It has been pretty crazy around here. We are in between nurses still. With the holiday this week the agency has a few nurses they want to meet but scheduling it is a problem. Hopefully next week if I can meet them one will turn out to be who we need.
One of the hardest things I have to do with Casey is traveling. Even something as simple as driving down the street for a doctors appointment can be a real ordeal. If I am on my own I have to be sure that there are places to pull over the entire route. Often, I have to pull over many times between home and our destination to suction and tend to Casey. This is one of the main reasons we finally ended up saying we need a nurse. In LA there were back roads everywhere. Traveling took forever, but I could get just about anywhere with Casey on my own. In Austin even though the distance between points may be less there are many locations in town that require using major roads and/or freeways. I can’t pull over safely on those roads so they are just not an option without someone else going with. Most of Casey’s doctors are in a location I can get to now, but when we first got here about half of them were out of my safe zone.
Last week Casey had an appointment with her Ortho. I had not driven alone with her in a while. I was really nervous. The day before her appointment she was so fussy and a handful at home. I was just dreading putting her in the car. She must have known how badly I needed her to be good. She was a little angel. I only had to pull over once each direction. Then at the doctor she hung out in her chair most of the time. We ended up there about 2 hours. The doctor got backed up and we had to wait a while. Casey was so good the whole time. Even when the doctor came in and started messing with her legs and feet she just hung out. I was so proud of her. The doctor did not do much this trip. We go back in a few months and he wants to get some spine xrays on that visit. All kids like Casey have trunk issues and often times it leads to spine problems. She isn’t showing signs yet, but this is an area you really want to keep an eye on and prevent or at least slow down as much as possible.
Tim is getting ready to go back to India for a little more than a week. With his trip coming up he has been swamped getting stuff ready. It’s going to be a little difficult with out a nurse around, but family and friends are coming by to help out. On Tuesday Casey’s previous nurse that she loves is coming to play for a little bit. I am sure Casey will be excited to see her and that they will have a good time.
Luckily Casey does not have any more appointments in the next few weeks. Hopefully we will find a new nurse in the coming week or 2. Other than that we are just getting ready for Tim’s trip and Christmas. This will be Casey’s first Christmas with family around. I think she will have a good time. I will post updates on our search for a nurse as I get details to post. As always, we hope everyone is well.