My mom, who has just recovered from two knee replacements, just called to say that the knee she injured a couple of days ago is broken, well, the tibia is. She went to the ER and they told her everything was fine, but she went to see her orthopedic surgeon today, and they told her that it was broken, and that the blisters all over her knee are called fracture blisters, and occur when a bone has broken to the marrow. I was originally concerned about blood clots, but she thought since she was sent home from the ER she didn't need to worry. Luckily, they sent her for an ultrasound today, and she is okay on that front.
I am so furious at the hospital, as they have screwed up her care repeatedly. When she was in the hospital for her second knee replacement, they had her on someone else's meds the whole time, and wouldn't give her enough pain meds, because she was so out of it. One of the things she was getting was something she's allergic to, another can cause stroke if you go off of it without tapering. The only reason any of the mistakes were uncovered is that she is a pharmacist, and knew that she needed to be tapered off of that medication, and that there wasn't a prescription for it when she was leaving the hospital.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. But, their incompetence didn't cause the fracture, and it's not their fault she is going to have to have another surgery. (At least, I don't think they did anything to make it worse, though they did allow her to walk around on it for days.)
My life is a constant game of keep away, just when security, stability, and health are within reach, it is all pulled away.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Rethinking Silk
In breaks between cleaning up things that come out of cats, I've been thinking about what kind of vegetarian I want to be. I call myself an environmental vegetarian, but in reality I'm an accidental vegetarian. I never intended to go veggie permanently, it just kind of happened. In fact, I never thought I could be vegetarian, I live in a small town in West Virginia, procuring vegetarian options seemed impossible. For health and environmental reasons, I needed to cut back on the amount of meat I was consuming, especially of the processed variety. I tried, and it didn't work. So, I decided to do kind of a meat detox, to go a period without it, then add healthier (for me and the planet) alternatives back in, slowly. I've yet to start adding things back in almost two years later. In fact, I seem to be taking more away.
In my first week sans meat, I accidentally ate bacon bits on a salad without thinking about it. I doubt they were real bacon, but the point is that I wasn't paying attention. Or, that I was, but there was too much information, too much change, for me to get it right. By get it right, I mean by my own standards. I don't think being vegetarian makes me accountable to other vegetarians, or other people at all, really. But, I am accountable to myself, which means my habits must evolve with my morality, which must evolve with my increased knowledge and fortitude. The basic formula seems to be, the more I know, the less I eat or buy.
In my first week sans meat, I accidentally ate bacon bits on a salad without thinking about it. I doubt they were real bacon, but the point is that I wasn't paying attention. Or, that I was, but there was too much information, too much change, for me to get it right. By get it right, I mean by my own standards. I don't think being vegetarian makes me accountable to other vegetarians, or other people at all, really. But, I am accountable to myself, which means my habits must evolve with my morality, which must evolve with my increased knowledge and fortitude. The basic formula seems to be, the more I know, the less I eat or buy.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Outnumbered
My mom went out of town, leaving me with her three, abnormally difficult, cats. That makes it five cats to one person. I don't like those odds.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)