The eve of

my great adventure. I leave in the morning for Salt Lake City. I'm very antsy. I've been postponing several things, but can't postpone some of them any longer. Like pre-registering at St. Mark's Hospital. I don't know who, if any one, reads my blog, but I've set up a private page on Facebook for Don to post updates. The insurance company authorized a 3-day stay. The letter said 5/27 which is Sunday.

First snow of the season

We had the first snow of the season last night. I am so not ready for it. But in this semi-arid desert, it is necessary for survival. I should have taken a picture of it, but didn't.

I turned the ceiling fan switch to blow the warm air down. I broke down & put some socks on my feet & found my leather moccasins to wear instead of the croc sandals. I found a thermal shirt & will have to dig out my winter pjs.

Last night I went to the medicine cabinet to see if I could find some tape for one of the incisions on my tummy. It was bright red & oozing pus. The medicine cabinet in the kitchen is right by the old back door. The wind was blowing in. I wondered if the windows in the laundry room were closed. Don said yes. The front door is so loose you can see daylight around it. I have asked for over a year to change that door & get a new one, but to no avail. I hate having to pay such high gas & electrical bills because our house is so drafty. I'm glad Mother is in Aunt Vi's snug little house.

Don asked me if we had any triple antibiotic ointment for my incision. I said no, I'd used hydrogen peroxide & tit salve (petro-carbo). He asked if Mother had some neosporin, I said no. I forgot to get some at the grocery store pharmacy section or at the pharmacy today.

Another Monday

Thursday, I had a garden party!! A first for me. I can't believe how far out of my comfort zone I ventured that time. It was a Pampered Chef party. I invited almost 100 people, 90 to be exact. I had ONE show up from my guest list. Of course, I had 4 there that, even though I invited them, I expected to be there. You know, a given? You expect your close friends & family to show up to support you. It was a luncheon & a lot of people work, I know that, but .... anyway, if I'd had a lot of people I would have panicked. The "boys," Don-Mike, Nick & Zach, showed up at one time or another, except Eddie, who was in school. But as far as paying guests go, it was a bust.

We had a yummy potato soup complete with potato skins which are high in potassium. And I'll definitely make it again. In fact, I have it scheduled for a meal in September. I'm proud of myself, I beat Don on planning September's menus. Usually he has his meals scheduled & I just kind of stumble through the month, sigh.

Saturday, Mother & I finished the errands we started on Wednesday. I ran out of energy & didn't get them all finished. I will try again next week.

A friend from Facebook gave me this advice:

a friend with heart problems once told me.... " Go from your personal point A to point B and stop..." " some days the points may be miles apart and sometimes they may be touching each other ..."" and NEVER LOOK BACK..." What ever you were doing will always wait for you... if not.... to bad....'

Very good advice. She went on to say, "I love that advice.... ...even tho I rarely heed it...." She & I are a lot alike, though I think I may heed it better than she does. Her son says that she schedules her illnesses, LOL.

Nick doesn't always like it when I tell him I can't do something. He woke me up at 8 o'clock this morning & said he needed new shoes. His shoe lace had broken. He wanted to go to Logan & buy his shoes. He said he hadn't worked out the logistics yet. I said I had to work today. He got huffy & said I didn't need to bite his head off.

I thought about ALCO, here in Preston, I know they have shoes. I told him to go check them out today & let me know. Meanwhile, I asked him to let me look at his shoe. It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it was. I took the shoe lace out, rethreaded it loosely & handed it back to him.

Today Vicki Atkinson, job share partner, & I plotted out when is the best time to have my gall bladder out, Monday, Sept. 21. I guess I'll call Dr. Broadbent's office tomorrow & schedule it.

Good news & bad news

Good news first, results of the MRI show that the lesion on my spine has not metastasised. It is NOT cancer. It is a "bone window." In other words, the bone is much thinner than the bones around it. I actually have 2 bone windows on L1.

I'm still not going to have the endoscopy nor am I going to have gall bladder surgery right now. I will not go under general anesthetic willingly. I realize I'm playing Russian roulette, but ... isn't general anesthetic a form of Russian roulette too? You go into surgery feeling fine & come out sick. One can die of complications from surgery. Seven surgeries in one year is enough to bankrupt a person financially & emotionally. My surgeries were actually within an 8 month period, that's an average of one surgery a month. I will take prilosec daily for my stomach problems before I'll go under general anesthetic again. I'm just starting to feel better.

Now, for the bad news. This isn't really my news, but I'm just sick. Eddie is on his way to detention. They were going to make him walk to Pocatello! Walk!! Who do they think we are & who do we talk to about protection from parole officers?

Lent, Day 7

OK, I've been at this Lent thing for 8 days, counting Sunday. Still haven't been successful at either one of my goals, but I keep trying.

Report on "doctor day" in the city. I woke up at 9:35 & finally drug myself out of bed at 10, only because I wanted to tell Don-Mike something before he left. I was in bed by 12:15 last night, but couldn't seem to get to sleep. I was still awake at 1.

My appt. for the mammogram was at 1:30, but I had remembered 1 & had set my cell phone calendar for 1. We left a little after 11, & so we had plenty of time to eat. We ate at Golden Corral. I didn't have any trouble with "restaurant syndrome" aka IBS like I usually do. I was careful what I ate though. The spinach & Brussels sprouts looked so good, but that's all I did was look. I took the hydrocodone while we were eating. I wanted to be sure & have it in my system for the mammogram.

At the lab they took 3 vials of blood. I barely felt the prick & there isn't a bruise to show either.

Next on to the Radiology Dept. for the mammogram. I am certainly grateful for the pain meds. I was feeling no pain, actually I did, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been without the pain medication. I am so grateful that Don took the time off from work today to drive us. My boobs are sore tonight. I'm thinking of taking another pain pill, but think I'll settle for ibuprofen.

There are no films of the right breast for either February or October 2007. I said I didn't think they took any of the right side in October because there was another lump in the left breast & they wanted to see what it was. She checked & the records showed they hadn't done the right breast in October. I said all of my surgeries had been done right there at Cache Valley Specialty Hospital, except the one where they implanted 22 needles in my left breast at Ogden Regional. I still have some of those scars. The films should either be at Dr. (Lee) Broadbent's office or at the hospital. I didn't remember taking any films to Ogden.

All I had to do was change gowns from the little cape-like thing to the full hospital gown for the chest x-rays right there in the Radiology Dept. Two x-rays, full & side views. So, now we wait for the results.

Mother & Don sat out in the waiting room while I had all this done. It only took an hour & 10 minutes. Since we were already at the Specialty Hospital, I checked with Dr. (Jeffrey) Bennion's office, the ear, nose & throat specialist that comes to Preston, to see if I could get a copy of Nick's sleep study from Idaho Falls, but since Nick is 21, I can't without a signed consent form from him.

On to the Regional Medical Arts Building at Logan Regional Hospital for Mother's protime. The INR level is 2.3, too thick again. How it can fluctuate from high to low in just a matter of days still amazes me. She did not feel good this morning & tonight when I went over to check on her, she came from the bathroom crying.

She thinks she broke her toe getting out of the bathtub Monday. She slipped. She has a bath mat, I don't know if it was in the tub or not. We saw a shower stool at Cache Valley Oxygen today when we stopped there to check on black crocs. She said the home health aide said she'd be sure they brought a shower bench tomorrow. I should have just bought it, but I didn't have enough money to do it.

I didn't take her to Instacare because they can't really do much besides x-ray it to see if she really did break it & then tape the toes together. She already has pain medication for the pain in her back & hips.

It is 11:40 & I'm not going to update Mother's Caring Bridge site tonight. I've done most of the reporting right here. I can just copy & paste tomorrow.

I slept almost all the way home from the doctor's & I'm still tired.