Oh Christmas tree...and catching up...

 

We've been having a reading contest at work this year, so I just had to assemble a Christmas tree that fit the theme of the year.  

Carey brought all these books to the office for me from home.  I've constructed a smaller version for our home dining table a couple of times for prior Christmases.  This time I used an occasional table as the base; from floor to tip it stands about 5 1/2 feet tall.  Every morning when I open the office door, I expect to see that the table has collapsed under the weight, but so far, so good.

I'll kind of be sad when it's time to come down.

It's been a couple of months since I've written here.  It's been a crazy couple of months.

We went on vacation in late October, heading to the northeast.  We were in Pennsylvania on my birthday.  When we stopped to fill the car with gasoline, I got out to stretch my legs.  I tripped.  My head hit the pavement.  Ambulance trip to the hospital.  Nine stitches on forehead.  Broken left arm.  End of vacation.  Headed home with pain killers.  Missed a month of work.

The break was pretty simple...no surgery...I'm now doing physical therapy and am back at work.  Things like picking up the laptop and typing are much easier now.

The scar on my forehead is only noticeable if I point it out.  It curves right above my left eyebrow.

All told, I am very thankful that I got off as light as I did.  

A rainy Monday...

Today is a rare rainy August day.  And even more rare is the fact that the temperature only reached 80° F (27° C)...way more like spring than late summer!  It put me in the mood for something really fresh and light.  

Mixed greens, fresh strawberries and blackberries, mushrooms, avocado, feta cheese, tossed in a homemade honey and Dijon dressing and topped with a gorgeous, perfectly cooked salmon filet.  Yum!  

Carey isn't a fan of salmon.  He'll eat it, but I know he doesn't really enjoy it.  And as high as the price is, I figure why force it on somebody who doesn't like it.  So I usually make it when Jared and I are on our own.  We both LOVE it.  And we both thoroughly enjoyed our salad.

I had an appointment with a chiropractor today.  My left shoulder is still causing lots of pain.  I went to him for the first time last week.  He's young, well trained, and I have hopes that we will be able to get the shoulder back to normal.  The muscle spasms in my back that were also plaguing me for the past month or more are already gone for the most part, and since the last visit, I have enjoyed three days of more energy than I've had since I can't remember when.  I love the chiropractor I've been going to for the past twenty years, but she is over an hour away from where I live now.  And I think there is something to be said for young doctors coming out of school with new methods and treatments.  I am feeling very hopeful.

Here's a photo of Rudy in his new vest...we had to go up a size.  He makes us laugh a lot.  Right now he is racing around the house at warp speed.  That means that in a few minutes he will be begging to crawl up into my lap to be held until he falls asleep.  Baby!  :)

  

The best medical advice...

image credit: Bing clip art

My doctor of nine years took a leave of absence a couple of years ago.  I remember, because I had several appointments to get treatment and follow up for my case of shingles in the weeks before she left.  Oh, I have missed her so much!  Her replacement is very nice, but the office, which was handy to get to when we lived on the ranch, is really pretty inconvenient now that we have moved; even worse is making the long drive when you don't feel good.

Monday I found out that my 'old' doctor (ha!  she's barely older than my daughter) is starting a new practice much closer and convenient for me.  Happy, happy, happy!.  She's smart, and skilled, and pays attention to details.  She is the first to have suspected one of my chronic issues, and thankfully she hounded me to get further testing and follow up with specialists when I kept putting it off.  I am ecstatic at the prospect of being under her care again.

I had an appointment this morning to get records and insurance in place and catch up, and also to move my prescriptions to a more convenient pharmacy.  Eventually going to the doctor and getting prescriptions filled won't be like taking a tour of central Texas.

She told me to cut out soda and get more exercise.  So when I got home I grabbed a cup of unsweet tea and took the girlies home to spend some time in their pool.

I was in for hours.

It was exhausting!  :)

Making it Monday...

Boy, again, I did NOT want to cook today.  Carey made the trip to see his mom, I stayed home.  And did absolutely nothing.  I am SO fatigued lately...walking through molasses.  

I knew he would be home in time for dinner.  I had some ground beef in the fridge, but I couldn't think of a thing to prepare with it.  I really wanted to order pizza and have it delivered, but my frugal goals won the day.

I knew I had flour and yeast, so I figured I could cobble something pizza-like together as long as I had some sauce in the cupboard.  I did, but boy is the pantry getting bare.  Definitely need to go to the market...soon.

I made the crust using a recipe found on Pinterest.  Other than the sauce, I only had cheddar, Parmesan, green and black olives, half an onion, and the ground beef.

It turned out pretty good.  And pretty darn frugal.  Worth overcoming my malaise.

I'm going to the doctor to have prescriptions renewed tomorrow.  I will definitely bring up the fatigue.  Carey suggested I might need Geritol (do they still make that?), then I reminded him that I have to have blood removed due to high iron levels, so I don't think Geritol is a good idea.  :)

Think pink...

Got my mammogram today.  It had been a few years, so I am glad to have it off my conscience and to-do list.

A whole week gone by...

...so by way of a quick catch up.

Tuesday:  chore day
Wednesday:  Carey got home.
Thursday:  another grandson licensed to drive (that's his birthday card above)
Friday: grocery shop
Saturday: quiet day while men went to soccer game
Sunday: made Jared's birthday pie x2
Today: spent ALL afternoon at clinic coaxing blood from this turnip, birthday dinner out

Dreams...

Lucky me.  I caught the bug.  :(  Yesterday was the worst day.  Today I feel better, but still too fatigued to have yet forced myself into the shower to wash off that broken-fever-sweat smell.  Sorry, just keeping it real here.

Last night I did experience a very nice dream.  One that has stayed with me, and I wanted to write it down.

photo credit: wikipedia

I dreamed of my father-in-law who has been gone for ten years.  I dreamed of he and my mother-in-law visiting us to attend a preschool program of my daughter's.  I dreamed of him driving us in his very large luxury car, and on the way to the program he pulled through a drive-thru to order soft drinks.  I won't go into every boring detail.  Suffice it to say that it was a reminder of where my husband gets his stubborn adherence to the 'old' ways and his lack of ordering skills.  :)

photo credit:  Forgotten Charm at etsy.com

I experienced picking up the receiver on our 1970s model beige desk phone, and on the other end was my best friend from the 5th grade on.  And we had a rather mundane conversation about the phone's malfunction.

Best of all my precious baby girl was magically, enchantingly four years old again.  I opened the car door and let her scramble out of the car without unbuckling a car seat first...'cause, you know, back in the day she never sat in one.  I watched her toddle up the sidewalk and wait at the front door for me to open it.

The amazing thing about each of these dream sequences was the everyday reality of them.  Might be attributed to the high fever I took to bed with me last night.  :)

I think I'll go take a shower now.

The bug is back...

image credit: Bing images...with a few artistic edits by me

This time it has struck Mr. Invincible...he who does not get sick.  Poor baby.  He has been away for over a week, and arrived home last night feeling like he was coming down with something.

I'm not a very good nurse, but I am trying to be kind.  

I force fed him Advil for his headache and Oscillococcinum to "reduce the duration and severity of flu symptoms."  

I'm pushing him to drink fluids.

I served him soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for supper.  

And I've banished him to bed.  

Because I think he needs the rest?  Well, um, sort of.  Because I don't want the constant exposure in case it's a different strain than I had recently?  Well, yes, partly.

But mostly because I can't look at him wearing those flannel pajamas, terry robe, and slippers, all topped off by his knit Texas Rangers stocking cap with the gigantic pom pom on top without laughing my head off!

Down time...

image credit: bing images

I decided to forego a flu vaccination this year.  Perhaps not my best decision.  So that's why I've been away so long.  If I am too miserable to eat and read, then I MUST be pretty sick.  :)  

Today I feel better, so maybe this coming week will be more normal, and I will be able to get back to my ignored/updated to-do list.  

The mother of invention...

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but PAIN must be the mother of action.  Here's my story in pictures.

12/05/13 = $$$ for overnight delivery

And she's mobile again!  

Not venturing out and about, but at least I can now maneuver around the house much more easily and comfortably.

Shingle shoes...very-expensive cheapy flipflops...but they're now special orthotics, don't you know!  :)

Just a spoonful of sugar...

So, it's definitely shingles.  Got in to see the doc this morning, and started the antiviral medication, so I'm sincerely hoping that it will kick in and my case will be a light one.  This is the med...one horsepill three times a day.

I snapped the photos to email to my co-worker.  She has a rather severe aversion to large pills, and I wanted her sympathy.  :)  I put in the small binder clip for comparison, because I knew it would be familiar as we use them in the office all the time.  She gagged and promptly deleted the email.

The large size doesn't bother me in the least...another thing that I thank my sweet Aunt Ruth for.  We didn't take much medicine around our house, so when I was visiting her and would see how many pills she had to take (oh how she suffered with arthritis), I was amazed.  I asked her about it one time, and she said it was easier to take them all at the same time then one at a time, and proceeded to show me...pop...gulp...gone.  She made it look so easy that I thought that was the norm, and never blink an eye over just one big one.  Heck, I take five in varying sizes every night...pop...gulp...gone!  :)

My co-worker insists that her throat is too small to do this.  Or maybe that her tonsils are too big.  And that very well could be, I suppose.  I have no tonsils...not due to surgical means, mind you.  I told you, no medicine (or doctors) at our house growing up.  I was once told that if I was sure they hadn't been removed, then they must have ruptured due to severe infection at some point, and healed into the weird little stumpy things that remain.  Yep, that sounds about right.  If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.

A picnic it ain't...

Doesn't this photo I took on a Sunday drive today look drab and dreary?  This is the extent of our Autumn colors...brown...blah.  Matches my mood.  I haven't been feeling great...not super awful or anything...just... 

The sole of my left foot has been hurting.  I was afraid maybe I was getting a cyst or something.  I had Carey look at it Thursday, and he couldn't see anything.  I had him look at it today, and he said it is a circle of raised bumps.  Uh-oh.  Google search images.  Hmmm.  It does look somewhat like early shingles rash.

Camping out on doctor's doorstep bright and early tomorrow morning.

October is...

art credit:  John Wagner for Hallmark

I have my mammogram scheduled.  Do you?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Rushing off to have a sleep study done.  Nothing more restful than knowing someone is watching and/or monitoring you while you are semi-conscious.

I wanted to answer some comments before I went, but didn't get away from work as early as I had hoped, and I have to pack pajamas, and clothes/makeup for work tomorrow.

So I'll just run, now and answer later.  G'night!

This week in a nutshell...

photo credit: Microsoft clipart

It was a dark and stormy night that kicked it off, which dawned into a beautiful Mother's Day.  Monday was a busy one on which was discovered blog thievery.  Wednesday slowed down a bit at the office, but ramped up when I got home to a son with lower abdominal pain and fever...made a trip to the ER...night spent in hospital.  Thursday morning brought surgery to remove appendix.  Went well.  This morning (Friday) he was released.  I made him chicken soup.  His sister and nieces brought him ice cream and flowers.

And that's it...in a nutshell.

Eye Opening...

Today I had an appointment with the ophthalmologist.  This photo was taken about five hours after dilation drops were put in.  Even now, eight hours after dilation, they feel weird.  

I've recently had an eye-opening report regarding my computer also.  First I lost the ability to connect wirelessly.  When I took it for repair, I learned that it had a VERY limited life expectation...it's a Vista and won't be supported after the end of the year...thanks Microsoft.  So I decided not to invest in new parts.  Labor alone only got the wireless working for a couple of days.  Right now I'm sitting right next to the router, kind of cramped and uncomfortable, so that I can be plugged in.

A new laptop will be arriving a little sooner than I had been planning...another week or so maybe.

It's blue...to match my eyes.  :)

Supercalifragilistic...

...hemochromatosis.

If you have it and ignore, you might just get cirrhosis.

If I hear it oft enough, I know I'll have neurosis.

Supercalifragilistic hemochromatosis!

 

The latest chapter in my Old Egg saga.  I won't bore you with the details...if I haven't already.  I just want to ask for prayers and positive thoughts on Wednesday, when I will be having minor surgery.  The phlebotomy treatment for the hemochromatosis is not working out so well, so I'm having a portacath implanted so that it can be used for removing blood rather than constantly fighting to find a vein.

 

And since I had to stop my blood thinners (taken for yet another Old Egg malady) leading up to the surgery, I get to inject myself in the stomach twice a day instead till it's all over!  Yippee! 

 

photo credit: ActuSoins

 

I had to do quite the internet image search to find a photo of an attractive abdomen being injected.  Most of the photos I found looked much more like mine...doughy and flabby!  I just couldn't subject you all to that.  :)

 

Just call me a turnip...

photo credit: http://www.bestinseason.ie/a-z/turnips/

 

You know the old saying, "You can't get blood out of a turnip"?  Well just call me a turnip.

 

Today I had my first treatment for my new malady.  Treatment is to draw blood a pint at a time...sadly it can't be donated due to the medications I'm on...what a waste.  My hematologist happens to practice in a cancer center.  So when I went for the phlebotomy, I was in a room full of people getting their chemo.

 

Here I am a fairly healthy person, surrounded by people who are fighting a battle for their life.  I had a tremendous amount of guilt just sitting their looking healthy.

 

Beside me sat a man who also looked fairly healthy (despite a broken leg).  He was getting a pint of blood drawn also.  We were seated within seconds of each other.  The technicians began their work on us simultaneously.  A few minutes later they were still searching for a vein in my arm that worked, and he was done and drinking his juice.  I said, 'You're done so quick?'  And he said, 'Yeah, but I have to do this for 52 more weeks.'  I very quietly, so only the nurse could here me, said, 'I have to do this for the next twenty years.'  The nurse repeated it to him.

 

I didn't mean to get into a pissing contest.  Nonetheless, I think he felt bad.  I felt really sorry about that.  Funny thing...he sounded exactly like my husband's brother...voice...accent...the whole package.  And so in an effort to kind of breach the uncomfortable moment, I tell him.  'You sound just like my brother-in-law.  It's kind of comforting.'  So he sat there to keep me company long after he needed to.  He eventually thought they might need the chair, so he came and stood by me, and as the second technician was trying yet another vein he put his hand on my shoulder.  And though he didn't say anything, I felt that he was praying for me...that's what my brother-in-law would be doing if he were there. 

 

He eventually took his leave.  It took a full hour and three nurses/technicians to get a pint of blood out of me.  The nurses had to sit beside me on a low stool and hold the needle in my hand with the blood bag beside them on a scale on the floor...making certain that they still had the blood flowing out ever so slowly.  They kept having to tag team as one had her back start aching, and the next had her legs start cramping.  When the bag was finally full...well, full enough-ish...everybody on my side of the room breathed a big sigh of relief, and some smiled and woo-hooed.  I've been giving thanks for them and praying for their healing all day.

 

I go back in two weeks.  I wonder who dreads it more...me...or the staff?