Health Update

Fay has had a rough couple of weeks, health-wise. The good thing about memory issues is that she doesn't remember.

It started when I noticed that she was coughing a little more than usual. She often coughs because of her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but this seemed worse to me. I mentioned this to the nurse practitioner who ordered a chest x-ray. The test came back positive for an "intrusion" in her lower lobe, which was treated like pneumonia. The antibiotics for the pneumonia apparently caused a flourishing of the c-diff. bacterium (Clostridium difficile, for those interested). C-diff causes antibiotic-associated colitis, symptoms of which are bloody diarrhea. New antibiotic, slight change in other medicines that can irritate the digestive tract. Cleared up the C-diff, but a UTI followed, most likely from contamination from the diarrhea. Currently, all infections are under control.

Last time we saw Fay she was more tired than usual. Not too surprising. The nurse practitioner was not too concerned, nor was the doctor or nursing staff. It takes time to recover and they wake Fay up early to start the day. Sitting all day, even with activities, can be tiring.

Margie had just returned from a visit with Evan, Sarah, Alice, Misha, Wendy and Simon at Sarah's parents' vacation home in Maine when we visited last. Fay had a good time looking at Margie's pictures, particularly the ones of Alice and Simon. Alice busy digging in her garden and Simon displaying his new-found skill walking upright on two feet.

More On the Birth Certificate

One other oddity on the birth certificate below. The number of living children listed for my grandmother is 10. I wonder where that number came from?

What's In A Name?

I had to complete some paper work for Fay the other day, and needed to include her birth certificate. I was surprised as anyone that I was able to find it among the records I have been collecting recently, but I did. I also learned some things.

Most of us know that her given name was Fannie, not Fay. I asked her today when she started using Fay, but I don't think she remembers. I asked her if it was in high school. She said, "Yes," so we'll go with that. The other interesting things I learned are:

• Her birthday is April 9, not April 8 as most of her records show. That's actually old news. The story is that my grandmother went into labor on the 8th and assumed that her baby was born on the 8th, even though the actual birth was on the 9th. Since the time of birth is 1:45 AM, this story is certainly feasible.
  
• The names are spelled wrong. The family name is shown as Fader, not Feder as everyone spelled it. My grandmother's name is listed as Sabra, not Sarah.
  
• I had thought that my mother's childhood address was on MacMillan Avenue, but the address recorded is on N 14th or N 19th Street. I guess the family moved to MacMillan some time later.

I'm guessing that inconsistencies like those happen from time to time, particularly in the immigrant communities where English is not the primary language. I can't wait to see what problems this causes down the road.

For those of you following general progress... Fay was treated for pneumonia earlier this week (a condition she has had before, usually reported as "infiltration of the left lobe.") The antibiotic knocked the pneumonia out, but caused an intestinal infection that needs to be treated with yet another antibiotic. Fay is a little weak from all of this. On Thursday she was tired but not too disoriented. Not so with it on Saturday.