Done Since 2021-03-28

[mdlbear]

Bad week. Colleen has been in the hospital since Wednesday. (More details in this post, although it doesn't have anything from yesterday. See also Saturday's notes under the cut.) You might want to skip that post and the notes below if you want to avoid medical details.

Yesterday she was seen by Dr. Rangel, who saved her life almost exactly two years ago. And who wears her badge on a Dr. Who lanyard. She was looking a little better this morning, but things are still iffy. I'll post more info this evening.

I've done a little more work on taxes, and more work in the garage sorting through the stuff from Mom's apartment. I think I have almost all of the kids' stuff sorted out now, and I've brought a couple of items up to the house.

I've added Morning Pages to my morning routine (minus 2 days, looks like, and some days two pages instead of three). Follow the link for the official details. In part it's an excuse for using one or more of my fountain pens. Jury's still out on how much it helps.

In other news, Russia unveils world’s first coronavirus vaccine for animals. There's some hope that it might also work against FIP, a fatal coronavirus disease of cats with symptoms similar to COVID-19, which would be wonderful. Some of the drugs mentioned in the article are known to work.

Notes & links:

0328Su  * litter boxen
  * up 7:50; ; exercises, morning pages, shower
    -> Morning Pages.  Interesting.  It's 9am now, so the whole am routine took ~ an hour
    -> when I came out to the LR I got distracted: reading (Guile) instead of writing.
  : Sherman isn't waking up after sleeping.  Same damned thing as Blackbird?  But I can
    SSH to it, which sort of compounds the weirdness.  I may end up just reinstalling.
    -> but now it's working (second time?  third?) takes a long time to sleep
  : wind advisory until midnight
  / 350ml in bag; major- cleanup, liquid
  * 15min: garage -- CLEARED box 26 (kitchen stuff, mixed us and R) Brought up flower
    cups, gilhooly, roast lifters, crucible tongs, mortar+pestle, misc. kitchen gadgets.
  / 6ish pm vomiting.  had cottage cheese and strawberries for (br)lunch
  : 7:26 brief (couple of seconds) power glitch.  rebooted my monitor, blinked the lights
  / 10:15 still vomiting.  Probably effectively no food or water today; worrisome
  / 11:20ish 600ml in bag; she's speculating that it might be a vaccine side-effect
    @ maybe? Reactions and Adverse Events of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine | CDC
  % 11:20 meloxicam

0329Mo
  & awake 2:30; back to bed 4ish
    % cold.  Should have turned off the fireplace--I keep forgetting
  % turned off the fireplace and raised the thermostat a degree -> helped
  / vomiting. Brown; could indicate bleeding.  -> probably not, on inspection.
    % worried anyway; she's probably dehydrated if nothing else
  : sherman: another wake-up crash.  apport says it was in upowerd, which is plausible
  * up 8am; S=6:12, BP=117/73, P=64; morning pages after laundry and coffee.  Now 9:30
  / ~200ml in bag; promethazine suppository, propel in water bottle; we'll see
  : V noticed an alarm going off outside; car charger -> power cycle at breaker.
    I'm guessing it warns when it experiences a power failure, or maybe a surge.
    (initially thought it was the usual septic system overload, but no.  Charger's easy.)
  @ Suez Canal: Ever Given container ship finally freed - BBC News
    The ‘Ever Given’ is Finally Free Thanks to a Full Moon and Spring Tides
    Ship Stuck in the Suez Canal Is Free: Live Updates - The New York Times
  & went shopping at Payless -- first time in a year IIRC.  We were out of jello.  Picked
    up a few other things, though some others got left out.  Bought cheap red & white wine
    for cooking (and occasional drinking).
  / 4pm V called WhidbeyHealth; a triage nurse was supposed to call back to my phone.  Not yet.
  / 9:40 vomiting, clear mucous.  Not much, but still...
  : getting fan noise from Sable.  Not too loud, but annoying nonetheless.  Problematic
    for recording or streaming.
  : in other news, Sherman is still not waking up from sleep -> reinstall.  Pulled out a
    64GB uSD card to back up ~ with.  Or not -- only things that _need_ syncing are browser
    tabs and Downloads

0330Tu
  % Awake 3:15; back to bed 4:50
  * back up Sherman:{bookmarks,.mozilla,installed-pkgs} to sable:vv/var/sherman
  * up 8:05; S=7:03, BP=123/74, P=64; exercises, morning pages
  / call from triage nurse (Rebecca?) - C claims that the stomach pain has stopped, and
    she was able to keep water down overnight; try clear liquids today; if pain or
    vomiting return, go to the ER for IV rehydration.
  % 9:40 hip pain.  Possibly from exercises?  -> naproxen
  @ Evidence of brand new physics at Cern? Why we're cautiously optimistic about our new
    findings " Specifically, beauty quarks appeared to be decaying into leptons called
      “muons” less often than they decayed into electrons. This is strange because the muon
      is in essence a carbon-copy of the electron, identical in every way except that it’s
      around 200 times heavier [...] around 85 muon decays for every 100 electron decays "
  / 11:35ish - 1200ml in bag; no cleanup
  # for f in `dg -i lisp | sed -E 's/ .*//'`; do m $f;done  # or cut -d ' ' -f 1
    view all references to lisp in Dog/*, in search of the lisp implementation collection:
    @ kanaka/mal: mal - Make a Lisp -> c.f.:
      Programming Languages - Hyperpolyglot
      " commonly used features in a side-by-side format "
      -> e.g. Build Tools: Make, Rake, Ant, Gradle - Hyperpolyglot
      The Hello World Collection
      Rosetta Code
      " Rosetta Code is a programming Chrestomathy site.  The idea is to present solutions to the same task in as
        many different languages as possible... "
      Learn X in Y Minutes: Scenic Programming Language Tours
  @ Disaster Recovery and Beekeeping single points of failure to consider:
    - DynamoDB Tables:  Is point in time recovery enabled? What about back ups after 35
      days? What if someone disables backups? [some of these points are AWS-specific]
    - S3 Buckets:  Is versioning enabled? Do you have replication to another account for
      DR, backup purposes?
    - Github Repos:  What if your repose are deleted? Do you have a backup somewhere?
    - SaaS Application X that’s core to your ecosystem:  If the data stored with the app
      is no longer available for whatever reason, do you need it? Can you replace it from
      somewhere?
    - Tribal Knowledge:  That one engineer that knows where everything is. What happens if
      they’re not available for whatever reason? (Automate and Document)
  * 15min:  more work in garage.  CLEARED (more or less) box 40; some items not yet seen
  / has had very little and is still complaining of stomach pain or something like that
  / 10pm C went to bed early; flexaril for pain.  Says she'll probably need ER tomorrow
    -> 10:08 vomited.  Yeah, ER likely

0331We International Transgender Day of Visibility
  @ International Transgender Day of Visibility
    eftychia : QotD
  & awake 5am;  back to bed ~6
  * up 7am; S=?; hiccups
  / dry heaves; feeling weak  -> promethazine suppository
  : will probably have to have V take S in for her test while I take Colleen to the ER
  @ First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. VII. Polarization of the Ring
    (APOD: 2021 March 31 - M87s Central Black Hole in Polarized Light)
  / 9:07 1000ml in bag, gray sediment -> so maybe not dehydrated.  Still need ER
  / call from nephrologist's office.  Kidney function decreasing (17%), calcium too high.
    stop Tums; ER for IV hydration probably best plan.  Repeat labs in 3 weeks.
  / NB: Producing urine doesn't mean she isn't dehydrated -- she's on a diuretic.
  ~ 11:10ish - leave for... (V)
  ~ 11:50 Coupeville (follow signage. outdoors) S needs covid test for oral surgery Fr
    Birch St. (road between wells fargo and hospital)
  / to ER.  Couldn't get out of wheelchair into car; I called 911.
    Interesting how they got her onto the gurney:  positioned it behind her, helped her
    stand up, then pulled the wheelchair away and replaced it with the gurney.  Plop!
  / 12:20 just arriving at ER; call hospital in an hour and they'll let me in to see her.
    -> apparently "send you back there" means "connect you with someone back there"
    -> 1:39 waiting for a callback as soon as any nursing staff are available.
    -> 3:00 (never got a callback) spoke to nurse.  Resting, getting IV fluids; waiting
       for results from labs and imaging
    -> 3:10ish headed home.  Came within inches of clobbering a dog
    -> 5:30 on hold waiting for nurse -> the problem is a Gastric outlet obstruction
       She's being admitted; they will see whether it resolves itself by tomorrow like it
       did last time (which I _don't remember hearing about_) or whether they'll need
       surgery.  Crohn's disease and opioid (e.g. loperamide and diphenoxylate) use are
       both possible causes.
  @ Russia unveils world’s first coronavirus vaccine for animals - WaPo 
  % 7:50ish very restless
  @ Home - Kidney Kitchen
  % why does it feel like Saturday?
  x order omeprozole -> can cause kidney problems
  $ C $70 to American Cancer Society via E's birthday fundraiser on FB
  : 10:15 call from Colleen.  She's had a CAT scan and an ultrasound.

0401Th
  & awake 2:10am; back to bed 3:something
    % thinking about the future of women's rights in the US, which does not look good
      let alone trans rights
  * reinstall Ubuntu on Sherman in hopes that it will fix suspend
    -> it did, then it broke again.  Something about nvidia vs nouveau drivers.  panel
       props (alt-click) didn't work; installing nouveau fixed that but broke suspend;
       switching back left panel working but didn't fix suspend.
  & Awake 4:30 -- haven't gotten back to sleep... back to bed 6am
    -> a mysteriously-malfunctioning Ubuntu install and insufficient respect for morning
  * up 8am; S=5:11; morning pages (only 2pp)
    % in retrospect, morning pages before coffee and breakfast may be a bad idea even
      though it _is_ possible to write and eat.
      matzoh brei with 2.5 squares and 2 medium? eggs; bacon (which also timed the matzoh)
  * pick up lilacs, carnations, or narcissus for Colleen -> carnations.  Plus some
    narcissus from the front yard just in case.
  * singing:  Lock-Keeper, Cap and Bells (off-book, a capella, in the car)
  @ My Wife's Lovers - Wikipedia today's featured picturet    
    File:Carl Kahler - My Wife's Lovers.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
  : Seems you need an "exception letter" to visit, so if I want to come in tomorrow I'll
    need it.  -> taken care of
    -> She was getting a PICC line installed when I arrived.
    -> Not in isolation (for once), so gloves and gown not required.
    % I brought coffee, but failed to account for the face mask.  I have a paper straw,
      but it's a bit short.  There ought to be a metal one but I can't find it.
  : They tried a PICC line, couldn't insert -> central line.
    -> had trouble with that, so called in a surgeon.
  * call home health -- looks like she'll be here for a while  -> they already knew
  : from (PRN)Dean -- central line is in; they're going to do an EGD sometime
    -this afternoon- _tomorrow_, which will be a quick fix if it works.
    1:20ish sleeping, after I pulled up her blankets and added her cape.
    -> 1:55 liquid diet today, and if she still gets nauseous they'll do the EGD tomorrow
    -> 1:58 abdominal x-ray first to verify not a bowel obstruction
    -> social worker.  Remembers Colleen's hair.  Went over the current situation wrt
       resources, equipment, people, etc.
  % my mask keeps threatening to creep off my nose when I talk. (it covers my chin)
  @ Whistleblower: Ubiquiti Breach “Catastrophic” – Krebs on Security
    Massive security breach at US universities.
  : I'm on the list of people who can leave and come back (not automatic, because COVID);
  * singing:  Cap and Bells
  * Taxes - pulled income data for Sched. C from CD-Baby and Bandcamp - see
    Tax/2020/sched-C.txt
  $ Taxes:
    * dg HS?X | grep 2020  #  grep Schedule C sales data from log #
    * pulled CSV file from Bandcamp.  Not hard once I figured out that I could ask it for
      2020 and sum the column in Calc.  I've gotten rusty.

0402Fr
  * up 5:50; S=6:10; morning pages... exercises
  * */1    CPAP:  change nosepiece, change paper filter, wash tub
  ~ 6:30 wake Sarah
  @ World Autism Awareness Day - Wikipedia  ->
    Autism rights movement, Autistic Pride Day, Autism friendly - Wikipedia
  @ Emotion Markup Language (EmotionML) 1.0 W3C Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group
    (Emotion Markup Language - Wikipedia)
  @ By April 2: All Educators and Educational Scholars are Invited to Sign this Open
    Letter to Support Trans Youth (QotD - eftychia) 
  ~ 7am (V) leave for...
  : 10am S UW Harborview oral surgery (V)
  * */1    bio-one in drains:  * front br,  * back br,  * kitchen sink 
  * */1    bio-one in drains:  * box room sink,  * shower
  : arrived at hospital ~10:45am (delayed by being incapussitated for half an hour)
  / She had her EGD this morning; I haven't heard what the story is but (CNA)Shayla said
    "they didn't find anything".  I'll have to ask what exactly that means.  She's had a
    tube draining her stomach since 6pm last night, which I don't think is a good sign.
    Complaining of post-nasal drip.  Her red-cell count and K are low; she'll be getting a
    transfusion soon.  Sleeping.  Pretty severe edema in left arm (which is the one I can
    see).  ->    % more worried than I was yesterday.
  : Hmm.  Sable didn't wake up from sleep, and now seems to have very limited net access
    Ping times of multiple seconds to 1.1.1.1 -- that's weird; web pages aren't loading.
    -> seems to have resolved.
  / From (Nurse practitioner/hospitalist)Dean Wang (who we've met before, of course): They
    weren't able to reach the blockage with the endoscope, so there are just 2
    possibilities.  It may resolve if she can walk and otherwise move around -- that's
    what happens in most cases.  But of course that's extremely hard for Colleen.  The
    only other option is surgery, and that's very risky due to her fragility.
    They'll send someone from PT in when she wakes up; we'll see what we can do to get her
    moving.  % extremely worried
  / 2:30ish the (CNA)Shayla and ?Michaela got her sitting up, Shayla brushed out her hair
    and I braided it and gave her a back-scratch.  So she was sitting for ~15 minutes.
  / (Surgeon)Dr. Graves (who did the EGD and who I also have an appointment with on
    Monday to discuss my colonoscopy) - duodenum swolen shut.  Took biopsies.  Probably
    get the results from those Monday or so; meanwhile they'll give her TPN to keep her
    strength up.  He didn't sound very optimistic.  If she needs surgery, she'll be
    transfered to a larger hospital on the mainland; they can't do something that major up
    here.
  * leave somewhere between 4:45 and 5pm
  * started bottle of Ranier gin (0402)  [Note that there is still some left of the Gordon's]
  * start doing box room laundry - green sheets and towels (orange can wait)

0403Sa
  * Up 6:10ish; S=7:13;
  * leave !9:50 for...
  * N arriving on 10:00 ferry.
  * bring DVD player and headphones for Colleen - Around the World in 80 Days, Princess
    Diaries 2 if I can find it, Miss Marple or Poirot.  (Marple is more compact)
    Thirteen and Release the Cello.  release concert DVD.  Cat bag (clothes), lanolin
  * 12:10 S second dose vaccine Coupeville
  / Was with PT when I came in.  Stood up but only once; nasogastric tube (NGT) fell out
    -> Dr. Rangel came in (wearing a Dr.Who lanyard) and said that they'll leave the NGT
       out unless she starts getting nauseous again, they'll start giving her TPN,
       presumably later today, and she can have ice chips and popsicles.  (she immediately
       requested an orange popsicle).
    -> gown and gloves required: highly resistant UTI as usual; they're going to look at
       the lab results and figure out what antibiotic to use _this_ time.
  % the house feels very empty without Colleen in it.  Having N helps some.  But it's
    weird -- it doesn't feel as though we interact very much when she's home, but...