Frustrations.

[mrissa]

I hate my cell phone. It didn't ring, just did the little ring that means you have a voice message. The voice message was from timprov's (and my) doctor. Of course she is trying to squeeze patient calls in between seeing patients, so of course when I called her back she was seeing a patient. markgritter is on the landline for work. She said she'd try back yet today, or on Monday. I really, really, really don't want to wait until Monday just because my cell phone didn't alert me to this call. This is important. (I did check to make sure the ring tone was not set to something inaudible. It wasn't.)

For those of you who don't yet know, timprov is doing badly enough that we're considering a hospital stay for him sometime in the future here, with more than one surgical option ahead to choose from/put in order/whatever. One of our friends misunderstood the limited information I had given her and thought I meant that we were worried timprov might harm himself, so while I don't want to give a lot of physical detail for privacy reasons, I can reassure you all that it isn't that. The rest of his body is doing plenty of that without help from the brain. This is physical stuff -- well, neurochemistry is physical, but I hope you know what I mean. It's been a rough week here all around, but I think we're dealing with it as best we can, maybe better than most.

One of the things I have decided I am doing to take care of myself in the midst of all this is to refrain from driving myself nuts coming up with ways that people can help. If there is something we genuinely need, I will ask the people who have said we can ask for help. But until then, I'm not going to manufacture tasks to make people feel useful. I don't think any of our friends would want that, but it's my first impulse anyway, and it's a silly one, so I'm going to just ask for help when we need it and not otherwise. Mrissabrains, harumph.

Also, the bratty-bratty beast-dog thiefed monkey underpants from the laundry hamper to chew, after being so good for so long. Not a huge thing, and yet not particularly needed just now.

Also I got a very weird letter from an editbeing asking me to explain my story before she decided whether to buy it or not. Umm? Okayyyy....

But we just got our new red couch for the living room, so I'm going to check on timprov and then let missista check it out. Hope you're all having a decent afternoon.

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Make sure I'm on the list of people who will do anything possible for you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[sraun]

You do have my household down for 'we need someone to watch missista now', don't you? Our dogs get along well with visitors, an extra dog for anything from a day or two to 2-3 weeks is no problem at all.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. If we need something on the order of weeks, her grandmonkeys would be delighted, but on the order of an afternoon might well be welcome, and I will keep this in mind.

[sraun]

Whatever time frame - as I said, this is an emergency dog-sitting offer, and we can cover most any likely period of time you need covered.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Please add me to the list of people you can ask for help if it should occur to you than I could do anything helpful. Things I can do from here to be helpful include researching stuff, calling people on the phone persistently, and writing officious letters to people who aren't acting right. I also know someone up your way who runs a hardware store who could be co-opted into advising you if your house needs alternations to make anyone's life physically more manageable, if that makes sense.

I know what you mean about struggling to find helpful things for people to do; I run into that same urge myself. It runs smack up against the part of my brain that tells me that for an adult woman to have her mother do her laundry is embarrassing...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. timprov is also stubborn about not asking for laundry help, albeit not so much this week.

And thanks.

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Red is good. Sorry the other things are sucking so. :-(

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

moral support to your family, anyway.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you; we don't have enough energy for the immoral kind, these days.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

*g*

*loff*

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Saturday and Sunday MORNINGS are a good time to go to the ER. Get there before noon. Pain is a valid reason to go to the emergency room. It may actually be good you missed the doc's call. Gives you an excuse not to wait until Monday. She might have told you to take him to the hospital anyway. If the problem is pain (granted I don't have many details) they may give him a morphine injection and send him home with some stronger pain meds. If he goes home and ends up the same after the morphine wears off, he should not feel bad about going back to the hospital.You might also be interested to know that hospitals typically will bring a sandwich to patients who are waiting in the ER through a meal period--or juice, bagels, etc.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We have determined to our satisfaction and with doctor consultation that a planned admit is better for this circumstance than an ER visit. But thanks for the timing advice; always good to know.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I am certain that your doctor will call you again this afternoon. (The day is young.) However, I'm equally sure they won't do a direct admit on a Friday, unless it's something really life threatening. Doctors don't like to run tests and see patients on the weekend if they don't absolutely have to do it, and you won't find specialists hanging around at the hospital, either. Staffing tends to be really crappy on weekends, too. The nurse/patient ratio falls, and more of them are part-timers, contractors, temps, etc. However, know that the hospital is there if pain or some other symptom becomes unmanageable. Just make sure you get there before the rush. Not very many people hurt themselves at 7 AM. The odds get worse after second breakfasts and morning cocktail hour. :-)

Hopefully, there will be a prescription your doc can call in to get your guy through the weekend. I am so very sorry your family is having so many health problems. Let me know if you need someone bigger than Ista to sit on you and make you rest. I will send my dog over. Nobody overexerts themselves when Nala is sitting on them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, we know. We don't expect to do a direct admit today. We'd just like to start the scheduling process.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I'm being pedantic. People who are in having pain don't always get treated with the dignity or respect that other patients get, and consequently one doesn't always know all the options available. Hopefully, you will have gotten in touch with the doc by now. The cell phone thing would frustrate me absolutely to tears.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We have not heard back from her. I expect to hear back on Monday, at this point. I think we can get through the weekend, but if we can't, we do know what resources are available, and we can bug porphyrin if we have doubts. (It's very convenient having a doctor for a close friend.)

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Argh on the missed connection. I never doubted you knew where to find the hospital. :-)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear that. And I really appreciate you taking the time to do me a favor when you've got so much trouble to deal with.

PS. Yes, it was an EEG, not an EKG. I mis-typed.

[loup_noir]

Good wishes for all of you. Poor timprov! Let's hope that the planned doctor visit fixes some of the horrible pain he's going through. Wish I could offer more. Watching someone you love be in pain is awful.

[ckd]

Best wishes to you all.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

My cell phone does that to me to. No ring, no indication of a missed call, but a voicemail appears out of nowhere. It's irritating even when the call in question wasn't important.

You guys are in my thoughts.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh argh. On many levels.

Like Bear, I offer moral support.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear this. Keep us posted with such details as are appropriate, when and if you have the wish to do. My best to you all.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

sending good thougths to you all

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Sending good thoughts! I suspect anything I could do, you've already had someone volunteer to do, but....

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Yararargh. You know the drill with good thoughts for you all, but...still drilling, here. Take care.

[allochthon.livejournal.com]

Please add me to the list of "if there's anything I can do..."

*hugs*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Much appreciated.