Five Random Musings, November 21

1. Cold temperatures have arrived. It was about 28 degrees this morning.

2. Yesterday the younger two boys went on a 52 (yes, FIFTY-TWO) mile bike ride. They are working on the Cycling Pathfinder honor. One of the requirements is a 50 mile ride. They went with their best bud, and one of the men from church. His wife took a couple of the girls on a shorter ride.

3. Today, the Botanist Boy is totally wiped out. Sore, some, from the bike ride. But also sneezing, sniffling, cold (and he's rarely cold!), and has a headache. Hopefully it passes quickly.

4. Tim told me has was able to pick up extra hours at work, which is good, since Jen is still not cleared for work. He'll even be working on Thanksgiving. We'll have to have dinner at noon.

5. Speaking of bicycling; there is a group of Pathfinders in North Carolina (I think it is) that does a long bike trip each summer. Tim (along with others from our church) went with them back in 2008. In fact, he was gone over his birthday.

Anyway, that group is going to bike the Natchez Trace next summer (2017). Frankly, all four of my offspring would like to go. Two of them need road bikes. Tim still has his; Botanist Boy is currently using it for the rides the Pathfinders have been taking, but Tim also uses it for Sabbath afternoon rides with his girlfriend. Last Saturday night my folks bought Little Bit a new bike (a hybrid; it's lighter than a mountain bike, and the tires have a little more traction than a road bike), as an early Christmas gift...so he'd be able to do the 50 mile ride the next day.

We are looking for good-quality (used would be fine) road bikes for Jen and Botanist Boy. Also, Jen and the younger two boys need to be outfitted with the proper clothing, etc. Also, there's the cost of the trip itself. If the Lord impresses you to help, we'd be most grateful!

I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving (my US readers).

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Five Random Musings, November 14

1. Today is Sir Frederick Grant Banting's 125th birthday. He was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate, noted as the first person to use insulin on humans.

That means today is celebrated as World Diabetes Day!

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and I usually blog more about Type 1 Diabetes, to raise awareness, during the month of November. This month, though, we've been kind of "thrown for a loop" around here. If you regularly read my blog, you have caught occasional glimpses of what's been happening.

2. My Lovely Girl has been battling a staph infection in one of her fingers. We are not even certain how she contracted the infection, but we have our suspicions.

She woke up one morning, with pain in her finger. There was no sign of a wound, at all. She complained of it hurting for a few days; we pretty much just ignored it...until it began developing pus under the skin. Actually, it looked like a developing blister.

We attempted an urgent care clinic in town, but the copay was going to be higher than she could pay. So the next day we went to the county health department. The nurse sent her to a clinic to be seen by a nurse practioner, who took a photo and sent it to a wound specialist. He ordered Jen to go to ER immediately.

They started her on oral antibiotic, and wanted her back 24 hours later, then 48 hours after the second visit. Jen's BFF (who is Tim's girlfriend), took Jen both to the initial ER visit, and the final ER visit; Tim and the girlfriend took her to the middle visit; all three visits were late in the day, involving driving after dark, which I can no longer do.

The final ER visit, they decided they wanted to keep her over night, to get her on antibiotic IV. They also did an MRI, which showed the infection had gotten in to the bone. They wanted to do surgery, to clean out the infection, the next morning. Jen wanted her mother there with her. So, that night after Tim got off work, he drove me to the hospital.

When they did the procedure, they took cultures, of course. We had to wait a couple days for the results. Those results showed a staph infection, but it was not MRSA...praise the Lord. Treatment for the staph infection? They put in a PICC line, to administer long-term antibiotic. All totalled, she will be on the IV antibiotics for 6 weeks.

She was discharged from the hospital on Election Day.

Now we daily change the bandaging on her finger, and change the "ball" of antibiotic. And, naturally, she is missing work. All total, she will be out of work a minimum of 3-4 weeks.

3. What caused this staph infection?

We aren't sure. We have our suspicions. Jen's first thought was possibly a spider bite in the night. Most likely, it was a finger poke, from checking blood sugars, that got infected...quite possibly at work (handling germy money).

(I am not allowed, by the daughter, to publicly post any more pictures of her finger. There are a couple over on my Instagram, but none from after the procedure on her finger, with the drain, nor after the drain was removed)

4. In order to change my driver's license from the previous state to the current state, I needed to have a certified birth certificate. It finally arrived in the mail last Thursday, eight weeks before my fifty-fifth birthday. It's official! I was born!

5. I am toying with the idea of changing my blog name. I don't know what that will entail yet. Just changing the name? Will I be able to change the name portion of the blog address as well? Or will I need to create a whole new blog?

I'll keep you posted!

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