Two Pilots & an LSW: Holidays and Stuff

I got behind as usual, of course!

Wednesday morning first thing, Kaylee had a CT scan of her head, in order to send to the ENT who will be trying to figure out why she is getting repetitive sinus infections. I also called her oral surgeon, because the night before and that morning, her mouth started hurting a lot more than it was supposed to. I got an answering machine at 8 am on Wednesday that said "Our offices are closed until Monday the 28th". No number to call for emergencies, no paging system, nobody to call, nothing. That was FIVE DAYS away. Not cool, guys.

After the CT, I had a cross country flight with Morgan to Knox, using just VOR airways, no GPS. That was a blast from the past for all of us. Pretty much nobody does that any more, but I wanted her to be able to do it anyway, because while they are deactivating VORs, they are still leaving a skeletal system of a VOR every 100 nm, in case the GPS system ever goes down. Should that happen, there will be a lot of people who don't have a clue how to navigate, and I didn't want her to be one of them. Even one of the ATC controllers asked us where we were going, because the airway goes north, then we intercept an intersection, then we go west, as opposed to just going diagonally 'direct' there. We had filed it appropriately, he just hadn't seen anyone actually follow the airways before apparently. So it was good for him, too. ;)

When I got back from that, I did some last minute getting some stuff ready for Mom and Ernie and Thanksgiving. I had to go back to the store because Kaylee wanted soy milk. The afternoon before Thanksgiving, go to a store. It's not cool, man. I told her she'd better drink that stuff.

Mom and Ernie made it Wednesday evening, and we went to Pastarrific after we got Ann to bed.

Thanksgiving Day, Steve got up early and went next door to get our big 15 pound turkey out of Ann's fridge. See, it wouldn't fit in our fridge. But we didn't really know how big it was because there was NO weight on the thing. Anywhere. So Steve had to take and plop the turkey on our bathroom scale to find out it was 15 lbs. lol We put the turkey in, and then I made breakfast. Biscuits and gravy, Steve made eggs, I made bacon, and we had orange juice and milk. You get cleaned up from that, and it's time to work on the lunch stuff, mashed potatoes and stuffing and corn with cream cheese and cooked rolls. Dave & Dawn came over with green bean casserole, fresh baked bread, and a pumpkin and a pecan pie. We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, we hung out, we ate too much, we cooked, and cleaned, and ate some more, and had a good day to be able to just be together. Ann came over for a little while, but just being over there for a bit really confused her afterwards, and she wasn't sure what to do or what was happening. But at least she was able to eat lunch with us and be okay.

Friday morning Mom and Ernie headed out, and Kaylee and I attempted to find a "doc in a box", or a walk in clinic, because her mouth has gotten just worse and worse. She wasn't able to eat or drink much of anything. She had gotten results back from the CT Scan that said she had Mucosal Thickening which they said probably meant another sinus infection. She had mouth ulcers, big time, from the stitches and swelling rubbing her cheeks and gums raw. She had bruises on her face where they had pried her jaw open for the surgery. She'd had no wisdom teeth on the bottom, one up top on the right, and a "giant mutant tooth" on the left that was two wisdom teeth fused together. The kid is in a lot of pain. Wisdom teeth removal, bruised face, sore jaw that can't move, mouth ulcers, and oh yeah, sinus pain from an infection. Miserable. So we look up these walk in clinics and they all say they're open. I drive to one, and it's closed. So I call the others from the parking lot. They're all closed except for one. I drive to the one. We walk in. She says "We are full today on walk ins. I can make an appointment for you for tomorrow." *sigh*. I make the appointment for 9:45 am, and we have to leave, with no relief.

Today is Saturday. I get Kaylee to the walk in clinic, and the sign on their door says they are booked up on appointments and cannot take any walk ins, so it's good we made the appointment yesterday. There isn't an actual doctor there now, just a Nurse Practitioner, and he's a little odd. I think he's on the spectrum. A little know it all, a little arrogant. He informed us that there is no cure for mouth ulcers (but there are things to treat it which is why we were there), informed us that peroxide is a poison and we shouldn't swish with it (I told him it was an over the counter Oral B mouthwash so pretty sure we were fine for using it), informed us that he didn't think she has mouth ulcers because he can't see them (she can't open her mouth wide enough for him to see back where they are). Regardless, we convinced him to give us the mouthwash she uses that really helps, Mary's Magic Mouthwash, made with lidocaine and an antifungal and three other things. So it's a compound drug that takes the pharmacy a bit to make, but they do, thankfully. He also said most sinus infections are viral, not bacterial, and that she shouldn't take antibiotics unless ten days pass with symptoms still and/or she gets green or yellow goopy sinus discharge. I agreed with him there. So we finally left with a prescription.

I drove her to McCalister's to pick up sweet tea and soup for her lunch, then dropped the prescription off at CVS, dropped her off at home, and then went out to the airport for a 12-2 pm flight, another IFR cross country in the RG.

When I was done, I didn't have anything else I needed to do at home. It was a warm, sunny, calm, beautiful day. I SHOULD have wanted to go flying. I should take the T-6 up before I can't any more. The Champ even. The Cub. I. Did. Not. Feel. Like. It. I literally couldn't talk myself into it. Just had no desire. I think something is wrong with me. The clock is ticking, I have very few days left where I can do this, especially when it's this warm and nice. Shortly, I will be stuck with twins and trainers for months. And yet I just couldn't do it. I went to Hydration Station to pick up some Frosted Hot Chocolate for me and Kaylee, a strawberry shake for Ann, and a Vanilla Coke for Steve, stopped at CVS to pick up Kaylee's drugs, and then came on home for the day. Another load of dishes, another load of laundry, another dose of steroids for the cat, another putting Ann to bed, another fetching things for an uncomfortable Kaylee with chipmonk and bruised cheeks. I should've gone flying, but I still don't feel like it right now, so hey. Tomorrow's weather sucks, so I'll see if next week looks better and maybe I can motivate then. I hope.

So to recap, Monday I went to her wisdom teeth removal surgery. Wednesday I took her to a CT scan. Friday I took her to a walk in clinic unsuccessfully. Today I took her to a walk in clinic successfully. I have been to the pharmacy three times for meds. I took Ann to a cardiology appointment last week. I took Roadie to the vet last week. I would like to not go back to any doctor anytime soon, for anyone. ;)

Tomorrow Steve and I and Kaylee are planning on going to see "Devotion", the movie about the first black WWII Navy carrier pilot in Corsairs. I look forward to it. :)

I know I'm forgetting things. But Kaylee keeps talking to me and Steve is talking on the phone, so my concentration is crap. lol It was really good to have everybody together though.

Well, we have decided not to do this first thing. I did not know this!