Summing Up and Starting Over

Friday, January 1, 2010 — I’m back! 2009 is over, and Two Thousand Ten, or Twenty-Ten — whichever you prefer — has begun. Unfortunately, I committed a blogger’s worst sin between September and now, in that I disappeared off the face of the earth and failed to tell you all why. So please take it that I apologize profusely, abase myself, grovel at your feet…  and let’s move on.

Words About Wounds

Well, you wouldn’t think it possible, but I did it AGAIN. The same damn thing, the same damn slip-in-the-shower — except that this time there were two rubber mats there that were supposed to keep me from slipping. Go figure! This was in mid-October, two months to the day after I had been discharged from the Mercy Hospital Rehab Department’s Wound Care division.

There was no chance for infection this time, though, thank goodness. I had actually popped 2000 mg of Amoxicillin just before stepping into the shower, in preparation for a dental appointment mid-morning  (because of all the joint replacements, I take antibiotics before dental work, and will for the rest of my life, it appears). The wound was about an inch northeast of the previous site; much shallower, a lot longer, with only about 1.5 inches at the top that was of any concern.  Unfortunately, the fragile top skin of the original wound was damaged, so I now had TWO sites. I saw the doctor within two hours, and was back at Mercy the next morning, looking and feeling very shamefaced and embarrassed.

Emily said, “Wouldn’t it just have been easier for us to go out to lunch together?? Did you have to come back as a patient?”

Long story short: the new one is totally healed; the original one probably has another six weeks to go. I do the dressings myself, daily, and go to Mercy twice a week. That’ll be once a week very soon. I have become fairly knowledgeable about wound care, believe me, and have decided it’s not a field I’d like to go into permanently. At least, there was no discussion of MAGGOTS this time.

Chiropractically Speaking

Slowly, slowly… twice a week with Dr. Klein… the graph is creeping upwards again and I am beginning to feel that my body is getting back to where it ought to be.

We are working toward the goal of getting my lower back a bit more limber, so that I can bend over from a sitting position on my raised toilet seat and fasten the infamous Velcro Circ-Aid by myself. As it is, I have to depend on my Beloved Spouse to do it for me. This, for me, is anathema: Fiercely Independent, that’s me, and I can hardly stand having to ask for help every day! Also, it’s impractical, because I get up long before the Spouse does; so there are often long periods when I am Circ-Aidless.

But by working “more aggressively” — his words — with CAM, the magical robotic tool, on the lumbar region, David Klein says he thinks there’s a good chance we might achieve this goal at some point.

What all this has shown me is that, no matter what else is going on with my body, I do want to continue regular chiropractic sessions. Forever, if I can manage that. The difference in how I feel when I go regularly, and how I feel when I don’t, is BIG.

I am pleased to report that my raving about the wonders of chiropractic convinced my daughter, who lives in Massachusetts, and her husband, both to find an excellent chiropractor near them to work on Sarah’s bad back and Chris’s feet! And they are both happy as can be. I was a bit surprised to hear that Chris’s bunion improved, but hey, who knows what-all chiropractic can do!

Sad Cat Stuff

My wonderful thirty-year-old cat, Amy, is dying. According to the Mobile Vet, Dr. Doss, she would be 134 in human years, and is something of a phenomenon in that she hasn’t had any of the usual elderly-cat illnesses. Till now. She has a tumor in the nasal cavity, he believes, which is pressing on the optic nerve and causing the third eyelid (nictitating membrane) to push up over her eyeball on one side. It’s also causing congestion, loss of the olfactory sense (tremendously important to cats), and sneezing.

This has been going on, and getting worse, since the Thanksgiving weekend in November. We treated the upper respiratory infection with antibiotics and megavitamins, and it got somewhat better. But then that eyelid came up, and she stopped eating about ten days ago. She keeps herself going on lots of water and maybe half a cup of light cream, over a 24-hour period.

We talked about euthanasia. But this incredible cat is determined to keep living her life as much as she can, as long as she can. She is just skin and bones now — such a little animal, when you get down to it; and I’d always thought she was a medium-sized cat! — but she continues to make choices and decisions for herself. For example, just like always, she decides each night whether she’s sleeping with me or with the Beloved Spouse. Now, when I’m the lucky one, she plasters herself to me like a little limpet; draped across my neck or lying on my arm with her head on my shoulder, she pushes her face into my neck and purrs herself to sleep. Her purr is pretty raspy now, but I love it.

She also takes herself out the cat-flap in the kitchen window to relieve herself; having lived on her own outdoors for 15 or more years, she has nothing but scorn for the litterbox that Chloe uses happily enough. And she spends much of each day, now that it’s a little warmer, napping under her favorite bush, getting some sun on her tummy.

So our choice is to let her keep getting what she can out of every day, as long as she isn’t in pain. Discomfort she can handle: she is a tough old lady. And we will enjoy and cherish every moment we have with her, even though we know time is running out.

Happy Family Stuff

I had a wonderful week in Toronto in early November, for my grandson William’s Bar Mitzvah. All three of my kids were there, all four of the grandchildren, and assorted other family members as well. It was gorgeous!

Besides the really beautiful service and William’s lovely, right-on-tune chanting of a very long Torah portion in Hebrew, another musical event got me right in the heart.  One evening, when all of us were gathered in Danny and Jackie’s kitchen and dining room, eating up all the leftover food and having a drink or two, my daughter Sarah and my 16-year-old granddaughter Heather (Will’s sister), announced that they had a song they wanted to sing — for ME! Whereupon they sang, touchingly and melodically, the song “For Good,” from the musical “Wicked”. It’s all about how “people come into our lives/for a reason, bringing that which we must learn…”, and ends up with, “Because I knew you/I have been changed for good.”

You can imagine, I was weeping like a waterfall from about the first note. Both Sarah and Heather have lovely voices, and part of it was in harmony. I loved it. My daughter-in-law Jackie videotaped their rehearsal of the song that afternoon, so I can replay it and cry some more any time I want.

Starting Over

So that’s about it, in a nutshell…good stuff, not-so-good stuff… and now we’re moving along into January. My Beloved Spouse and I will celebrate 14 years of marriage this coming Tuesday. (Amy, our cat, has been with us for 11 of those years.) And shortly thereafter, I will become even older… I cannot believe it’ll be 72 years. Yikes! How can this BE?

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I think they are self-defeating. But I do think about what I might like to do differently in the new year. One of those things is, I’m hoping I won’t let myself get sidetracked again, but will continue blogging more regularly. I guess it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as MAGGOTS to be a certifiable blog — right?

I wish each of you a beautiful year. May 2010 bring all of us some of what we dream about…  Thanks for reading — Betsy