Holiday Updates

After months of fighting an infection in his leg, Dad now sees some progress in the healing process. We took him to a cardiovascular specialist, and an infectious disease specialist. This brings the doctor count for Dad to 10.

It is still an ongoing battle, but there is visual signs of improvement in the wound itself, and the cardiovascular guy could find no reason for the edema (this is actually a good thing since it means he does not need any stints in the legs) The doctor is working on getting him some kind of device with a pump on it to try to help with taking the swelling down. We are looking forward to Morgan and Kara coming for Christmas, and have managed to get the Christmas cards the folks wanted sent out, as well as the presents to relatives that won't be here with us for the holidays.

Dad insisted on my going out with Mom to find my dog Chewie not one but two rugs... I felt this was excessive, and decided it would be better to get one and see if she took to it at all. When showed this prize present from Grandpa she acted like she was being punished and did not want anything to do with it. I swapped it out for the bathmat she had been using to sleep on, where upon she avoided it just until every cat in the house wanted to use it to sleep on. Now she has claimed it as her own, at least when no cats are using it.

The FDA in their usual illogical manner, have pulled all the products with quinine in them from the store shelves, leaving me looking for another solution to Mother's nightly leg cramps. (they cite sever side effects that they attribute to drug interactions in slightly over 2 percent of the population of the US. (which is over 3 million) It seems to me that warning labels would be a better way to go rather than taking away what has worked for over a year with no bad effects... I suppose it is the American Way, if it works take it away, restrict it or make it too expensive to obtain.

We are down to 7 cats now, as Lucky vanished. As she usually stuck pretty close to home when she was gone a week we figured she was not coming back. Boots still gets insulin shots twice a day for his diabetes. Dad has managed to feed my dog Chewie too many goodies so once again, the vet says she must be on a much stricter diet.

Dad had me go out and get something for the 17 month old child of the nurse who comes daily to dress his wound, which apparently the girl loves and got early when she was in the car the day we gave it to them for her from Santa. Since we did not want anything that would have parts that could come off and be swallowed, I found something called a puffalump, which resembles a blue dog with a dress on, is machine washable and had nothing on it that could be a problems as far as choking hazards.

I guess we are about as ready for the holidays as we are going to get and expect it to be a relatively uncomplicated time.