Signs of improvement

[jay]

After the several fiascoes on Tuesday, I spent Wednesday becoming increasingly-irritated with various insurance representatives and medical office staff... six hours of effort later, I finally had secured home nursing care for patgreene's open abdominal wound. But it never would have happened if I hadn't been persistent and aggressive in pursuing it. And if the primary-care office's head nurse K hadn't been a friend that worked with us to get the internal authorizations.

And then we had a stroke of luck... the assigned nurse, A, is a Russian emigre. Who has nursing credentials, but was actually a physician in practice for 12 years in Russia before coming to the US, with lots of gynecological experience. So she is experienced with hands-on nursing, and at the same time it is like having two MD visits per day. And it turns out that on the two occasions that I changed the dressing, I didn't get deep enough in cleaning (imagine swabbing and cleaning down 12in/30cm inside someone's abdomen...). But A said that I had done a good job for someone with no training, enough to keep it from getting worse over the 24 hours. But longer-term continuation with my technique (or lack thereof) would have led to problems in healing or potentially dangerous abdominal infections. So fighting for the in-home nursing care was a very good idea on my part.

Wednesday night, I slipped out late for an hour or so, and went to the poly coffee in Palo Alto. I really needed to be around and connect with people... felt much better afterwards. Some great hugs from p3aches... and L dropped off some brownies made by daltong, which have been a big hit. clairaide was a great help on AIM later on, talking through some of the week's issues with me.

Thursday I talked with Pat about bringing her mother out here for a couple of weeks... initially, Pat was in favor, while I was worried about how we'd get along -- there were some strained words between us a year ago, and Eloise isn't exactly poly-friendly -- but I thought that it would help Pat a lot... and help me go back to work on a normal basis. And she's a retired nurse, herself, so could probably take over part of the wound care. So she's flying out here today on a first-class frequent-flyer ticket.

Yesterday I actually made it to work, by virtue of dropping the kids with a babysitter (it was a teacher work day, no school). I actually felt energized at being back there! And I touched-base with hopeforyou before she leaves for Amsterdam, and had a lovely lunchtime talk with runeshower. Pat was running a low-grade fever by the time I got home, so I rescheduled seeing Barbara until lunchtime today. And cuddled Pat, gently... she has missed being touched, other than during medical procedures. And had a very good late-night relationship discussion with geekchick, after midnight.

So... A just left here a few minutes ago, and will be back around 6pm. My housekeeping has had to improve :-). Lunch today with Barbara, with the kids at KidsPark again. daltong may drop by to check in on Pat, in the afternoon. Then I need to clean out my bedroom, and move my stuff into the nursery... Eloise needs a regular bed, so I'll be in the kids' upper bunk or on the LR couch for the next two weeks. Maybe I'll take the kids ice skating this afternoon. I'll wait to do grocery shopping after I have a chance to do menu-planning with Eloise, tomorrow. Otherwise, I have no social contacts of any sort scheduled until the poly pool party the next weekend. Various church folks will be bringing over dinners next week, which will be helpful.

So I've been running around a lot, but things look to de-stress, hopefully...

Comments

[7patches.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that you are getting support from various communities, and are able to de-stress a bit.
I wish you the best with your M-I-L. You are very lucky to have a skilled resource in the family. I find that having assigned roles/tasks can help people keep comfortable bounderies.
Please give Pat a hug for me.