Tantalizing Tuesday

[Harriet]

Project report posted in A, C and N. lucylee, I let the children do everything but cut paper, although I was right over them, I admit. Mostly just disposable things to toss away - not really messy after you are through. Of course, food coloring can stain hands, but we kept the drops where we wanted them.

Sunny, we have thunderstoms every day it seems - causing a lot of delay, for sure.

Happy for LadyM and ds9.

lucylee, I read about your dmother's message and your response and laughed so hard HRH said he couldn't tell if I was crying or laughing. Hope when she loses all the grogginess she is without pain, mostly.

[lucylee]

Just lost a pretty good post, b/c my computer apparently wanted to go on strike! Just froze up...
Trying again…

Yes, Harmony, the surgery was yesterday, and the doctor seemed happy with his work. She will have an appt with him next week (Tuesday). I don’t know if they unwrap everything and x-ray, or what they do at the follow-up appt, but maybe we’ll know more about how it’s going then. It looks rough right now, with pins sticking out the ends of her toes and some blood dried around the toenails – but as much as we can see of her toes, it does look like they are straightened out now.
I’m so glad Mr. Harmony & Mr. Sunny got good reports, and that Mr. Harmony is being such a good sport about all this medical stuff. Has Dee reported yet on their visit?

Mr. Lucylee needs a doctor’s appt tomorrow, and he is NOT a good sport about ANYTHING remotely related to the medical field.

He is having side effects, we suspect, from the most recent bp/heart medicine prescribed for him. Remember, his bp was shooting up to 180 over 60 or so, (but he didn’t even admit to the nurse that it was that high – just that it was “averaging” 160 something for the past month… which was true. He keeps his bp records like stats for the major league. Anyway, the bp came down, but he started feeling miserable – and when I talked with a nurse yesterday, she said she had never heard of this med causing those side effects. Nor had “any of the nurses in here with me. We’ve got about 200 combined years’ experience and we’ve never heard this complaint. I’ve been doing this 30 years. But, I can always learn something new.” She was actually very nice – his cardiologist & his nurse are out of the office until Thursday, so this nurse couldn’t really give me any more guidance than this anyway.

Well, according to the Mayo Clinic website – it can.
The medicine is Eplerenone (trade name, Inspra) – are any of you familiar with it?
He is experiencing the following: (This is the list copied from the Mayo website; I edited out the stuff that he is NOT experiencing and gave some explanation.)

Side Effects
Along with its needed effects, a medicine may cause some unwanted effects. Although not all of these side effects may occur, if they do occur they may need medical attention.
Check with your doctor immediately if any of the following side effects occur:
Incidence not known
Abdominal or stomach pain (in his case, kinda like heartburn, which creates the…)
chest pain or discomfort
chest tightness or heaviness
difficulty with breathing, shortness of breath (all these more like in his lungs, rather than heart, and it hurts when he breathes deeply, like pleurisy)
headache
nervousness (not so much now, but was severe during the first week on it)
Less common
chills
cough (he feels like he has a LOT of chest/lung congestion and he wishes he could take Claritin D, but cardiologist nixed that when he first was diagnosed with a-fib)
general feeling of discomfort or illness
muscle aches and pains
joint pain
unusual tiredness or weakness
Some side effects may occur that usually do not need medical attention. These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects. Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them.

So… the nurse suggested he first go to his family doctor and “rule out the obvious – make sure he doesn’t have some sort of infection. Get a chest x-ray & blood work.”
He is certain this is just a waste of time: “I know it is the medicine; I didn’t feel this way before I started taking it, and the longer I am away from my last dose, the better I feel.”
I told him, he just has to go ahead and see the family doctor, b/c his cardiologist won’t pay any attention to his complaint until he does. * sigh *
Last night, he was sure he was dying. This morning, he took his medicine, and was going to let me make an appt. By lunch, he had napped and felt a little better. Wanted me to wait till tomorrow to make appt… Then he called me at 5:00 while I was with dmom and said, “Make me an appt before they close. I’ve got to see him.” They were already closed, so we shall see what tomorrow brings…

[lucylee]

JOY -- Sorry it's so long, but y'all know my anxieties re: dgs' social abilities (or rather, lack thereof)

T-ball season ended on an amazingly good note! Over the season, DGS never struck out -- and yes, it is possible to strike out in t-ball -- got on base every time, and actually had a few RBI and scored over a dozen runs -- which was also a good highlight, b/c he was usually one of the last batters. I would not brag on dgs like this at all except y'all know how concerned I was, with his "highly functioning autism." When he was playing right field, he was mostly -- in his own words -- "picking weeds." (And right field in t-ball is NOT waaaay out there on your own; he was actually very close to the first baseman.) When he wasn't picking weeds, he was walking around in circles, staring at the clouds, staring at the highway behind him, kicking dirt, or drawing in the dirt. And I know you're thinking, "Oh, they all do that. It is so cute." Well, no, on this team, they ALL did NOT do it. The little girl in center field next to him followed his example to some extent, but mostly, these players were very attentive to what was going on and hustled for the ball when it came anywhere near them. Fortunately, it rarely came near him, but a couple times it did, and he was completely unaware, LOL. He may have been out there reciting Presidents and Vice-Presidents to himself.

His team was undefeated, (and never practiced even once after the season started) There were two younger siblings of all-star Dixie Youth big brothers who played like they understood the game as much as any 12 year old, and a few others in their second year of t-ball who were powerful hitters. Dgs was NOT a power hitter, but he did better tonight than he has all season.

So they got little trophies and everyone was happy -- and BEST OF ALL -- one little girl asked after the game, when we were all taking pictures, if he wanted to have his picture made with her. DGS said, "I don't care," so her mom and ddil and I all got pictures of them. This little girl always seems to speak to dgs, and will MAKE him speak if he is ignoring her. I am so thankful.

All of the kids I have seen around dgs have been nice to him and seem to like him, even though he shows very little interest in them and is very reluctant to join in after-game play, like playing tag at the drive-in when they went for ice cream, etc. I fear as he gets older, if he continues to be all into himself, they will begin to just let him be and they will ignore him, too -- but I pray that with some intervention and help from the sp ed teacher at school, he will continue to make progress and eventually, he will be able to talk about the things other kids want to talk about and take part in their activities. But at least, for tonight, things were very nice.

~~~~~
LOL, Harriet. She never replied back when I answered her text...

WTG, LadyM & ds9!!!

Okay, I promised ta-das!
Today --
* post office
* drug store
* Wmart
* dmom's house (for cordless phone, hairbrush -- which I never found -- and to bring her garbage can back from the road)
* talked to dmom's best friend, who has left FB and didn't know about the surgery
* visit w/dmom
* home
* errands with dh -- fill up car, go to bank, ate supper, picked up ds/dgs/dgd (ddil met us at the game; she had class tonight)
* washed dishes that had been left in sink last night
* put away load of clothes and washed/hung to dry a second load
* walked away the pounds 16 minutes
* organized to do list for tomorrow

[blessedw2]

that is not anxiety writing at all d lucy. It's legitimate worry. I am so glad you were able to get write it down here!!!
I am glad he is going to his regular doctor first to see if he has an infection!
with all these subspecialties now a days its hard - one dr. has to do this and another dr. has to do that.
praying for him.

sounded like a wonderful time at T-ball - so nice!

hello d everyone. unfortunately another headache took me yesterday afternoon and evening and i lost my time coming back or finishing things. Today is the 25 - feeling much better.