Thursday, January 19th, 2017
Hard to See Through the Fog
My sister is having a hip replacement this morning. She is young but has a chronic illness called CVID (common variable immune deficiency) which makes the surgery and recovery quite dangerous, even life-threatening. Prayers gratefully accepted.
Anna has been home sick all week and won’t go back to school until Monday. She caught a chest cold last Saturday and is puny and miserable. She’s got fluid in her ears, a sinus infection, and her lungs sound soupy. She tested negative for the flu yesterday but has been running a low-grade fever. Nana has been her nurse most of the week. Thank you, mom.
Dominic got suspended from school yesterday and isn’t allowed back until Monday. He was teasing a boy by taking the boy’s backpack and not giving it back, the boy punched Dominic in the stomach, a girl nearby teased him saying he deserved it, then Dominic hit the girl in the face. Thankfully there was no blood or bruising. Curtis and I are horrified. Dominic is deeply ashamed. We had Dominic write a letter of apology to the girl and her parents. OMG. We don’t even know what to say.
Dominic’s impulse control has been slowly deteriorating over the last five weeks or so. When we saw his new psychiatrist last week, Dr. Hough prescribed a new medicine that will help but insurance wanted prior authorization. I went to the pharmacy several times but it was never approved. So I had to call Dr. Hough a couple of times. Turns out that this particular medicine is not covered under our formulary, so we had to get Dr. Hough to fill out another form stating that the covered meds won’t work, then the insurance company will cover the prescribed medication. We finally heard last night that prior authorization was granted.
Since school went back in session for the new year, both kids have been in class for the entire day a total of six out of eleven days. We are constantly playing catch up, missed assignments, tutorials, emailing teachers, juggling. I haven’t talked to Jenny in a couple of weeks, I miss my angel. Curtis leaves tomorrow for a long weekend with his family in Ohio. He’s been my rock. I am going to miss him. I feel so bad since we didn’t get to go to Ohio at Thanksgiving or Christmas… at least Curtis’s mom and sister will get to spend some time with him. We will try to get the kids up there this summer.
I saw my orthopedic surgeon in Austin yesterday, Dr. Brent Brotzman. It’s been a couple of years since I had a checkup with him and he was so happy to see me. He did my left knee meniscectomy and micro fracture of the patella ten years ago. He did my right knee patello-femoral replacement and lateral release six years ago, then a year and a half later did the synovectomy on the same knee since it wouldn’t stop swelling. He knows my knees and I wanted to get a second opinion. Since my fall in November, I’ve been doing PT and the tear in the tendon has been healing, but the progress is slow. Dr. Brotzman x-rayed both knees. I was worried because of the tendon tear that my knee replacement was overcompensating and I was doing damage. But it’s all good. Keep on, keeping on. He said I should continue to wear the brace for another couple of months. Because of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, there’s a 40% chance the tendon will never fully heal.
Nikon D750 | 20mm | f/8 | 1/320 | ISO 200
I’m not a fan of pity parties. It’s been a crap week and that’s a fact. Right now, the future is foggy with no clear end in sight… where is this road going? How will I navigate my way? When you struggle with adversity, what helps you manage?
Thanks for looking.
