Poor Mindy/Mel/Melinda

December 24, 2008

(For those of you who don't know, our daughter Melinda has a split personality. Until age 13, when she decided Mindy was entirely too babyish or something or other, she went by Mindy to everyone--family, friends, strangers, whoever. In the 8th grade, however, she took up the nickname of Mel and has gone by it ever since to new friends, husbands, etc. She still doesn't mind Mindy by us, however.)

OK, catch-up time again. I think I last posted the evening of Saturday, December 12, after crossing the border from Mexico at Reynosa. We drove that Sunday as far as Lafayette, LA, then on into to Fairhope Monday afternoon, December 14. It was really very warm and muggy. High temps in the 70s, very high humidity. What a difference we could feel right away after Mexico. As we were coming through the Bankhead tunnel under Mobile Bay, we got a call from Melinda. She was on her way to the ER, strong possibility of appendicitis. She had been in some pain and discomfort for about a week, went to an Urgent Care Center on Saturday, where they diagnosed a urinary tract infection. Sunday evening they called to report the test results negative for UTI. So, on Monday afternoon, after her next-to-last final exam, she saw her own doctor who sent her straight to the ER. The ER at Audubon Hospital has her on morphine within 10 minutes, then ran tests, including a CT scan. By 8:30 that night she was in surgery for a ruptured appendix. Very nasty infection and complications, peritonitis, but the doctor was able to do everything necessary with three laparoscopic incisions. In spite of the minimal invasion, she still had to spent 5 miserable days in the hospital getting massive infusions of heavy-duty antibiotics via IV. Mark called for me to come up and help by Wednesday morning when they realized how difficult her recovery was going to be. So I flew up from Mobile Wednesday afternoon, and Mark and I took turns on hospital watch. (Don’t get me started on nurses and hospitals.) Then Bob drove up from Alabama Monday with the dogs so he could see Melinda and bring me back. She’s doing so much better and Mark is taking excellent care of her. And, of course, he fed us well in his usual gourmet style. Melinda’s biggest concern right now is making up for her last final exam which she missed the morning after her surgery.