news

Saturday, June 16, 2007

interweaving nature & history - art opening

Bowl with White Stripes by Candace Held. (click to enlarge)

Our friend Candace Held, an artist who works in glass, has an opening coming up at the end of June. I love her work and we’re lucky enough to have several of her creations, which we treasure. I absolutely love glass and I think her work is extraordinary. Her website is: Candace Held glass works. The show is set to open on June 29 and will run until August 19, and is at the Slater Mill Gallery in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. (The address is 175 Main Street, and the phone number is 401.725.8638.) The exhibit, titled “Interweaving Nature & History,” features Candy’s kiln-formed “Weavings” glasswork (the photo here is an example) and watercolors by artist and illustrator J. Susan Cole Stone. We’re hoping everything is going well by then so we can make it to the opening—it’s been too long since we saw her!

posted by lee on 06/16/07 at 01:28 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

another progress report

Stanley continues to do well, except for his leg. His coumadin level was just right when it was checked on Friday: 2.2. We had decided if the level was okay, then he could go to the weekly check instead of biweekly—a lot less of a pain in the ass.

We were running late getting to the cardiologist because of heavy traffic, so I dropped him off at the door before I went to park. We figured there’d be plenty of time since he usually has to wait before getting called back. Not this time—he was gone before I got there and wasn’t in the usual patient monitoring room. It figures, because his cardiologist, David Lomnitz, finally talked to him. Finally. And it’s not like he had to make any effort—Stanley was getting tested in the hallway outside Dr. Lomnitz’s office.

Stanley said Lomnitz said, “Your wife is quite a blogger.” Lomnitz also apologized for messing up on Stanley’s checkup, claiming that Stanley looked so well (which he didn’t—he was pale at the time, and had blotches in his eyes, a sore leg, and a persistent cough) that he didn’t think anything was wrong. Said he’s put in a phone call to Dr. Robinson to get info on Stanley’s case (Dr. Robinson always sends a copy of his report to Dr. Lomnitz and to Dr. Horn—I’ve heard him dictate several). And had Stanley set up an appointment with him in July.

We still don’t know when the CAT scan of Stanley’s calf artery is scheduled—Dr. Gagne’s assistant or scheduler said she’s still waiting to hear and that it takes two business days to hear from Oxford. That was Thursday, so unless we hear from them first, we’ll start the nagging process. Stanley’s leg really, really bothers him and it’s driving him bonkers. Or bonkerserser. We did hedge work today—Stanley trimmed and we both cleaned up—and I could see him limping.

But the hedge is trimmed. Sort of. We had to do it because it was getting way too hard to get out of the driveway—we live on a curve; every inch counts. So they’re trimmed about seven feet up, with the tops kind of bowing over the sidewalk. Enough so we can get out of the driveway and the city doesn’t give us a ticket for obstructing the sidewalk. Next weekend, when Stanley is more functional, he will get up on the ladder and do the tops. (I don’t do ladders. I’m a ninny about them.)

Stanley gets to start driving again on June 22. I am so looking forward to that. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll give him a dose ... I probably won’t. But I reserve the right to!

Oh, the kitties. I had them tested for Bartonella, the bacteria that can cause endocarditis via a cat bite (rare, but it does happen—and it’s still not established that Stanley’s endocarditis was caused by Bartonella). If they are carriers, the idea is to get them treated so they’re not—why risk it? Twitch does not have Bartonella—he’s in the clear. Slink tested positive for it, so he’s being treated for it with azithromycin for three weeks ($100 for the drug—geez!) Neither cat has ever bitten Stanley—in fact, I don’t think Slink has ever broken Stanley’s skin, so I really doubt they are the source, but I’m taking the safer route. If any cat gave him Bartonella, it was probably Lexi, a cat at the Connecticut Humane Society in Westport we were thinking about adopting until she bit Stanley so hard I thought he was going to faint.

Today was finally a gorgeous day—we’ve had several days of gloom and damp and COLD. Tomorrow, however, it’s supposed to start getting really hot and humid—it’s supposed to get up into the nineties this week! I think we’d better go dig up the box fan so we’re set for working (I really hate air conditioning unless it gets so hot I’m getting sick to my stomach—we try not to put the window a/c in until we really have to, like in early August).

posted by lee on 06/16/07 at 12:42 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Saturday, June 09, 2007

wear a helmet. and don’t smoke

Time: about 6:00 am Friday
Place: on the road to work at Dunkin’ Donuts
Who: Kate, on her bike
What: creamed by an asshole driver
Prognosis: Looks worse than it is—she’s okay.

Kate was riding her bike to work Friday morning when some idiot driver failed to check to see if all was clear before he made a left turn. Creaming Kate. Needless to say, she wasn’t in “time to make the donuts.”

There were witnesses who called an ambulance, and she was taken to the local ER (I forget the name of the hospital in Natick, MA). The police notified Maureen and Jeff, bringing her bike home. Maureen said the bike wasn’t damaged too much. They rushed to the hospital and found that Kate was already CAT-scanned and stitched up. She suffered a concussion, a cut, and a helluva black eye and a few other abrasions. They kept her at the hospital for a few hours and sent her home. Her boss took her off the schedule so she would have time to mend a little—she’s going to try it again on Monday.

She was not wearing her helmet. She was riding her bike to work because she’s not allowed to drive the family car unless she quits smoking. So Stanley calls this incident: “The unintended consequences of nicotine addiction.”

Maureen noticed her glasses were missing. Kate has a long history of losing her glasses and they’re quite expensive, so Maureen went back to the scene of the crime and found them. Though they were bent every which way, unfortunately. So Kate had to get yet another new pair.

Don’t know yet if the driver got a ticket or what as they don’t have the police report yet—I remember when I had my accident that the police report took three or four days to be ready. Maureen said the guy who hit her didn’t even check to find out if she’s okay, which bothers her a lot. Probably he’s staying as far away as possible because he’s figuring his next contact over the accident, besides his own insurance company, will be from a personal injury attorney.

Below are photos of Kate now—click to enlarge the image. That black eye is going to be even more dramatic when it starts turning those lovely shades of brown-yellow, bloody blue ... and she’ll have a dandy scar to remind her that a helmet would’ve spared her all this. Ah, the common sense of 18-year-olds—makes me wonder how any of us survived our teen years. I hope that driver gets nailed big time—how self-absorbed do you have to be to not see a person on a bike?

Poor Kate. I hope she recovers quickly. This is too hard a way to learn a lesson.

posted by lee on 06/09/07 at 04:43 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Friday, June 08, 2007

einstein’s dollies & an update

On June 5, Dad sent Einstein’s 11½-month-old photo. I meant to get this up on Tuesday. This one is titled “Einstein loves her doll collection.” Maybe she knows how prettily her gray coat contrasts with the white brides’ dresses. I wonder what she’s inspecting the carpet for? Click the photo to see a bigger version.

Well, Stanley’s big day this week was Wednesday. He saw Dr. Paul Gagne, the vascular surgeon, in the morning. Dr. Gagne said he might have to go in and actually do the roto-rootering or a bypass, or he might be able to open up the blocked artery with a balloon and use a stent to keep it open. If the latter, it’s maybe a day in the hospital and then home, or maybe a day and overnight and then home. Stanley says his heel is still numb and his leg starts hurting if he walks more than about a half a block. It’s really bugging him that he can’t walk much and he’s worried that it might affect his work if it’s not cleared up.

At any rate, Dr. Gagne wants an MRI done so he knows exactly what’s going on—if Stanley can get one, which we needed to check with Dr. Robinson on Wednesday afternoon. Maybe three weeks until the legwork gets done.

We headed to Dr. Robinson’s office in the afternoon. Dr. Robinson removed the 50 staples, I mean 49 staples (Slink pulled one out—got his nail caught in it I guess. So I clipped the kitties’ claws. Fat lot of good that did—they just spent the past few days sharpening them again—the dresser in the bedroom didn’t start out distressed ... ) Said everything is looking good (it really is this time).

We asked about whether or not Stanley should be on iron supplements because he’s a little pale. So Dr. R sent him downstairs for a blood test. Hemoglobin is a little on the low side, but Dr. R says eat red meat and beans rather than take supplements (Stanley can’t have spinach because of the coumadin.)

Speaking of coumadin, his level on Thursday was 2.2—a good level for Stanley. He gets it checked again on Tuesday afternoon.

Nurses came and went. Everything is going okay. Stanley still hurts a lot from the surgery and gets tired easily—we were going to go to a farewell gig for a colleague at Compo Beach on Friday evening but Stanley had run out of steam by then and just couldn’t get it together to go.

And me? I’m still pretty tired. I haven’t been pushing things too much, but there’s been a lot to do as far as getting Stanley where he needs to go and all the work I should’ve had done by now. And the billing. I’m still worried about Stanley and won’t feel better about him until Dr. R pronounces everything to be good and his calf clot is fixed. We see Dr. R again on the 27th. (I hope—if we see him sooner, it means things are going wrong again.) I plan to sleep as long as I can stand it tomorrow—after which I know I’ll feel much better. I haven’t been able to sleep in since May 20—if I don’t get a weekly catch-up sleep or two, I feel drained.

I’m pretty sleepy right now—it’s very foggy out and the air smells like the Sound at low tide—it’s very strong. There might be thunder showers tonight, but not much else.

I’ve pinpointed why I’m so very angry this time. I was thinking that my anger is irrational—just the shock and turmoil stirring things up. But the more I learned about things, the more I realized that Stanley’s acute phase of endocarditis started in early April when he got the first clot in his calf, which he thought was a bad sprain (he described it as a charley horse that would not go away, though eventually the pain subsided). He went to see his cardiologist around April 27 for a checkup of the valve and the bypass.

Cardiologist David Lomnitz said he was doing great, no problems. Yet Stanley had been exhibiting classic signs of endocarditis for more than a month: persistent cough, fatigue, aching muscles, pallor, petechiae under his nails and in the whites of his eyes—and the continued pain from that “bad sprain.” WE didn’t know these were symptoms of a problem—we were never told to look for stuff like this—but the cardiologist sure should have spotted full-blown endocarditis when he was supposed to be checking Stanley’s heart over. All Lomnitz did was do an EKG and ask a couple of questions, order a cholesterol test and prescribe Lipitor to get Stanley’s bad cholesterol down from 109 to less than 100. No full-panel blood test, which would’ve shown a problem. No standard set of questions that I would think should be protocol for someone with a prosthetic heart valve. No physical exam to look for what was going on or to check the pulse in Stanley’s feet. No echo, which would’ve shown something was not right.

And what’s making it even more piss-worthy is that Lomnitz did not see Stanley while Stanley was in Norwalk Hospital, he has not called to see how Stanley is doing, has not asked him to come in so he could check him over—nothing. So Stanley ends up with a damaged kidney, months of pain he shouldn’t have had to endure, and loss of thousands of dollars due to missed work (his and mine) and deductibles, which we will have to pay twice since our medical “fiscal year” kicks in on July 1 and stuff won’t be finished by then.

Maybe Stanley would’ve still had to have the valve replaced if it was discovered in late April, or maybe they could’ve treated it with antibiotics—but at least Stanley wouldn’t have had to endure the agony of the renal infarction. And it would’ve been done without cutting into a new medical year. So, once things are under control, we will probably look for a different cardiologist not in the Cardiology Associates of Fairfield group. I certainly no longer have confidence in Dr. Lomnitz.

And I’m also not too crazy about most of the docs we encountered at Norwalk Hospital, with the exception of Dr. Gagne (so far) and the internist from Internal Medicine who was filling in for Stanley’s internist Jay Horn. The ER doctor tried to send Stanley home without a diagnosis; the other doctors who told me the cough was not related to anything (it miraculously went away when they started treating the infection) or those who kept ignoring me when I told them about the problem with the calf and numbness in the feet ... leads me to think maybe is wasn’t politics that led to them not getting certified as a cardio center ...

Oh, and about the MRI—Dr. R said “no” to it for at least six months. So Dr. Gagne will order a CAT scan, probably one of those contrast ones, so he can see what’s going on in the calf artery.

Now I’m going to go to bed and sleep for 12 hours if I want to. (I probably won’t—at about 8.5-9 hours, my back starts to bother me and makes sleeping longer counterproductive. Unless I’m really tired, that is, in which case I don’t awaken long enough to notice that my back is hurting!)

posted by lee on 06/08/07 at 09:21 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Saturday, June 02, 2007

at home

I’ve been so busy trying to catch up and coordinate and breathe I forgot to post. I mean I remembered that I needed to only after I was in bed going over stuff in my head.

Stanley was discharged from Bridgeport Hospital on Thursday. He was supposed to go home in the morning but we didn’t get out of there until around 6:00 pm. There was a lot of stuff that had to be arranged and infectious diseases had to figure out what kind of meds Stanley needed to do at home.

Dr. Lobo came in and said he’s 60% sure it was Bartonella that set off the growth—but I think that’s because he can’t figure out any other causes at the moment. It’s still be cultured and there is an additional test that Dr. Lobo wants run—we really need to know the cause so we can avoid it in the future. The kitties have both been tested and we’ll find out the results next week and get them treated if they’re positive. Dr. Lobo said Bartonella can lurk in their saliva, so just make sure the cats don’t bite Stanley (Dr. Lobo has a prosthetic heart valve and a cat himself—he just said the cat is not permitted to show his teeth to him.)

Friday was ridiculous. Nurse number one, Debbie from the pharmacy, arrived around 10 am. She brought the antibiotics Stanley is to take until July 5 (well, she brought the first batch of them—they’ll be delivered automatically). She spent a lot of time showing Stanley how to push infuse one antibiotic and drip infuse the other one. He has to spend two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening getting antibiotic number two, and it takes ten minutes for the push antibiotic. Nurse #2, Steve from Visiting Nurses, arrived about 11:45. He’s the wound-care nurse.

After the nurses left, it was time for the first appointment (I spent time setting up many appointments Friday morning) at the cardiologist’s office for Stanley coumadin check. His level was 1.2, which is too low (it’s supposed to be between 2 and 2.5 I think). The nurse practitioner, Donna, was supposed to simply tell us what his next dose of coumadin should be and set up tomorrow’s test. But no, that would be too easy. She asked for Stanley’s history, and did not listen. She starts spouting off about why he did get some injection anti-clotting agent and pretty much panicking us about how low the coumadin level is and what a Bad Thing it is ... I told her that the docs at the hospital ruled out the injected anti-clotting whatever for a reason that I don’t remember—I think it had to do with the blood clots, and would she please call Dr. Robinson before she, a nurse practitioner second-guessing three surgeons and doctors and two physicians assistants, fucked up and did something to harm Stanley.

Donna couldn’t get hold of Dr. Robinson because he was in surgery—but at least had the good sense to consult with Dr. Michelson, Dr. Lomnitz’s colleague (Dr. Lomnitz, Stanley’s cardiologist, was making rounds or something). The doc repeated back what Donna had told him about Stanley, and it was all wrong. We corrected the information, and he just said, “Okay, we have to get the coumadin level back up, so take 5mg tonight and Saturday night and 2.5 on Sunday and get tested on Monday.”

So now I think Donna is an idiot—this is the second time she screwed up, or tried to. And this is the second time it was made clear to me that Cardiology Associates needs to put a post-op protocol into place—I was near tears this time (in tears the last time) with frustration. I could write it off once, but not twice. I’m wondering now if we’re allowed to get a copy of all our Stanley’s medical records so we have them instead of having to rely on our memory and notes and hope that somehow records will show up where and when they should.

Next week, Wednesday is shot—Stanley has Dr. Gagne for his calf clot at 11 on Wednesday, then we go to Bridgeport to see Dr. Robinson and get the staples removed at 3:30. Visiting nurse Steve comes on Tuesdays and Fridays between 10 and noon. I don’t know when a pharmacy nurse will show up again. Monday at 11 is the next coumadin check and from there, again I don’t know the schedule.

Later Friday we went to Stew Leonard’s to get dinner and milk and stuff in for the next few days. Today we have to go off and do some banking and get cat litter and dog bones (and I get to change the litter boxes—oh joy.) Yesterday I was so exhausted I thought I was in hell, which made my temper worse than usual. I just wanted to beat up on someone, anyone, or sleep. So I took a nap, and that helped, but not enough. I’m really pissed off about this all, and there is, rationally, nobody and nothing to be pissed off at. I slept a long time last night, a good nine or ten hours, and feel much, much better mentally today, but I’m still pretty tired. One more good night and I’ll be okay. My main problem is I keep waking up to check to make sure Stanley is still breathing. That’s what I did the last time, too—so I know I’ll get over it pretty soon.

Tomorrow is Kate’s graduation from high school—I hope the weather is lovely and I hope Jeff and Mike get some good videos. Maureen will have her graduation party for her later when Stanley can travel and family from Michigan can make it. And I just realized I forgot to send Jamie a birthday card on May 29th, and my brother on May 20th—damn.

Once today’s tasks are done, I can work on the two stores I am skinning and get those live. I’m looking forward to getting into flow again when I do them. And the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to have Stanley working on websites so he can help me catch up on our webwork. I wouldn’t exactly call that a silver lining, but it will help. Tomorrow we have a lot of billing to get out, and that will help as well.

I just saw the time—gotta get going!

posted by lee on 06/02/07 at 01:17 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

i can bring him home thursday

Tomorrow, Day Ten—he gets to come home. Some time in the morning, we were told. So I will put Twitch’s blood test off until later in the afternoon and just head to the hospital. Oh how I hope nothing goes awry like the coumadin level or anything else. Still looks like the cause of this was all left over from the mess after the first valve replacement. If for no other reason, I’m glad Stanley is coming home so his damn cat stops yowling at me.

I am happy, but not too happy yet. I won’t believe he’s home until he’s home.

posted by lee on 05/30/07 at 05:45 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

he came, he saw, he left

Finally, an answer—no surgery this week. No vascular surgery. Looks like the clot is dissolving and Dr. Moroni wants to see Stanley next week in his office. If they do have to go in after all, they can do it at Norwalk Hospital, which is much, much easier for us. Don’t know yet if they can arrange things so he can go home today or if he has to wait until tomorrow. I’m wild to get him home. We’re just waiting for the nurse to come in so we can see what’s going on—should be pretty soon. I know there’s a lot to arrange, like the visiting nurse and the coumadin schedule and ... would so love to take Stanley home tonight.

posted by lee on 05/30/07 at 12:14 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

day nine

There are two plumbers in Stanley’s room right now, snaking the sink drain. I told Stanley that’s the same thing they’re going to do with his calf artery. The noise ... well, it’s better than the old woman screaming down the hall.

Stanley said yesterday that his idea of hell is waiting down in radiology amidst all the geriatric patients who were all alone, demented in many cases, and screaming in pain while at the same time he’s desperately trying to get someone’s attention so he could take an urgent—due to Senekot—dump before he had a horrible accident. A kind transport orderly rescued him. I told Stanley: “If I lose my mind, just let me go.”

We’re waiting for Dr. Manoni to stop by for a consultation on the clot blocking the artery in Stanley’s left calf. He’s supposed to give a definitive answer on whether he’s going to operate on it to remove the clot while Stanley is here, or if it’s not necessary now and Stanley can go home and maybe come back later, or maybe we can get it done someplace else. At any rate, his docs stopped the coumadin in case Manoni wants to do the surgery tomorrow or Friday. Other than waiting for that answer, Stanley could be home recuperating (or recoverating, as I said today—spoke too fast but it made Stanley laugh. Of course he caught it) instead of wasting a hospital bed. I think he’ll heal much faster if he’s home. Damn I wish that doctor would get here and let us know what’s going on—I’m so frustrated.

Took Slink in for his Bartonella test this morning, and will take Twitch in tomorrow morning (unless something happens). It takes three to five business days to get the answer. Today’s infectious disease doc, whom I just missed, said it definitely NOT the cats and more likely something left over from the first operation. They still don’t have a definitive answer, and it won’t grow.

Stanley had physical therapy twice today and is dozing at the moment. Yesterday really wiped him out, but in a good way (lots of exercise and hub-bub). They infused his antibiotics and whatever through his PICC line, so that’s working okay. He’s looking better and better every day.

When I go to sleep, I set the alarm clock so I can call Stanley shortly after the switchboard opens in the morning. I wake up about 20 times during the night to check the clocks to make sure I don’t oversleep, which means I’m not getting enough sleep. But last night it paid off—the power had gone off so I had to reset the clock and alarms. Tonight I’ll set my wind-up as well as my radio alarm—maybe that will be enough to let me sleep a solid night’s sleep. I woke up once last night with Ginger stretched out next to me—it felt good to cuddle with her even though she’s very doggy smelling (she needed a bath about two weeks ago!)

I brought some irises and peonies and some roses in for Stanley’s room. The peonies, which Stanley planted a few years ago, are gorgeous and smell wonderful—definitely superseding the usual hospital smells.

I will have to remember to get photos of Stanley’s zipper—it’s pretty dramatic—and as he’s pointed out, crooked. I think the crooked annoys him more than the staples. I’ll count them when we get home.

I just told Stanley that Monday, when I got home, the cats were agitated and the dog was as far from the television as she could possibly get and still be downstairs. Turns out Ben left the tv set on MTV2 and there was headbangers’ music blaring at them—usually I leave it on Animal Planet when we’re going to be gone more than a couple of hours. It was pretty funny to see the creatures’ reaction to that genre. Fortunately, no earbleeds. Speaking of music ... Mike, Ben’s grandpop, said Ben is a pretty good guitar player so I’m hoping he’ll play for us next time we’re in Boston.

Ok, to work ... I’m working on two store interfaces right now. Interesting, but now overdue.

posted by lee on 05/30/07 at 10:33 AM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

tuesday afternoon

Stanley continues to do very well. If not for the issue of the blood clot in his calf, he could go home today. The are still trying to decide if they need to operate or not. Stanley’s foot is still numb, so he really wants whatever needs to be done to fix it done. The clot in the kidney seems to be breaking up nicely, if it’s not gone entirely. He walked twice today

So, he might be able to come home tomorrow if they don’t operate on his leg, or maybe Thursday if they do and everything goes well. He got a PICC line “installed” today because the doc wants him on IV antibiotics for six weeks. They are taking no chances this time. Which means we’ll have a visiting nurse again, though not as often as we did two years ago. I’ve got to make sure the coumadin is going to be checked as often as he needs it checked ...

Tomorrow and Thursday I take the kitties to the vet to be checked for Bartonella and, if they have it, they can be treated for it. Treatment takes three weeks—so if they have it, they will be clear of it before Stanley is off the antibiotics. It’s not going to be cheap, but worth it for peace of mind. The culture is still negative for the cats being the cause of the broccoli on the valve. It looks more and more like it was something introduced during the first operation that just lay dormant until recently.

This is Day Eight. I’m so looking forward to having Stanley home and nothing we HAVE to do so I can get a good solid sleep without waking up thinking there’s something I should be doing. Jeff mowed our lawn yesterday, and Maureen and Ben cleaned up the kitchen and vacuumed the dust monsters—I’m still so surprised at how much better that made me feel.

Tonight I will try to get home earlier than midnight so I can spend more time with Ginger and maybe get a little more rest. I am just so tired. I keep thinking about Keith and my clan back home in Michigan since today was the funeral. That leads to more thoughts that could wind up in existential ruminations—and I don’t have the time or the energy for that right now.

I just have to keep reminding myself how lucky I am that Stanley got a clot in his kidney instead of a clot in his brain.

Mike and Florence came by this afternoon to visit and it was very good to see them—they cheered Stanley up quite a bit. And they left him a Tom Tomorrow book he is looking forward to reading just as soon as he can keep his eyes open—so much stuff happened today that it knocked him out. And I saw his latest pile of cheergrams—thank you!

I think I’ll try to doze off for a bit—if I can find a comfortable position is these godawful chairs they provide for visitors. They say they encourage visitors, but do nothing to make them comfortable ... I’m getting crabby, so I’ll stop now.

posted by lee on 05/29/07 at 12:04 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Sunday, May 27, 2007

out of the icu now

Stanley was moved to room 738 today (Sunday). His neck tube was removed, and the blood pressure tube—a lot less plastic hanging out of various holes. He can receive calls and visitors and Monday I will take his laptop in so he can get email (hope it works—it’s supposed to).

Thanks to Sharon’s comment, I was able to be assertive about getting Stanley’s pain managed better (knowledge really is power!) His nurses today were good about making sure they showed up on time—if it goes as well throughout the night and morning I’ll be relieved and won’t kick up a fuss unless I have to. And I told the nurse to note in his chart that he is NOT to be gotten up at 6am to sit in a chair like he was last time.

We don’t know yet if they’re going to operate on the calf artery to remove that clot. And I don’t know yet how long he’s going to be in—he hasn’t started walking yet though he did sit in a chair today. He would like to walk so he could use the bathroom instead of the piss bottle. I’m relieved he’s doing better this time—I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle a second surgery is just over two years but, other than the problems he’s been having, he’s damned healthy.

So far, the valve broccoli is negative for Bartonella (cat scratch fever bacteria). It’s not definite yet, but it’s looking that way. We will both be very relieved if the kitties are exonerated, but now that we know that Bartonella can cause valve problems and potentially death, we’re going to be very careful. I still have to find out if there is a test for Bartonella the vet can give our cats and if there is a way to eliminate it from them if it is present (update: the vet can test for it, but it’s expensive. Cats can be treated for it too, but it’s tricky.) I know it’s passed from cat to cat via fleas—but our cats are indoor kitties now so maybe they’re negative and it won’t be a problem ... I want to talk to Dr. Lobo about it as he has a prosthetic valve and a cat.

I still suspect the broccoli started when the staph was introduced during the initial operation and just lay dormant for a while. We know that it was throwing clots at a minimum of six weeks ago since that’s when Stanley got the unending charley horse in his left calf. It could’ve been the infection Stanley got last December/January that triggered it. We’ll probably never really know the root cause.

Okay, headed to sleep.

posted by lee on 05/27/07 at 09:36 PM
news • (0) comments • permalink

Page 5 of 13 pages « First < 3 4 5 6 7 > Last »

neurotwitch

Other Sites

Said

Search Titles

Good Reads & People

Categories

Monthly Archives

Syndicate