Many of you already know that Kevin fell rollerblading yesterday with a brief loss of consciousness.[1] He refused transport, by ambulance or neighbors, and has a memory lapse of about 3.5 hours. He agreed to see our family practitioner this morning. She took one look at his unwrapped wrist (I splinted it last night) and said it's dislocated, probably fractured, and he could either wait several hours to get in to an orthopedist or go directly to the ER for x-rays. Since old paratroopers never die,[2] he decided to do neither of those things. Instead he got a much-needed haircut, picked up a proper wrist splint, and prepared for an interview scheduled for 1 PM.

I saw him off with plenty of time, printed paperwork in a folder and his netbook charged and packed with its cooling pad. At the last minute I handed him my phone. I'm glad I did, because 20 minutes later he called to say the Mustang's engine cut out while he was on the way to the interview. He planned to cross a nearby overpass to a gas station and get the car towed. In the meanwhile, he talked to the recruiter (he did not have a phone number for the client) and will reschedule. I hope the client makes an offer; the previous screens and interview went well and we got the impression the client thinks he's a good fit.

When it rains, it pours. Also, always wear appropriate safety gear for sports.



1. Most surreal moment: a neighbor kid asked "Is he dead?". I replied, "No, people can't be dead and breathing."

2. Old paratroopers never die, they just go to hell and regroup.

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ETA: The Mustang turned out to have a broken coil wire, a fairly simple and inexpensive fix. We'll pick her up from the shop tomorrow since our bank decided to go back on the "we will release part of your latest deposit Tuesday and the remainder Wednesday" after we verified that policy with a supervisor, purchased a cashier's check in our local branch to pay rent, and checked the balance before he left. (Will straighten that out in the morning.) Kevin didn't want me to ask any of "my" friends for a ride, so he started walking. Two and a half miles in, a stranger stopped and offered him a ride the rest of the way home.

Good things since my last post:
- Holy crap, you guys are so nice! I teared up several times.
- We got the electric bill squared away.
- One of this week's phone screens has progressed to a phone interview on Monday. I am hoping it goes well. If it works out I think it will be nice for him to get away from the niche of medical software.
- Someone asked what jobs he's held. In approximate chronological order since graduating from high school, he's been an airborne paratrooper, a carpenter for a custom window company, a medical courier, and held various software developer positions in telecommunications, defense, mobile computing, medical practice and revenue cycle management, and financial software for ATMs. Most of the past 20 years have been in software.
- I learned these ginger doughnuts are delicious: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2004/12/ginger-doughnuts
- I moved some of the wintered-indoor plants outside and transplanted some seedlings. The hanging baskets now have plants in them, the ivy that started taking over the windowsill is trellised in a gallon pot, and I put a couple of seasonal-clearance rainbow pinwheels I had stored away in the other gallon pots. It's silly but they make me happy.

Keeping busy keeps me focused on the things that are good.

64 hours into the week (from midnight Sunday), Kevin has gotten a total of 4.5 hours sleep and eaten two meals. The bulk of that sleep occurred today after he took a 5-HTP with a meal. At the end of two weeks of data collection, we're going to the family doctor and hoping whatever she refers us to see isn't too expensive.

We could go through VA to get a sleep study, but if our recent experience is any indication it will take at least three months of weekly visits and hoping Dr. Shutup has been reassigned somewhere else. (Dr. Shutup's demeanor during his vesting-in consultation made me think she'd be happier in pathology, bless her heart.)

Kevin has decided to be evaluated for PTSD. I am both pleased and relieved he has made this decision. (Like all mental health issues, the afflicted person has to want to do something about the issue.)

In other good news:

- we've found an over-the-counter potassium supplement that agrees with his digestive system. The combination of omeprazole and potassium is working well to keep him on an even enough keel to eat and keep it down, although he's still eating only small amounts at a time after the week-long stomach unpleasantness he had in late November.

- we have figured out an arrangement to make our living room more presentable and consolidate the sewing/crafting things into one room. It involves turning the master bedroom into a studio, but it will be good all around once we're done.

- after a frosting failure, I used melted almond bark coating to hold together 24 graham cracker gingerbread-style houses for Laurel's class party. The kids loved it and I returned home 23 houses and some candy lighter, but heavier by over half a dozen large premixed frosting bags. I promptly gave three bags to one of the feral children after she knocked on our door and asked if she could have them. (I realize in hindsight that I have no idea if her responsible adults were aware of this, but at worst I gave a bunch of kids whose parents I don't know a bunch of sugar on a Friday afternoon.)

- I am reasonably satisfied after over a week of tweaking my model in SketchUp that I have a stable tank model to print and use as gingerbread templates. I'm going to get some pirouette cookies at the dollar store to use for the tank gun.

The company Kevin has done a tech phone screening and a phone interview with earlier this week has scheduled an in-person interview for Monday. I am still not getting my hopes up, but it would be nice.

He explained to me why he won't sell the birdcage yet -- he wants it to be the fallback to sell for gas money once he has a job. I had assumed it would be more reasonable to buy a monthly bus pass since that's $50/month compared to the cost of a car (which normally isn't much but it's overdue for inspection and registration, plus insurance ends on the 21st), but he doesn't think taking the bus would work with the position he's interviewing for. *shrugs* Okay.

I have printed off my coupon and am going to get my free birthday creamslush tomorrow. My throat has been sore today but hopefully it was just from getting a little dehydrated Friday, because I am going to enjoy the hell out of actual dairy product when I get that creamslush. It's going to taste even better than having dairy again after a round of Levaquin, maybe even better than the Dr Pepper I had last month when I went to celebrate friends' impending baby arrival (and that tasted like victory).

Going to the Dallas VA Medical Center was a trip. It's much busier than my weekday morning experiences at our local hospital, but it's cheerful. I bought a bag of popcorn from a double amputee. (He has awesome signs, next time we visit I will ask him if I can take photos of them.)

We learned why we had been advised to arrive two hours before his appointment time, as he was to go to lab, x-ray and EKG before seeing the doctor. His liver function is back in the normal range (huge relief) but he is scheduled for more labwork in a month to check on things, including his blood ammonia levels.

We were tasked with getting copies of the CT, MRI and other test imagery from his March hospital visit and taking them down to the VA hospital no later than a week before his August appointment for radiology there to look over them.

Next month's visit, scheduled for 25 August, is when we'll get to discuss more of our concerns about his liver function and head injury issues, then get referrals from there.

Looking back, I realize that most of my posting this spring has been friends-only or otherwise filtered because of sensitive things that have been going on. Rather than make them all public, here's the condensed version of what's been going on with Kevin (vogonpoet):

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The neurologist's office called today to confirm next Wednesday's appointment. Imagine my surprise when I asked the person who called if he would be having a sleep-deprivation or routine EEG and they said "Neither, this is just a followup appointment."

I went to call back this afternoon once he popped out around the corner to get a soda and learned the office stops answering their phones at 3 PM on Fridays.

I am starting to think that the hospital has a wildly unrealistic idea how long it takes to get an EEG as an outpatient when they told us we should be able to schedule one this (now over) week. The soonest appointment we were able to get calling this past Monday was ten days out -- and it turned out to be for a followup, not the test we were told to schedule.

Visited him briefly tonight with the VogonMom and VogonDad, who tagged off with Laurel and we were able to take him down to see Laurel. She had been very anxious since she saw him seizing and last saw him around 3 AM.

The EEG will be on Monday and he will stay in the hospital for observation and continued IV fluids and potassium. His bed is hooked up to a sensor that trips an alert at the nurses' station if he moves more than simply shifting around in case he has another seizure. He was resting quietly watching TV when I arrived; in addition to clean pajama pants, toiletries and a change of clothes, I brought his MP3 player and charger and (once his doctor says it's okay for him to use it) my laptop with a Wi-Fi card and a trackball.

Pending Monday's test results and no further seizures, he may be home Monday or Tuesday.

As I was puttering around putting together an overnight bag and the laptop in a backpack for him, the VogonMom called because she's in town and wanted to get together sometime. I told her what was going on (she's a nurse), gave her the information I had and she called him while I went back to getting things together. She called back to relay that he thinks he might be getting out tonight so she'd head over to the hospital and will call me with more information later.

...

I'm itching with curiosity to find out what the docs think might have happened. Below normal potassium and slightly elevated liver enzymes are normal for him, but low levels treated with 12+ hours of IV potassium is new to me.