Too Much

Moon Phase: 0% New Moon

Precip: on Tues. Aug. 30th it rained about 1/16th inch

On the 31st of August (Wednesday) we set out for STL, we being Morg, Tink and me. In the process of pre-registration and talking to the surgeon's nurse and the nurse practitioner that we saw, I had asked quite a few times whether this surgery was going to mean a overnight in the hospital; I was assured that this most likely was not going to be cause for an overnight stay. That meant that it would be much easier to take Tink with me than to leave her at home. The morning that we were leaving she made it pretty clear she had no intention of being left too; when they got out of the pool, she had me get her dressed and she went out to the Zoomer and sat in it. I went out to get her and made her get out, we weren't leaving for a bit yet, she got out and then climbed right back in. She was out there for an hour and a half or more before we were ready to go.

The way there went well, we were not pressed for time and so I allowed leeway in my route--found one road that I didn't mind experiencing but doubt I would take it again. It was a road that connected me from a good sized state route to a well used county type highway, it was a lesser used county type road. I turned onto it and it was like following a drunkards path through the town--a little forward, to the side, forward a step and then to the other side, back a bit, then over, and so on.....then just as you start getting out of the town, the road leads you to a couple of one lane bridges. Not the way to take if one *is* pressed for time but I wasn't and got a little laugh and made note of the road.

Very shortly after getting to my aunts, I called the hospital to get the final instructions and time to bring her in. It seems recently that they like to keep such things hush-hush until the afternoon before surgery. I am just not sure why they feel they can't give the "no eating after midnight and no fluids except clear fluids that need to stop by 6" info until then....it doesn't seem to matter whether surgery is at 8 or at 11, the instructions are always the same. I was told that someone from the "Day Surgery" dept would give me a call after 2 pm on Wed. I mentioned that I would more than likely already be en route and it was suggested I call in before 4:30 to get the surgery time and eating instructions. I knew we would arrive at my aunts in plenty of time so didn't stop to call. When I did, they were hesitant to give me the information because they had called the home number and given it to "dad" already. I explained that "her father" was over 3 hours away and I was in the immediate area and had the patient with me and was the one bringing her in in the morning so would they possibly give *me* the information also. I was on hold for a little while before someone came back and gave me the information.

We a comfortable evening and went to bed, very early for me but we needed to make sure that we had time to get there. Big highways but always full at rush hour and if there is any accident anywhere along the lines, a half hour drive can turn into a 2 hour one, or worse. Morning went smooth, we got there in plenty of time and after talking to numerous nurses, doc assistants, gas-passers, and finally doctors and surgeon assistants, up until talking to the actual surgeon, this was still going to be surgery-recovery-home (my aunt's home), barring any unforeseen circumstances; then all of the sudden the surgeon starts talking and he has every intention of keeping her overnight. Shoot, caught unawares and not prepared. They told me that Tink had to be gone by 9 pm, no exceptions. I told them that was unacceptable--what the fuck was I supposed to do??????? Just put her out side the hospital????? She would not go with my aunt without me and Morg plus there was the strong possibility of her seriously hurting my aunt in fit; or herself. So much to the disappointment to everybody, it was decided that my aunt would stay with Morg and Tink and I would go to her place for the night. But we didn't stop trying to convince the staff that this was a special circumstance. We won out in the end; Tink and I spent the night and my aunt got to go home. She is soooooooo wonderful to have volunteered to stay, what a hardship on her after opening her home to us on a unlimited basis for the duration of this whole thing. It was bad enough on me and Tink, and my aunt lives far enough out in the STL metro area that making multiple trips to and from just for clean undies and something other than slightly too tight jeans to sleep in was not overly feasible.

So much I am going to skip here just because I am still tired from the whole thing, we were gone a day longer than expected and I am still trying to catch up chores here while doing daily and having to practically hover over Morg and nag at her to keep her arm elevated....She had part of her ulna cut out, not just a re-break but a slice cut out because of un-even growth causing the radius to not stay in place once put back, she has 3 incisions and a rod put in. Her arm swelled so much the first night they had to cut the cast early the next morning, then tape it up to hold it together. She doesn't see the difference with this and the last time she wore a cast but didn't have to stay quite (her body, not mouth) and keep it elevated, she just isn't understanding why. I finally had to pull something that seems a bit cruel and stop giving her the pain med she was Rx'ed. It is what is done for dogs and cats, keep them in a little pain so they won't try and be "normal active." She got some this morning and it wasn't until going to bed tonight that she started showing symptoms of pain. I gave her some pain med right before her going to bed; she first said she didn't want any (nasty tasting) but then relented when I told her it would make it easier to sleep, it was really starting to hurt her. Tomorrow morning I might or might not give it to her. I mean, obviously is she is in severe pain but if it is just irritating her, she is ignoring it and she can't, she needs the bed rest/easy-on-her-body time WITH ARM ELEVATED and she just wasn't doing it while giving the pain med on the prescribed schedule. Shoot, I do understand, she is turning 6 tomorrow (Monday) and this should not have happened; the whole thing could have been fixed before the casting the first time and been done and over with, no looking back, vague memory of the extra attention and orange cast (she has a purple one now). We need to go back in 7 - 10 days for a re-xray to be sure everything is healing *right* before it gets too set in it's healing. Yee haw!

I wish I were a fast typist, fast enough that the thoughts come out my fingers so I could actually cover all or most that I want to journal--too much happening, too easy to forget some things if they get put off. It could be worse, I could type as slow as my husband.