Keep Truckin' On.....

My recovery process has been a lot easier than I expected when it comes to pain, but it's still a slow going ordeal.  I didn't get my stitches out on October 4 like I had expected, as they're those lovely dissolvable ones.  I think I have about 4 left, and for the most part, they just get uncomfortable at times.  The incisions are slowly closing up and healing, and I go back on November 3 for another check up.  I was also told that I will have follow ups with the oncologist for quite some time, possibly forever, as it was a precancerous diagnosis and they want to keep an eye on me to make sure my problem doesn't return. 


I have a funny story about my oncologist/surgeon - we were talking about my cruise, and I told him the story of the change in itinerary, and the delay in getting home, and he asked me where we ended up docking while waiting to get back to Florida - turns out he was in New Orleans the same time we were, as he was celebrating his wife's birthday there!  That would have been hilarious had we run into each other there that Saturday!


On the way to that follow-up visit, I started thinking about Meme.  For some reason, I was thinking of how she used the word "tu-tu" to refer to the female privates.  It made me laugh, then made me cry.  I miss her!  And I had thought about writing a blog that brought up "tu-tu" and all the other slang words for that part of the female body, but have decided against it.  You can Google it if you want to see some of the genius names people have come up with for the hoo-ha.


I can't wait until next weekend - it's opening rifle deer season!  I cannot wait to get in the stand and sit in nature.  Time to zone out with the trees and animals and find my peace.  It doesn't matter if I see anything, or shoot anything, I just really enjoy sitting in nature and the peace that comes with it.  I have time to think about my life, my troubles, and make peace with everything that's been going on since last time I was out there.  I even take a notepad and pen sometimes and write (and yes, I still keep an eye out for any deer that might be coming through my area). 


I really need my time in the tree - things are crazy in the world these days.  People bitching about the stupidest things, constant discourse with politics, death, shootings, threats of war.  It's a very scary time, and very annoying to not be able to avoid some of the insanity online.  I've found that I have friends that are on both ends of the political spectrum, some on the very far end of one side or the other, and I'm just tired of seeing all the bickering and bitching about everything.  I just don't have the energy to deal with it all, and don't care to read about it all.  I enjoy Facebook, but damn sometimes I think life would be somewhat more peaceful if I didn't have it.  (yes, I know I can deactivate, or delete my profile, or limit my viewing of it, but it's how I keep up with my friends and family so it's just not something I want to do for now)


Well folks I've said enough for tonight, it's only a little after 8pm and I'm exhausted.  I will probably fall asleep on the couch tonight ;-)  Have a great rest of the weekend!

A September to Remember

I started my month off with a cruise with my mother, my uncle, and a bunch of other people that they knew, some of which I either knew or was familiar with.  We had a 12 person group, including one couple that were first time cruisers.  Those folks hated it, well at least the man did.  I think him having a bad time made for a bad time for the lady, but who knows.  I just know that I had a blast and can't wait for my  next cruise! 


As many of you know, Hurricane Irma was starting to make her presence known in the Atlantic during the last week of August and first week in September, and she was heading for the Caribbean, right towards where our ship was supposed to be come a few days into the cruise.  We had boarded the ship on Sunday, September 3, expecting to travel to Nassau, Grand Turk, and the Dominican Republic, but before we set sail we were informed that our travel itinerary would be changing to a western Caribbean cruise, to include stops at Cozumel, Belize, and Costa Maya.  We rescheduled our dolphin excursion for the Costa Maya stop, and away we went!


Had a great day at sea on Monday, including a fun time at the pool.  I got sunburned, and the entire pool was flashed by a lady competing in the lip sync battle.  She had on a short dress and NO PANTIES as she was shaking what her momma gave her and the activities director realized she was showing off way too much and stopped her routine.  It was embarrassingly funny though, I just can't imagine what she was thinking!?


We stopped in Cozumel on Tuesday, did some shopping, and boy was it hot and humid!  Wednesday, we stopped in Belize and did some more shopping.  After we pulled away from Belize, our captain made the announcement that due to the hurricane's expected path up the coast of Florida, we were not going to be stopping in Costa Maya and they were going to try to get us back to Port Canaveral on Friday, a day early, to keep us ahead of the storm.  No dolphin excursion for us unfortunately.  :-(


Thursday, we're having a nice day at sea, and late in the afternoon while were sprucing up for dinner, the captain comes on to make the announcement that we would not be going to Port Canaveral after all, as we would not arrive in time to get off the ship, and them to get safely out before the port closed due to the weather, and that we would be heading towards New Orleans.  Oh and it would be Wednesday before they expected to get  us back to Port Canaveral!  You talk about some wild times on the ship that afternoon.  My mother was down near guest services and witnessed a male passenger cussing out and physically threatening a female passenger (he was carried away by security), and she also said there were some women shouting about they were lesbian and proud, and couldn't wait to party in New Orleans. 


Anywho, we made it to New Orleans, I got me some beignets, and away we went.  I did not enjoy going down the Mississippi and back into the gulf on Sunday morning - first time ever being sea sick, and that's an experience I hope I NEVER repeat.  So, so sick, almost all day long.  The ship was rocking so much that they turned off the glass elevators and put barf bags outside each set of elevators.  I toted my bag that my mother picked up for me to breakfast, and it almost came in handy on the way back to my cabin.  (almost because I didn't get it to my face fast enough by Guy Fieri's Burger joint lol)  I got some advice of things to do to help, and going to the highest deck, standing at the front of the ship and looking at the horizon helped the most.  Thanks Rob!  (Sorry David, I just couldn't bring myself to try a greasy burger) 


So, I got an extra 4 days on the ship, and an extra 3 days of vacation time, which made for interesting times at work, getting all caught up AND planning for my medical leave that was set to begin on September 21. 


Speaking of my medical leave - I'm due to return to work on Monday, October 2, and I'm pretty sure I'll be ready to go back.  My surgery went very well on the 21st, other than the nausea trumping the pain that day.  I was so sick to my stomach from the time I woke from the anesthesia until I got home and plundered through the medicine bag to find some anti-nausea pills.  I did tell the recovery nurses that I was quite nauseated, and they didn't offer any additional meds other than what I was given during surgery.  I was sent home with a pretty green barf bag (much nicer than the white one on the cruise ship that I toted around that Sunday morning), and slept until dinner time, nicely medicated on the oxycodone and fentanyl I was given before I left the hospital, and the nausea pill I took at home.


I've experienced minimal pain, only taking Tylenol on Friday and not having to dip into the prescription drugs even once.  I've been so thankful for that, you have no idea!  I had a similar procedure about 9 years ago, but with only 1 incision back then instead of the 3 this time, and that time the pain was excruciating.  I've also managed to pop a couple of stitches, somehow without feeling it, and was told that they wouldn't do any re-stitching, they'd just let it heal on it's own.  I see my surgeon next week to have the stitches removed and review the pathology report, and hopefully I'll just have one more appointment with him to ensure everything is healed up properly and I'll be good to go.  The surgeon expects the pathology report to be good, and to not show anything other than the precancerous stuff they've seen in the biopsies. 


And one last thing for September - tomorrow is the 5 year anniversary of my husband returning from his deployment to Kosovo.  I thought about that this morning and am so thankful for him.  He's been so good to me and for me with this medical crap, reassuring me when I need it, comforting me and making me laugh when I get down in the dumps about it.  He even had the surgeon laughing when I had the initial consultation due to his complaints about a made up condition that he said he needed help with.  Fast-forward to surgery day - we got to pre-op and the surgeon comes in, says he's going to get started with my procedure shortly, and he'd be taking care of Brian's problem right afterwards.  Brian had the funniest look on his face at that!  But unfortunately there was no family there to witness the exchange which would have been even funnier. 


Thankful for my family this month!

Still Not Sure.....

I'm still not sure I want to share this information with everyone.  I've had a very hard time processing things, and while I'm normally an open book about my life and medical issues, this one has been difficult to be open about.  For once I'm going to err on the side of not oversharing, and only share the bare minimum.


I'm having surgery tomorrow for a precancerous condition.  My surgery is being performed by a gynecologic oncologist.  But thankfully, as I've already mentioned, it's for something that the biopsies say are PRE-cancerous.  Doctor estimates I'll be out of work a week or so, but I suppose we shall wait and see just how much pain I'm in afterwards to determine that. 


You'd think that since this is precancerous, I'd be handling it better than I am.  I cried so bad when I found out the biopsy results in July I had to go home a little early from work.  I cried all that afternoon, and on and off all weekend.  I can't really explain it, I guess the fear of that dreaded C word, even when they said pre, got to me.  Hell, I'm emotional as hell now, writing about it.


I'm not much of a religious person, but I'm not afraid to ask for prayers.  Please pray for me, send positive vibes and juju and mojo and thoughts.  I sure need them.

What Would You Do?

I recently had a long conversation with an old friend, asking my thoughts on something going on in their life.

Friend has noticed that spouse is frequently texting, at all hours of the day and night.  Friend gets the phone bill and sees spouse is sending and receiving hundreds, even thousands of texts per month with one person.  Notices spouse is responding to this person's texts while at work, but not responding to Friend's messages during the same time period.  Spouse is also super protective of their phone, always grabbing it and putting it out of Friend's reach when they come near, even though Friend is not attempting to touch the phone.

Now to add to this, Friend drives spouse's vehicle and goes to use the GPS.  Finds unknown address in GPS.  Searches for address and finds it belongs to the person spouse is doing all the texting with.

What are your thoughts and how would you handle?

I Am What I Am

I am what I am.  What's that you ask?  Turning into my mother.  Yes, you read that right, I'm turning into my mother when it comes to creepy crawlies and critters.  This has been going on for a few years, and the transformation is almost complete.  I did something today that my mother would have NEVER done.  But let me back up a day first - yesterday when Clydie and I took the pups out to potty in the backyard, Kita stopped at the screen door and sniffed and looked as if something was hiding back there.  Behind this door is the big plastic tub full of dog food, and there were about 5 empty dog food bags folded up and stored in the corner, with a bug zapper (unplugged) underneath all the bags.  I told Clydie that Kita was hunting, that she smelled something back there.  I tried to get Kita to move on, and told her I didn't want to hurt myself running away from whatever she might root out of the corner.  Clydie laughed at me, and then tried to prove to Kita there was nothing there.  She got the dust mop, and pulled one bag out at a time, poking at each bag as she went.  I stood in the doorway, watching, ready to slam the door closed and run into the house, leaving Clydie outside with whatever critter may be there, but alas, there was no critter.




Today, I go to run Kita out back, and she once again starts sniffing at the corner.  I decide to close the door so she has full access to poke around in the bags, and I proceed to remove one bag at a time, looking carefully as I moved each one (THIS is what my mother never would have done, she would have left this part up to Marion, and yes all of the empty bags were put on top of the bug zapper and left there after yesterday's exercise).  I noticed that there was shredded pieces of paper from the bags, meaning that something had been nesting in there or chewing up the bags to take pieces to a nest, and the hair just stood up on the back of my neck.  I start to lift the last bag, and I see a freaking RAT on the bug zapper, trying to hide himself.  I let out a scream that was so my mother, ran into the house and slammed the door, leaving Kita outside.  I had seen her lunge at the rat out of the corner of my eye, and then she was on the other corner of the porch before I could even tell Brian what had happened.  Brian was just standing in the living room, looking at me like WTF, and I was freaking out about the rat on the back porch.  He went out there, and Kita had killed it:

Needless to say, all the empty dog food bags are in the trash can now, and the area has been thoroughly swept.  Bags will be thrown away properly from now on, no more piling those suckers up!






And now to the relaxing part of my day today - I'm working on a bird bath made with flower pots, and I did some stenciling on it this afternoon:

               This is the lid that will be the water bowl - it turned out so much better than I had expected!

This is the base -  it will sit up on one end, with the water bowl lid glued to the top once we put the bird bath in place.






Our garden is really producing the roma tomatoes and rattlesnake green beans.  I think I've canned 10-12 quart jars of those beans alone this season!  Our cucumbers are doing okay, not nearly as many as last year, our yellow squash are done, and I think the zucchini are pretty close to being finished.  Our jalapeno peppers are doing very well, but our exotics are very slow to grow and produce this year. 




Well I should get to bed for tonight, I wanted to share my scare for the day, and my project I'm working on.  Have a great rest of the weekend!

The Right Way to......

My son, Steven, loves to pick on Brian about his height.  He'll make jokes directly to Brian, and that's really funny, but lately he's found a whole line of memes about "the right way to talk to short people".  Here's the first one that he posted a few weeks ago:

Brian of course warned him that paybacks would be hell, but alas, there was nothing done.  So the next meme posted was:

Steven almost sent Brian a message to tell him to bring a shopping cart home with him so they could have a chat, but I told him not to.  Brian messaged me to see if I'd seen this, and I had to go look and laugh.  Then came this one:

And the plotting for revenge by Brian began!  Lots of things have been discussed, but nothing has been carried out yet.  Other than some jalapeno juice rubbed on the rim of his tea glass at dinner Saturday night.  LOL

The final meme posted was more because it was funny, not because Steven wanted to pick on Brian anymore:







Once revenge has been obtained, I will share!  LOL

A Little Blog Post from the Past

This post was from the last week of May 2007


 Steven fell at school on Wednesday and scraped his knee.  No big deal, right?  WRONG!!!!  You see, Steven has never gotten a scrape like this before--it's a little larger than the size of a quarter, and the 'road rash' covers an area about 2"x3" (yes I know, he's 11 years old, and he has had injuries before, including a broken wrist, but this was the worst scrape he's ever had).  So I go to pick him up from my grandmother's that afternoon and that's when I found out he was hurt.  I asked him if Meme had cleaned his wound yet and he got this fearful look on his face and said no.  I told him that he knew that it had to be done, and we could either do it at Meme's house, or do it at our house, but that I preferred to do it at Meme's house.

The reason I preferred doing it at her house was that I was hoping it would make him a little calmer, that he wouldn't be so fearful of getting it 'doctored' than he would be if it was just the 2 of us there.  Yes, he has this intense fear of having wounds cleaned and doctored for some reason, he's horribly afraid of pain and is afraid that the cleaning and application of Neosporin will be excessively painful. 

Well, I call my mom to tell her how my job interview that afternoon went, and to also let her know about Steven's knee injury, and my grandmother goes and gets the peroxide, Neosporin, cotton balls, q-tips and kleenex, and when she enters the living room, Steven immediately starts crying and freaking out, and my mom can hear him on the phone.  That's when my giggling began.  Mother and I thought it was funny that he would carry on like that, just seeing the stuff we were going to use to doctor his knee.

I finish talking to her and go in there, sitting on the footstool and propping his leg up on mine.  He starts begging me to leave him alone (mind you I haven't even done anything yet)--long story short it takes about 10 minutes before I'm able to finally pour the peroxide on the wound.  It sits there for all of about 3 seconds and he starts screaming bloody freakin murder like someone is chopping his leg off with no anesthesia.  My grandmother is fussing at him to hush, she couldn't believe he was screaming like that.  She actually told him to hush  his mouth before the neighbors called the police!  Then he wouldn't let me wipe the foam off, he had to do that himself. 

After that was done, I needed to put some Neosporin on it, but he wouldn't let me.  I got him to agree to let me "drop" it on there, so he held my hand about 2-3" above his knee, and I had to squirt the tube so that it would fall on the wound.  We got that taken care of, then went to leave.  He got up stiff-legged and I told him he better walk on it and bend it or it would get stiff and he would have problems walking. 

Some of you may think I am mean and cruel, but I couldn't help but laugh and/or giggle the entire time I'm trying to doctor this child.  I know it wasn't funny that he was hurt, or that he was so fearful over the whole thing, but something just kept me laughing and giggling uncontrollably.

We went to Walmart and Target and he insisted on getting the electric cart at both places.  I didn't mind so much, as long as it kept him happy and with me.  But it only got better once we got home and Marion (my step-dad) got ahold of him.

Marion starts picking at him at dinner time, asking him if he cried like a girl.  Of course Steven starts to weep a little, and Marion starts laughing, and my giggling and laughing starts up again.  Steven says that his New-nee (my mom) is going to ground us both from the tv, computer, and our cell phones, if we don't stop laughing and being mean to him.  Then Mom says something about I bet you're gonna have a hard time getting him the shower tonight, and of course Marion starts in on how the water is going to burn his knee like acid, and it will feel horrible and will feel like it's going to burn him down to the bone.  Steven ran over to me and grabbed me, sobbing and begging me to make Marion stop but all I could do was laugh.

I tried to get Mom in trouble for laughing too, but she of course said she was laughing at me and Marion--Marion was over there going "oh my god, stop, you're killing me" and I'm saying "stop making me laugh, my belly hurts" and was holding my stomach.  Steven said he believe his New-nee, that she wasn't laughing at him, only at us. 

Mom left the room, so Steven said something again about Mom was going to ground us, so Marion asked him what gave her the power to ground us, and Steven said 'because she's older than all of us so she has the power".  Marion counters with "yeah, that's why we're getting ready to put her in a nursing home so it doesn't matter".  Steven of course goes and runs to tell his New-nee what his Poppy said about her.