Dad's update

My brother took Dad for his appointment today and the doc said the spots were suspicious. He will be doing a biopsy on Thursday morning at 7. I will take him to get that done.

What to do!

I am not allowed to sweat until my wound is completely closed. Since it's already 90, that means I can't even go outside because I start sweating immediately! I have found that I can go out and trim one azalea, then go back inside. So far, over three days, I have trimmed 3 azaleas. At this rate, they will grow back before I finish. It's time to trim and fertilize now!

WooHoo!

Yesterday was my last daily visit from home health nurses. The wound has closed enough to not need packing, so now the protocol is Neosporin and a sterile 4 X 4 three times a day. I can do that and they will come once a week to look at it until it is totally healed. Today I felt free again because I didn't have to wait around for the nurse to come. Actually, I took my first trip to Shreveport in two months and got the car washed. I also met the Thursday lunch group for lunch today. It was nice to have some semblance of normal back again.


Tomorrow my dad has an appointment with the pulmonologist. My brother will take him to the appointment and I will just wait at home to hear from them. I'm sure they will schedule a biopsy.

Yep, we blew it!

Remember a couple of months ago when we leased our land all around the home place for $100 an acre? Now people are getting 4, 5, and 6 thousand dollars an acre. There has been a huge natural gas find in the area, maybe even the largest ever found! My cousin leased over 600 acres at 4,000 an acre....Do the math! That's over 3 million dollars! He and his wife are on a Mediterranean cruise right now. Another friend leased 182 acres at $3000 an acre. I am happy for all of them, but sorry we were too hasty to lease. I would have been able to fill my car with gas!

Update

I went to see about Dad this morning. He doesn't feel well, but he is trying to do a few things in the garden. He is just glad to know there is a definite reason for his breathing difficulties. He asked me today how do they operate on lungs. I told him they put the patient on a heart/lung machine while they operate and he has already been on one of those machines when he had his heart bypass. We are hoping for an appointment with a pulmonologist this week.

I am continuing to improve. The nurses seem to think this will be my last week of daily packing. The wound is almost closed and ready for just a small bandage to keep it clean along with some neosporin.

Dad and I dug our first potatoes this morning. We found enough for them to eat tomorrow along with some turnip greens and turnips. I think I'll go there for lunch tomorrow!

Not so good news!

I took Dad for his CT scan today and before we got home the doc had called my brother and told him there are 3 suspicious spots in Dad's lungs. He would not say that it was cancer, but he gave indications that he suspected that it was. Next week he is trying to get Dad in to a pulmonologist, who would do a biopsy to be sure. Dad is not upset. I am! When the nurse came late today to change my packing, my blood pressure and pulse were considerably higher than usual. She said it was directly stress related. Dad, in my opinion, is too old and frail to undergo the rigors of chemo. I just don't want him to have to do that. Personally, I think he would choose not to do it if it came to that, but I don't know that for sure. He told us his biggest problem was worrying his kids. Mom told him to just be glad they had some kids to worry!!!

Now I'm worried!

I'm not much of a worrier, but my brother just called me and told me Dad's doctor called and told Stewart that there was a spot on Dad's lung and he wanted to schedule a CT scan for tomorrow. The doctor will be able to talk to the pathologist after the CT scan and pretty much know if it is cancer.

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!