Just when I thought I was about through with this hand drama, my doctor's office called and said the pathology was a cancer, but not a kind that would spread to other organs. BUT>>> he wanted to go back in there after it heals better and cut around the edges! OUCH! OKAY....I'm all over getting everything out of there and I guess he is just making sure to remove the whole area, but if it won't spread...WHY? I'm confused!
Yes, the season for eating has started and I have to back off. It's not even December and I went out to dinner or lunch 4 times this week, not including tonight when I plan to do it again. Yesterday was killer. I went to lunch with the ladies, a Christmas tea at the Arbor, where my aunt is in assisted living care, and out again last night after a Krewe meeting to dinner. Last night I discovered the bacon wrapped broiled shrimp. It was an appetizer, but I ordered it for dinner and could only eat 3 of the 6 shrimp. They were huge and delish!! Tonight is my cousin's last night here before she returns home to Virginia, so we are going out again.
Yesterday I went back to the doc for the bad news. I knew he would want to cut the place out and he did. Under all this bandage is a little incision about an inch plus with four stitches in it. He sent it off for a pathology report because he still doesn't know what it is. Next week I get the stitches out. It's hard to type so I'm out!
Today I put my car in the shop and borrowed Mom and Dad's car for the day. By the time I had taken them to get groceries and medicine and driven them home, then went back to my home...MY CAR WAS FIXED! After spending hours working on computer stuff for our Mardi Gras Bal', I took their car back to them and they had to bring me home. It's been crazy! I really intended to call my dentist because I am getting another abscess in the tooth next to the last one that had a root canal. He was afraid last time that the other tooth may also be involved. I started taking some antibiotic that I had here and my mouth feels better. I'm going to try to avoid that $700 fee right here at Christmas. Tomorrow I go back to the doctor about my hand. It is not any better and I fear that he will have to biopsy it. Ouch!
Today is a cold, rainy day and I am loving it. It's still 39 degrees with a slow soft rain, which we desperately need. We are not as dry as Georgia, but we do need rain. Instead of lazing around watching movies all day, I turned to the Christmas music channel on my digital TV and went to work decorating my Mardi Gras tux jacket. Mine is not nearly as decorated as it will eventually be. They are supposed to be rather gawdy. I chose a patriotic theme and have been sewing appliques on. I can't do many at one time because I stick my fingers a lot with the needle, but I did get a couple more done today. With the decorated tux tails, we wear a white shirt and gloves and jeans. Since my theme is patriotic, I will also be wearing a sequined red, white and blue top hat and a matching bow tie. I also have some patriotic blinking light beads for me to wear. All the beads that I will be throwing in 3 parades are patriotic as well. I think it is fitting for an election year, which 2008 will be.
This is the back down on the tails.
This is the front and I can tell from the picture that it needs a lot more stuff. I need to get busy since these parades all happen in January.
I just composed a letter to the President and CEO of Borghese, Inc. complaining about the lack of customer service. It reminded me of a quote I read somewhere, "It's a shame stupidity isn't painful." I never got any of my calls returned or an email answered and that really made me angry. Even though I finally found out that the correct makeup was inside the box that was labeled incorrectly, I am still angry that a company this size has NO customer service even though they give a number on the website for customer service. Maybe I can go on and get this nonsense out of my mind now! I'm sure I won't hear from the CEO either. In fact, I doubt she will ever see it. The CEO is Georgette Mosbacher and I have seen her several times on TV. She is a big Republican and in NYC, that's significant!
LSU got beat in the last play of the 3rd overtime. They are no longer in contention for the national title. Holy CRap!
The other surprise of the day.....Texas A & M beat TEXAS! That wasn't supposed to happen either. I show no favoritism here! I'd be in big trouble! (I do, however, have a former student playing at A & M.)
I went to Mom and Dad's this morning to take her some stuff from the grocery store. While I was there, I changed her bed and Dad's bed. It is so hard for her to do that . She has to stop and rest while she's doing it so I try to make sure I get it done when it needs it.She had a maid for 50 years, but now when she really needs one, we can't find one.
The wind was blowing too much for me to try to take care of the fallen leaves today. I'll get to that next week.
We have a possibility of rain, sleet or snow by tomorrow morning. Snow would be awesome, but the least likely to happen. Today was a good day. We had 12 people for Thanksgiving Dinner at my brother's lake house. There was even a birthday cake for me with purple flowers on it. It was pretty and I have half of it here at home now. That is not good because I will eat that sucker!!
We had an excellent dinner of fried turkey, cornbread dressing (my mom's), mashed potatoes and gravy (for our guests who grew up in Michigan. I guess it's a Michigan thing because we never have that), green beans, corn casserole, fresh fruit salad, frozen fruit salad , congealed salad, and several desserts in addition to the birthday cake. I even went for seconds, which I NEVER do. It was really good.
My mother is just not doing well. She is still in pain from the colonoscopy she had two weeks ago. I cannot believe those people did not put her out. I am angry about it and they did something that is still causing her pain in her abdomen. If she isn't better soon, I will be calling that doctor's office. Most people never even feel or remember a colonoscopy. She never did before, so they just screwed up. They must have had water running through that IV.
There is so much to be thankful for!! I am so incredibly blessed!
God Bless Everyone!
I have been so frustrated trying to contact Borghese to get my order correct. Apparently, there is one customer service person and she is never there. It's impossible to talk to a human. I ordered what I need from somewhere else. On a whim, I opened the container box that holds the makeup. I had not opened it because on the outside it said "creme" and I knew that I didn't want that. Well, inside the box was the correct "natural finish" that I ordered. WTH! INCOMPETENCE ABOUNDS in the main office and in the shipping department!
This morning I went to the doctor to see about my hand. Seems he doesn't know what it is, but the possibilities are a deep tissue infection (most likely), cancer (unlikely because cancer doesn't hurt) or a staph infection (not likely...not the same characteristics). He pushed on it and I told him if he did that again I would have to kill him. It really hurts! We are going to try some meds first (sulfa drug, a shot of some sort, and ointment). If that doesn't work, he will do a biopsy. After that it will most likely have to be cut out!!! HELLLLL_OOOOOO! I'm praying for the drugs to work. He did give me some pain meds as well. (Yay!) I also got my flu shot since I saw a graphic on TV that showed Louisiana and Florida with the most reported cases!!
I love the internet, butI hate incompetence. I received the make up today and it was the wrong freakin' kind! In the box there is a note that said the box was carefully inspected! I don't think so. A few times I came home from Dillard's with the Creme makeup instead of the Natural Finish, so I finally learned to double check the morons. I tried the creme one time. That's how I knew it was the wrong kind. I didn't like it. Both kinds are in exactly the same box, so you have to read the box to get it right. Morons obviously didn't do that. If I am going to pay that much, it must be the correct kind. I have called customer service for Borghese Cosmetics and had to leave a message. It has not been answered. I sent an email and it has not been answered. Not only that, but the packing slip says they will not pay for shipping it back. So I will have to pay to ship the damn thing back and wait yet again for the correct one to be sent. I am out of makeup and I am steamed!!
I have used this makeup since sometime in the '80's. Dillard's has always carried it and now that I also have my mom using it as well, Dillard's doesn't carry it anymore. Fortunately, I came home and found it online and ordered immediately. Only problem is shipping is over $6 making the total price over $40. Why can't I like the cheap stuff EVER? I have tried the cheap stuff and just have not found any other make up that I like. I guess I'm just rotten!
I was up at 6 this morning to take my mom for her colonoscopy. What should have been rountine......well, not so much! I paced a hole in the floor because they told me 30 to 40 minutes and it would be over. An hour and a half later, they brought her back. I was so afraid something had happened. Right after they brought her back there was a Code Blue for the Endoscopy wing. If I had heard that before they brought her back, I would have died. Turns out she has way more than the average colon in length with lots of sharp twists and turns, so it just took longer. Plus, they found 3 polyps which they removed. The doc said they looked benign, but still had to be sent to pathology. She will hear from them later. She told me this one really hurt. I didn't know there was ever any pain with one of these tests. I never had any and never remembered anything. I think it's nap time for me. I'm exhausted!
My energy was back today and I got a lot accomplished. I was most surprised when I moved a bookcase away from the wall and found all kinds of dead bugs...no roaches, but BUGS! I decided then that I would call my pest control people, who only do the outside for termite control, and get them to start doing the inside as well. I have a problem with tiny spiders all along the baseboards as well. In fact, I have had a place on the top of my hand that I don't know what happened there, but it has been sore and hurts a lot. I cannot even let a shirtsleeve touch it. It has been there for about 3 months and I have decided it must be a spider bite. I was going to call the doc this week, but they are on vacation this week.
I also found some strawberry plants today....pricey ones, but nevertheless, strawberry plants. I have some hanging bags to plant some of them in and I did it and then read the directions. Of course, I did it all wrong!! As soon as I have them rooted good, I will take one bag containing 5 plants to Dad so he can watch them grow. I will keep one bag here because I will fertilize it. He won't do anything but water it. Tomorrow I will go to his house and fix a bed to plant the others in the ground. 
I feel sorry for Mom. Her tooth had to be pulled and she cannot eat today or tomorrow. Today because of the tooth....tomorrow because she is having a colonoscopy on Wednesday. It's not fun being her.
Most of this day has been spent working between two computers that don't like each other. I am the chairperson of the Grande Ball Program this year for the krewe. This involves getting head shots, bios and ads for the program. I don't have to sell the ads, but I do have to get them into the program and ready for the publisher. All of this is coming to me through email. It's a pain in the butt trying to do things right and learn how to do it all on a new computer with Vista and a new Windows Mail program, which isn't playing nice! Vista tells me I need Microsoft Outlook to use the "sent to" option in Microsoft Word. I have to try to find some answers to this online because I have Windows Mail that came with Vista and not Outlook. I tried to just attach the file to an email in Windows Mail and it told me it couldn't find all the attachments. WTH! It's just one page with a paragraph and a picture. Does that seem so hard to find!!! Damn computer can't find it!!
We had our ladies day out lunch today, but I ate light because I knew we were going to my brother's favorite restaurant for dinner. Today was his birthday and we ate catfish. He has everything he needs so since he didn't need anything, I gave a gift in his honor to his church's building fund. He said that was the best thing I could have done. Looks like I may have solved a Christmas gift problem as well. Of course, we have to have a few little gifts to open on Christmas Eve, so I still have to come up with something.
I don't mean that in a bad way. It just was entirely devoted to helping out others. I love to do that, but it usually doesn't take the entire day. This morning was spent taking my friend's son to the dentist, then taking him back to school. This afternoon was devoted to getting my mom to a cardiologist appointment in Shreveport. She doesn't have to go back for a year barring any unforeseen emergencies, which we do usually have at some time during the year. She got a good report and for that I am grateful.
My mom dreamed last night that Dad came to wake her up to cook breakfast. She got up, cooked breakfast, and went to get him from his room. She said he was fast asleep and she didn't know why he had gone back to sleep after telling her it was time for breakfast. He got up, came back to the kitchen and asked her what was wrong. She said nothing. Breakfast was ready. He asked her if she had looked at a clock. Well, no! It was 3 A.M. He said there was nothing to do, but eat the breakfast and go back to bed!!!
Both my TV's and my desktop monitor are on the verge of going belly up! I cannot even think about replacing any of these right now. I'm still paying for my extended road trip!! I also have some expensive car repairs that need to be done. I hope the car doesn't go belly up, too!!! I refuse to go into debt if I can possibly avoid it. Time to suck it up and watch the terminally pink TV. The desktop monitor isn't much of a problem because I have my laptop to fall back on and when I do get a TV, I want a nice one.
It's been a wonderful day in the neighborhood....well, at least it has for me. I have been in the yard all day getting the yard winterized in preparation for our first frost this week. The mowing, edging, blowing, winterizing, and watering is all done. The flower beds have been cleaned out and I have even planted a few bulbs in some pots. They are always good for a nice surprise when they come up and bloom. 
As for the rest of the neighborhood.....not so much! I found out today that another "across the street" neighbor almost died and went back to the hospital today. Another neighbor 3 doors down DID die and I didn't know until last week. She was elderly and her husband died a few months ago. Their daughter had moved them up here from South Louisiana because she was tired of getting them out of the path of hurricanes. Her father fell almost immediately and had to go to a nursing home where he died soon after. Then just a few months later, her mother died. My neighborhood is really quite small....only about ten houses, so I really should be more in tune with what's going on. I'm not a very good neighbor!!!
This morning was nice and cool and perfect for me to get out and plant some new flowers. Yesterday I found a nursery I have never been to. It's beautiful with plants that are well cared for. I am on a mission for my dad to find some strawberry plants, but that's not happening. Even the places online all say "sold out". I did, however, score some fall plants for me and I got them planted today. Also, got some other yard work done.
In between my naps, I also got a lot of scrapbooking done. Between last night and today, I got 8 pages done. That's a major accomplishment.
Tonight I went to a friend's house for dinner. I was in the middle of watching the LSU/Alabama game, but I knew the right thing to do was go to dinner. I did and I still don't know who won. I guess I'll know in a few minutes when the news comes on. My pastor is big time Alabama. I am going to my mom's church tomorrow, so I'll miss his antics over the football game. The majority of the congregation is LSU, so he is in the minority!!
I spent all this week going through crap for the garage sale. Trips up and down a tiny ladder into the attic are hard on this OLD gal, but I had everything down and marked and ready to go. WTF! I went to lunch with some ladies and found out an email had gone out canceling the garage sale due to lack of interest and not enough items. I didn't get the email! I spent the afternoon putting everything back up and out of the garage. Tonight I went to work on the float. Riding in those parades and throwing beads is going to be so much fun!! I have been ordering more beads off the internet. Those things aren't cheap. It's like throwing money away...Oh yeah.....that's exactly what it is...throwing it!!!
