I know the feeling, Hil. I'm sorry for the necessity.

I'm glad the one you have is working, Bonny. Makes a huge difference.

Can I have some kidney~ma for ltc? One of her kidneys isn't draining properly and we have to go for a test on Monday to figure out if there is a physical cause. Her pediatrician said it is probably nothing to worry about, but I'm still worried.

sj , you can have all the ~ma in the world. I'm just sitting here, amazed that you have your baby, know she is a baby girl, and are dealing with being a parent (I'm really sorry about that last bit -- it's hard).

So yay, ltc (she's a little teacup, yes?)! I hope her kidney problems resolve. I am so happy for you and TCG. It's hard being a parent, a first time parent, and a parent of a child with health challenges. My hope and prayer for you and your baby is that everything will be okay, and if it isn't okay, it will still be okay. All my best for you and your daughter.

Hey, Bitches. :)

Thank you, Cindy. We got the results of the test today, and everything came back normal. ltc (yes little teacup) is on an antibiotic, which we're hoping resolves the issue. We go back for a follow up ultrasound in a couple of weeks. The poor thing is all gassy from the antibiotics, which I hate.

I'm so glad, sj.

Aske,

I ws going to say more so I htink my goal with my therapist and this case manager is go get me to the point where I can move in the spring instead of trying to wait another summer or fall. Part of me wants to give up and move now but that's not pracitcal.

I don't know how your insurance is configured these days, but if you've got (or would be getting) "Obamacare" your life may be a little simpler if you move during an open enrollment period.

We got the results of the test today, and everything came back normal.

Yay beautiful ltc and her normal kidney! I've been galloping through a massive catching-up read, worrying about the test results all the way.

Yay ltc!

My coworker's really scary pregnancy came to a successful conclusion this week!

They found a hole in the baby's diaphragm at about 5 mos in, which could have been disastrous for his organ development, especially lungs. (The other organs slip through the hole into the chest cavity, potentially causing all sorts of damage to themselves and crowding out the lungs. )

Having remarkably made it this far, they were standing by to take him directly from delivery to surgery. But Alex came out screaming and breathing on his own, and after a few days observation is already at home. Nobody even thought that was a possibility. I can only imagine how relieved and joyful they are.

Some good news about Tim's dad: he had the evaluation Thursday morning with the case manager from the Council on Aging. One of Tim's brothers was there, along with one of the sisters-in-law (not married to the brother who was there, though that's not really relevant). This SiL has been through this process with her own mother, who has severe dementia and is in a nursing home now, so she was a good advocate to have there.

He was adamant that he doesn't want the meal delivery service; SiL said he had a really visceral reaction to the topic, basically recoiling when it was brought up. So they dropped it.

He agreed to the LifeAlert button thingie, and to have a cleaning person come out once a week for an hour or 2. And they're going to send out a handyman to put a rail in the bathroom wall to help him get in and out of the shower. (The boys kept offering to do that, and he insisted he was fine and could just grab the windowsill or the towel rack if he needed to. [Which is a head injury waiting to happen.])

So that's a promising start. I wish he were getting the meal delivery, but he needs to be on board with it, or else he won't eat them, and that would be a waste.

We will need to remind him to actually WEAR the LifeAlert thing, but I think he'll be able to create a new habit. And everyone is super relieved about the grab bar in the bathroom. Also, he desperately needed a cleaning person and just never hired one. He thinks the house is clean, but he has cataracts (that he refuses to get surgery for), so he doesn't actually SEE the dust, etc., that builds up. Or the ick in the kitchen. So this is good.

Next step is convincing him that cataract surgery is a good thing. No one is sure why he's refusing to get it. My dad loved it. After 60+ years of needing glasses for nearsightedness, now all he needs is reading glasses.

Feel free to tout my delight with my cataract surgery and that not just old-old people get them. Mine were probably a result of pale blue eyes vs high-altitude ultraviolet exposure. I barely wear my reading glasses unless I'm dealing with very tiny print--God bless the font adjusting abilities of ereaders.

ION--surely we live in a golden age for shopping in hidebound conservative towns. I just bought a Magic Wand off of Amazon (I couldn't bring myself to buy it off of Wal-Mart.com, some things I just don't want to see in Wal-Mart packaging)