Sunday, November 28, 2010

What a Ride!!

The past six weeks or so have been beyond crazy! Sorry I have not kept you informed, but I think you'll understand once I fill you in. In late October I was trying to take care of my DH's diabetic ulcer on the bottom of his left foot, as I had been for the previous two years. But instead of showing signs of improvement or even staying the same from one week to the next, the wound became dramatically worse. I took him to the emergency room the Wednesday before Halloween, after we awoke that morning to his foot being bright red and the redness spread up the foot through the day. We were told in the emergency room that he would need to be hospitalized for this (no kidding, Sherlock!). The local hospital did keep him overnight, starting him on antibiotics. The hospital wanted him to see the doctor that had been treating the diabetic ulcer the past two years, but that doctor was affiliated with a different hospital, quite honestly one that Jack and I trust more but isn't local, unfortunately. Anyway, the local hospital released Jack with instructions for him to go see the wound care doctor. We did that. The wound care doctor gave Jack orders to go to the hospital affiliated with him before the afternoon was over. He wanted Jack admitted. After Jack had been there a couple of days, the decision was made that he needed to have an amputation. At first the doctor was discussing just amputating a couple of Jack's toes, or from just above his toes. Jack basically said, "if I am going to be amputated, I want it to be high enough that we don't have to do this again, I want it from about 5" below my knee". The doctor's discussed this and they did agree. Jack had weak veins in his lower leg and so it was best to get as high as they could to try and get away from the bad area of his foot and get to an area that could heal properly. Jack was so sick of being sick and tired, literally unable to do much of anything outside of bed.

The amputation ended up being November 3. The surgery lasted about 1 hour 45 minutes. He was taken back to his room a couple hours later. He never had any complications. He was sent to rehabilitation about a week later and released from the hospital all together on November 17th. He is recovering nicely.

I am so frustrated with my city counsel right now I could chew up nails and spit out thumb tacks, as Jack says!! Anyway, the day before Jack was released from the hospital, my older daughter's boyfriend's dad built Jack a ramp. That was such a relief to me, as I had been looking around about getting a ramp built and was hitting brick wall after brick wall. I was very grateful to Wes' dad. In yesterday's mail I received a letter that had been keyed the day before Thanksgiving, giving me until Monday, November 29 to comply, stating that the ramp that was built on our property was a building violation and we had until November 29 to remove it or be fined a huge amount of money. We contacted Wes' dad and he came and disassembled the ramp this morning. We also contacted our Alderman. She came over taking a copy of the letter. She will see what she can do. I told her that this particular issue is one of the reasons I was wanting to be an Alderman so badly myself. To get issues like this one to go away. Sharon completely agrees with me. She cannot see the reasoning behind this, especially since there is no ordinance listed that we violated other than 'other'. What kind of law is 'other'? Sharon and I would both serve as Alderman for Ward 4 if I am elected. There are 2 Alderman per Ward. Sharon is not up for re-election. The spot I am running for is being vacated by my neighbor three doors down.

I can say that my stitching has not suffered because of this though. I did finish out the towel for my parents during the first week or so that Jack was in the hospital. My parents loved the towel. Dad even said it was too pretty to use, that it deserved framing. I have also worked quite a bit on 'The Lord's Prayer'. As I key this blog, I have completed page 3, almost. I have some backstitching left on the hand of that page, but other than that, am done with page 3. I started stitching on page 4 while with Jack at the hospital. I am almost done with the regular stitching part of the hand. I then only have the lower right corner to stitch and the backstitching left on the hand of page 3 and all the backstitching of page 4. Part of me is wishing I was further on this, the other part of me says I have done well with the progress of this project. I did not do the backstitching of the hand of page 3 when really reached it because that was the day of Jack's surgery. I didn't feel like I'd be able to properly concentrate to backstitch, so I went on to page 4's x-ing. Considering I started this in early August, and the stitch count of this project is 140W x 206H, I guess I am not doing too bad.

I guess, for the most part, I have updated you on the goings on here. The girls are fine. Our Thanksgiving was great. Having Jack home from the hospital made it even more wonderful! I am still job hunting, but the Lord is watching out for us. Take care until next time.

6 comments:

  1. How very frustrating that a ramp would be considered a building violation, how else do they expect you husband to get about. Hope it can be resolved quickly. HUGS Emily in NC

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to hear Jack is starting to do better. Hopefully you can get this housing thing taken care of so he can have the ramp he needs. Your stitching is so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You all have been very busy! Glad to hear that Jack is doing better and at home with you.

    So very frustrating about the ramp. Did they really think you'd build that just for the heck of it?? I mean, really, obviously it was needed. It makes me want to smack some ignorant government worker in the head and say
    "Wake up Stupid!" lol

    Hope everything gets settled with the ramp ASAP! Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad to hear Jack is recovering well. Frustrating on the ramp issue. I hope you get it straightened out soon.

    Your stitching looks great, and congrats on the towel finish.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's just terrible about the ramp! Sometimes the city gets in the way of the people they are supposed to be working for!
    Great job on the towels.
    Hope all is settled with Jack and the ramp really soon..

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope Jack is doing well, all things considered. That's just plain stupid about the ramp- I hope you get elected and can change things for people in the future!

    - Lisa N.

    ReplyDelete