Its been awhile since my last post. And a lot has happened. Amanda has been accepted at North Georgia College in the Cadet Program and that has generated a flurry of activities. Most recently, we returned her housing contract, Summer Transition Contract, and FROG week contract. We still have lots of Scholarship work to do. She's also the lead tech for her school's Spring musical, Oklahoma, which opens TONIG
HT, and has been very busy with that. We went junkin' over the weekend to find 'old stuff' for the set. We got an old blue lantern, an Indian type blanket, two baskets, and a 'tin' cigar advertizing sign. We are planning to go to the Friday night showing, we've already bought our famliy's tickets. It's a looooong play and we'll be out late, so we though it best not to go on a school night.Michael is still working at DEC, and puts in a full week plus a long commute each day. I wish he could find something closer to home or even part time, so he could slow down a little bit. W
e couldn't get by without his salary and benefits, but we could probably get by with a little less, unless my disability company starts playing nasty again. On top of his full work schedule, he handles the lions share around the house becuase of my limitations. On my 'good days' I can pitch in, but I am not relia
ble. He does ALL the grocery shopping, ALL the laundry, MOST of the dishes, ALL the yardwork, and much much more. He really needs a break. I know he's burning the candle at both ends, but I don't know how to help him. We are still anticipating an answer from Social Security. We were contacted last fall and told it 'looked favorable', but have not heard anything since. We are praying for a favorable outcome, and soon. We really and truely need it to support the children, especially with college coming up this fall for Amanda. We also neeed the Medicaid for my medical costs, which are out the roof. Of course, what I would ideally prefer is to GET TOTALLY WELL and GO BACK TO WORK. I am constantly on the lookout for my 'next career'. I want to do something more creative, if at all possible. On my 'good days', I scout things out on the internet. So many of the jobs I am qualified for have been shipped overseas; they are hard to find locally now. I truely believe it is only a matter of time before the big whigs discover they have been 'had' by the Indian companies and the Chinese companies and they will have to bring the work back home again. Then it will cost even more to start the work back up here again. Those greedy guys at the top can't see past next quarter's bonus and don't care a hoot for the future of the companies they pilage as they move on to the next one.
It's truely a shame. I'm looking for something I can do that is of intrinsic value that will be uniquely mine, that can't be yanked away and outsourced and mass produced and ripped away from me.
Since I last wrote, we have sort of taken up residence at the Emergency Room.
It started with me (of course). I had a terribly painful infection and my dr. couldn't fit me in.... so off to the hospital I go. Our local ER is like a WAR ZONE; they are renovating and it's a real zoo over there. Basically if you aren't dying or don't have to take off your clothes, you sit on a stretcher out in the hall in front of God and everyone else while you are getting 'treated'. How they manage to keep track of the patients is a mystery. In fact, I know of a couple of times when they didn't keep track and mixed up the files and patients. We can only pray that they finish the construction before they kill some one over there. One week later, and one round of Levaquin later I was no better, so I' went back to the WAR ZONE again. This time I go on Macrobid and like magic everything clears up. But are we done with the ER? I don't think so....
Amanda comes home from working on the play set one night and says:
'The windmill fell on me'
HMMMM. Now that's not something you hear every day.
Now I know, because I've been listening over the course of the past weeks, that this 'windmill' is no wimpy deal. Its a 14 foot tall, 100+ pound, real turning windmill. It was apparantly falling, and Amanda inserted her left hand into the 'propellers' to stop it from crashing to the floor. She was in great pain, made worse by the fact that she is left handed. As she is not generally a complainer, I took this seriously, and off to the ER we went. 4 hours and several X Rays later, we were assured that she had no broken bones, but only a bad contusion. She was patched up with a splint and an ice pack and sent home. So now we've paid our dues to the ER, right?
Wrong! I wake in the night with chest pains. My doctor and I have discussed these 'spells' and I've bee
n given strict instructions on what to do the next time it happens - you guessed it - go to the ER. So its 2AM and Michael and I are off to the downtown ER to get it checked out. They admitted me and ran every heart test known to man. The good news is my heart is fine. Apparently this is just a manifestation of my Sarcoid; I just have to sleep upright with a heating pad when this happens. What it is is lingingering Costondritis which is like Rheumitoid Arthritis in the ribcage. Now, we must be done with ER 'stuff', right? - wrong!
Bef
ore leaving the hospital, I get a call from Will. He's hurt his left hand playing and wants to go to - you guessed it - the ER. So Mom takes him to the ER, and Michael and I come up from downtown to neet them. Several hours and XRays later we find that Will has broken a major bone right in the middle of his hand. He had been asking for pain meds for hours, but was not given any. As soon as they saw the XRay the pain meds started flowing. Poor kid, he was really hurting! Now he's sporting a lime green cast that has been signed by so many people that there's no more room. Fortunately, Will is right-handed, so his injury doesn't impede his schoolwork as much as Amanda's did.
NOW FINALLY, I THINK WE'VE FINISHED OUR ER DUTIES FOR THE MONTH!
I got one of those Scooba's from the Home Shopping Network. It's really cool! It does a terrific job on the floors - I have cleaner floors now than I ever had when I was 'healthy'! It's amazing j
ust to sit and watch - wow I must be starved for entertainment! When it finds a really dirty spot it just stops and goes around and around in circles over and over and over again until it thinks it is all clean - what a hoot! Anyway I think it is well worth the investment if you have hard surface floors whether you are healthy or not. If you are healthy - what a time saver! Let the thing clean your floors while you are off doing something better with your life!
My other new toy, the Urban Rebounder, didn't work out so well. After about 5 minutes of jumping, my joints felt like they were on fire. When I reported this to my Rheumitologist, she said to stop using it, that it was bad news. I think I'll try to sell it on eBay to get some of my money back. Bummer.
He has one STONE in particular that dislodged from his kidney and was painfully weaving it's way down towards his bladder and causing all kinds of havoc. After confirming this with a CT scan, the doctors started giving him lots of pain meds and nausea meds through an IV. Then they put him on NPO after midnight, thinking they might have to do a 'procedure' on Tuesday. 
They were right. On Tuesday, Dr.Banks inserted a 'stint'. It's some contraption that extends from the kidney down to the bladder and acts sort of like a slide for the stone. The stone was pushed back up into the kidney by the procedure, but when it decides to start its way back down, the stint is supposed to aid it on its journey. But they also talked about using a laser and blasting the STONES up in the kidneys in a couple of weeks -after the infection clears.
Oh yea, and the STONES - there are actually THREE of them. TWO in the kidney and one in the Gall Bladdder. The doctor said only one of them is acting up right now; the other two could act up in the future, or could just lie dormant forever, we just don't know.
Well, Michael is still at North Fulton, and the rest of us are at home. Just when we thought we had paid our ER dues for the month....... thats what I get for thinking. 
