The rat, the tonsils and snow

Today was a doctor day for the family. Sony had his tonsils removed at the hospital about 15 miles away. I was so impressed with the place. The doctors, nurses and staff were so friendly, competent and thorough. What a relief! Sony has had strep throat 5 times this winter. After the first time, in November, he began experiencing post-strep joint pain throughout his body. Some days, he could barely move. On a scale of 1 to 10, his pain was often reported to be an 11. It's been a horrible experience to watch my beloved 10 year old suffer so needlessly. Somehow, miraculously, the last antibiotic for strep seemed to eradicate the joint pain that had sent us to more than a handful of doctors and specialists over the past 3 months. There's something a bit ironic about the medicine prescribed by a nurse practictioner doing what several pediatricians, a pediatric rheumatologist and a pain expert could not. The more I use and visit nurse practictioners, the more impressed I become.

Rab left the hospital shortly before Sony returned to his room because the Visiting Vet was on her way to the Cute Gray House to examine Legolas the rat. Poor Leggy has scabs all over his neck from non-stop scratching. Ends up he has some weird rat skin mite thing. The $5 rat cost us $100 today. At least Minky was here when the vet arrived - she let him go with her into her mobile vet unit mobile home and also let him look under the microscope at Leggy's hair. Minky thought that was incredibly cool.

We're in the midst of yet another snow storm. At one point this week and at one point last week, nearly all the snow had melted away. But then Mother Nature reblanketed the place with a new white layer. Argh. It makes me cranky. I don't like it. The weather was so bad last Sunday that we actually cancelled church (not just me, but nearly all the churches in the area). My parishoner/pharmacist gave me a bad time today when I went to pick up Sony's prescription, saying, "Geez...you didn't work Sunday and now you're not working today!?!" I replied, "Well, you know, I'm a slacker." Then I remembered that I had visited a parishoner in the hospital today while Sony was in surgery, so I pointed that out to parishoner/pharmicist and said, "Yeah, if my kid's gonna have surgery, at least I'll schedule it for a day when someone from the church is there too!" We laughed.

Today, the drifts were so bad to and from the hospital that there were places where the visibility was less than 1/10 mile. The roads themselves weren't too bad but the visibility made venturing out a bit scary. The local school, which tends to seldom close or delay, actually released kids two hours early (much to Minky's joy!). I sometimes fear the snow will never let up, which means my garage will never become organized and the moving boxes will take up permanent residence on our porch. The Cute Gray House may need to be renamed the White Trash Gray House if those boxes remain much longer...