It has been an interesting few weeks for me.  My brother has had surgery.  I broke a tooth on a pitted prune, of all things. (It wasn't as pitted as they clamed.)  My cat had kittens and it didn't go well.  My sister-in-law has gotten news that her mother may not live through the holidays.  My husbands oxygen level is only at 80% when he isn't taking his medication, which is normally.  Whew, is that everything?  I think so.

My bother had to have surgery on his neck.  He had to have cadaver bone inserted into his spin.  It went very well and the pain in his arm is now gone.  As a side note he is now at least 14 mm taller than he was before.  Two other interesting thing I found out from the experience is that:

    1.  Cadaver bone can be treated so that you body will not reject it, so there is no need of medication to prevent rejection.

    2.  Moriphine make people very silly.  While he was on moraphine my brother went into a whole tirade on how we needed to sue Dole and get rich because I had broken my tooth on one of their pits.  I tried to explain that it was only a filling which was easily replaced.  I went on to explain that because I had a twenty dollor credit at dentist and between the credit and our insurance I didn't even have a bill from the thing and I still had a $6.00 credit left.  At that he said "No, no, no!   Your not thinking about this propperly.  There's pain and suffering.  You'll never be able to eat prunes again.  We'll get rich!"  If he ever remembers our conversation he's going to be so embarrased.

That brings us to my tooth.  Of all thing I broke it on a small piece of pit that hadn't been removed.  I was worried to begin with that it was the tooth itself and might need capped but it just turned out to be a white filling.  I guess they aren't as hard as a silver one.  No I am not about to get a wind fall from Dole.  Stuff just happens.

Next came the cat.  She is doing well now but it was touch and go for a while.  I ended up bottle feeding kittens for 24 hours untill the vet said that we could bring them up to their mama.  Then we had an added problem of one of the kittens getting pushed aside.  It was in pretty sad shape before anyone noticed what was happening. 

The vet told us that she didn't think he would make it.  No one else thought he would either but I couldn't just give up.  So we brought him home and I started bottle feeding him again.  He wouldn't eat very much at a time so I feed him every hour.  At 11 I had planned to go to a two hour schedual and even set the alarm clock; but at Midnight he was actually asking to be fed.  It was like a light went on with him and he just couldn't get enough to eat.  He was wanting to be fed every 15 minutes after that.  Finally at 3:40 AM I was so tired and he was crying something awful, so I took him to his mother in the hope that he would rest for an hour after which I would feed him again. 

When I took him I removed all the other kittens and placed him with her.  She wouldn't pay any attention to him though.  She got up and went to where I had put the other kittens, picked one up, and brought it back to her bed.  At that point she settled down and started licking both kittens.  They started nursing and I hung around for a while to make sure that it would be OK. 

When I came back an hour later he still seemed to be doing Ok, but I took him out and gave him a bottle just to be sure.  I added two more kittens and left for another hour.  I continued in that path until 6:00 at which point I woke my husband and asked him if he could take over so that I could sleep.  That was two days ago and now the kitten is doing great. 

I have been trying to get in touch with my sister-in-law to see how her mother is with no success.  Her mother is suffering from dementia and diabetes, along with a number of other problems.  She isn't listening to her doctor and she's not taking her medication.  The diabetes is really taking a tole on her.  Remember the family in your prays.  My sister-in-law has a lot on her plate between my brother and now her mother.  She is a nurse but this is hard.