Columbus OH

Everybody is sick.

We took Smokey (dog) to the vet this afternoon because he has been limping badly for a number of days.  We knew he had bad hips, and feared he faced a hip replacement.  However, the vet said he had blown his other knee (right) and of course still needed surgery.  She reassured us that a new procedure had been developed which was more satisfactory anatomically, but equally expensive.  And the Deaf girl continues to give him medicated baths twice a week.  Oh well.

Lucky (the black cat) did better over the weekend on his daily injections of antinauseant and acid inhibitor - has not vomited once since they were started.  So while we were at the vet we picked up more medication for him too.  The vet is going out of town, so she was preparing us to last a few days until she returns next Monday.

The other cat and the other dog go on perfectly fine.  

But the humans are showing the signs of high mileage.  Lew continues to have relatively severe back pain unless he carefully avoids standing or walking for more than a few minutes.  This morning he had to renew some of his computer supplies so he could send out copies of Lydia's archives to varous relatives.  This meant he had to remain on his feet for quite some time including standing an a waiting line at the checkout.  He survived, but would have preferred to avoid the experience, and the rest of the day had to take every possible opportunity to recline.  

Bobbi too has been having fairly severe (7/10) L hip pain, and is less successful than Lew in finding a comfortable position.  Normally that would be manageable with opiates, but Bobbi has proven to be allergic to so many of the synthetic derivatives that her doctors are having problems finding an agent that will cut the pain without making her sick.  She has worked her way through all the common ones: Percocet, codeine, Vicodin, Nucynta, and even methadone.  Of course old-fashioned morphine would handle the problem without a problem, but everyone is afraid to use that for anything except terminal cancer pain.  So Bobbi continues to suffer more than is necessary - or even excusable.

So here we are again - Lew is stuck in Columbus indefinately, and very depressed.

Columbus OH

Another 3 weeks, more or less.  The delay is all for perfectly sound medical reasons, but as Lew waits for them to resolve -- and resolution conceivably could occur all at once, quite unpredictably -- all he really can do is fritter some more.  Patience is not one of his virtues, particularly when he is just plain stuck.

The good news is that Paul remains in recovery, attending his AA meetings faithfully.  Indeed, he has been asked to chair one.  He also attends school faithfully -- this afternoon he has a final.  Rob too has made enough progress to make one sit up and notice -- he has made it through the entire summer without once requiring a financial transfusion from his parents for survival.

The other news is more frustrating.  The black cat with the H. pylori finished his course of triple antibiotics a couple of weeks ago and was doing fine -- no emesis/diarrhea for the next week.  But then the emesis returned slowly -- once one day, twice the next, and do on.  In less than a week we had him back in the ER last Sunday where he once again was examined, x-rayed, and hydrated (subQ in a cat, not IV).  Nothing remarkable except an obviously inflammed bowel -- and a questionable density in the intestine.  Restored to the antibiotics, that instantly was the end of his vomiting.  He has not vomited so much as once since.  But it raises serious questions about how we are going to get him off the antibiotics.

Meanwhile big furry amiable Smokey has been progressing well.  His surgical wounds are healing well.  His medicated baths seems to have been effective.  After the first bath we discovered two places hidden way up in the folds of his pits and groin, where the bacteria had been able to hide grow and form large foul-smelling crusty colonies.  We cleaned all that out and have been obsessive about checking the pits almost daily, and the technician has very helpful also.  It turns out that she is Deaf, so we have a great time socializing each time we take Smokey in.  So far, no recurrances.

All of this is good.  However, as Paul and the animals have made progress, Bobbi seems to have slipped backwards.  Over the summer she developed pain in her left hip, but plain x-rays of the joint show no obvious arthritis.  Her orthopod wants to do an MRI (a very sensible choice given the anatomy), but the insurance company is balking, insisting that she do physical therapy first.  Of course, in the end they will have to pay for both the PT and the MRI, but their bean-counters are not sharp enough to figure that out.

Lew remains status quo.  Of course his back is still bad, but he manages to control the pain by positioning and finds no limitations on his driving -- in fact, he is willing to leave on 15 minute's notice.  Paul probably can housesit and care for the cats while we are on the road (the regular vet is only 300 ft away, the ER 30 min), but Smokey is not yet stable enough for Copper Harbor, where the nearest (and only) vet is 60 miles away.  

Reality is that after we wait a bit longer for the pets to finish convalescing and for  Bobbi's contest with the insurance company to resolve, it is likely that we will be into October.  By then Copper Harbor will be too chilly, though Eau Claire might still be a possibility.  Otherwise, we will have to look southward down the old Dixie Highway.