Happy Halloween

Just saying hi!  Happy Halloween.  We are going to have hot apple cider an donuts, a family tradition.  But, alas, in an old folks park no trick or treaters.  Gosh, how sad, we will have to eat all the candy ourselves.  Smile. Dr. Nash. (Our Dentist).    Except for the pain in my thigh and lower back, which is still bothering me, I am doing well.  Howard too.  Can't believe tomorrow it will be November!

monday, monday.....

So on Thursday the 22nd we went to Urgent Care, got an x-ray of my back, some meds.  Saturday the pain was worse and I couldn't pee.  That was scary.  Back to Urgent Care.  The Dr. said, I am going to send you to the ER for an MRI.  He didn't like that I couldn't pee either.  The ER doc was a jerk we were there in a room for over six hours.  When he came in he hadn't even read the chart and said he didn't know why the urgent care dr sent me for an unneeded mri.  I said it was that I wasn't peeing.  He said what?  Then he looked at the chart.  He said the nurses should have told him.  I said he should have looked at the chart.  He said the MRI would be uncomfortable because I had to lay still so he would give me a pain killer.  He gave me a low dose of hydrocodone and sent me to the MRI machine.  What?  Does he not know that the hydrocodone takes at least a half hour to work.  Oh well.  Grin and bear it right?  But the MRI shows nothing.  no pinched nerve, no bulging disks.  No reason why I can't pee.  So he says go home, ice and heat, rest.  Come back if it continues.  What a dweeb.  So Monday morning we go to our regular dr.  By this time my left thigh is completely numb. no feeling at all.  But I am peeing!  My dr. puts me on prednizone, more pain meds, says come back in a week, sooner if the numbness doesn't go away.  He says it may be a damaged nerve.  Crap.  So on our way home we stop at a store and some dumb thing falls off a shelf and hits me on the foot.  Breaks a blood vessel, it swells up, and big bruise.  And it hurts.   So I have pain in too many places.  And the pain meds take the edge off, but the edge is not enough!  What is next.
On the good side, Howard is feeling much better
I hope everyone is having a good day.  You must be, cause somebody got mine! Love ya'all

and the drama goes on.....

At 4:30 am I dialed 911.  Howard is laying on the living room floor in his boxers and a t shirt.  His pupils are huge.  His skin is pale and clammy wet.  He has terrible chest pain and trouble breathing.  I hurriedly put on a pair of pants and a shirt and move furniture out of the way giving space for the paramedics to work.  The paramedics arrive take Howard's blood pressure and attach wires to his chest.
"I'm feeling better."  Howard says.  "The pain is going away."  All eyes watch the screen recording his heartbeats.
The medic says his pressure is up, but not exceedingly high.  His pulse is up too, but not alarmingly so.  The little green screen tells us that his heart is functioning okay.  This is probably not a heart attack.
Howard feels embarrassed.  I can feel the muscles in my body relaxing a little bit.
Howard is sitting up now.  The medics have decided it must have been indigestion.  Howard had taken multiple Tums when the pain began and it seems they finally have taken effect.  I gave him an aspirin, just in case.
The medic team of five pack up their equipment and depart.  I put my pajamas back on and we go back to bed.  It was a very scary hour.
I haven't slept tonight.  I hurt my back day before yesterday and there is no position that is comfortable.  Also, about four hours ago I had heartburn so bad it took ten Tums before it went away.  I felt like I was going to pass out.  Howard and I decide it must have been something we both ate and settle on the pumpkin pie he bought at Costco.  I said it tasted different, they must have a new baker or something.  We won't eat an;y more of it.
The pain in my lower back, left side, is excruciating.  I am now pacing the floor.  I sit.  I lay down.  I walk more.  Nothing helps.  It is now almost 9 am.  I brush my teeth and get dressed.  Howard will take me to the urgent care center.  Riding in the car is unbearable.
When we arrive the Dr. gives me a gown to put on and puts me in bed.  After many questions and me disolving into tears of pain, they give me a shot of dilaudin (?) and a muscle relaxer.  It takes about ten minutes before I start feeling the effects.  After twenty minutes I can sit.  The pain is bearable.  They xray my back and see no bulging disks.  The Dr. decides I have sprained my back and it is spasaming.  All I know is that the horrible pain is slowly sliding away.  The Dr. gives me instructions and prescriptions.  I am to go home, lay down, find a comfortable postion and stay there for a week taking muscle relaxers and pain meds, and alternating ice and heat each hour.  He allows me to use the bathroom and get up for meals.  After a week I will begin physical therapy.
We go home after getting the meds.  I get into the bed, get comfy and fall asleep.  Hours later I wake up. The pain is coming back.  I have a beer, it is after 5 pm.  Get some crackers and cheese.  After about an hour I take the  pills. I have iced and heated my lower back.  It hurts.  A lot.  I thought I would write a bit, but the medicine makes it hard to see.  Guess it is time to stop, go to bed, get comfy and wait.  I won't be able to read, the pills make my vision blurry.
I think this may be a long week.
Howard says, other than a headache, he feels good.
I feel like shit. I won't be doing an;y gardening for a while.  That is how I hurt my back.
I am going to close my eyes now and drift around.
Have a nice night.

End in sight.....

It's Sunday.  I fixed egg, bacon, tomato and cheese croissants for breakfast.  Oh, and lattes.  It is the first day in a week that Howard smiled.  His fever broke.  We are hoping this means tomorrow he will feel normal.  NORMAL?  Better anyway.  Bells are ringing!
I have decided not to get this bug.  The Swine Flu should be kept to the pigs.
Will my will work?  Or will my will fail?  Only time will tell.

H1N1 hits our house

It's official.  Howard has the Swine Flu.  He is miserable.  Fever, headache, body ache, cough, runny nose, no appetite, should I go on?
Dr. Says to stay home.  Day four.

Disneyland reunion

The plan was a family reunion in Disneyland planned over a year ahead of time.  Seventeen family members.  Two Grandparents.  Three kids.  Three kids spouses.  Nine grandchildren.  So far, so good.  Then, a motorcycle crash and money gets tight.  Squeeky tight.  One less kid.  One less kids spouse.  Three less grandchildren. Hmmm.  Then sickness hits, temps of 103.  Bad.  One less kids spouse.  Two less grandchildren.  Well, our numbers are down, and it is no longer a family reunion, but we still had fun.  The hotels were great.  Food good, rides terrific, and lots of bonding.  All in all OUR two days were wonderful.
I hope next time we actually have less drama and more family.  Can't wait to go again!

There are some really nice people in the world....

I started on medicine on Saturday for a UTI.  It is Tuesday and I called the Dr. to make sure I was on the right meds, they had done a culture, and to check on another med they put me on.  He talked to me for five minutes.  He was so nice it made me cry.  The meds are the right ones, he said they often make people feel crappy.  If I didn't feel so awful, it would have made me feel great.  Anyway.....we are meeting children times 2, their spouses times 2, and grandkids times 6, in Disneyland on Thursday.  I need to feel better now.
Oh well, isn't that just life.  Whine, whine, whine.
Thank you to all the people out there who go the extra little bit to make someone else feel better.  You are appreciated.  You are needed.  And the world is a better place because of you.  I will try to make someone feel better today.  Maybe it will be you................

whoa!

The meds they put me on make me sleep.  Not that sleeping is bad, but I am not getting much done. Wait, hark.....who sayeth I had to get something done?  My Mother is in the nether world, so it could only be me.  So, myself: shutest thou up, the chores will still await thee on the morrow.
Oh yeah, I forgot that part. Hmmm.  Now if you are a husband, your wife not only takes care of you when you are ill, but does all her usual stuff and MAYBE some of yours.  But... a women takes ill and the husband exits to the nearest hardware store, only to come home hours later asking what's for dinner.  And, of course, the chores just pile up until you are better.
Now, my husband is the exception.  He goes to the hardware store and stops off at the grocery store and comes home with chocolate.  Yay, Howard.  And...he is barbecuing dinner. Gosh, I knew all that praying I learned in Sunday school would pay off someday.
Well, it's beer time......   My chores will wait until tomorrow.

Did you know?

Did you know SOME people expect a lot, and others very little.  Why is it we try so hard for the few?  And....where do we get answers?
We are now in our Southern home in Indio, CA.  We arrived to a houseful of ants. ARGH!  And no....argh is not what I said when I saw them.  We diligently worked at removing them with boric acid solution, poison, a vacum cleaner, and eeuw! our fingers, until I had the heeby jeebies.  There were thousands and thousands.  That said, we creamed enough of the little buggers to be able to sleep that night.  At least we had the van to keep all our stuff in, we didn't dare bring anything into the house.  Then....yes!  We awoke the next morning to MILLIONS of ants in the van.  My loving espouso had parked the van with the front edge touching the house and up they climbed.  A stream a good two inches wide.  Back to work we went! Smashing and scraping and sucking the little devils into the vacum, the boric acid, whatever we could manage.  We couldn't keep up.
After a major breakdown where I stood in the middle of our street crying, (it was the only place without ants), my neighbor came and hugged me until I stopped leaking all over and I tip toed my way around the piles of black and into our home and huddled on the couch with beer and medication.
By the next day they were gone.  I think God saw what he hath wrought and realized that this woman's mental state was in dire jeopardy.
Now we clean up.
And then.......yes, the saga goes on, my UTI came back with a major vengence.  I tried to go shopping, I couldn't walk.  I looked ridiculous.  How does one straddle an ice pack and walk at the same time?   I gave up and came home.  More medication and three beers later I felt pretty good.  That was Thursday.  Miraculously, Friday I felt okay.  And then.....Saturday arrived and with it pain, anguish and the desperate call to Urgent Care.  I went.  They tested.  The bacteria was off the charts.  The Dr. smiled and showed me the paper.  He told me I was sick.  I paid him how much to tell me that?  He asked if I wanted something to relieve the pain.  I asked him if I shoved cut glass up his winkus would he want something?  He gave me a script.  We got to the pharmacy just as the pharmacist was going to lunch.  It would be a hours wait.  After and hour and a half we got the medicine and headed home.  I took it on the way and fell into my bed upon our return.
Oh...and did I forget to mention that as all this was happening I had this funny tingling in my lip.  It's like a bunch of sharp needles pricking in the same spot.  Yeah, a cold sore.  I have had them before and they are always precluded by this tingling so I told the Dr. and he said, oh yes, he would give me another script.  But he forgot.  We realized this on the way home and called him, he said he would call it in to the pharmacy.  When we got to the pharmacy we were told it would be $300.00 and our insurance, lovely people, do you know them?, would not be covering it.  My lip tingling away, we had the Pharmacist call the Dr. to see if there was not something a wee bit less costly to fix the problem.  And yes! There was.
It is now 5:43 pm Saturday night.  I am going outside to sit on our patio and drink a beer.  Or three.
I am not going to church tomorrow, but I will try to update on the exciting life here in Seniorville.