First, the two items in the title are not related so don't panic.
Day 49 started just like day 48 with Jan's tummy still in turmoil with the antibiotic. Just two more days of that. She tried to contact the pharmacy and the urgent clinic that prescribed them to no avail. In the end, we decided it was better to take a single Immodium to try to alleviate the symptoms than to continue dehydrating unchecked. Hopefully, someone will call back this morning. She's still not eating much and that bothers me but she eats what she can. Toast and Jello are not very filling or nutritious.
The preacher brought over some food yesterday afternoon but Jan only ate one of the cranberry jello squares and a crescent roll. Something is better than nothing even if it does have an extremely rapid transit time.
She's not running any sort of fever. We have been monitoring her blood sugar as well just to be on the safe side. It is usually in the 90s or just over 100 so that seems pretty stable. She has some general lab work coming up this week and she wants to postpone it. She's agreed to call the doctor to see if the medications she's on will skew the results. I don't think painkillers will have any effect that can't be accounted for.
The vest is causing her a lot of pain in her shoulders. She's humping up her shoulders in a permanent shrug all the time to take the pressure off of her neck. The NP and the halo guru say it is supposed to be supported by the belly. It is amazing how these supposed professionals could care less for the secondary problems this thing causes and have no interest in even attempting to correct it. I finally had enough and took some of the lambswool we'd cut out and stacked it under her shoulder straps. At least she doesn't have to keep as much pressure on her shoulders to take some of the weight off.
I finally think I can articulate why I distrust the NP so much. She is not a doctor, first and foremost. She may be good at the basics but she does not have the knowledge of a doctor. She may have seen a lot but she is actually only parroting what the doctor tells her and I believe things get lost in translation. Her solution to everything is more pain pills without ever understanding the underlying cause. Her complete and total lack of willingness to even consider adjusting the vest tells me she has no skill to speak of. All she ever wants to do is tighten, tighten, tighten.
The Great Indoor Flood
For something on a completely different subject, the Great Indoor Flood of 2009 hit last night. Our washing machine has a very small hose, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, that senses the water level. It came off once early last year and flooded the utility room and then the kitchen while the lady that cleans the house was doing a load of towels. Once in five years didn't upset me too bad. You can guess what happened again last night.
Luckily, I had the wet/dry vacuum handy and immediately started throwing towels all over to stop the flood from reaching the hardwood floors. Then I vacuumed up three tanks of water in about 45 minutes. That's about 15 gallons! Jan called Tessa to come home and help as I would not allow Jan to do anything but tell me if water was getting on the wood floors. She sat helplessly in a dining room chair. I don't want to think what would have happened should she have slipped!
Tessa baled out the washer enough that we could spin the water out while I continued to pull another tank and a half of water out from under the dishwasher, refrigerator, washer and drier. Tessa threw some soaked rugs out on the rear deck before heading back out to be with her friends. On her way out of the house, she slipped on the wet deck and landed on her purse. She was OK but broke the LCD on her camera. Some days it just doesn't pay!
The washer hose is clear plastic and is nearly inaccessible. I can sit behind the washer and then stoop low enough to snake an arm up to get the hose back on. I'd done it a year ago. This time the hose had swelled slightly and I assume that is why it came loose again. I clipped the swelled portion off to get a better seal and reattached it.
Three hours and two laundry baskets full of soaking wet towels later, the place looks like the disaster zone it was before the flood. The only thing ruined was my back from stooping over to get all the water up. Much better today.
The repair has held long enough for me to watch it do a few loads of towels this morning but I no longer trust the attachment. I've nicknamed the clamp after the NP at Bilkmore because all I need to do is tighten, tighten, tighten! It is a five-cent spring clamp I can squeeze off and on with my fingers. I'm going to the parts store to get a worm gear hose clamp to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Two good things did happen as a side effect of the flood. I was so tired I slept without an Ambien and the floors were cleaner than they have ever been. All things considered, I rather have taken the Ambien and skipped the flood.
Day 49 started just like day 48 with Jan's tummy still in turmoil with the antibiotic. Just two more days of that. She tried to contact the pharmacy and the urgent clinic that prescribed them to no avail. In the end, we decided it was better to take a single Immodium to try to alleviate the symptoms than to continue dehydrating unchecked. Hopefully, someone will call back this morning. She's still not eating much and that bothers me but she eats what she can. Toast and Jello are not very filling or nutritious.
The preacher brought over some food yesterday afternoon but Jan only ate one of the cranberry jello squares and a crescent roll. Something is better than nothing even if it does have an extremely rapid transit time.
She's not running any sort of fever. We have been monitoring her blood sugar as well just to be on the safe side. It is usually in the 90s or just over 100 so that seems pretty stable. She has some general lab work coming up this week and she wants to postpone it. She's agreed to call the doctor to see if the medications she's on will skew the results. I don't think painkillers will have any effect that can't be accounted for.
The vest is causing her a lot of pain in her shoulders. She's humping up her shoulders in a permanent shrug all the time to take the pressure off of her neck. The NP and the halo guru say it is supposed to be supported by the belly. It is amazing how these supposed professionals could care less for the secondary problems this thing causes and have no interest in even attempting to correct it. I finally had enough and took some of the lambswool we'd cut out and stacked it under her shoulder straps. At least she doesn't have to keep as much pressure on her shoulders to take some of the weight off.
I finally think I can articulate why I distrust the NP so much. She is not a doctor, first and foremost. She may be good at the basics but she does not have the knowledge of a doctor. She may have seen a lot but she is actually only parroting what the doctor tells her and I believe things get lost in translation. Her solution to everything is more pain pills without ever understanding the underlying cause. Her complete and total lack of willingness to even consider adjusting the vest tells me she has no skill to speak of. All she ever wants to do is tighten, tighten, tighten.
The Great Indoor Flood
For something on a completely different subject, the Great Indoor Flood of 2009 hit last night. Our washing machine has a very small hose, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, that senses the water level. It came off once early last year and flooded the utility room and then the kitchen while the lady that cleans the house was doing a load of towels. Once in five years didn't upset me too bad. You can guess what happened again last night.
Luckily, I had the wet/dry vacuum handy and immediately started throwing towels all over to stop the flood from reaching the hardwood floors. Then I vacuumed up three tanks of water in about 45 minutes. That's about 15 gallons! Jan called Tessa to come home and help as I would not allow Jan to do anything but tell me if water was getting on the wood floors. She sat helplessly in a dining room chair. I don't want to think what would have happened should she have slipped!
Tessa baled out the washer enough that we could spin the water out while I continued to pull another tank and a half of water out from under the dishwasher, refrigerator, washer and drier. Tessa threw some soaked rugs out on the rear deck before heading back out to be with her friends. On her way out of the house, she slipped on the wet deck and landed on her purse. She was OK but broke the LCD on her camera. Some days it just doesn't pay!
The washer hose is clear plastic and is nearly inaccessible. I can sit behind the washer and then stoop low enough to snake an arm up to get the hose back on. I'd done it a year ago. This time the hose had swelled slightly and I assume that is why it came loose again. I clipped the swelled portion off to get a better seal and reattached it.
Three hours and two laundry baskets full of soaking wet towels later, the place looks like the disaster zone it was before the flood. The only thing ruined was my back from stooping over to get all the water up. Much better today.
The repair has held long enough for me to watch it do a few loads of towels this morning but I no longer trust the attachment. I've nicknamed the clamp after the NP at Bilkmore because all I need to do is tighten, tighten, tighten! It is a five-cent spring clamp I can squeeze off and on with my fingers. I'm going to the parts store to get a worm gear hose clamp to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Two good things did happen as a side effect of the flood. I was so tired I slept without an Ambien and the floors were cleaner than they have ever been. All things considered, I rather have taken the Ambien and skipped the flood.
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