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.