July 19-July 31st, 2021

  Can't believe July has come and gone. And unfortunately the number of COVID cases is slowly rising again. Maryland's positivity rate rose from .5 to 2.0 recently. At my mom's facility we are on hold for in person visits. They had a few positive cases in residents and staff that were vaccinated. I am just glad I had time to visit with my mom in her apartment and to bring her home for a few enjoyable Sunday dinners with the family before things shut down again. Although I really was not expecting it. I have a bunch of supplies I wanted to drop off to her apartment, including a new rollator. I started bringing her to the front door in a wheelchair since the walk is just too much for her from her 3rd floor apt out to the parking lot when I pick her up.  I am getting tired of pushing the w/c with one hand and pulling her rollator along with the other. I will keep one rollator in my car instead and give her one for her apartment. I also moved some of her furniture out of the way to increase the open space in her room. I did have to take her to the dentist for her regular cleaning. Unfortunately she was extremely tired all day, falling asleep during the drive over and back and during her cleaning in the dentist chair! We kept poking her to wake up and open up! At least she stayed awake through lunch on the patio at Checkers burgers. But I had a harder time getting her in and out of the van! And now I can't get back into the building or take mom out for a visit. I'll just have to wait it out. 

We continue to wear regular masks at work and they just asked us to use our face shields or goggles again. I really hate those since they fog up and I cannot see to write my notes or see my patient! We are still just getting tested once a month for now. More families have been allowed back in the building as we take in more patients too. It can get a bit hectic. Our front desk staff still screen people coming into the building and sometimes people just sneak in if they can. Also, families have been dealing with lots of medical and personal issues during the shutdown from the pandemic and we seem to be getting the brunt of their frustration and problems. And all the staff have been scheduling vacations non stop since everyone has been missing out on time away over the past year and a half. Seems our boss and tech had a hard time keeping track and believed one of our OT assistants was still at work. They actually made her a schedule for two days before I pointed out the fact that she was not actually working but down in Florida!

I also made Scott a dentist appointment while I was at the office. He hasn't been to the dentist for over a year due to COVID and being away at school. He had been having a hard time scheduling one between his work hours. Plus they limit the number of patients in the building and still spend time cleaning in between clients, besides staff wearing masks and protective gear. When he did call, the office had taken a two week vacation! Same with our hair salon. I made Scott an appointment when I dropped in to pick up a gift card for Allison from my mom for her birthday. They still don't take walk ins  at this time.  

July seemed to be the time to catch up with doctor and dentist appointments. My hip has been giving me such a hard time. Since the motion is limited, I keep tweaking my knee which is making it so much harder to walk and get to work since that hurts more than my hip! I finally made an appointment with another orthopedic surgeon as I was in tears after getting off work. (and I continue to work 5-6 days a week for 6-9 hrs a day). Looks like I picked the right doctor. He showed me my hip xray from over a year ago and I was shocked. There is not much space between the hip ball and socket and it is full of bone spurs. No wonder I am so miserable. Even Physical Therapy can't stretch me out enough. The doctor felt that surgery and a hip replacement was an appropriate plan since I am really struggling just to walk let alone stand on my feet all day at work and move heavy patients around. The previous surgeon never laid a hand on me, never showed me my hip xray and only wanted to give me a cortisone injection. And he told me to come back in 10 years! I took another xray and as the current surgeon said, it probably will be worse. So I am now working on my presurgery screenings and plan to take off work. According to the surgeon, I need 3 months off for rehab and recovery. The surgery scheduler says they have opening starting late October, early November, so I am hoping to get it done before the end of the year. And I need to request Family Medical Leave from my contract company, but cannot put in the paperwork until 1 month prior. So I need a dental clearance, blood work, and to review surgery video training besides meeting with a PT and getting my post surgery training. The surgical procedure is an out patient event. Even though Tom is very supportive of me getting the surgery so I can start being active again, he is not too excited about the afermath. He does not make a good nursing aid! Should be interesting. Good thing I am an OT! I am actually looking forward to getting a new hip and back to life!

We all seem to be going through medical changes. I took Cookie in for a regular dental cleaning too. They have to put dogs and cats under anesthesia for a cleaning and do bloodwork beforehand. Surprisingly Cookies bloodwork was abnormal-extremely high white blood cells although she was fine in February during her last check up. So now we are waiting for the pathologist to let us know what is going on. So no dental work for her. Keeping our fingers crossed it is nothing too serious and treatable. She is 12 and does not appear sick at all, eating and drinking plenty and still begging for walks and play time every evening. Scott dropped her off for a summer grooming so she would not get too hot on our walks. PS (She does better than me on our walks!)

We also discovered that our good friend and neighbor, Dan, ended up in the hospital over the weekend. He was not sure if he was having a stroke or not, so to be safe they kept him for lots of tests and started him on statins and gave him blood thinners. Nothing showed up on the CAT scan and no residual side effects, but he was very dizzy and a bit disoriented at the end of the day. He really pushes himself too-cutting the lawn and then steam cleaning the carpet. Maybe a bit dehydrated? Not sure, but he was taking it easy. Our next door neighbor also landed in the hospital with signs of a heart attack. Fortunately it turned out to be indigestion. Thank goodness! He has been pushing it too after falling out of his ladder and breaking ribs while trying to trim a tree in his yard. We were worried he had possibly punctured a lung. But he's back home and they have been busy entertaining grandkids in their swimming pool. 

Besides medical issues, I was sorry to hear that after only 1 week, someone had stolen one of Allison's patio chairs! I had a feeling that could happen, so I did not purchase an expensive set. But really, it only survived on her patio for one week. Pathetic. 

On a happier note, we celebrated the birth of Stacey(Seitz) and Matt Draper's first baby boy, Elijah on Saturday, July 24th. Another July birthday in the family! Eli was due in August, just like Allison. And just like Allison, could not wait to come! Or maybe he could. Stacey went in to the hospital on a Thursday to be induced and Eli just did not cooperate. Stacey ended up having a C-section. She and Matt seem to be busy settling into the new parent role and we can keep up with lots of their posts on Facebook. 

We have all been enjoying our summer weekends as much as possible too. Allison attended a picnic in New Jersey with a large group of Gabe's friends. She met most of them at the wedding in New Jersey last month, and even Gabe's parents were there since the friends have been together for a very long time. Allison also brought along some Mexican bean dip to share. And our family has been catching up with each other on Friday nights with dinner and a movie-either at home or out and about. This past weekend we went to see Disney's "Jungle Cruise". A bit like Pirates of the Caribbean-I though it was a bit intense for the younger crowd but we enjoyed it. I think Allison and Scott loved the silly puns written into the movie the most, just like the Disney ride. 

And Tom and I joined Dan and Gloria on a day trip to Frederick, MD about 30 mins from our house. We are really enjoying this historical town-lots of great shops and restaurants. Tom wanted to take Dan and Gloria to the large distillery there so we stopped into one of our favorite brew pubs for lunch first. They still have outdoor seating and portions of the roads closed off. Or you can sit inside with the glass doors open which we did. After lunch I talked everyone into touring the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. I had always wanted to go, and since Gloria is a nurse and Dan works at the FDA, they both thought it would be interesting. Tom was just along for the drinking. The museum is not terribly large but rather fascinating. Apparently most of the soldiers that fought in Antietam were brought to the town of Frederick for medical care. Several of the buildings in town at the time were turned into hospitals, including the building that houses the museum. The place was also used by an undertaker for embalming and casket production. (So I had to ask if it was haunted!). Not only did it cover the medical care from the battle field to the hospital setting, but veterinarian medicine as well for all the horses needed during the war. Gloria and I especially enjoyed reading stories about the nurses helping out during the war like Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross. I can definitely see my OT roots in the nurses caring for the soldiers who besides providing medical care also assisted with leisure activities and rehab. And there were many developments in the medical field like wheelchairs, splints and  prosthetic legs and arms. We paid for our admission which also gave us a year long membership that includes entrance into a few other museums, including one in Gettysburg and a discount in their gift shop(discounted tshirts and socks!). After our visit we headed over to the distillery. Turns out there were multiple weddings going on in Frederick that day and lots of photographers outside taking wedding photos along the manmade canal that cuts through town. The canal was filled with beautiful water lilies in all sorts of colors like pink and purple. Good backdrop for wedding photos. But apparently our distillery was hosting a wedding reception and it was closed for the day. So no drinking there. Instead we stopped into a small distillery/bar next to the museum that only served drinks. They had whiskey, bourbon, gin and cocktails. I tried a cocktail flight and Tom and Dan went for the whiskey. And if you wanted food you had to order from Door Dash for delivery. Looks like we were the oldest people in the place so we sat in the back so we could chat away from the loud music. Tom and Dan were not too thrilled with the selection and I only found 1 bubble gum gin cocktail that was enjoyable. Oh well, it was an interesting experiment. We tried to schedule a return trip the following weekend, but I had to work and Tom was busy traveling. 

He spent 1 week up in the Chicago area working on a manufacturing project. He is enjoying getting back to traveling for work, even with the fluctuating COVID precautions. He has a few more trips scheduled including one near the Dulles airport and another trip to West Virginia but at least he can drive to those. He did manage to bring back summer sausages and almond kringle on the plane though! I would have loved some cheese curds too! He also spent a few weeks following his online externship revising his thesis. He had to drop one of his proposals and cut his written thesis down to 120 pages. Now he is waiting for feedback and approval so he can move forward with his surveys required for the conclusion. We are hoping he will be graduating with Scott next year!

In the meantime, we have been enjoying keeping up with the 2020 Olympic games in 2021. Weird.