annearchy: (road less traveled)
annearchy ([personal profile] annearchy) wrote2012-11-21 04:27 pm
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Happy (?) Thanksgiving

1. Dear person in a different part of my agency: I'm 99% certain you are overworked right now. And I realize now that you cut and pasted that news link and probably didn't have time to proofread it. I'm sorry that my pointing out an egregious typo (created by someone else) upset you. OTOH you really didn't need to yell at me over the phone about it, and I did apologize for upsetting you. I'll make sure to steer clear of you in the future.

2. Janne re-took the math portion of the Test of Adult Basic Education, which he didn't pass in September, last Friday. The first time, he scored at a 7th grade level. This time he scored at 12.9!! I suspect he did a lot of guessing but that's okay. So now we are going to apply for a "child at risk" education contract with our local Board of Education. Wisconsin has compulsory schooling until the 18th birthday, and to get this contract the kid has to meet at least 2 criteria. Janne's criteria is that he is 2 grade levels behind in credits, he is chronically truant (alas, again) AND he will drop out unless he can do this. So if the school board approves, he will have to take 3 hours of classes per day at the local community college until he turns 18. I think he can handle that. I need to write the letter this weekend.

3. Speaking of Janne, his health has sucked the past 6-7 weeks. First he had a mono-like illness, plus strep throat, which lasted several weeks. That left him very tired. Then late on November 1st he got a compulsion to kill himself and swallowed 35 grams of acetaminophen (Tylenol). Fortunately he decided right away that this was a very bad idea and called the crisis line - it was the crisis counselor who told ME what was going on. Fortunately the EMTs got Janne to the hospital pronto and after a couple hours in the ER he was admitted to the ICU in the children's hospital. He spent 24 hours getting infused with N-acetylcysteine, the antagonist/antidote for acetaminophen, then another 12 under observation. So he was discharged on 11/3 afternoon. He's been laying pretty low since then but has been complaining of stomach pains and nausea, so I took him to his Dr. this morning. Doc thinks he might have a stress ulcer so gave Rx for Prilosec (stronger than OTC?) and something for his nausea. Also drew blood to check liver function, which can have problems weeks after a tylenol overdose. Cross your fingers that the blood work is okay. And yes, I can write that semi-dispassionately now because it happened almost 3 weeks ago. At the time I was a real mess.

4. Lee bought 5,000 lb. of used books for $500 last week. The books were located in Owensboro, KY, so he drove down there in his truck with a rented U-Haul trailer. It was a 2-day trip and he's still sorting the books and listing them on Amazon.com. Last night he finally sold a book from that trip, so yay!

5. Tomorrow we are going to Lombard, IL, to have lunch with Lee's 91 year old aunt who has Azheimer's and a couple of her children and their spouses. Aunt Eileen is in a combination retirement center/nursing home and they have a really nice dining room that has wonderful buffets for holidays. It will be a long day but we really need to see her, given her age and current declining health. We have finally "come out" about Janne to Eileen's children so I hope people are kind and compassionate toward him.

6. I hope everyone in the USA has a fabulous Thanksgiving. Gobble gobble! Try not to eat too much *haha*