Wrist Healing, Back Mending, Homecoming

It's been a month, and I'm finally getting to update this thing. The one-handed typing continues as I recover from my wrist surgery, although I can do a little more hunt-and-pecking with the left hand than before. I go back to the surgeon next week and will possibly get the cast off.

Margaret had a very good doctor's visit Sept 30. She's healing nicely, doing what she's supposed to do. She's doing so well, in fact, that the doctor gave her the green light to "carefully" go to the homecoming dance Oct. 2. She had to promise to be careful, stay on the periphery and have her friends protect her. One of those "friends" is Alex, the boy who's had a crush on her since 7th grade and who went with her to the dance. He's a good kid.

She goes back to the doctor, possibly for the last time, at the end of October. If all looks good, she might be released to normal activity. I don't know exactly what that means, but we're still going to err on the side of caution and try to keep her out of harm's way as much as we can. The bone will not regenerate. It is crushed and will stay that way. But it is stable, which is all we can ask for.

We did manage to get her to a college night last week where 120 reps from colleges all over the country gather to pitch their programs. Although she's only a sophomore, it's not too early to get a taste for what's out there. As we wandered around the field house on campus, her eyes were glazed over at all the reps, all of whom have science and math programs (the two areas she's most interested in). She stopped dead in her tracks, however, when the rep from Embrey-Riddle Aeronautical University caught her attention. They offer space physics and other such science programs that are right up her alley. So, even if she doesn't go to college in Daytona Beach, Florida, she has a clue as to what to look for whereas before she had none.

Patricia won her student council elections again for this year as class rep and is contemplating a run for president. She's doing well in modified cross country, and has come a long way from the first week or so when she thought she might quit. We're really very, very proud of her.

I suppose the prize of the month goes to Brigid, who had two doctor visits within four days of one another. The first was to extract a huge bead out of her nose, which she lodged up there during rest time at day care. They called me to say she had something up there and I'd better come get her. I could barely see the glimmer of something shiny up there, so I got her right into the doctor's office. Brigid doesn't blow out yet, so every time she tried, she just sniffed it up higher. They ended up getting a resuscitation bag and placed it over her mouth with a seal around her lips. A few good puffs sent the bead sailing out of her nose. She was a trooper -- not a word or whimper out of her the whole time. But she did promise not to stick anything up there again.

She was back a few days later for an ear infection. Hmmmm. Nose plugged with foreign body; fluids build up behind it; ear infection follows. So she just finished a 10-day antibiotic regimen. And now several of us have upper-respiratory things going on. Good thing it's Columbus Weekend. I've spent two of the three days in bed.

Jack gets two days off for the holiday -- no classes those days. He's getting into the groove of this teaching thing, and he's liking it more than he thought he would.
I hope the trend continues.