6 November 2013: Wednesday -- power outage, WIFI reconnect, Dad's diagnosis, Doug consult, Superior Vena Cava (SVC) Syndrome ...

What a morning. Heard a pop outside, a small explosive sound and the power went out and mom's machine began buzzing. I turned it off and started up the supplemental oxygen and then called 911 since I did not have the number handy for DELMARVA Power (I do now) and got tremendous response from two Mill Creek fire department trucks, one driven by Krissy and the other, bigger truck (and he was tall, too), Scott. We went to the backyard and I showed them the power pole that I thought might have been the source for the outage and Scott retrieved the number of the pole (each one has a unique identifier), which Krissy copied down, dutifully.

Mill Creek Fire Company3900 Kirkwood HighwayMarshallton, DE 19808302-998-8911

 

He insisted, once I told him about mom on O2 to provide their oxygen container, which he switched from ours. Later, I called DELMARVA and left a message on their automated call line. The power came on soon thereafter and I received a call from them. No idea what the problem was ... didn't stay on to hear any, if there were any, details. 

Lost our WIFI connection as the blue light was not on and could not find Dutchman on the selection list on the iPhone or the iPad. Went to the Web and searched "Belkin troubleshoot no blue light" and came up with iYogi and an Indian technician, Andrieshik (sic) Jain, who was just terrific. Knowledgeable and upfront about the problem, he took control of my computer screen and in less than an hour had literally cleaned up the problem and had me back with WIFI and Internet connectivity to my iPad and iPhone. There was a charge but he was also upfront about that, too, and even got the amount cleared with a supervisor ... they billed by Amazon/Chase VISA $119.99 for two services and loaded a Malware program that I can run weekly to clear up problems on the computer. Thought the money was well spent. I was glowing in an after-service assessment of the work with an online questionnaire. 

http://www.prweb.com/releases/iYogi/Internet_Security/prweb2960084.htm

Mom moves from the hallway into her room just before getting pain
medication as dad follows her into the room. We were expecting a visit from
the case manager nurse from Delaware Hospice this early, brilliant, summerlike
November day. 

Two important calls from dad's doctors today. The first, from Dr. Maged, concerned mom's INR blood test which came back as 1.9. He said to continue the dosages of Coumadin as previously determined ... switching each day from 2.5 mg. to 5.0 mg. The other call was from Dr. Grubbs who first discussed things with dad and then called back to advise me of the plan regarding the corticosteroid administration. It is not indefinite due to dad's diabetes ... we need to watch his blood sugar and make adjustments accordingly with his insulin amount ... but we will try it for 5 days and see how the swelling from the SVC syndrome is affected. He is to take the drug, which I forget the name to all the time, prednisone (thank you, once again, Google), once a day with some food. He can take it this afternoon, which is quickly dissipating, with a little food and again in the morning with his Cream of Wheat. In the meantime, I HAVE FINALLY LAID OUT ALL OF MOM'S MEDICATIONS FOR THE WEEK and dad won't have to assemble her nighttime meds anymore and that has tragic intonations. He will continue getting his own meds for bedtime. Here is a picture of all the meds that she takes during the day. It is considerable.

Wednesday is empty as this picture was taken on Hump Day but the meds include Vicodin, metoprolol, xanax, lasix, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, One A Day Vitamin (every other day), Coumadin, and Fergon (iron supplement). Administration takes place four times a day -- morning (6 a.m.), noon (pain), mid-afternoon (Coumadin/metoprolol), evening (pain, anxiety, sleeping pills). 

Just finished a note to Susan that I enclosed with the book I'd borrowed many months ago by Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. I also enclosed a picture of Dancer in the stream near the park and mansion of Rockwood, not far from the home of
Bob and Alice and Mt. Pleasant High School.

Dad ate well tonight. He finished his Holland rusk with liverwurst and some milk. As a result, he took his first dose of the corticosteroid, prednisone, two tablets of 10 mg. each for a total of 20 mgs. Well, it's been a fascinatingly diverse day starting with the power outage and ending, soon, with a walk. The day has been absolutely gorgeous and so warm, closer to 70 than 60 degrees. May it be so. We may have rain tomorrow but the weekend is suppose to be clear and beautiful.