Girlfriends

Time for our annual get together: 6 high school girlfriends for a long weekend at Kathy’s house in Swanee, Georgia. I bought my airline ticket months ago. The week before kickoff, Mickie let the rest of know that she had thought about cancelling the reunion since she’d likely broken her foot while visiting Japan (Sue already knew of the accident since she was along on that trip.)

She was using a knee scooter (again) and would soldier on. Then Thursday morning, right before she was to drive from Elijah, GA, Mary Bird texted that she had decided not to come so she could have “me” time. What? Is she okay? No one knows.

On the home front, Monday Grant gouged a quarter-sized hole in his shin on a stick from a freeze-killed coffee plant that I had asked my yard person CC to cut to the ground. She had interpreted that to mean, “Please leave dead 12”-18” spikes sticking out off the ground when you cut back a plant.” Little swords just waiting for action. I had warned Grant to be careful when he dug the home for the little live oak I wanted planted on our north lot line.

We used the Lee W. system of skin grafts, slapping antibiotic on a big bandage to cover the wound. He went to lie down, and I finished the planting. I used the big chainsaw to cut a 3” camphor tree root so I could plant the beauty berry in the first hole he’d dug. 

By Wednesday, his shin was pretty red. Of course, most of that is due to his crappy circulation. I’d just thrown away the official skin marker I’d saved from one of my dermatology visits (why would w ever need that?), so I used a black Sharpie to circle the edge of the redness I thought came from just the wound. 

As we drove to the airport Thursday morning, I insisted Grant make an appointment at the urgent care for Friday. If the boo-boo was better, he could always cancel. Thank goodness he decided to go that afternoon. Yes, the wound was infected. Maybe even a little cellulitis. Rx: oral and topical antibiotics that he started Friday morning. 

Meanwhile, I had an uneventful flight (although I’d never seen help-yourself snacks at the gate before. My requested coffee onboard was a no show.) Kathy and Mickie picked me up at the Avalon Marta station, we circled back to get Sue and Jane at the Dekalb Farmers Market, and the weekend officially began.

The usual talking, grazing, drinking. Too cold to sit on the porch, so fewer birds seen, plus their likely not having migrated quite yet. Friday several of us didn’t even change out of our pajamas. Saturday, I made mint juleps to watch the Kentucky Derby, which they had never seen! 

Over all too soon. Yet one more adventure: Sunday morning, an hour before she was to start her 5-hour drive to Florida, Jane got a nose bleed. Even with Dr. Mickie’s intervention, we ended up taking her to the emergency room before dropping me at Marta. Blood pressure: 200/102. Result: ENT appointment Tuesday, husband flying up to drive home Wednesday. I shudder to think what would have happened had she been on the road. 

Back at home, Grant’s leg is not a lot better, in my professional opinion. Coincidentally, he has 4 day’s doses left of the blood thinner he has taken for 30 years and can’t get a new prescription without see a doctor. Ah, the fun of last minute. Fortunately, he could get an appointment Wednesday morning (I had to cancel with CC and with the locksmith who was scheduled to perhaps fix our front door). 

Between Grant’s deafness and the resident’s asking questions where a Yes answer actually meant a No, I thought I’d go out of my mind. Forty five minutes later, we left with prescriptions ordered for the blood thinner and a second round of antibiotics, an appointment with a doctor in July, and the promise of a call from Dr. Bob, the head of the Warfarin clinic, to have blood work started on a regular schedule. 

I need a mint julep.


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