HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN...JIGGETY JIG!!!

Not that I can do any real *jiggety jigging*....LOL!  My trip to the emergency room last weekend, turned into a real pain....in more ways than one.  I was seen quickly and was running a fever.  Sure sign of some kind of infection, which I suspected was my appendix (and I was partially right).  After a CT scan of my abdomen, I was fortunate enough to get an ER doctor that went with *gut* feelings and they did some exploratory work before automatically going for the appendix as the primary problem.  Turns out the doctor was right.  I had a 3 inch section of my colon that was dead and necrotic.  The surgeon (my favorite one was on call, thankfully) removed 4 inches of the colon and stitched it back together (then starved me for three days to allow healing).  He then took out the infected appendix also.  This was not a fun surgery.  Every cough, and they ensured THAT with four daily breathing appts. with medication, was sheer torture even with an IV drip that included morphine.

I got round the clock antibiotics.  I was getting continuous saline solution but my mouth and lips were so dry, I would have killed for a single ice cube.  I couldn't even sit up by myself.  Turning was out of the question.  The PCA's turned me to prevent sores and braced me with pillows.  My coughing brought tears to my eyes each and every time.  THEN...to make things even worse, they had me doing those damn breathing exercises where you have to breath IN to move the damn pressure block up and each time, my torturer kept telling me to breath in harder.  Yeah!  Right!  This was made bearable only by the intellectual knowledge that I WOULD eventually heal and feel better.  I just wasn't sure I wanted to live that badly.

The nurses took pity on my and brought me these swabs that were filled with biotene, a dry mouth rinse that allowed me to reach all the horribly dried areas of my mouth and tongue.  I couldn't swallow it but the relief was incredible.  And my breath smelled better, I am sure.  LOL.

I only weigh (now) 120 lbs soaking wet but it took two strong nurses to get me out of bed and into a chair for an hour twice a day for each of the first three days.  When the doctor finally allowed me to have clear liquids, I could have kissed him.  Even the jello tasted wonderful and I ordered whatever I could have.  Two more days and I was allowed *liquids*, which meant I could actually have milk and ice cream.  It took me back to the days when I had my tonsils removed.  LOL!

Of course, the doctors and nurses all were concerned about my bowel movements (if any).  I had a catheter until the very last day even though we knew by then that my bowels were working well.  I sure got tired of PTA baths and eventually wet a washrag and scrubbed my head with it to get rid of the sweat.  That's when I realized I forgot to pack a brush but the nurse grabbed the one out of my bathroom (regular stuff they give you when you check in).  I had no idea it was there since I hadn't been near the bathroom at all.  

They finally allowed me to actually take a pain pill instead of the morphine (phew!) and I got solid food, too.  I could order anything since my bowels were working.  I laughed and told the doctor I was suddenly having people ask me about them after all those years of being told it wasn't fit conversation material.

I actually made my one doctor laugh out loud when he heard me tell the Beast that I could go home as soon as I pee'd so he could come down and squeeze the piss out of me.  I guess he never thought he would hear this sweet old woman say that to her hubby and it took him totally by surprise.  I think he almost fell on the floor laughing.  I hadn't seen him so much as smile before then.

He laughed and told me it was good to keep a sense of humor and I told him what else could I do?  It's not like I could do anything more than survive to live another day.  He was still laughing as he left the room.  A couple of the nurses just HAD to know what I did to make him laugh and they got a good laugh out of that when I told them.  Guess he's not a real cheerful fellow most of the time.  But my surgeon?  He's got one hell of a sense of humor and we always had a good laugh when he came in to see me.  He thinks *I* am funny.  

I avoided taking any pain pills the day before I hoped to go home so there would be no reason to keep me that I could avoid.  All I wanted was to go home.  Of course, I got sick in the car on the way home (nausea from the pain) and I took a pain pill as soon as I walked in the door and laid down to rest.  I can usually avoid vomiting if I lay down and fight it for a bit.  Then my stomach calms down and I relax.  Today was no exception.  I am saving the new pain pill prescription for taking before bedtime so I can sleep.  I already slept for six hours so I am good for a bit longer before I have to get more rest.  At the hospital, I was not able to sleep for almost 3 days.  Every 15 minutes, someone was coming in to take blood, give me shots, something.  I kid you not.  I actually got cranky from lack of sleep.  Not fun.

So now I am home.  I had my first good cup of coffee (Kauai coffee...we have been hoarding the last of our beans) and I will have enough to share with my sisters when they come to spend the day with me on Tuesday.  On Monday they are going to look at a house to rent nearby my house.  It will mean we will be able to spend time together more often than if they moved to a different area.  It's going to take them a while to get used to the differences of living in this area compared to the zoo they lived in down in the Ft. Lauderdale area.

I'm just so happy to be home, I can't begin to tell you.  My son, Mustachio, had no idea I was in the hospital.  Figures the Beast wouldn't even THINK about informing our kids.  Sheesh.  It also explains why I hadn't heard from them at all.  Mustachio wouldn't have known except that Bratfink left him a note on YIM when she saw him pop on and off it a couple times a night while I was in the hospital.  

Time to post this missive so anyone who has missed me knows what went on and why and also that I am home again.  Love you all.  Oh, and I had a great day to come home.  It got up to 70 today and was bright and sunny out.  I enjoyed all 30 minutes of my ride in it.  LOL!  Be good, stay healthy and ***hugs***

Ask Dot Com Is Useless.....

I used Ask dot com for a search today for a change.  I wondered how it compared to Google.  Let me tell you this much....Ask doesn't get you to the site you click on.  It just keeps taking you to more and more sites.  I was looking for two things....the organs on right side of body and a couple different organ sites to show individual organs and their locations in the human body.  It actually took me 15 different sites before I got PART of what I was looking for.  On Google, it took two clicks.  I used the same request and had no problem getting what I was looking for.  I will not use Ask again.

I may actually have appendicitis.  I have all the symptoms and the pain is located in that quadrant.  That pisses me off.  I need another surgery like a hole in the head.  I have to call the doctor tomorrow to get in to see him.  He will make room for me since this could be a very serious problem and he will want to check it out.  I'm going to take along a packed bag just in case.  I am NOT going to take more than things for a couple days max.  I don't know if they do outpatient for an appendix.  Hard to say in this day and age.  They are doing such amazing things now.  I actually should Google that.  Heck, I will probably do that after I post my blog.

It was warm enough today for the Beast to take Baron out for a run around the circle and a detour to see his *buddy* on the goat farm.  Almost all the snow is gone now.  There's just a few lonely clumps in areas deep within some of the thickly grouped trees.

Hope you liked the bird pictures I  posted yesterday.  I have a few more that I will post in a day or two.  I had to go through all of them so there wouldn't be more repeats.  There are a few of those and somehow I don't think anyone cares to see ALL of the pics the Beast gave me.  He took some just because one or two of the little birds were looking straight at the camera like they were posing.  
The Beast is now saying he can hardly wait for the hummingbirds to return.  They are NOT camera shy or skittish around our deck these past couple of years.  That makes it easier for him to get pictures.  I will definitely post those....LOL.  They are all beautiful.

Love you all.  If the doctor admits me to the hospital or just sends me over there for some xrays to verify my problem, I may not be able to write a blog for a couple days.  But....if I don't have a blog posted after this one, you will know.  When the Beast saw me uploading the bird pictures, I told him I was sending them to my sisters and a couple friends.  Now he wants to know what they thought of them.  I just told him I hadn't heard anything from them yet (true).  We were surprised to find out just how many of the birds native to Alabama stick around all winter lone.  Its like 150+.  *Shock*  It's not like they are *double feathered* but the Beast is now glad he put out all the bird feeders and the suet.  The suet help them keep their body heat up like a double feathering would.  I'm sure not going to give the Beast a hard time about the cost of the seed or the suet, that's for sure.  They went through a hell of a lot of seed while it was snowing and the snow was on the ground.

We had a lot of new birds show up so they must have been either following the birds that weren't on the ground scavenging or else the birds were passing the word.  LOL  

Time to post this and get my body to bed.  If this IS appendicitis, I don't want to do anything to cause it to rupture.  I was using a heating pad on the area but found out that is NOT a good idea.  It wasn't helping anyway so I was going to stop using it.  I just know that out of 10 signs, I have 9 of them.  I am NOT vomiting (yet) although I DO have the nausea, which comes and goes.  Oh well.  Love you all and I hope you are having a good week.  Stay warm and dry.  Drive carefully, please.  ***Hugs***

Finally Some Of The Bird Pictures!

The Beast finally gave me several of his bird pictures and I am going to share them with you.  I don't have all their names...there's titmouses, tufted titmouses, cardinal (male and female) and even a dove.  But you will see for yourself the variety even tho' some are not obvious.

 

I think that is all I am up/downloading for today.  Some are from non-snow days, as you can tell.  The Birds managed to kick off a lot of snow on the railings in some but the white background gives it away.

Love you all.  Hope you are having a nice Sunday.  Mine is quiet anyway.  I am having some pain in my lower right side.  Feels like I hurt it when I was coughing last night.  Now every time I cough that area screams at me.  I think I am going to get the heating pad and let it  do it's magic on me.   Be good and stay warm and dry.  I will post a couple more of the bird pictures in a couple days.  I have to sort thru some of them and make sure you aren't getting duplicates.  Sises....if you want any of them for wallpaper, let me know and I will email them to you.  In the meantime....***Hugs***

Now I Am Pissed...!

 The Beast was up early this morning, as usual and I got up to see if he was putting together his suitcase with clothes for his trip.  When he was still in his underwear and on his computer, I asked him what time he was leaving.  It's about a 5 hour drive to his aunt's house so there wasn't really a rush.  That's when he told me that he wasn't going to NC.  When I asked him why, he actually said he really didn't think he should leave me alone.  That pissed me off and I told him that he was nuts to do that.  I would be fine here alone and he knew it!  Then he said that he also wasn't feeling well enough to make the trip.  His COPD and the chest cold made him feel pretty bad and he wasn't sleeping well.  I told him not to try to use me as his excuse but I am sure that's what he did to his cousins.  Grrrr!

So here I am, stuck.  He refuses to let me drive myself anywhere.  I told him to stop trying to make me a cripple by thinking I am incapable of doing things by myself.  He just said that our streets are still very dangerous and slippery since the temperature allows it to melt partially and then freezes it into ice at night.  I know he has a point but.....I said to him, *With the tracks that have been made in the snow, I can follow them and stay out of trouble.  The rest of the roads have been cleared that I would be traveling on.*  But he started to act like I was up to something and that was the reason I didn't want him to drive me anywhere.  I threw my hands up in the air and said, *You always say that when you can't get your way.  *I* am not the one that is always *up to something* and buying all kinds of stuff then trying to hide the fact.  That is YOU!*

I am afraid I slammed the door to my computer room when I went into it.  Shame on me.  I swear that man deserves a horse-whipping for the crap he puts me thru.  He has been trying to *take care of me* even tho' the doctor said I was fine and should start resuming my normal life.  He did say that my energy level  might take another week or so to return but it would return.  But I think the Beast likes having me captive, so-to-speak.  Ha!  When my sister gets here, he will have a shock coming to him.  She won't let him do this to me.  And she has a very sweet way of just coming to get me that even he can't get around.  LOL!

Well, love you all.  I will be fine.  Just another couple days until the snow is all gone.  *Sigh*  Hope you are as lucky.  ***Hugs***

Early Bedtime For The Beast.....

The Beast is always open to experimenting with his cooking and that's what he did yesterday.  He made a kind of vegetable soup that was VERY different.  It was edible but not great.  It had a kind of cream sauce instead of a broth.  It was, unfortunately, not a hit with me.  I told him it lacked something.  I should have said it lacked taste.....LOL.  It could have been tasty with a bit of beef and beef broth added to it.  

He went to bed early (around 8:30pm) but Baron woke him around 11pm to go out.  Thankfully, Baron didn't want to play in the snow.  So he went out and came back in shortly.  He headed right for his bed and plopped down.  I swear he was asleep within two minutes.  He has this little snore sound he makes when he's asleep that is kind of cute.  Seems like he can do that at the drop of a hat.  He's almost 8 years old now and that's old for a Doberman.  I guess it's why he sleeps more these days.

The Beast managed to make Baron's chicken without it stinking up the house.  He used a bit of chicken broth instead of the water he usually adds.  I told him to save the broth for me so I could use it when I make Baron's rice.  I think he would like it that way.  I can also add a bit of it to the veggies when I nuke them.  Since I will be doing that while the Beast goes to his aunt's house in NC, I figure I will try to make his meals interesting at least.  He will be missing his *man*.

I'm looking forward to the Beast being gone.  I feel free and able to relax more.  There's no coming into my computer room to tell me the latest news about Isis or his complaints about Congress and the bills they are passing.  I read the news online.  I don't really enjoy his comments because they are so dumb at times.  All his news comes from the Fox channels, so figure it out for yourselves if you've ever watched any of it.

We had a lot of the snow melt.  Not nearly enough but it works.  I wouldn't drive in it right now because it's cold enough outside to turn a lot of it into ice.  But it is going to be in the 40's again tomorrow and that may just do it and it will be gone.  There's no school again for Chewlee and the Princess must be going nuts with that.  She doesn't have her *alone* time with Gunner.  But at least Gunner loves his sister and she has come to love him, too.  It's sweet.  I may ask the Princess if I can keep Chewlee overnight on Saturday after the Beast leaves.  He's also been driving me nuts with his pictures of the birds that have been feeding at our bird feeders.  Some of them I have never seen before.  Very strange colorings.  He has to show them all to me even if many of them are alike.

It's really funny how the birds line up on the rail of the deck to eat.  It's like they are taking turns and they get mad if one of them takes too long and they will chase them off.  They are really mean to each other when it comes to feeding.  I put some bread out for them and that went quickly.  The cardinal that comes here to feed kept the little birds away while he gorged himself with the bread.  He was VERY mean.  He was also very skittish and if we came too close to the door, he would fly away.  It made it hard for the Beast to take his picture but he finally got a couple shots of him.

I told the Beast I wanted a couple of the pictures to send to my sisters but I really want them to post here on my blog.  He says he will give me them either tomorrow or when he gets back from NC.  It does show the snow even though the birds knocked some of it off landing and taking off again.  He has one with about 5 birds lined up, which I think is cute.  I will share them when he gives me them.

Love you all.  Hope you have a wonderful Friday and a fantastic weekend.  Be safe.  Stay warm and dry.  ***Hugs***

YIKES!!!

If you are like me, you will find this hard to believe......we got 11 inches of snow between yesterday and last night.  Eleven inches!  You should have seen my deck this morning.  Baron had a ball tho' running through it once he got down the stairs.  The Yaris looked buriedo due to the wind we had.  I was without internet most of  yesterday and all night.  The snow on the satellite dish didn't melt enough until around 10am.  It was another hour before we even got our TV back.  No, I take that back.  I remembered the program that came on so it was noon.  *Sigh*

It was awful when I saw the mess but it was warm enough to start the snow melting.  The Beast was playing with it and said it was perfect for making snowballs.  He still has some *kid* left in him, I guess.

He did manage to get most of the snow off the Yaris mainly because he needed to go to Walmart for some chicken for Baron.  I hate when he cooks it in the pressure cooker.  It stinks up the whole house because he cooks giblets with it.  He said our little community here has the worse streets.  Most of the others have been cleared in town.  Poor men must have worked all night.  Our neighbors down the road put their car in a ditch last night.  Without calling a tow truck, I doubt they will be able to get it out either.  Makes you wonder what was so important that they had to try driving through the mess.  At least the Beast managed to get out....twice.  He had to come home because he forgot his wallet here.  He seems to do that a lot lately.  LOL!

 He bought me a bunch of TV dinners since he will be gone for a few days.  He doesn't want me to go hungry (he said) just because he really doesn't want me to drive in this mess unless I absolutely need to get something important (like more veggies for Baron).  He don't know me very well, do he?  ROFL!

I'll write more later tonight.  Meantime, love you all and be safe.  ***Hugs***

Good News For A Change.....

I made it to the doctor's in time despite the Beast using my car to go to the barber's.  He forgot I had such an early appointment or I would have been gone when he got home.  He gave me such a hard time about driving myself to the doctor's that I gave in and let him drive me.  He SAID he was worried that I might have some problem due to it only being a little more than a week since I had my *falling*  problem.  But...lo and behold....when the lab ran my hemoglobin test, it was NORMAL!  Isn't that great???!!!!  Even my doctor was surprised.  

He was so cute about the results when he came into the exam room.  He said to me, *Well, you've managed to double your count from what it was last week!*  I said, *That would make my hemoglobin normal then*   He laughed and said, *Oh, you guessed!*  We both laughed at that.  He was a bit upset that the hospital staff hadn't followed through with setting up an appointment for me with the hematologist.  His nurse called and set one up for me on the 9th.

He wanted to know about my energy level and I told him it was so-so but getting better.  At least I'm not spending all my time sleeping.  I don't fight it when my body says *sleep* because I know it will do that in order for it to devote the time to healing.  I think I had a lot of healing to do for a while, even before the falling incidents.  But who knew that I was so damn anemic?  Now I'm not but the doctor did tell me not to push myself for a while.

He also told me to give it a few more days before he orders an x-ray of the area that is so painful.  He also renewed my pain pills since I pointed out that I had been without an authorized prescription for months and yet I just finished up the last of the pills that I had left.  I told him that I only used them when I had pain that I couldn't ignore.  After checking the records, he told me that was obvious if I just finished up my pills yesterday.

He faxed the pharmacy with my renewals when I left and it wasn't more than 15 minutes after I got home that they called to tell me my prescriptions were ready.  I was shocked but he knew I was in pain while in the office.  He also authorized my mail order diabetic supplies company to send me a back brace.  I really could use that now.  I just hope it gets here quickly.  It would help with managing my pain in that side as well as supporting my back.

I was a bit worried about my A1C test but it was slightly over 5 and that was great.  People who have diabetes or know someone they are close to that have it will understand what that means.  There are non-diabetics that have higher counts.  I laughed when he told me and said for someone that has such good blood results, I sure feel crappy.  That's when HE laughed and said he could understand my feelings.

I don't really feel all that crappy.  It's the pain that wears me down.  But now that I am awake, aware and doing more, I know I am a LOT better than I was just two weeks ago.  And I am sleeping longer without constantly waking up to use the bathroom.  Yesterday I slept for 6 hours straight before the pain pill had worn off and I turned in my sleep.  THAT woke me.  It was okay, however, because I dressed to go to the doctor.  I woke up about an hour and a half earlier than planned but I played my game for a bit then worked on the revised afghan for a bit, too.

Now that I have bored you to tears, I will say goodnight.  It's been a couple days since I *spoke* with Bratfink.  We keep missing each other on Yahoo Instant Messenger and Vegas World.  My friend on VW, Staffy, called me from England just because he was feeling a bit low.  He misses his bride who had to return to the States to put her house up for sale and officially retire from her government job.  He said he KNOWS this is all stuff that MUST be done but Skype just isn't the same for him as holding her and having her there with him.  

Their love story is so cute.  I was happy when they were able to finally get married and be together.  Now she must get her Visa in order to immigrate to England permanently.    I didn't know that England requires a certain amount of money that each of them must prove they have to show financial stability or some such thing.  Sheesh!  She will be getting a really nice pension and that should count for something.  I hope so anyway.  He said it would be another 4-5 weeks before they know about the Visa.  I pray that things go smoothly for them.

Love you all.  BTW....the Beast is now considering going to NC for his aunt's funeral.  We discussed it on the way home from the doctor's.  The funeral is on Thursday so he has to decide by tomorrow.  I told him he needs to see her while she is at the funeral home so he will really BELIEVE in his heart that she is now gone from us.  She loved him more than his own parents and showed it in many ways.  She also had him living with her for a while and it's one of the reasons he DID finish high school.  It was also his first real taste of her goodness and being in a loving family situation.  That's one of the reasons I think he is considering going.  He did love her and he will miss her.  I hope he does go.  He NEEDS to say his goodbye to her.

Again, love you all and I hope your weather is mild and improving.  ***Hugs***