Columbus OH

Another month, and as usual, nothing exciting to report.

The sense of continuous crisis has lessened a bit. Nevertheless Bobbi and Lew's chronic medical problems remain, which continue to mandate continuous visits to a broad variety of doctors. Bobbi continues to consult her doctors for the continuing left hip pain and reflux (they change her med brands), and Lew's doctors (Lew got a new one, a heart failure specialist) have been modifying his medication doses, but that is as exciting as it has been. Toward the end of the month, Lew did overdo his exercise on a couple of days and has had to lay off due to muscle pain. Nevertheless, even in the absence of excitement, Lew still has plenty of anxiety.

The patient of the month has been Smokey. For some time he has had progressively increasing trouble using his hind legs. Our friendly neighborhood vet referred him to a neurologist who thought he most likely had a spinal cord tumor. Fortunately, an MRI showed he had "only" some bad discs (Lew thought only humans had bad discs). At least it was not necessary to euthanize him - but he did require some fantastically expensive neurosurgery. And the expense is not yet over, because he is convalescing and getting PT in a doggie nursing home.

Non-medical activity? Bobbi does a lot of church + internet, Lew does internet + a little church, Paul does homework, we do not know what Rob does, the dogs sleep around the clock, and the cats sleep at night - until it is time for their breakfast feeding (they are very precise little furry alarm clocks). Lew tries to check in with Luther and Scott weekly, and both Aggie and Irene occasionally. However, since her fall Aggie has experienced difficulty with the phone in her room, so Lew has not been able to speak to her.