Dodging the Raindrops

When it rains it pours. And I just felt a drop. 

Maggie left for school this morning doing fine. The night nurse said there were traces of blood when she coughed, as there has been many mornings over the past months. Maggie was happy and anxious to get to school. Before 9:00AM the very calm and professional school nurse called to tell me there was an alarming amount of bleeding. "Alarming." That's not a word she uses very often. Maggie was still "fine" other than this rather dramatice symptom. No fever, brething fine, etc etc. We decided to wait. I called the doctors' office to report this new (but oft repeated) symptom. I jumped in the shower because I knew it was likely that would be my only chance. I checked back at school 30 minutes later and it was the same, so I went to get her. We were home by about 10:15. By noon or so it stopped and she was completely back to normal.

Maggie is fine. She's not "sick", but this is a troubling issue and one we have  wrestled with for months. It comes and goes - but it generally only "goes" with antibiotics and comes back when the course is finished.

I spoke to the doctor who thinks its time for Maggie to be admitted. I actually agree with that. We need to get to the bottom of this issue. But the timing is horrible. The doc said today or tomorrow, but I said I can't.
I am scheduled for shoulder surgery on Tuesday and I just HAVE to get this fixed. She suggested Wednesday, but that's Maggie's 16th birhtday and I can't do that to her. We settled on next Thursday Mar 4th. Maggie will be admnitted for a 10 day stay to get IV antibiotics and have a battery of tests.

That will make me 48 hours post op. After thnking about it for an hour or so I knew I could not possibly do that. I'm going to call in the morning and put it off for another week. It's been months and she's doing fine. I really think we can wait another week or two. I need to be physically strong enough to handle the extra work of having her in the hospital and need to have the stamina to go without regular sleep for several days.

Dealing with Maggie in the hospital is not easy. She is uncomfortable, we don't have our supplies at easy reach and the one to one nursing I have at home is not available. It's ironic, but she gets a lot less nursing in the hospital land those skilled treatments she needs fall to me. 24/7. It's exhausting. Trying to do this one handed will be impossible.

Hopefully we will delay things a week or so. Give some of these rain showers a chance to clear.

In the meantime, can I borrow an umbrella?