Sierra Medical Center

Dinah is settled into room 345 at the Sierra Medical Center in El Paso. AnaLisa is staying at our house with the pets, and I'm staying with Dinah at the Hospital - they even brought me a bed; during her previous hip replacement I slept in chairs.
They have taken a medical history and a lot of blood for testing. Dinah's surgery is scheduled for 3PM tomorrow (Friday).

Back to the hospital

Dinah had her weekly checkup today with her hip surgeon, Dr Bean. He was not happy with the fact that her incision is still weeping and decided to operate a third time to open the incision with an infectious disease specialist present, and make sure that there is no infection.  She will be admitted to Sierra Hospital in El Paso tomorrow (Thursday) and be operated on late Friday.  They will keep her hospitalized until probably Monday morning.

Yesterday, our foster mother cat began sneezing and today is obviously not feeling well. We will not be able to care for her and her kittens over the next few days and so we have returned them to the shelter where the odds of their survival are not good.  We have learned from experience that once mother becomes sick, the kittens are in great danger.  Today is not one of our better days.

Bev Morissett visits Las Cruces

My sister Beverley flew home today after spending five very relaxed days visiting us, and touring the local area.  Lily and Noodle were delighted to see her and Lily especially attempted to lick her to death. Bev handled cooking duties due to Dinah's incapacitation and my incompetence.

When Dave Downs visited us back in February, I took his picture standing in the Rio Grande which was completely dry at the time. We tried to get a picture of Bev at the same spot, but she would have needed to take off her shoes and roll up her pants!

A new set of foster cats

We have been babysitting  friend AnaLisa's cat Mimi and fostering Lady Gaga for some time but today AnaLisa adopted Lady Gaga and took both cats home, so Dinah visited the shelter and came home with a mother cat and three kittens!

Here are two of the kittens; I tried to get a picture of all three but mama cat immediately carried one of them away. So far they are living in the bathroom and we are keeping them away from our other pets. They spent a couple of days in the shelter which means they were probably exposed to germs. We have our fingers crossed that they will do well.

She's home!

Dinah was released from rehab today (Monday, 9 April) and came home for the first time in five weeks.

When a patient leaves the Rehabilitation Hospital, the staff lines up along the corridor and applauds as the patient rolls by, then they give a graduation certificate and, as the picture shows, Dinah also received a quilt.

Here she is getting into the car for the ride home.

And here she is in our living room, tea in one hand, tv remote in the other. We are all glad to have her home!

The Flower Lady

When Dinah was first in rehab, I bought a single fake flower and added it to the bouquet of the real thing her sister had sent her.  She liked it, so I bought 3 more and the 4 flowers, attached to her various beds, followed her back to the Specialty Hospital in El Paso, Las Palmas Medical Center, and then back to rehab in Las Cruces.  She asked me to buy more so she could give them away to other patients, and I bought out the remainder of Dollar Tree's stock - eleven more flowers. They began to disappear fast as she handed them to other patients, and soon, many wheelchairs had a flower popping up from one handle.
More flowers! Dinah recruited hospital staff to scout out other Dollar Trees and BUY MORE FLOWERS!  By my count Dinah has, or has given away, a total of 71 fake flowers.  The nurses and attendants now alert her when a new patient arrives so that she can visit their room and present them with a flower.

Dinah is scheduled to come home on Monday, but will be returning to rehab three days a week for out patient therapy, and she plans to continue in the role of flower lady.

Another Lunch Date

Dinah had three guests for lunch today; Sewing/embroidery buddies AnaLisa & Stella, and me. AnaLisa and Stella are not being starved; guests are asked to wait until all patients are served before lining up for lunch.
Dinah continues to do well and now calls herself 'The Flower Lady' having taken on the project of giving out cloth flowers (like the two seen here on her wheel chair) to other patients.