Imbolc Waxing Moon
Frayed end of a hawser. That would be me this morning. I thought this virus was done on Saturday. Nope, just getting warmed up. More fever. Then congestion, chest and sinus. So, coughing. A lot of clearing of the throat. “Yes, Curt,” Kate says, referencing my father’s frequent clearing of his throat. When that subsided, nope, not over. Now let’s try throat-on-fire. Last night. Full on righteous 7 or 8 pain. Made sleeping difficult, coughing an exercise in self-torture. Not to mention fatigue. Where it began last Wednesday. It will end sometime, apparently very much on its timeline. Not today. Go away little virion’s, go away.
Which, if you recall yesterday’s post, creates in us an expectation that this too will pass. We get sick. We’re miserable. We get better. We go on. Fully what I anticipate. We’ve had the same anticipation with Kate’s 18 months of malady after malady. Not happening. Could not happen at all. Therefore it seems out of the way of things. An anomaly.
She woke up miserable yesterday, more miserable than usual. She called Gidday and we got an appointment with Tabita Lane, Lisa’s P.A., since her schedule was full.
Here’s a bit about Tabitha from my Caring Bridge post: Tabitha, a former oncology nurse and military corpperson, came in. “I was reading your file. It’s long.”
Yep. Tabitha carried herself much like Dr. Gidday, an athlete confined for the moment to a stool. Her left leg splayed out behind as she began asking questions.
Her empathy was obvious. She leaned in, nodded, frowned. “What do you want to do, Kate? A feeding tube? I think you’re there.” She was seeing Kate for the first time, at the tail end of an awful four months and she’s clearly malnourished, thin and weak. “And, your brain may be effected. Not enough fat. You’re probably not thinking straight.”
The next branch on this ancientrail began. Kate will see a general surgeon this week about placement of a feeding tube. After that procedure she will probably go into a rehab center, Brookdale most likely. There she will gain weight, have p.t., gradually regain her strength. I have no idea how long any of this will take. It does mean that my life will change dramatically once again. Less fraught this time because the initiating event here will be therapeutic, not management of a mysterious emergency.
Not done yet.