Story 12Nov2021: Slightly Improving

I was too tired last night to write the blog. This often means the blog is more of a list than observations as I find the distance of even one night of sleep has the day fading from memory. First, however, I will try to retell the story.

A working morning started with me waking suddenly and putting on my shoes while wearing my robe in the wet and rain. Yup, it is Friday, and the trash is not out. So I managed the puddles and added the trash bags in the kitchen to the trash bin while the trash truck was turning around to do our side of the street. Just made it.

I start the coffee, read emails, work and home, and try to get my day going.

Then I see it everywhere. Corwin has tracked in some oily muddy grime all over the carpet and floors. I got him up, 6:45ish and was very direct with him about not caring for the house. He got on his hands and knees and cleaned up the mess. Scrubbing the carpet and the floors. Whatever he stepped in also nearly ruined his brand new shoes.

My anger was not that he tracked stuff in but that he ignored it or did not see it. The house needs to be respected, and you need to see these things. I also asked him to stop throwing his stuff anywhere. In fact, I told him to have respect for the house. Corwin said he would try to do better.

Susie was sort of awake, and I got her some Tylenol and a bit later her pills.

I had a few more meetings, and with the chaos, this was no video Zoom meetings for me. I was not dressed or cleaned up. I managed the first meetings and then went to get dressed.

I went to get Susie up, and she was unable to speak or use words. I asked her to explain a skating jump, a good test for her, and she could not get the words out. I had her sitting up on the edge of the bed, and she could not speak clearly or tell me the month of the year or count to ten. I called Leta, and after some discussion, we were headed to 911 for help. I gave the phone to Susie and had Leta Facetime with Susie, and Leta thought it was not a stroke but a medication issue.

After some soul searching, and since we were in the ER the day before, I decided that hours in the ER would not improve our day and got Susie walking and moving.

I got a call from the doc office, and we had an even earlier appointment with the backup doctor. I learned later that the doc was up last night reading all of our records and getting ready for our appointment. He was prepared for us when we got there. Susie is a special case.

Food, water, and getting dressed transformed Susie, but speech is still halting, even for Susie.

I am also logged on to the shoe company while this is going on and following along with my job. A practice data conversion is running for the next two weeks, stopping for the holiday week and then resuming in December. I have no critical path work, but I am the architect for much of the process, so I am always on call: Always Available. AA (Always Available) is a type of product at Nike that is always in stock, and thus the joke is that certain IT people are also AA products.

We manage the transfer from the house using the rolling walker with the chair to the wheelchair outside and to Air Volvo. The rain, which always happens here, is slowing traffic (!), and folks are braking for greenlights to prepare for them changing. Nevertheless, I manage to be on time for Susie’s appointment, and we manage the Air Volvo to wheelchair transfer without incident.

The doc stops a med and orders a good pain killer that is low risk but better than Tylenol. He also will order this coming Monday help for us with PT and other services. This includes ordering a hospital bed for Susie. He agrees with me that the one med is likely causing the confusion we are seeing. Doc also thinks pain is muscular and can be managed in the typical ways. He read our charts last night, and we also grant access, I thought we had already, access to Mount Sinia West records. All of this is done online.

Aside: Obama care included a massive cost for medical providers to create all medical data in digital form and be able to share it. This was fought hard by providers as too expensive and not worth the investment. I am so happy that this change went through as I read the information, and I have one portal to see all the records from four different providers.

Reassured and was happy that the doc, even the backup, had read all the charts and was ordering stuff to help us make it a better day.

I got Susie back and got her the rest of her Happy Meal. I had ordered lunch delivered, even McDonald’s, just before we had to leave. I had finished mine, but Susie had 1/2 a lunch left.

I then popped out to Beaverton Pharmacy to get a fix to the walker. Some kind of skid plate for carpet. I got help from the same man who sold me the commode. I bought both sets, one did not fit, so it was wise to buy both, and returned home.

Susie was asleep in bed having, without any help, got out of her chair, walker’d over to the bed, and got in. Yes, she was feeling better.

I ordered dinner delivered, burgers from Red Robin, and a seasoned chicken breast for me with salad and let Susie sleep. Then, I had my dinner and re-watched the newest Doctor Who episode. After that, Mariah stopped in to pick up her laundry.

Aside: The new season for Doctor Who has gone a different direction. The star and the showrunner are leaving after this season, and it appears they want to try something different as their exit. This new season seems to be just one story, with each viewing being a literal episode in the story. This is really old-school Doctor Who and is the tradition abandoned when the show was relaunched. Instead of using an episodic account, the showrunner would hide some unexplained items and events in many episodes that would resolve at the end of the season: A reward for watching the whole season. Also, this new series includes historical figures and events retold with a Doctor spin to them that seem more styled like the classic show of the 1980s and earlier. I like the return to an older formula and the mysteries not being solved in 50 minutes. Often, the previous one-hour shows seemed rushed, and the attempt to hide an underlying theme that would resolve in the last season appeared clumsy to me. I look forward, again, to new episodes to continue the story; a slow build is good.

I went to bed early. Susie slept the whole night. I woke a lot, but mainly to check on her.