ChloeWatts.com

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

March 4th, 2010 Posted in Daily News Post

Hummmm… interesting…. First Chloe got the creeping crud. She passed it off to Mama a few days later. So Sandy took the overnights. I came in this morning ready to relieve her for a day but she decided she’d rather just stay the night than get packed up and go to the house. That was until I came back up from the afternoon sessions. When I got back to the room Sandy was the color of the hospital blankets… not a pretty color. “I’ve got it.” Like she really had to tell me.

She couldn’t move, much less drive at this point, so she just suggested I go to my two students and then she would try and be ready at 6:45 when I got back. I did and she was just barely okay to get going. So we hauled all her stuff, plus some, to the car and she made it home to Dana’s.

The nurses and I joked about the bio-waste room we were now in. The poor housekeeping lady who was asked to disinfect the bathroom just opened the door and closed it again. She returned in her white biohazard suit and geiger counter and entered the room. Okay… she actually only had a mask and gloves, but didn’t that make a better story…?

I went through the room with another bleach rag and we are hopeful the room is ready to be inhabited again. HOWEVER, we are asking all visitors to please stay at home for a while. The entire floor has had this and we would hate for one of our wonderful support team members to end up bowing to the porcelain god because of us.

The day, other than that was pretty cool… up until later in the day… but that’s another story. PT/OT was good. I snuck back to see how things were going with a PT therapist I didn’t recognize on the schedule. It was Nicole though, and she is a very good match for Chloe. When I got there she was working her on the stairs and they had tried a variety of ways to get up and down. Chloe looked very comfortable.

Her walking went well also. We discussed a new brace or maybe a little support for her right knee. It tends to want to be locked or buckled. My thought was maybe a little sports knee brace and Nichole thought that might be worth a try. It would give the impression of support more than just keeping the knee braced.

Jenny and I had a long talk about the procedure she did with Chloe that didn’t work out well. It seems this is the one procedure used to stimulate the swallow. It’s used on 2 month olds through adults. It just so happened that it wasn’t comfortable for Chloe. We discussed why and what might work better. Later I had the same conversation with Chloe and she thought we were probably right. She wasn’t ready for it, Mama wasn’t here and she might have perceived the pain more than experienced it. We’ll try again soon.

After lunch we had a quick PT/OT. I had her down there in time to get going because at 1:30 we had BINGO. You can’t miss BINGO you know. I asked if they would bring her back to the room and I’d start the game for her. At 1:40 she came in and took over for me. After winning her first game we went to the Starlite Room to get her prize. She picked out a beanie baby puppy named Tracker. We then moved into the BINGO room to join the largest crowd I’ve seen at the games. When she won game two I was kneeled behind her. So I raised her arms, and in my best Chloe impersonation, I yelled BINGO! That was fun. Game three I did a similar thing and after reading off her card to Jessica I was told that next time I’d have to read the card in my Chloe voice as well. I can do that. We then left with Tracer, her new beanie baby Koala Bear, and nail polish.

Now it was time to run to school. I explained to them that the school bus was late. They didn’t buy it and I was sent to detention to read my Time magazine. We ran overtime, as I was late, and then Dr. Margaret found us. We finished our official day with her for the next hour.

Tonight we spent time on our computers, with Chloe gaming and me trying to catch up on emails. I was advised that there was a request or two for Chloe’s Peace Sun Tee Shirt order forms. I don’t know how to attach it here but if you’ll just email me I can get it right off to you. RonHorton21@msn.com .

When I left to meet with my students I received a call from Dana. She was pretty upset and I followed suit soon. Colin was a victim at Wilson High School for a second time. He was in the gym for weight training and he left his backpack, computer, biology book and essays by his friends’ locker. You and I know this is a stupid thing to do. Colin, on the other hand, hasn’t developed that cynical outlook of humanity yet. He didn’t give it a thought that some sleezball would steel his things. They did however and, although we might have been upset with Colin’s recklessness, we are furious over the fact that someone would do this, and that the school is not a safe place for the kids to be. The school knows who the bad apples are. Let’s see if they pursue this problem and handle it appropriately. I personally feel like handling it inappropriately. The police report has been filed.

Please keep an eye out on Ebay and Craig’s list for an emachine laptop computer with or without a backpack. These kids have to be found and corrected. He was most upset about the biology book and essays. The book alone is $150… The essays, priceless.

Chloe is asleep with Harry Potter playing in the background. She turned a bit, probably missing Mama. It’s the second night without her here. That’s not a good thing for an 11 year old. Thankfully she finds my stupid humor funny and we get along so very well. We even tried out the new walker that Patty hunted down for us. We will try it again but it’s more of an adult size and is a bit awkward for her at first try. We’ll see.

Be well.
Ron