Some not too bad hospital news

Russet's mother is improving, she's gaining strength and control on her left side.

Russ arrived in Ohio Saturday, she took her harp and has been playing and singing for her mom, and apparently Clare has really liked that. Clare's been slurring her words, hardly surprising after a stroke, and the doctors have been worried that there was more severe impairment as she wasn't speaking. Russ told her when they were alone that it didn't matter if she was slurring her words, to just go ahead and talk. And she did. Clare also wrote a letter of complaint about some of the things in the hospital and Russ said it was 100% mom, so it appears that any damage was strictly motor control. Clare also helped Russ with the weekend New York Times crossword, something they've done together for years, so that's definitely good.

Clare's hemoglobin has risen, that's good. She's still somewhat anemic and they will be doing an endoscopy today to try and determine what's causing said anemia. There's talk that she'll be released in a few days, but likely to be put into a rehab home for some intense physical therapy to try and get an early fight on the damage from the stroke.

So, all in all, not too bad. Still not out of the woods, but at least a thnning in the density of the trees.

Harry Potter meme

I guess this works pretty well for me. :-)

Harry Potter Meme of All Memes by Osaku
Name/Username
Age
Gender
House	Ravenclaw
Wand	Ebony, 12", Unicorn Hair
Best Course	Spell Theory
Worst Course	Divination
Pet	Snowy Owl
Patronus	Owl
Quidditch Job	Security Wizard
Wizard Candy	Bertie Botts every Flavour Beans (Mmm! Grass!)
Profession After School	Gringotts Banker
Quiz created with MemeGen!

No Fly lists blocking babies

The new (post 9/11) no-fly lists used by the airlines have been hugely expanded. The only problem is that they only list a person's name. No other identifying data. Because of this expansion, one year old babies are being tagged as suspicious.

Sigh.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/no_fly_babies

Blech. Good news and bad news.

Today has been a very mixed day, and right now I'd have to count it as more sucky than not.

I went down to Alamogordo to register for class. In July I took a math placement test which, conveniently, showed that I only needed to take one "dummy" class before I could take the algebra course that suited my degree requirements. The problem is that there is so much stuff that I don't have a clue where it is since the move that it just ain't funny. Amongst these things is the little result slip. So when I go in to register, both my math class and photography class are available. But they can't register me because I don't have the little slip. But I can come back after 1pm and get a copy and take care of it that way.

This next part is entirely my mistake.

I had Celeste with me. It was warm outside, much warmer than the weather report predicted. I got some lunch, thoroughly watered the poodle, picked up some stuff at Walmart, dropped off some stuff at Goodwill, too the poodle to the park so she could get some relief, and went back to school. Got a copy of the test slip. And now both of my classes were filled.

I was able to get in to my photography course through the back door, they had two seats left in the same class being offered under a different course number. But I was screwed on the algebra. Had I been able to get both classes, I'd be in school Tuesday and Thursday from approx 1pm to 9 or 10pm. I'd have a break between 3 and 6, time to get dinner, relax, study. And this meant that I'd only be going down the mountain twice a week.

There are two other "114" algebra classes available, one is actually Tues/Thurs, but it's at 8am. I'm sorry, I ain't gonna do a 7 hour spread between the end of lab and start of photography. The point of getting these two courses was to minimize trips up and down the mountain. The other section is Monday/Wednesday afternoon with lab, but again, we're adding up and down the mountain.

Sigh.

So I think I'm going to try and get in that course, attend Wednesday, then go to the Thursday course and see if I can get the instructor to take pity on my poor situation.

But at least I got the photography course! It's going to be great getting back into the darkroom.

Funny thing -- I was unpacking stuff yesterday and came across two unopened envelopes of photo paper! I doubt they're any good, but I'm going to give 'em a shot.


The good stuff is that it is possible that Russet’s mother will be released from the hospital tomorrow. They did the endoscopy today and found two bleeding lesions in her esophagus. They wouldn’t leak much, but the cumulative effect of a couple of months could definitely cause anemia. They injected some epinephrine into the lesions and they closed up. So now it’s back to monitoring and figuring out what to do about the carotid clot.

Russ spent the day at the hospital and succeeded in totally missing the doctor. She has a sheet full of questions and she’s pretty frustrated that she can’t get them answered.


The bad stuff is that Russet spoke with her boss today and she is probably staying an extra two weeks in Ohio. I know four people in Cloudcroft by name. None of them are neighbors. Everyone whom I know through the observatory live a minimum of 20 minutes away.

It’s going to get awfully bloody lonely. But her mom needs the help, and she’s definitely higher priority than I am right now.