Run Around Day

I’m sitting here, after finally getting all my weekend at the ranch posts up, and reflecting on yet another very full day at the end of which I am enjoying the way my newly trimmed bob flutters around my face as the fan blows it dry.

This morning I was up and on the road by 7:30, with a quick stop first at the ATM, then the QT (where I neatly avoided a confrontational looking panhandler by studiously examining my cell phone before getting out of the car after she moved on) for a beverage, and finally arrived at La Loma about five minutes before 8am.  I surfed my Google Reader till the doors opened at 8, and then went in to sit with mother while she finished her breakfast.  We were outside and waiting when the Superior Medical Transport van pulled up at 8:30 to take us to mother’s 10am appointment at the Wound Care Clinic in central Phoenix.  There had been some indication that her appointment today was going to include a session with the hyperbaric chamber, but we did not really know what to expect.  When we arrived there was the usual paperwork to fill out, and then we were called back in relatively short order.  Two nurses then made a thorough documentation of all the incisions from the surgeries, took the wound vac off her foot, and finished more health history questions which went directly into the computer (so much more sensible than these paper questionaires).  The wound doctor came in to inspect everything, took out all the stitches from the bypass (that was not fun – they don’t always like to just slide right out…), and it was decided that mom would have a different dressing on her foot for the the time being.  Next week we will need to come back again, and her vascular surgeon will then determine whether to try using Integra skin replacement to prepare her foot for a skin graft.  Since the tendons remain basically exposed due to the foot surgery that removed the infected tissue, it’s not really going to heal properly until it can be covered by new skin.  Here’s a very interesting description of what this treatment actually does:

(from Burn Survivors Throughout the World)

When we were finished I expected to have to wait for a van to arrive to pick us up, but there was a driver already parked outside, having just delivered someone in the neighborhood, so we were able to get on the road right away.  Still, it was a long morning, with the 21 mile drive each way, and by the time we returned to La Loma, mother dear was plumb exhausted.  I left her to her lunch, ran home to get some of my own, and then zipped back again to meet with the staff for a care assessment.  That was about 5 minutes, then I went back downstairs to find her asleep on her bed, so I quietly put away the freshly laundered clothes I had brought and let her rest.  I then came home to a fabulously clean house, floor still wet from mopping, and, since Monday morning we had arisen at 3:45 and I’d been up late working on photos, and Tuesday was another late night, I took a nap myself.

I woke to find, Oh Frabjous Day, that it was payday!  I was utterly surprised, thinking as I had, that my shopping must wait till tomorrow.  Thus we betook ourselves for a wee salad and egg roll supper at Jack in the Box, after which Jacob and Laurent came with me to Wal-mart, while Meg, Gen and Paul went home.  Two carts and tons of veggies later, we were out of there, home and unloaded in a jiffy thanks to the kiddos.  The first order of business was to put my new Mr. Coffee Ice Tea Maker to use.  I have been thinking hard about important lifestyle changes that I need to make, and one of them is cutting the Diet Coke.  Since I truly do love iced tea, in all the many fabulous flavors one can imagine, I thought the $20 cost of the machine would be worthwhile.  I picked up some Cranberry Pomegranate juice and tried a mixture that turned out to be spectacular, so I’m very happy to be off and running with the first of many good changes in this household.

Finally, before I hit the shower, I asked Laurent to trim up my hair, which she did quick as you please and I feel ever so fresh and rejuvenated.  Now I need to get myself to bed before midnight, or tomorrow I’ll need another nap. 😀