them to her and getting the idiot clerk to agree that the frames in my hands were the ones in the poster that she liked.

The next day Cassie had three teeth extracted (or "wiggled" as the dentist refers to it to the kids). The dentist said her mouth is too small for all her teeth, and that by age 12 she'll be wearing braces. They schedule wiggles in the morning so the kids don't have to worry about it all day, and I was fortunate that they had an opening the next day when I was still off work. I wasn't happy that she missed school, but I could understand the dentist's reasoning. After the procedure they gave her a cute sticker that read, "Ny nouth nis afleep." They used laughing gas on her so she didn't have to deal with a needle, but she still had to deal with the aftermath - she couldn't speak well and thought her lower lip was hanging out.

I changed the bloody gauze in her mouth three times, let her snuggle on the couch beneath my denim quilt, and let her watch cartoons all morning. By 1pm she had stopped bleeding and was hungry. She ate two servings of macaroni and cheese, then at 1:30 asked when she could return to school. That surprised me, but I let her go back since she wasn't bleeding and she wanted to go.

Parent-Teacher conference was Tuesday Feb 24. Cassie is doing math at the second grade level, doing very well in reading, and is well-liked by her classmates. And she came home with several books from the Book Fair.

Thursday Feb 26 I got a call late afternoon at work from Betsy's home health care people. She had a doc appt and the physician was immediately admitting her to St. E's. So I left work early and met her at the hospital. Lab tests confirmed that she now has Clostridium Difficile. C-Diff is a serious bacterial infection that affects older people, people who've just come off a round of antiobiotics, and people who have been in a nursing home environment.

Cassie and I picked up my mom and we all visited Betsy Friday after work. As usual Cassie and I got our suppers on trays from the hospital cafeteria. Mom can't walk very far so when we arrived at the hospital entrance I nabbed a wheelchair for her. Cassie had a blast pushing it and I could barely keep up.

On top of all this, we got word that Mark's mom is AGAIN, in the hospital. This is, what?, the fourth time since Thanksgiving? Her symptoms sound curiously like Betsy's so I emailed to brother-in-law Jack all the info I had on C-Diff.

Saturday after work I went straight home. I was exhausted and heated myself some chili. I tried to watch "The Magnificent Seven" but Cassie needed mommy-time so halfway through the movie I just quit, and Cassie and I got into jammies and cuddled while watching cartoons.

Sunday Mark, Cassie, and I visited Betsy after work, then we had supper at Perkins. We only stayed at the hospital for 20 min because I don't want Cassie catching this. Betsy looked worse and was back on morphine. Perkins was incredibly slow that night but we ran into Vickie and Steve (Cassie's daycare provider) and got to see new pix of the new grandson.

Aside from all the medical issues and doctor appointments in February, we had a nice anniversary on Wednesday the 25th. On that date in 2003 Mark and I received our adoption referral from the China Center for Adoption Affairs and got our first look at Gan Li Mei, soon to become Cassie Li Mei. Here's her referral photo.