Home Again

After running a bunch of tests the doctors decided that they have no idea what is causing all the pain so they sent Michel home yesterday. That isn't quite true that they have no idea. The urologist suspects that it is the kidney stone they found using the ultrasound. To be on the safe side, they made an appointment for Michel to see her neurosurgeon just to check to see if it might be the shunt. The end of the shunt is on the side where Michel is having the pain. So tonight she gets to see Dr. Bolognese.

I haven't written much about Paolo A. Bolognese, M.D. Associate Director of the Chiari Institute. He was the other neurosurgeon in Michel's surgery. He is from Italy and is "the leading worldwide expert in the field of laser Doppler flowmetry applied to neurosurgery, and the top European figure in the field of neurosurgical intraoperative ultrasound." He came to the USA to work with Dr. Milhorat. I have met Dr. Bolognese a couple of times and he is a very nice man. You really get a sense from him that he cares about his patients.

What is old is new again

Michel is back in the hospital. She was having pain on the right side of her abdomen all day on Monday but it got so intense Monday night that all she could do was lie on the floor. I called the volunteer fire department and they took her to the local hospital (the same one where she works). They are in the process of running tests but so far they have been saying that they don't know what it is but they don't think it has anything to do with her shunt. Michel's parents have come to the rescue again. They came out yesterday afternoon to watch the kids. I don't know what we would do without them.

Bringing things up to date

When life gives you lemons... whine about it in your blog.

It's been awhile since I brought everyone up to date. Michel did not get back to work as scheduled on the 14th. Her lymph nodes have been swollen for two months so the doctor decided that she had to stay out of work another month. In fact, the doctor sent Michel to see an Oncologist. I guess he decided we didn't have enough to worry about. Anyway, Michel will see him next week. Meanwhile she gets worn out very easily and has been taking a lot of naps. Her spirits are pretty good considering all she has been through. She is upstairs watching a special about Saturday Night Live and I can hear her laughing.

Michel had her worker's comp hearing and everyone agreed that she should be getting her money but we still haven't received a penny. It was another piece of paper work that had to be filled out by the doctor before they will pay us the back money and start paying her again. Next hearing is on St. Patrick's Day.

I do have some good things to talk about but I'll save them for another blog entry.

The Blizzard of '05

We are in the center of this map, surrounded by white. At this point we had close to a foot of snow on the ground and more coming. Apparently there is a lot more to come as the low goes below us and brings more snow from the east creating a typical Nor'easter. The counter-clockwise spin of the low will pull moisture from the ocean and dump it on us as more snow. They say that it will snow until noon tomorrow.

I went out around 9:30 PM to shovel and cleared the sidewalk and driveway. I am out of shape and came in exhausted. The snow was light because it is so cold but because there was so much snow it was still a lot of work. So I'm taking it easy now and hoping that the wind doesn't make all my work a waste of time. Nero Wolfe will be on in a few minutes. Beth and I love this show and always watch it together. A cold beer, Nero Wolfe, and then off to bed for a good night's sleep.

Life Update

Some good news...

• Michel is doing better every day. Her head is healing, the pain is lessening as long as she doesn't overdo things, and her hair is growing in!
• We have an aid starting today. They finally found someone who lives nearby and doesn't mind walking to the bus stop. (We aren't exactly convenient for the bus.) They had been trying to find an aid with a car but that, apparently, is very difficult. The aid will start every day at 3 PM and stay until around 9 PM.
• My beard is filling in very nicely and doesn't itch anymore. I don't know if it is the conditioner, if it's getting softer as it gets longer, or if I'm just getting used to it.
• I have finished two books and I need to write reviews. I am falling behind in my reading and the pile of books is getting higher.

Make a left at Germany

Here is further proof that you should always sanity check any directions you get from the web. Go to MapPoint and ask for directions from Haugesund, Rogaland, Norway to Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway. To get from one city in Norway to another, MapPoint will send you on a 1,685 mile journey through England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. The total expected time is 48 hours, not including time spent waiting for ferries. The directions include 116 separate steps, which is a record as far as I know. Reverse the two cities making Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag the starting point and MapPoint will give you directions that are more direct, taking you 11 hours to travel the 476 miles between the two towns. So either Norway has a serious issue with one-way roads or MapPoint needs some revision. Perhaps it is worth noting that MapPoint is a Microsoft product.

Thanks to Language Log for pointing this out.

Edit: The above directions are for the "quickest" route. Changing your selection to the "shortest" route sends you on a trip on the ferry to England, driving west for half a mile, turning around and driving east for half a mile, and getting back on the ferry to Norway. The directions say this trip will take 51 hours!

Separated at Birth

Here's a picture of Michel and her good friend, Squidward. I picked up Squidward at the hospital gift shop while Michel was still in because they look so much alike. It is less readily apparent now that Michel has some hair back, but the resemblance was uncanny when Michel was bald. For some reason, Dr. Bolognese thought she looked more like Patrick but I don't see the resemblance. Beth made me buy the complete set, so not only do we have Squidward but also Patrick and Sponge Bob.

Michel's recovery continues to go well. The doctors say that Michel can go back to work next month. Meanwhile, she has a hearing about her Worker's Compensation at the beginning of February. Since the doctor picked by the insurance company said that Michel can't work and that her injury occurred at work, I don't understand why the insurance company just doesn't admit they were wrong and start paying again. I hate insurance companies!

I Grew a Beard

I never liked beards. They are itchy and because beard hairs are coarse and I have sensitive skin they hurt. But Michel likes beards and has been bugging me to grow a goatee. While she was in the hospital I couldn't really whine that the beard hurt too much especially with her head looking like a carved Thanksgiving turkey. So I broke down and grew a goatee for her. I'm not sure I like it because it is itchy and it is irritating my skin so if anyone knows something that will either soften up the beard or toughen up my skin, pleae let me know. Anyway, the goatee is staying because one of my co-workers told me it makes me look younger. You can compare the "Hairy Tom" to the clean-shaven Tom and let me know what you think.

New Year's Day

We went over my sister's for New Year's Day. It was cold but the kids went outside to play with the dog. From the left, that's Mikey, Laura (my niece), and Beth. The dog's name is Minnie. The dog is a bit hyperactive so she had to stay outside most of the time we were there. Mikey loves the dog but she is huge and scares him. We got through the entire visit without Mikey breaking anything!

New Year's Eve was spent at home. Michel went to bed around 9 PM and then woke up in time to watch the ball drop. Then we went to bed. The consultant who works for me gave me a bottle of Moet but since Michel is taking pain killers (and mixing pain killers and alcohol is never a good idea), we decided to save the champagne for later.

Dr. Thomas H. Milhorat

We found out some interesting things about Michel's doctor, Thomas H. Milhorat. First, he is THE MAN when it comes to Chiari Malformation and syringomyelia. You can read more about it here, but in 1999, Dr. Milhorat redefined Chiari. His research changed the way everyone looked at the disease. He is a founder and director of the Chiari Institute.

His father, Ade T. Milhorat, was also a famous neurologist/scientist/researcher. He was one of the founders of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the organization that you know from the telethons run by Jerry Lewis every year. The elder Milhorat was one of the leaders in researching Muscular Dystrophy. He died a few years ago at the age of 98 and was still doing research. He published a reserach paper with his son on Chiari and syringomyelia when he was in his 90's!

I would say that we were very lucky to find Dr. Milhorat.

The Healing Continues

As you can see, Michel's head is healing very nicely. The stiches are out and there is no swelling or sign of infection. Michel is also doing much better neurologically. She can now stand straight with her eyes closed without falling over. She also felt pain in her hand when she touched something hot for the first time in months. She still can't walk a straight line but things are definitely looking up.

Christmas Report

Michel is getting better every day. We were worried that she wouldn't be up to going out for Christmas but she felt OK so we went to her brother's (Jimmy) house. She lasted quite a while before she ran out of energy. Beth had a great time with her cousin Tracey and Mikey was reasonably well behaved (at least for Mikey). He did manage to break two china plates but we will blame that on Kathleen (Jimmy's wife) because she took her eye off of him for a minute. Mikey got the first season of Sponge Bob on DVD. He spent most of Christmas watching that and playing with Beth and Tracey. Beth got a bunch of games for her PlayStation 2. Her favorite so far seems to be Final Fantasy X. She has had Final Fantasy X-2 for a while and has finished it but she didn't have the first game.

Michel is going to the doctor today to have her stiches taken out. Our friend, Cindy, is taking her. Every day is another step on the road of recovery. So far things are going well and we are hoping Michel can be back to her old self soon.