Crapola...AGAIN!

The nurse came early today so I could go take my mom to a dinner on the grounds at the cemetery where her family is buried. When I took her home, Dad was gone fishing with my brother, so I went home to rest so Mom could rest as well. I had barely been home when my phone rang and my brother told me the ambulance was on the way to get Dad. Dad had passed out in the boat, thrown up, and soiled his clothes. My brother thought it was over! He brought Dad around and took him home where the ambulance was waiting. Dad had to take a shower and change clothes before he would see the ambulance attendants. They checked him out, but he was very, very pale. We spent a couple more hours at the ER where they did all kinds of tests. They wanted to keep him overnight, but he convinced the doc he would rest better at home. The tests didn't show anything major, but he could have had a slight heart attack or slight stroke. The CT scan had not been read yet, but my brother took him home. I spent most of the ER time out in the waiting room where there were some soft chairs because I could not sit on the hard chairs in his ER cubical.

Feeling better

Finally things are beginning to look up. I am feeling better. The wound is healing really well. I even looked at it today and saw that it was closing up in the middle before the ends. It was 4 inches long, so now I have to be careful not to pull that apart that has hooked back together.

Very disturbing...

I have been battling diarrhea for the 3 weeks that I have been out of the hospital. Part of that time I was taking an antibiotic that had that for a side effect, but I have been off all antibiotics for a week. Today I went back to the doctor. When I told him what was happening, we discovered that I came home from the hospital with a prescripton for colchicine with instructions to take 4 times a day. When I told him that, he said he had never written a prescription for that for 4 times a day. The pharmacy must have misread it. He is sure that is what has been causing the diarrhea. It's been so bad that I could not eat and my whole body is just incredibly weak from dehydration and no food. Now I have another med for the stomach distress. I am really, really tired of being sick. Today I have been able to eat a few crackers and some gatorade. A few minutes ago, I ate some watermelon. We'll see how things go tonight. Yesterday, I was ready for someone to just kick the dirt in on me. That's how bad things have been.

same ol' stuff

Not much has changed. I went to lunch with the ladies yesterday, but couldn't stay long. I just can't sit for very long. I have already opted out of a lunch honoring my friend's father at Barksdale Air Force Base tomorrow. He was a P.O.W. and is honored every year there. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday and I have already opted out of going to dinner at our favorite catfish place because it is too far away and I can't sit that long. Tomorrow is our krewe's Cochon de Lait and golf tournament, so I am missing that as well. Let's face it. I am just still a mess! I just hope I can make it to Dad's house long enough to say happy birthday...he's 86!

Continuing to improve...

I am able to sit longer at a time now and actually went to Wal Mart for groceries yesterday morning while everyone was at church. Then I went to my brother's for lunch for the first time in 4 weeks. I am able to do a little more around the house, but mostly I just lie down. My neighbor came across the street on his riding lawn mower and mowed my yard today. I have awesome neighbors. My brother was going to do it, but I called him and told him he didn't have to this time.

The home health nurse told me I probably had two to three more weeks before the hole closed up completely, but it is healing from the bottom up like it is supposed to. It is not as deep as it once was. They measure it once a week to compare.

Ouch!

The last two days there was pain when the packing was removed from the wound. Today the nurse said it is healing and growing to the gauze in the 24 hours since it was changed, so she packed it with less gauze today. The gauze is soaked with saline solution and they wet it again before pulling it out to help it come out easily. Those home health people are fabulous.

I am feeling better, but I still will not take the chance of going somewhere where I have to sit such as a restaurant. I have missed the last 4 weeks going to lunch with the ladies. Maybe next week.

Progressing

I spent 2 hours in the surgeon's office this morning just waiting. I was just about to walk out when he finally came in. He looked...said it looks good...come back in 2 weeks. I am NOT going back.

This afternoon I was able to get out on the new street behind my house and walk a little bit. I have to get some strength back.

Another update

Back to doc today and I am much better. Blood work improved. Pain not as intense. As always, I try to find the silver lining in all adversity....I found it today. Since Thursday at doc's office, I have lost 9 pounds! I don't recommend this diet!

Brief update again..

Today I feel like I turned the corner. Perhaps it was all the prayers that I know were said today. Sitting is still not much of an option, but the pain is less. The second abscess is getting smaller and less painful. A friend of mine who works at the hospital sent me an email telling me how very, very, serious this MRSA is and that I must do everything exactly as told for as long as I am told. I will do that!

Brief update...

I am still very sick. Went back to doc today about the other place at the base of my tailbone that has been hurting badly. It's another abscess. He did not open it, but ordered more antibiotics and meds for yeast. Also got a celestone shot because my gout still really hurts. I need your prayers to be healed from this very serious malady. I'm a mess!!!

Quick post

I'm not feeling this, but I have a few faithful readers who deserve an update. I have been in the hospital since Thursday with a peri-rectal abscess with secondary MRSA staph infection. It was bad and I had emergency surgery on Friday to lance it. The spread was bad and I am still very sick. Got home yesterday. Can't sit here and type....in fact, can't sit at all. More later!

A RANT

These words are most often misused and it drives me bonkers. It even happens on professional signs, webpages, TV ads....it's freakin' everywhere!

• its = possession.....no apostrophe EVER
• it's= it is
• their= possession
• there= a place
• they're= they are
• your= possession
• you're=you are

When I was a teacher, I harped on this...but, alas, no one learned!

AT&T Bozos...once again!

They made me send in the rebate info twice. Two days after I sent it in the second time, I received my rebate card worth $50 as promised. Of course, they had not yet received the info I submitted the second time. Last week I got a text message that my rebate had been mailed. OK. Whatever! Today I got a second $50 rebate card and NO, I am not honest enough to send it back. The damn phone was way overpriced anyway and I don't want to reward incompetence!! I'm off to buy some more plants.....woohoo....free stuff!

No Pain!

My shoulder snapped out of it as quickly as it snapped in it. Only a couple of hours of pain were involved and then it was gone! I'm glad it did because I was committed to helping clean my friend's new house on Saturday preparing it for her move on Wednesday. There were six of us who pulled together and got it ready.

I bit the bullet and ordered a new battery for my Ipod. It came with the instructions and the tool to replace the battery. There are two tiny little screws that have to be removed. Well, one of them would not come out and I managed to strip the little area where the phillips head screwdriver goes. Now, what do I do? I have no idea. CRAP!

Payback?

Punishment was tossed on me for being such a slacker today. It has rained all day, so I became a hermit and just slept a lot and watched bad TV. I jumped up off the bed ( and yes, I always jump off the bed) and heard/felt something pop between my shoulder and neck. O my gosh! The pain was monumental and I could barely move my neck and arm. Since then I have managed to take some aspirins and lie on a heating pad and the pain is not as intense now, but, WOW, that really hurt and for no apparent reason. How does one explain to others when they ask what happened? I think I'll just stay home so I won't see anyone to have to explain what a dork I am.

My day in Bullets!

• Thursday lunch with the ladies



• bought pie at the restaurant to take to Mom and Dad



• mowed all my grass



• took pie to Mom and Dad



• bought boiled crawfish and ate them



• watered all the plants



• baked 12 big cookies



• took long hot bath



• watched Survivor



• ate warm cookies and cold milk



• off to bed for a night of watching TV

I surely wasn't a slacker today, but it goes in cycles. Some days I am a waste of skin!

It never ends!

I just finished paying my Louisiana income tax, which wasn't really due until May 15th. Now I have to pay my estimated Louisiana income tax for this year, which is due April 15th! I don't want another BIG surprise when my taxes get done next year, so I am paying in advance this time.

I'm such a slacker....

Until the garden at Dad's dries up some, I can't work in it so today I just hung out at my house not doing much. After yesterday, I needed to just kick back and chill. All day yesterday was spent taking both my mom and my dad to the eye doctor in Shreveport. That may not sound like much, but trust me, it's very trying! There were some other places they wanted to go, but neither of them could see after having their eyes dilated, so we came home. Still, it killed a whole day.

Parrotheads....

Saturday night was our Captain's Party for the Krewe des Ambassadeurs. It was awesome at the lake house of one of our members. Cheeseburgers in Paradise was the main food. It's a great idea for a party. We had our own DJ, who is also a krewe member, a margarita machine furnished by yet another krewe member. It was a good time! I'm just not the party animal that I used to be! Thank goodness for that!!

My hummers are back!

I hit the ground running this morning because the yard needed to be mowed before it rained. It was already sprinkling, but I mowed anyway and it hasn't rained yet!

Last year I marked the date that I saw the first hummer...March 26th...so I put the hummingbird feeder out a couple of days ago and saw my first hummer feeding at it today. My mom saw her first ones today as well.I'm armed this year to get some close ups with my new video camera. Of course, I haven't bothered to learn how to upload video to the computer yet. I guess if the need arises, I will learn!

Political Incorrectness.....BS!

March needs to END!

Wind is really getting on my nerves. How do people live in those perpetually windy places like West Texas? All day was spent working in my yard doing all the edging and planting grass plugs. I tried to blow everything off, but it kept blowing back in my face and in my garage.

My azaleas are suffering from lace bugs, so I sprayed them for the second time, but I'm not sure how much got on the plants with the wind working against me.

Yesterday I worked down at the home place and took Dad to Wal Mart. Now I have potatoes, onions, cabbage, some squash, and the first of the corn planted. We stagger the corn, so it won't all get ready at the same time, so I planted 3 rows yesterday and will wait a couple of weeks to plant more.

My mom is not doing well. She could barely walk on Sunday when she came to lunch at my brother's house, but when I went to her house yesterday she had stripped the beds to wash the sheets. I told her she should have been resting her back and let me do the sheets. I went out to work outside and when I came back, she had already put clean sheets on her bed, had vacuumed, and was cleaning out from under a kitchen cabinet. I'm such a wuss, that if my back were hurting I wouldn't be doing anything!! She is just an amazing woman! I told her I would be happy to do all that, but she said I do enough around there. WHATEVER! She did let me put the clean sheets on Dad's bed.

Paula Deen, I'm NOT!

My cooking skills are not my forte', but I made some killer baked mac and cheese last night. Last week there was a recipe in the paper which sounded EASY (key word) and good. I have never in my life made baked mac and cheese, but this stuff was delish! I'm going to make some for my dad this week. He doesn't eat much of anything, but he said he might eat some of that. Cooking it was a learning experience since I haven't had much experience with pasta that doesn't come out of a box. I made WAY too much pasta and had to throw most of it out. Next time I'll know that a bag of pasta turns into a bucket of cooked pasta. It's mixed with some cheese soup, sauteed onions, hot sauce, milk and grated sharp cheddar cheese, then baked for 30 minutes. It was even good cold!

He is RISEN!

Staying in the will!

I spent several hours working at Dad's today. He located a bunch of seedling peach trees in the middle of a grown up fence row and wanted the row cleaned up so the little trees can grow, so he and I were going to do it. I knew it would be me doing it because he just cannot do work anymore. My brother came and used the blade on the tractor and helped me a lot.


It's time to start planting stuff, so I ran the tiller and got some rows ready to plant corn. We had onions waiting to be planted, so I got all them planted.


Then I had to mow my yard. It was downright embarrassing. I could have hidden Easter eggs in my yard, but it's all clean now. I still have to edge and use the blower, but........as is usual...I AM USED UP! I'm off to the Lazy Boy for a night of vegetating!!!!

Update...

When Mom told my brother this morning who was moving next to me, his exact words were, "He's the one who stole my class ring." O my goodness.....now I will always have to think of that when I see my neighbor!!!

Small World!

My friend, who is the developer of this new subdivision, wanted to show my house to the people who will be building the house next to me. When they came by, I didn't know them, but it turns out that he went to school for a while in my home town and was in the class with my brother. When I told my mom who he was, she remembered him for one reason.....she thought he was the one who stole my brother's class ring!!! I told Mom to please just let that GO! Stewart got his ring back, but Mom doesn't remember how. Actually, he was the Methodist minister's son, so they never stayed in one place for a long time. It's amazing to me...the things my mom remembers!

Holy Crap!

If we had winds like this when I lived in Texas, they would have had a name...a tropical storm name! Tropical storms become named at 39 mph, I think. We have beat that a lot today. The airport has had to close down stranding many passengers in Shreveport. This has been made worse due to DFW closing down as well. Almost all flights from SHV go to Dallas for connections. Gusts have been clocked at 60!

Weather gods are angry again....

Once again we are under a tornado watch and a wind advisory. It's nearly 80 degrees with a cold front on the way. This makes for "a particularly dangerous situation"....their words, not mine! We heard this a lot Friday night. I have moved all the plants inside that could blow away or break from the winds.
.

Finally, the AC man came back today after I called him yesterday. He took a measurement several months ago to add a booster fan to my AC system, but never came back. Today he changed the ducts to the master bedroom and bath to a larger size. Hopefully, this will help to cool them a little better. There are huge windows in the bedroom which could contribute to the poor job of cooling, but that would not affect the bathroom. I hope this works. If not, he will come back and add a booster fan.....all this at no charge because he wants it to be right and he installed the system originally. I like that work ethic!

A rant!

It's been a long time since I had a rant, so I am overdue. My calm demeanor gets a little riled when everybody in the damn Wal-Mart is talking on their cell phones. Why can't they just get out of the way if they have to talk? Personally, I don't see any reason why one has to carry on a big conversation while they are supposed to be shopping. They are loud and obnoxious and IN THE WAY! They are totally oblivious to any other shoppers in the store! OK. I'm done!

Wow! Just Wow!

Tonight I went to the Easter musical at my church. I usually don't go on Sunday nights, but this was a special event and well worth it. It was incredibly moving and the music was awesome. The rest of the day I was basically useless. After church and lunch at my brother's, I was comatose for a couple of hours. I woke up once again sometime in the night with my toe showing signs of gout again, so I medicated myself. My doc doubled my meds that are supposed to prevent recurrence...obviously, that is not working!

God's wrath....

As I was watching TV last night the weatherman broke into programing with a tornado warning. Turns out all the weathermen reported for duty and stayed on the air for two hours nonstop! I knew it was serious when that happened. They run crawlers along the bottom of the screen, but never come on live and stay on. There were tornados very close by. Their weather equipment is just amazing. We knew exactly where the tornados were and where they would be every minute. It was scary!

I'm used up already...

And it's only 2 P.M.............This day has been a wonderful day all spent outside getting things done in the yard. I heard people over at my new neighbor's house, so I went over at lunch time and went to Sonic to get lunch for them. I felt bad because all her friends were over there helping clean the house getting ready for her and her husband to move next week and I wasn't over there helping. I'm trying to get everything finished here so I can devote my time to gardening at Dad's. Yesterday I spent hours at the garden taking advantage of the weather and some partially dry soil. I got lots of tilling done and planted 4 rows of potatoes. After that I was used up yesterday, too! There is a pattern here......I'm used up A LOT! I just can't do like I used to!

Channel surfing...

Last night I was channel surfing because since the time change I am staying awake late and sleeping late. I happened on the first episode of High School Reunion, a reality show. It's the class of '87 from J.J. Pearce High school in Richardson, Texas. I was hooked. There are about 15 members of that class, none of which knew who was going to be there (set in Maui). I kept thinking back to the high school where I taught and remembering the class of '87. I would absolutely love to see them on a show like this. That was an awesome group of kids who turned in to very successful adults. They would be perfect for that show.Now I am addicted and have it scheduled into my DVR for recording.

Check this out!

At Christmas this was a huge baseball size bulb given to me as a gift by a cousin. I planted it and left it in the garage. Mom told me the garage was too cold and I should move it inside. I did and this is what it turned in to. Absolutely gorgeous Amaryllis!

It's Spring!

According to my work schedule today, spring is officially here. Mom cooked collard greens, hot water cornbread, sweet potatoes and white perch for lunch. Of course, I wasn't going to miss that. After lunch and a brief rest, I tackled mowing the thick winter grass in my yard. It is so hard to mow, but it was very high and thick. As soon as I finished mowing, two of my friends dropped by to visit while I was sitting outside enjoying a rest and some sunshine. I planted some more plugs of zoysia grass in some places that grass won't grow. Also, planted some hostas that a friend shared with me. She is building a house right behind me and is digging up hostas from her old house. This has been my kind of day!

What's going on?

In the past month, two of my former teacher friends have died. Both of them were slightly younger than I am. Weird things are going on. I don't believe either of them were completely retired. They retired from our school district, but took jobs in other places. It's a shame to work your entire life....then die! I am loving my retirement!

Ladies night out...

We went to Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco today at the CenturyTel Center. It was an awesome show well worth the $80 tickets. Afterwards, we had dinner reservations at Four Winds, an Asian restaurant. That was also awesome, but we ordered way too much food. There were 5 of us and we all ordered an entre.....big mistake! We should have ordered 3 entres. Overall, good night!

Snow update..

It has snowed nonstop since about 9 this morning, but now it is melting as fast as it is falling. It has been fun and pretty all day, but it's heavy, wet snow that it not very conducive to playing. All the schools got out early. Why? I have no idea. The roads are fine, but I'm sure it was impossible to do school stuff. These kids have mostly never seen snow, so I'm sure it was mostly to just let them enjoy the snow.

It's SNOWING! Big time!

Not only is it March, but it's Louisiana! Take that, Al GORE!

Winter weather advisory!

We have been hearing for two days about the big, bad winter weather coming our way. Today I could have gotten in my car and driven north for 1 and 1/2 hours and I would have been in snow all day. Yes, it was 70 degrees here at my house. It's crazy! Tonight and tomorrow we could have 1 to 2 inches of snow! I'll believe it when I see it....after all, this is the DEEP south! It never snows here, but I wish it would.

I lost it!!!

I hate these stupid things. Today I totally lost it trying to get mine to work. Normally, I am just very low key and have lots of patience, but every time I have ever tried to use one of these damn things, they wouldn't work. This time, I just came unglued and took a sledge hammer and beat the thing into oblivion. Tomorrow I will buy a new one because I don't know what else to use to spray the azaleas and everything else that needs spraying. My azaleas have lace bugs and don't look good at all, so they have to be sprayed!One thing is for sure...I will NOT buy the same kind that I beat to pieces today.

Coma day...

I never even got past my flannels and a t shirt today. There was no reason due to inclement weather, so I just stayed around in bed mostly...completely worthless! For several days the weather forecasters have been harping on bad weather coming on Monday. All it did was rain. My new drainage system sort of worked. I think I need to lower it a tiny bit. It still has some water standing in front of the pipe.

More incompetence!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have no tolerance for incompetence. Today I had a craving for strawberry pie, so I took a little road trip to Shreveport to a place that I know has awesome strawberry pie. I ordered a piece of strawberry and a piece of coconut. When I got home....30 miles away...I was all set for my strawberry pie. The damn bag had chocolate and coconut in it....NO STRAWBERRY! I was pissed....in fact, I'm still pissed!

Whew!

I have spent the better part of the last two days working in my yard trying to get caught up before I have to devote all my time to gardening at Dad's. All the old mulch has been cleaned out and replaced with new pine straw. The rains were coming, so I had to get in gear and get it done. There is not much left to do...just wait for the new growth to come on all the established plants and make a drain through my rose bed in the back. I damed up the natural water flow of the back when I made that bed, so I am digging some of it out and putting a 4 inch PVC pipe down. It will then be covered with mulch and hardly noticeable. I also have ordered 200 zoysia grass plugs and the tool to plant them with. It sounds like a hardy grass that will spread and inhibit weed growth.

I BIT the BULLET....

and hired the professionals to come 6 times a year and do the stuff that I am, apparently, failing at. Last weekend I went to a Home and Garden Show and signed up to win a free year of taking care of my yard. I didn't win, but, of course, they came and looked at my yard and told me about all the weeds that are in it. They even lowered their lowest price for me because my yard is so small. They came today for the first treatment. I think I did the right thing!

AT&T MORONS!

I got a text message on my phone today that my rebate check had been mailed. Now there is no way in hell that they received the envelope contaning all that rebate stuff that I sent to them again just a couple of days ago.

I was WRONG!

Thank Goodness! CBC came back looking good. I thought it was one of those tests that included cholesteral, liver panels, kidney numbers, etc., but it wasn't.....just BLOOD!

I don't get it!

I have Medicare Part B and private insurance, so why would I owe my doctor $121???? Anyone??? Insurance types???? Liz?????

Holy CRAP!

I dread March if the winds are going to blow like this all month. Working outside is out of the question, so I have managed to get the house quite clean and actually get some Christmas and Mardi Gras stuff stored in the attic. My guest room is actually a guest room again and not covered in Mardi Gras, so come on and let's have a visit!!