Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Cold Day at the Lake


20 comments:

  1. ZOUNDS! Howard Dean!

    Oh, pooh! The new Mars rover found some sort of carbonaceous material. And I was hoping for pterosaur tracks...

    --Alan

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  2. Hi, Alan. listener, I left you a note on the last thread.

    Think I'm gonna have to take some Z-Quill. Tired, but can relax enough to sleep.

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    1. Thanks for the links, Susan!

      They're beautiful, and I can see how they'd work up fast with a machine. Since I do all hand sewing (even the seams) all quilts take a long time.

      There's a treadle for sale here, but it needs a belt and I have no guarantee it will then be in fine shape. I used to have one, and that's just my speed. Can't spring for a new, expensive version, though.

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    2. I just discovered ZZZQuil. A friend recommended it and it's marvelous!

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  3. I mean cannot. See, told ya I was tired.

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  4. Well (insert extremely foul word here) I didn't get to sleep until 7 a.m. And that was *after* taking Zzz-quil. Then I work up at 10:30 and got up. I hate, hate, hate (insert another extremely foul word here) insomnia!! Now I'm going to drag around half-dead all day. Messes my plans all up.

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    1. That was me, yesterday, Susan! Only in my car it wasn't insomnia, it was attempting to sleep *with* the kittens in the room. I finally slink off to the guest room and shut the door. The odd thing is that the kittens were being angelic, but for some reason their presence and purrs kept me awake. Add to that the dentist and my grocery store moment. Bleah! Today has been FAR better!

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    2. Ya. Sleeping in your car is hard. Beds are much better!

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  5. Hey All...

    Here's the latest Ally update. I don't want to post most places, because many of the folks who would read it won't have followed the story from the beginning and understand how amazing Ally's parents really are. But I think you will understand, and puddle has some troubles these days with posting...so here goes:


    Written at 9pm by Ally’s Mom...
    "We had Ally's endocrinology appointment last week. We did not agree with the doctor. We are pretty sure that Ally's low blood sugar was just a perfect storm of events: excitement, high adrenaline, poor eating, and nervousness. Her previous incident happened so long ago, that low blood sugar was not even on our brains anymore. We now know that we need to have a plan when she is away from us for an extended period. The doctors think otherwise. This week we have to do a finger stick each morning to check her blood sugar. We also have to check her urine for key-tones. I understand they want to rule out other issues, and we will concede the finger stick and urine test (they are easy after all)...(and all 4 days have looked very normal so far). We are not prepared or willing to do another test they would like do on Ally. This test would involve admitting her to the hospital and purposefully starving her, finger sticking her every hour, until her blood sugar reaches a critical value, then drawing several vials of blood and getting a urine sample. These samples would give them lots of information. We just don't feel it is necessary at this point. If Ally's incident had happened on a normal day, then yes, perhaps there is something else going on. But, we truly feel she is just so little that her body does not have enough reserves to keep her going for long periods of time. It is now in the front of our brain and we have a plan. We do realize we do not have our medical degree, so that is why we are doing the finger sticks and urine this week. We are also holding off on the port removal, in case we are wrong and another incident happens with Ally in the next few months (the port would make the blood draw for the crazy test easier). We would never want to jeopardize Ally's health, but we know her best, we do have a bit of medical knowledge at this point, and we feel comfortable saying no to this test. We did say yes to the appetite stimulant they prescribed for Ally. They accusingly looked at us and said "Really? Only 2 pounds gained in 10 months?" As if we do not try to the point of exhaustion to feed our kid to make her gain weight. We just thanked them for the prescription.

    "Sorry for the rant...

    "Anyway. That's it for now. I'll update again around Christmas. Have a great couple of weeks."


    Seems to me it would have to be pretty darn important before I as a parent would allow anyone to starve an undernourished child, then take a lot of blood out of her. I support Ally's parents in their decision and hope all the best for her, as always. They have endured so much and it makes me angry that they had to endure insinuations too. Gosh.

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    1. I don't have any real problem with the test, but agree that it makes more sense to check things out with the less stressful tests before rushing into it.

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    2. Well, this is a child who had cancer in her stomach wall, whose entire pattern if eating was disrupted early on by medical necessities. After years of horrific treatments and procedures, sHe is thriving in every way except nutritionally. The trouble with the test is that it starves her and hurts her, and she's 5 years old.

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    3. Also, listener, some kids just don't grow at the "acceptable" rate. My grandson is 7 years old, wears a 5T and weighs around 45 lbs. He has plenty of energy, just not much of an appetite.

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    4. I agree completely with Ally's parents. They know their child, what is normal for her and what is best for her. I don't think Mama ranted at all. IMO she had a right to be extremely angry at such blankity blankity blankity blank jerks!

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  6. Funny how I posted today's photo a few weeks ago, and today wasn't cold here at all. It hit 54F!

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  7. Well!! Looks like blogger ate my post this time. First time I can recall it happening to me.

    As of this morning I am back home safe and sound. Learned things that will be helpful. Met old friends and made new ones. Good trip.

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