Chaos Reigns

Nurse Ratchet Was on Duty Today

For the entire time Michael has been in the ICU he was had wonderful compassionate nurses. There's not one that wasn't wonderful -- until Nurse Ratchet (NR) showed up today.

NR managed to irritate, alienate, and generally invoke the loathing of each of us. She began the day by challenging our right to be in the room. Instead of calmly introducing herself and asking who we were, she demanded to know what we were doing there. I smiled sweetly and introduced myself. She never introduced herself - I had to ask her name but it didn't really matter. She is forever more Nurse Ratchet.

Nurse Ratchet is a stickler for all the rules which is fine. I have no problem with the rules. However, there are nice and diplomatic ways to enforce them. You don't have to be ugly and dictatorial. And keep in mind that for the past 14 days, we've been allowed to remain after visiting hours are over. We've been allowed to close the door when it was too loud outside Michael's room (Mike's heart rate gets too high when there is any noise.)

Nurse Ratchet doesn't talk to Michael. She doesn't tell him what she is going to do, she just barges in and then his heart rate goes through the roof again. She doesn't talk to us either. Answering our questions doesn't appear to be part of her job description.

We've had the best nurses and I'm sure that Nurse Ratchet is also a good nurse or she wouldn't be on the ICU. I just hope she has a short time with Michael and we can move on to someone a little more able to dispense TLC. But just watch, Nurse Ratchet will be on duty for the next week. Oh, well. Michael should be transferred to a rehab facility next week and I'm done venting --- for the moment.

Thank all of you for your prayers. Michael is improving slowly. I know that it is God's healing power at work and that we will have our old Michael John back soon.

The Crazy Church Lady

It seems that the crazies are out in full force. In my last post I told how Michael was in a serious car accident. Several days after the accident his brain began to swell to the point that it was life threatening. This required the doctors to perform a craniectomy. This the removal of a portion of the skull to give the brain room to swell without further damage.

So here's the picture:

•     Michael's brain is covered only by skin
•     He has an incision that extends from ear to ear.
•     He has another incision in his abdomen when the doctors have store his skull
•     He is supposed to be kept quiet and not get riled up so the brain doesn't swell any further
•     I asked Mike's friends and co-workers to give him a little peace and quiet and they were  quite understanding and co-operative

I walked into Mike's room last Tuesday and found a strange man and woman there. Nurse Corinna was inviting them to leave but the woman was insisting that God told her to come to give Michael a hug and pray over him. (The man didn't speak English.) She was also demanding that Corinna give her an update on Michael's condition. I told this lady that Mike could only have family members visit and asked her to leave. Now she's arguing with me. She has a right to be there because God told her to hug Mike and pray over him. I thanked her for her prayers and suggested that she continue her prayers on the other side of the ICU doors. During this whole exchange this couple are blocking the way so I can't get into the room. I had just got back from a trip to Florida and hadn't seen Mike for about 24 hours (Eric had a doctor's appt that couldn't be missed - anybody know how I can clone myself?) Once again, I asked them to leave and the crazy church lady starts into her speil about God telling her to hug and pray. I finally pushed past them and told them to leave.

Today, Kelly (a dear friend who has known Michael since he was 13) and I came to the ICU to see Michael. The crazy church lady was BACK! She had her Bible laying on the bed and Michael's heart rate was going through the roof.  She was giving us the same ration of feces. I told her to leave so she goes to the nurse, Carlee, to plead her case. She tells Carlee that Mike's girlfriend told her it was okay - An out right, bald face lie!

I have visions of this person "laying hands" on Mike's head that has no protection. Very scary.

The nurses all know now that she is not to enter Mike's room. There is now a sign on his door directing visitors to the nurses station. The nurses have a list of "approved" visitors and it is a very short list.

Please don't get me wrong. I covet each and every prayer for Michael's healing but he just doesn't need a lot of traffic through that room. It over stimulates him for one thing and he still has open incisions and no protection for his brain.

 

Michael John

My 25 year old son, Michael John, was in a terrible car accident on May 29th. A semi rear-ended his Honda Civic slamming him into another car. A total of 4 vehicles were involved but Michael was the only one severely injured. Michael has a closed head injury called diffuse  axonal injury. This is usually a devastating injury. Michael was in a  coma when he arrived at the hospital and has been in a chemical coma since then. To reduce the pressure in his skull, he as had a portion of his skull removed and placed in his abdomen. The doctors are  reducing the sedation so that he can begin to wake up. He is trying to  breathe over the ventilator and is responding to some stimuli. It is going to be a very long haul for Michael. I ask that you please pray for my precious child.

In addition, my younger son is not taking this very well. He has some  issues with people leaving him (mostly through death) and is he is  very angry with God. Please pray that a peace will envelope Eric and that he will come to terms with all the losses he has experienced.

[Doodle from Stephanie at Homegrown Hospitality]

Judi at Be Present Be Real challenged us to make a list of 10 blessings from 2008. New Year's Resolutions are made tonight and broken tomorrow but God's blessings stay with us forever.

Here we go, I'm blessed with:
1. A God who loves me and will never leave me - Judy wrote this one and I surely can't                improve upon it.
2. Two imaginative, wonderful sons who keep me on my toes and who I hold responsible for all   my gray hair
3. My mother who still loves me and puts up with me, my kids, my dogs, my cats, my stuff as we prepare to move into her home
4. My sister and brother who bring laughter, love and great joy into my life
5. An investment that while it has lost 60% of its value, still has most of the original investment left
6. The ability to homeschool my younger son
7. Pets that add a little fun to our lives and the ability to pay for their vet bills, food, flea treatments, and toys-
8. Our good health - despite my complaining about the high cost of health insurance, I am so thankful that we didn't really have to use it in 2008
9. Good and loyal friends who have stood by me in good times and not so good times
10. The choice to choose happiness - and I choose happiness

May God bless you and keep in the New Year

Traveling With Cats

Since we are moving to Florida with 5 cats and since my mother has one cat (C2 age 14+), I thought it might be a good idea to take a couple down at Christmas. We don't want the poor old man to have a nervous breakdown by having to deal with all 5 at once.

This is the old man. Can you tell C2 rules the roost? I didn't think so. The headless lap he is sitting on belongs to my mother. Isn't she beautiful?

We decided to take the two most social cats, Neko and Chloe. I've traveled with a cat before so I was prepared for 4.5 hours of non-stop complaining. Neko didn't let me down. As soon as the car started, he started. He howled and he yowled. He meowed. It was pitiful. My heart was like pharaoh's - hardened. Sorry Neko, you're not getting out of your carrier yet.

This is Neko aka "Big Boy" or "Big Orange Kitty". He's just a tiny little thing at 15 lbs. He's not fat, he's just huge. The span between his ears is wider than the width of my hand. He is really a sweet, big old lug of a cat. I don't know how many "homes" he has in Columbus. I do know that across the street he is known as "George". Miss Pam feeds "George" nice cans of cat food. Here he only gets that nasty dried food.

Chloe is my "sweet" kitty. She always wants to sit on me, next to me or on my computer keyboard.  This is Chloe.

She was such a good girl. Not a sound out of her.

Just a little geography. Heading south down Hwy 231 there's 16 miles of 2 lane hwy. It begins about 15 - 20 miles from my front door. This 16 miles is pretty desolate. No stops, no stores, no wide spots in the road.  I also forgot to tell you - I'm dragging a trailer. I've done this exactly once before - with my father riding shotgun and telling me exactly what to do and when to do it. I do pretty good going forward. Reverse is not an option! Just remove that "R" from the gear shifter.

Back to sweet Chloe -- About 5 miles into no-man's land, Chloe begins to meow. Softly at first but the volume and intensity increase rapidly --- along with an aroma that is not exactly rosebuds. Suddenly, we are in desparate need of gas masks. I blame it on Lucy who is well known for her ability to clear a room in less than 10 seconds. This is Lucy and Louie. Lucy is the Boston Terrier.

The "aroma" dissipates for a moment but soon is back -- just as big and stinky than ever. Eric decides that someone has had a accident. I'm determined that it is Lucy having a Gas-X moment. (Can you give dogs Beano?)

Eric can't see into Chloe's crate. There is no place to pull over with a trailer. No gas stations (pun not intentional), no wide spots. There are a couple of mobile homes that look like Norman Bates' cousin might inhabit. Not an option in my humble opinion. We drive, and we drive. Do you know how long 16 miles is with a stink bomb in the back seat and two very unhappy cats?

We finally come to a gas station (Pun still not intented) that I can pull into. We quickly determine that Chloe has soiled her crate.

Let me set the scene. I am driving a Buick Rendevous with 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 14yo boy, Christmas presents and enough luggage to last for at least 2 weeks. There is no place to clean up without displacing someone or something. How do I solve dilemma of cleaning up a cat, the crate, and not letting the cat escape into rural Alabama.

Poor Chloe not only soiled the crate, but her hind quarters were pretty nasty too. I told Eric to get out of the car and do NOT, under any circumstances, open the door while the cat is loose.

Poor Chloe. I had some windex window wipes. The did great on the crate. But how to clean a dirty cat hieny? Windex wipes of course. They might not be gentle on delicate heiny parts but at this point I'm only interested in getting rid of the stench.

Fortunately, the gas station has air freshener (needed desparately) and hand sanitizer (needed even more desparately!). The rest of the trip was uneventful except that Chloe was car sick for the next 20 miles (and she had a bath when we got to Mom's).

Only three more cats to go. I can do it. Yes, I can. I'm sure I can. Maybe I should rent a trailer for the cats. That's an idea. Or make Michael take them in his car. That's an even better idea. Hummmmm. Where ever they travel, I think I need to have a 'Traveling Cat Emergency Kit' consisting of baby wipes, air freshener, paper towels, hand sanitizer, and nose plugs.

[Doodle from Stephanie at Homegrown Hospitality]

Judi at Be Present Be Real challenged us to make a list of 10 blessings from 2008. New Year's Resolutions are made tonight and broken tomorrow but God's blessings stay with us forever.

Here we go, I'm blessed with:
1. A God who loves me and will never leave me - Judy wrote this one and I surely can't                improve upon it.
2. Two imaginative, wonderful sons who keep me on my toes and who I hold responsible for all   my gray hair
3. My mother who still loves me and puts up with me, my kids, my dogs, my cats, my stuff as we prepare to move into her home
4. My sister and brother who bring laughter, love and great joy into my life
5. An investment that while it has lost 60% of its value, still has most of the original investment left
6. The ability to homeschool my younger son
7. Pets that add a little fun to our lives and the ability to pay for their vet bills, food, flea treatments, and toys-
8. Our good health - despite my complaining about the high cost of health insurance, I am so thankful that we didn't really have to use it in 2008
9. Good and loyal friends who have stood by me in good times and not so good times
10. The choice to choose happiness - and I choose happiness

May God bless you and keep in the New Year

What I Did On My Vacation - Part 2

You remember this little gem?

Pretty isn't it. I like yellow.

We needed it because Our family has a dominate Pack Rat Gene.  Combine that with living in the country and heavy tipping fees at the local dump and you find things like this.  It ain't pretty. Unfortunately this wasn't the only thing out there. It had lots of company. Mom decided it was starting to look a little bit too red-neck in certain spots. Time to clean out the pole-barn.

Mom also has the only basement in Northwest Florida. It has been used by family members for storing stuff. Lots of stuff. Free storage. That means that there is no room for my stuff and we all know that my stuff is more important than anyone else's stuff. So we were also going to empty out the basement. Relax, everyone. We didn't throw away your stuff. It was only Mom and Dad's stuff.

This is the end of the first day.

 

Mom was afraid that we wouldn't be able be fill up this monster.

Eric was having a ball driving the lawn tractor. That thing was a life saver - the tractor not Eric. I don't think two old ladies and a strong boy could have lugged all that stuff without a little mechanical help.

It's too bad that we don't have anything left in the basement. If you believe that I might be able to interest you in a little bit of land west of Tampa. Maybe a bridge or two. Do you prefer the Golden Gate or the Brooklyn Bridge?

It is truly amazing how much stuff (I like that word - stuff. Maybe I should bet out the thesaurus and find a new word to use. Like junk or trash. Nah, I think I packed it already so I'll just continue to use stuff.) accumulates in 35 - 40 years. Dad still has a Commodore 64 down there. It still worked when he stashed it.

Mom is looking pretty pleased. I don't know if she's happy to have the monster filled and all that stuff gone or if she's happy it's full and she doesn't have to tote anything else up those basement stairs.

What I Did On My Vacation

What do you think of when you hear, "I'm going to Florida?" Sugar sand beaches and beautiful blue waters like these? That's my sis-in-law, Valerie. She'll probably want to kill me for posting this picture. Don't worry, I'm safe for the moment.  She's in Germany for the next year or so. I bet she wishes she were here right now considering she usually lives in Arizona. Of course, these beaches are pretty cold this time of year. You won't find too many sun worshipers on the beach until Spring Break. But it's still much warmer than Germany.

Okay, back to Florida vacations.

Maybe Disney World comes to mind when you think of Florida. Sorry no pictures of Micky and Minnie. I don't like Disney World. But maybe I could interest you in an alligator farm or two?
Look! He's smiling!

Okay, so this is really in Alabama but it is really close. In fact, some people call our part of Florida, LA -- Lower Alabama.  And if you go to the back of the homestead into the swamp that we don't own, you just might see one of these. Small dogs don't stand a chance back there.

However, you haven't had a North Dorcas Heights (a very exclusive resort) vacation. Those other things just scream "tourist!" To really have a great time in Florida you need to find a place with one of these. Like North Dorcas Heights.

Isn't it pretty? This little gem is a mere 21'x8'x3'. Do you think we can fill it with resorting to construction trash? Well, maybe a few windows but they were never used in North Dorcas Heights. Dad thought he might use them but he never did.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Ball O’Fire!

I shouldn’t be left alone or trusted with small childen.  Old kids that can fend for themselves may be a different story, but I’m not even sure of that.

 I decided to light the new Christmas candle I bought. I love candles. The light, the aroma. I  find it very relaxing. Lord knows, I need relaxing.

So I pull out the matches. You know those old fashioned safety matches,. Those are the ones – those safety matches. Yeah, these are the ones.

I strike the match just as I have done hundreds of times before. But this time the head of the match goes flying off. I search frantically for the match head and all I find is dust bunnies. (I really need to clean my bedroom.) At his point, my menopausal bladder decides that NOW is the TIME to head for the little room with the porcelain fixtures.

My menopausal brain has an attention span of about 2 nanoseconds. So I exit the little room and head for the kitchen, grab a glass of wine, and settle down in front of  “What Not to Wear.” I just get comfy when the smoke alarm goes off. Now my hormone deprived brain does not remember anything that happened in paragraph two.  I immediately think that the batteries need to be replace. No such luck!

As I head to the back of the house to replace the smoke alarm batteries (Don't know what I was going to replace them with since I don't have a single 9 volt battery anywhere but in the smoke alarms - guess I need to rectify that problem), I am greeted with --- SMOKE! Doing the prudent thing, I rush into my bedroom where I find the basket of unfolded clothes in flames. No fire extinguisher – Eric used it to see what would happen if you pull the pin and squeeze the handle (Science experiment lab report still pending.) So I started stomping. Melted my slippers but I stomped it out. Because as my friend, Julia, would say – “That’s the way Ms. Terri is.” No pictures of this, I was too busy stomping.

Just so I don’t hog all the glory here, Eric and Michael stomped too, but they didn’t sacrifice a perfectly good pair of slippers. They did help me dump the clothes basket into the shower and turn  on the water.

Final loss:    
        Two sets of Ralph Lauren curtains     $300.00
        One pair of slipper                              12.00   
        My favorite shorts                               30.00
            (I didn’t buy this pair from Kmart. The Kmart ones are still in the dresser.)
         Laundry basket                                 12.00 (It was a NICE one)
         Misc. Stuff                                        who knows- The basket was full. Okay the basket was overflowing.

Burned floor  that looks like dog poop when I first roll our of bed – disgusting!

A house still standing – PRICELESS!    

This Just Isn't Right!

I protest! This just can't be happening! There is strange white stuff falling from the sky. In Georgia. In March.

And it's cold. Where is that global warming I've been hearing so much about? I need it NOW!

Here's the report from weather.com:

PERIOD OF LIGHT SNOW EXPECTED  ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL GEORGIA THIS  MORNING...

A DEEP UPPER LOW WILL CONTINUE MOVING NORTHEAST THIS MORNING OUT OF THE TENNESSEE VALLEY TOWARD THE MID- ATLANTIC REGION BY AFTERNOON. MUCH COLDER AIR IS SPREADING INTO WEST AND NORTH GEORGIA BEHIND THIS SYSTEM. LIGHT RAIN SHOWERS ACCOMPANYING THE UPPER SYSTEM ARE CHANGING TO LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA.

A PERIOD OF LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS FROM TWO TO FOUR HOURS MAY OCCUR ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA THIS MORNING...WITH A LIGHT DUSTING POSSIBLE ON GRASSY SURFACES. SURFACE TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN ABOVE FREEZING DURING THIS EVENT...THUS NO TRAVEL PROBLEMS ARE ANTICIPATED AND MOST OF THE SNOW WILL MELT AS IT FALLS ON ROAD SURFACES.

Eric, of course, is very excited. He's only seen snow (that dreaded four letter word that probably shouldn't be used in mixed company) a couple of times in his life. The child is under the delusion that he's missing out on something by not needing a sled, skis, and ice skates.

That's a snowflake on his face. A face previously untouched by snow.

Personally, (just in case you didn't get the idea that I don't like snow) I don't like snow. I don't like cold. By the way, cold is defined as anything below 70 degrees. I don't live in the "deep south" just for the sweet tea, boiled peanuts, and collard greens. And I don't live down here for snow. I want warmth! Maybe I should move further south. Like to the Amazon. I hear Brazil is nice this time of year.