sick

I have started this post four times in the last twelve days. Illness swept over my house. If you remember there are eight people in my house. J brought it home to share with me. I of course accepted like a good wife. He got better in two days. I slipped into a cold coma. Or I would have, had my children not partaken in Daddy's gift as well. Rory, who is like is father in every other way, appears to have inherited his immune system as well. After two miserable days, presto! All better. He still has a lingering cough and runny nose but so does every one in the Midwest right now I think. Lorelei likes her Mother's spirit. I prefer the "I think I might be dying" approach. I have been to the doctor more in the past two weeks than I care to think on. It took me two attempts to get Lorelei treated by a competent doctor. Doctor no. 1 blew me off because I am an over protective mom. Darn tootin' and proud of it! In November and December she had two double ear infections. It makes sense that in January I would notice the signs when they began. But no, I have no degree so what do I know, right? God Bless Doctor number two. He was the one who diagnosed our November infection. Today we found out she has yet another ear infection. This time it is further along. Might not have been if Doc 1 had been any good.
The rest of the Fam joined it about seven days behind me. Delayed reaction due to the fact that none of them drink after or kiss on the original infectees. I no longer feel like death is imminent. That's progress. You can still find me by the trail of Kleenex boxes. How one person can produce so much gunk is amazing.

It is not just the two legged who are sick. Nope. Even one of the fuzzy felines had to go to the doctor. Pickles became a member of the family in 2003. The plan had been to find her a home but when the time came it broke my heart too much to watch her leave. She has always had serious issues with urinary tract infections. We have been to vet after vet. They diagnose, prescribe, the end. Few months later we start over again. This newest round we went to yet another new vet. She ran some tests that had never been run before. Lo and behold we got some answers. Pickles has staph intermedius in her bladder. Has probably had it for a long time. She needs special food to help keep her healthy. Gee wish I had known this years ago. Could have saved me time and money not to mention the pain my cat has been in!

Bursitis. I has it.

After waking up two night in a row writing in pain I decided to go to the Doctor. Sunday and Monday in the early AM I would have sworn to you tiny gremlins with dull spoons were busy trying to pop my knee cap off. Pain was shooting down my calf into my ankle and foot. I had visions of torn ligaments and ACL's. My mind began to wander in the direction of surgery, IVs, rehab Oh My! I put my panic on the back burner and made my way into Scott's Clinic.

The Doc and I chatted and she said it was unlikely spoon wielding Gremlins were the culprits. She had be lay down on the table to begin her examination. Twist the leg this way, twist the leg that way. No pain, no problem. Just my luck I go to the doctor to find nothing wrong, right? Not this time. She swung my leg around and my chorus of "no,no,no" to her "Does this hurt?" became "WHOA NELLY!" Diagnosis: I have fluid under my knee cap aka Bursitis. Knowing why something hurts goes a long way towards making it feel not quite so bad.

Not so bad that I have to have it drained off, thank heavens. Just lots of extra strength Tylenol. I have to ice it several times a day to keep swelling from occurring. During the day when I am most active and at night when I sleep I must keep it wrapped with an ace bandage. That is to help the fluid reabsorb into the knee cap by holding it still. It could take up to a month for all the fluid to reabsorb. A nice bonus is that I will probably have this as a new life long buddy. I have the tools to cope with it so I try not to complain. I am grateful that I am not going to have any big needles jabbed into my knee and glad I live in the era of modern medicine. Imagine what life would be like otherwise. *shudder*

Just some pictures

Brother and sister. Rory is playing with a light switch that he think controls traffic light. J had gone to Home Depot to get one for the house and Rory wanted one of his own. He got the one we were replacing. Of course what one sibling has the other must try and take. Lorelei is quite normal in that respect.

This is the her new way of amusing herself. She growls with it in her mouth like this. J thinks it is hilarious. She usually does it in the grocery store when she gets bored.
Only a child of mine could sleep with her feet straight up in the air! Lorelei has this comfort routine she does to put herself to sleep with a blanket. She rubs her eyes and pulls it up over her head. We do not let her have the blanket unsupervised for this reason.
J setting up Rory's Train and Plane set. It is too big to catch all in one picture.
Rory can spend hours with his transportation depot. We even hear him with it in the middle of the night.

The Mutant Chronicles

In the 23rd century Mitch leads a team into the earth to destroy "necro mutants" and save mankind. With an impressive cast this movie is fairly entertaining. Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, John Malkovich are the bigger names in the cast. Some lesser known by name but I am sure you will know the faces are Benno Furmann, Devon Akoi, and Anna Walton. The story line was surprising in that it was detailed. Some points were left to the watcher to decide. The main point being whether you believed this was an alien invasion sort of thing or a heaven/hell allegory. I voted for the Heaven/Hell myself. Room was left for a sequel. I would put it on my blockbuster queue. Not recommended for a trip to the movies where you have to shell out so much these days, but catch it on DVD.

Trivia

The Mutant Chronicles universe was first a Pen and Paper role-playing game published by Swedish game studio Target Games. There were also several boardgames, a set of tabletop wargaming rules (with associated lines of miniatures), as well as comic books.

Goofs

Factual errors: Military ranks worn don't correspond to the characters. Lt. Steiner, obviously German, is wearing US Army/Marine style Captains bars (only Lieutanant if he were in the US Navy/Coast Guard). Thomas Jane is incorrectly credited as "Major" Mitch Hunter in the credits. He's referred to as Sergeant throughout the film, although his insignia is not consistent. In the trenches he's wearing Sergeant First Class chevrons, but then in the bar where Brother Samuel meets him, he's only wearing ordinary Sergeant chevrons - a 2 level demotion.

Link to IMDB page for more info