Bad weekend
Cathy had to take Maria for a blood test yesterday to check the Depakene levels. Since Maria’s still congested she asked if she could see the doctor. They sent her to a PA who said Maria should get a breathing treatment. It uses this little machine which vaporizes Albuterol or some other medicine to open up the brochi and make breathing easier. Maria just HATED it. Both Cathy and Manolis held her down while the nurse held the mask over her face and Maria struggled and struggled and struggled.
Then, as though that weren’t enough, they still had to draw blood. It went the way it always does. Cathy says, “She’s a hard stick.” They pat her on the head and say, “Yeah, whatever.” They then proceed to torture Maria for several minutes, poking her with the needle over and over and finally getting blood. Then they say in amazement, “Wow, she’s a hard stick!” Um, yeah, that’s why we said it.
They sent the breathing machine home with Cathy to do every four hours and Maria doesn’t like it any better. It takes two people to do it and there aren’t always two people around.
They also put her on antibiotics again, which just seems absurd with no fever or other signs of bacterial infection. Because lord knows we need yet another medication to give her. Then again the good thing about antibiotics is they sure make her constipation go away.
They are concerned about the possiblity of aspiration pneumonia - which it obviously isn’t because it doesn’t get worse when she eats or drinks but the usual “better safe than sorry” which means “we don’t want to get sued”. So Cathy had to take her for a chest x-ray this morning on her way to the airport, since she’s leaving town for a week. It’s not a good time to leave, but it never is. One thing we’ve learned is you can’t plan your life around Maria because you never know what’s going to happen.
I went along to the x-ray in case things didn’t happen exactly on schedule and Cathy had leave early for the airport - which they didn’t and she did. Luckily I decided to run an errand yesterday afternoon so I discovered my dead car battery yesterday rather than this morning. There is an auto parts store five blocks away. Have you ever carried a big block of lead (filled with acid) in 90+ degree heat? Five blocks is a long way 