I Didn't Fall Off The Planet....

Back on Thanksgiving, the adults were seated in the kitchen and the younger "kids" were in the other room eating.  My sister-in-law quietly summoned me to the downstairs bathroom as my son's nose had begun to bleed. For the next half hour or so, he and I worked to get it to stop and simultaneously keep my sister-in-law's recently redone powder room from looking like a scene from Friday the 13th.

It turns out that Thanksgiving was the beginning of a five-day siege of nosebleeds that got progressively worse and finally sent us to the emergency room on Sunday of that weekend. My son works at our parish rectory and I got a call from him in the late morning saying he had a bad bleed. I drove up to the rectory took one look and called our doc, who was not on call and the on-call doc told us to go to the emergency room. So, I ran over to our church and caught our pastor just before he processed down the main aisle at the start of mass and told him that his worker had to go the hospital.

The bleeding was unbelievable. We just kept adding tissues and by the time we arrived in the ER, he had a wad of kleenex the size of a softball up at his nose and the blood was still pouring over top.

My poor baby....

 

The ER doctor couldn't find a cause for the bleeding but referred us to an ears, nose, and throat doctor, whom we saw the following week. He found a vessel that was getting ready to rupture again and cauterized it and told us to return in two months.

Fast forward to last week, and we saw the ENT doctor again, who suddenly informed me that my son probably should have surgery to remove his enlarged adenoids and repair his deviated septum, and that both of those issues are contributing to his nosebleeds. I questioned why he didn't tell me this at our initial visit and he responded that he made a note to this effect to himself in the chart.  Needless to say, second opinion were the first two words that popped into my head. I contacted DuPont Hospital for Children to set up an appointment. It turns out the doc we met with is chairman of the ENT department at DuPont. He examined my son and told me his septum was "relatively straight" and that his adenoids were negligible at this age and that surgery is definitely, definitely not needed and that both of the issues the first doctor described would NOT contribute to his horrendous nosebleeds. 

I am so glad we saw the second guy. He said the only surgery he would consider would be repair of a vessel in his nose if the cauterization no longer works. So, we are taking steps to help prevent the nosebleeds and so far, so good.  My boy was a very happy camper after that second opinion....

Me, well I am busy aging and having lots of joint and bone pain, that hopefully I'll get to the bottom of on May 19 - the earliest appointment I could get with a rheumatologist.  That may seem like a long time away from now, however I've had a lot of pain for many, many years so a couple of months isn't so bad.

In the meantime, I am taking photos here and there of just stuff....

 

My new camera strap from MyFunkyCamera! Beautiful isn't it?

Gerber Daisies we gave to my daughter for making fourth chair clarinet in an area concert.

A simple dripping icicle....

Life is rolling along, we are busy with the kids and their activities, and I am hoping to feel better soon. I am taking a zumba class. It's painful but fun, and I am doing my best to keep my joints moving. I just load up on Advil before I head out to class.

Oh, last week, when leaving Zumba class, I was approached by a man who told me his car broke down and he was trying to get to Wilmington, DE to visit his sick mom in the hospital. He was even carrying a long stem rose and a bottle of hand sanitizer to make it look legit. When I offered to him that the trolley stop was only several hundred yards behind him, he said he had no money. Luckily, a friend was right there with her car so she told me to get in the car, which I did, and then we drove to the police station and told them about the incident.... sort of scary and maybe it really was nothing but still we felt an obligation to report it.

I am looking forward to spring very much - getting outside and walking and not dealing with snow and ice.  As of this moment, we are awaiting a big rain storm coming today and through tomorrow.  On the bright side, Phillies spring training has begun so that means spring is definitely on its way.  Thank goodness for having hobbies or I don't think I'd survive the winter. Well, except this winter is a bit better because we have the Olympics to enjoy every day, and I so enjoy them. Helps me to relive my days as a champion figure skater.....