So what good is a gate anyway?

Apparently our youngest has become so proficient at climbing the gate between the kitchen and the front room (where the stairs are) that he can get up and over in a few seconds flat. He took off running for the gate and by the time I caught up he was on the stairs. Looks like it is time to find a bigger gate or figure out how to prevent him from getting over this one.

My son saw the surgeon today and it looks like he has another week with the stitches in. Standard nerve tests show that there is some damage to the finger but the doctor was not sure there is much he will be able to do for it right now. He will take another look in a week when the stitches come out.

I broke down and made an appointment with the crackpot doctor I swore I would not see again. Apparently they are the only place in this area that I can get into in the near future. I was amazed that many places have a 60-90 day wait for new patients and that is far too long for me to go as the pain is growing in area and intensity. Right now I really do not care if they do a myelogram or an MRI as long as they do something to figure out what is going on. There has to be a reason for the increase in pain and my guess would be the development of new scar tissue.

The pain has been sucking lately and I find myself spending even more time in the recliner then usual. I know that a small increase in the breakthrough meds will do the trick but until I see the doc and get the prescription changed there is not much I can do. I see the doc for that in 2 weeks so until then it is Lidoderm and taking it easy.

I am also tempted to ask the docs about the intrathecal pump which would allow me a steady dose of meds. What I need to find out though is if there is still a chance for breakthrough pain with the pumps and if there is what is it in relation to a regular oral medication. Right now I have breakthrough 3 times a day on average and that is what we really want to keep in check. I do not mind a constant low level of pain but the random fluctuations suck. If a pump can bring an end to that then I am all over it.

Time for school

A concern for us this year is paying my sons tuition for school. His education is important to us and while we are waiting for my disability we will have to figure out how to pay for it this year. I talked with the Sister (he goes to Catholic school) in charge of administration and volunteered my time working on some of the projects they would normally have to pay someone to do like redevelopment of the web site. For a small school they have a pretty large site, by my count they have about 35 pages that need to be redone and I am sure that there are more that I do not know about. I am hoping she agrees and I can get started on that by next week.

While my HTML & CSS skills are a bit rusty I do have Macromedia Studio to help me along. I have also been reading and playing around with Flash so I am hoping to do the site and use my new flash skills!