“High Five” To the Hodgepodge

Wow! Imagine my surprise when I came here to my blog to participate in the Wednesday Hodgepodge, and discovered everything has changed! The new blogging format is completely foreign to me! I’m too old and tired to learn a lot of new tricks, but I’ll give it a try…Thanks to our hostess, Joyce, for this fun distraction each week.

1. Five years ago this month hubs and I relocated from New Jersey to the Palmetto State. What were you doing five years ago this month?

At first, I had no idea what I was doing five years ago, and then the year 2015 hit me like a ton of bricks! 2015 was the year everything went wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) for us.

In January Ed lost his job, in April we discovered termites and mold under our house, and my back “went out” for the first time! I had back surgery in September. We bought a new vehicle the first part of October, then Ed had a heart attack late in October. In November my daughter and I both discovered we had skin cancer on our faces, requiring Mohs surgery, followed by plastic surgery! It makes me stressed just thinking about 2015!

In answer to the question, five years ago, at this time, I was a very miserable person, anticipating my upcoming sixty-first birthday, and back surgery!

2. What was the last 9-5 job you worked? Tell us about it.

My last 9-5 job was being the care taker of five month old twin girls. The hours were 7:30 to 5:30. I retired, after two years, to spend more time with family. Those twin girls are now fifteen years old!

3. Plead the fifth, high five, take five, it’s five o’clock somewhere, or the big 5-0…which number five phrase relates to your life in some way currently? Tell us how.

“Take five” currently relates to my life because I often have to “take five” when scrolling through Facebook or watching the evening news. We are living in some trying times.

4. During this season of spending so much time at home, what distractions get in the way of being your most productive? Or have you been extra productive since this whole thing started?

Health issues tend to be my biggest road block to being productive, but it’s also very easy to get distracted by social media–or that 300 piece puzzle sitting beside my chair! (my latest hobby)

5. Give us a list here of your top five anything.

Five of my favorite gospel songs: (in no special order, and it was hard to stop at just five!)

1. Precious Memories- Alan Jackson
2. What a Beautiful Day (for the Lord to Come Again)- Brian Free
3. 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)- Matt Redman
4. Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)-Chris Tomlin
5. Turn Your Back- Gold City

Random:

I’ve used a ton of bird seed this spring and summer! We have five different bird feeders, and Ed and I’ve been doing some serious bird watching, while being stuck at home. We have cardinals, blue jays, mocking birds, brown thrashers, and two different kinds of dove that regularly visit our bird feeders. We’ve even had some woodpeckers visit our feeders! We didn’t know woodpeckers ate bird seed!

It’s been rewarding to watch the adults raise their babies in nests and bird houses, located around our yard, then watch the babies growing up into adults as they come to feed daily.

I have a once-in-a-lifetime tale of the rescue and survival of one of these babies… but I think I’ll save the story of “Flutterbee” for another day!

R

A Root Canal Was Only The Beginning…

It’s been nine months since I’ve been to this blog–and what LONG nine months they have been!  It all started with a root canal that I had in September of 2018…the one that caused me to have to cancel our trip to Key West.

Here’s what happened:

It had been a whole month after the initial root canal, but the tooth still wasn’t feeling  right.  It was time to have a temporary crown put on, but I was still having issues.  I was told by my dentist to call the endodontist’s office for an appointment, which I did.

All of this happened to take place about the time hurricane Michael decided to come roaring through the south!  Of course, I couldn’t get an appointment for several days, and when I did, the endodontist couldn’t see anything wrong.  However, after giving me a round of antibiotics and steroids, to try to make the tooth feel better, the endodontist decided to repeat the root canal procedure a few days later.  There was still no improvement in the way the tooth felt.

Just before Thanksgiving, and after the repeat root canal, I was given one more round round of antibiotics and steroids, but I continued to have tooth pain!  I went back to my dentist for advice.  He wasn’t sure what was going on with the root canal tooth, but seemed to think  the neighboring wisdom tooth might be causing problems. He referred me to an oral surgeon.

Two weeks before Christmas I had the wisdom tooth surgically extracted by the oral surgeon.  I was asleep and didn’t know anything about it, thank goodness.  Everything went great until I contracted “dry socket” about two days later. This happens when a clot doesn’t properly form in the empty socket, and it’s VERY painful!  I’ve never experienced pain like that before, and it lasted for well over two weeks.  I went back and forth to the oral surgeon’s office [to have the socket “packed”] every day or so, in an effort to alleviate the pain.  This is how I spent the two weeks leading up to last Christmas!  I also took A LOT of pain medication.  I lost seven pounds from not being able to eat, and did not enjoy the holidays.

Eventually, the pain of dry socket went away, but the root canal tooth continued to be sore and achy most of the time.  My dentist kept urging me to “give it more time”. February came, then March and April.  In May, when I had my teeth cleaned, the dentist announced he was going to crown the tooth in a month, even though it was still sore.

After I had my teeth cleaned, the root canal tooth began bothering me more than usual.  I prayed and prayed about what to do.  A week before I was due to get the temporary crown, I began to experience even more pain with it.  I finally asked the dentist to just “pull it out”.  He was very hesitant, and told me he “really hated to do this”, but, in the end, he did.

Unfortunately, I was not asleep when the dentist removed that tooth, and the extraction was AWFUL.  Because the tooth had become brittle, it broke in half, and each one of its roots had to be surgically removed.  The procedure was very painful, even though my mouth was numb!  I left the dentist’s office in a lot of pain, that just got worse when I contracted “dry socket” for the second time!

It’s been six weeks since that last extraction and I’m still experiencing mouth pain.  I wonder if there’s any end in sight?  Now I have to wear a mouth guard at night because I’ve started back grinding my teeth.  One tooth or another always seems to hurt, but x-rays don’t show anything wrong.

The extraction sight was big and it’s taking a while for it to heal.  I have the distinction of being the “slowest healer” my dentist has ever seen.  I also have the distinction of falling into the 1% of patients who experience a “failed root canal”.  Lucky me.

 

 

The Wednesday Hodgepodge…

Even though it has been “one of those weeks” at our house, I’m still joining Joyce and friends for The Hodgepodge.  I’m hoping to be able to link up before Ed and I leave for the hospital to have his procedure done.  Your prayers would be appreciated today.  Ed did really well with his prep, I hope his colonoscopy goes well, too.  I haven’t slept a wink all night!

As for me, I got a good report at the doctor’s office, except for the fact that my thyroid levels are very low.  I suffer from an underactive thyroid, and have to take daily medication.  For some unexplained reason, my levels have dropped extremely low all of the sudden.  This explains why I’ve been feeling so tired lately!  I thought perhaps it was because of my diet!  Hopefully, an increase in my thyroid medication will have me feeling more energetic soon.  On the positive side, my cholesterol and triglyceride levels were the best they’ve been in years!  I’ve also lost a total of 25 pounds.  Yay, for giving up sugar!

1. April showers bring May flowers…what have you been showered with this month?

Unseasonable weather!   From the look of everyone else’s blogs, I don’t think I’m alone in this.  One day I’m wearing shorts, the next day it’s back to sweaters.  What the heck?!  Then there’s the unusual amount of wind we’ve been having…it seems more like March than April.  I won’t even comment on the ridiculous amount of rainfall…

2. What is the nature of compassion? Is it learned or innate? Can compassion be learned? If you’re a parent is this something you’ve purposely sought to instill in your children, and if so how?

Boy, Joyce, this one is deep…For me, compassion is an emotion, and it’s felt in my heart.   A certain amount of compassion is innate, but I believe some of it is taught, as well.  For example, very young children have to be taught not to hurt each other, or to respect nature and animals.  I believe a person’s personality also dictates how compassionate they are.  Some people are born with a kind, compassionate spirit, while others seem to be more self-centered and less caring.   Ed and I always tried to lead our children by example.  I ‘m proud of all three of our off-spring, so we must done something right.

3. Do you prefer to watch romantic comedy or romantic drama…or are you rolling your eyes saying bring on the action flicks?

I prefer to watch a romantic drama, with some comedy thrown in for good measure!  Pretty Woman and Steel Magnolias are two of my all-time favorites.

4. It’s April which means baseball season is officially upon us here in the US of A. Humphrey Bogart is quoted as saying “A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.” Agree or Disagree?

I agree.  I’m more of a ‘hot dog at the ballgame’ kind of girl.  I’d be like a ‘fish out of water’ eating roast beef at the Ritz!

5. What’s something in your community or city that needs fixing or improving?

Our ‘main street’ business area desperately needs improving.  For almost a year, the city has been busy replacing the sidewalks and adding new street lights on main street.  The problem is, there are very few businesses located on main street anymore.  There’s NO PLACE TO SHOP THERE!   Most of the downtown buildings are old, and in bad need of repair, too.  Our downtown area consists merely of a bank, a gas station, a Christian preschool, two drugstores, a Chinese restaurant, two barber shops, two beauty salons,  a couple of insurance offices, and two thrift stores.

6. Share a song you enjoy that mentions flowers or a specific flower in its title.

“Kiss From A Rose” by Seal.

7. April 22nd is Earth Day…do you believe there’s life on other planets? That wasn’t the question you were expecting was it?

No, that wasn’t quite the question I was expecting, Joyce 🙂  I’ve never really given much thought about  life on other planets, so I’ll say “no”.

Random:

I’m so proud of how much our grandchildren are learning these days!  Their mothers spend a lot of time working with them, and their little minds are like sponges soaking up the knowledge they’re exposed to!  Our four-year-old grandson, Caden, counted to 100 for me yesterday! Our granddaughter, Madison, age six, has  been learning the books of the Bible.  I don’t have a video of Caden counting, but  here’s a little video of Madison naming the books of the New Testament:

A Very Chilly Monday…

Today, it’s below freezing here in our neck of the woods!    We’ve been experiencing chilly temperatures for the past three days.  Quick, somebody tell “old man winter” it’s March!  Enough already.  Let’s get down to Monday’s business with Heather’s “Monday Quiz”, shall we?

1. Which are you better at: Reading, Writing or Math?

Many moons ago, in school, my grades were pretty much the same on all three subjects.  In life, I’m probably better at reading because I enjoy it very much.  Writing is my second love, but, these days, I’m not really sure how good I am at it.
2. Tell us a good ‘come back’ story. Where you were down but were able to reverse fortunes and come out on top.

Once upon a time, I was very irresponsible and didn’t go the the gynecologist for fourteen years. Then I  began having problems.  One thing led to another, and when I finally went to the doctor,  I discovered there was a strong possibility that I might have ovarian cancer.  My entire life flashed before my eyes, and it wasn’t a good feeling.  I was only 45 years old!  Surgery was scheduled immediately.

Thankfully, I didn’t have cancer, but instead had two “chocolate cysts” engulfing my entire right ovary, and the worst case of endometriosis  my doctor has ever seen.  I spent five days in the hospital.  The good news is, I  lost sixteen pounds, and, once I recovered from the total abdominal hysterectomy,   I felt better than I’d felt in twenty years!  I began to exercise regularly, and became able to do things I hadn’t been able to do in a long, long time–plus I didn’t have to buy feminine products anymore!
3. Which would you rather do: dine or eat?

Personally, I prefer to just eat.  I’m not really into the “dining thing”.
4. What is one thing the someone close to you does that just annoys the heck out of you?

My hubby, Ed, and I have been going back and forth on issues concerning our bathroom.  He refuses to turn on the exhaust fan while he’s showering, then leaves the shower door ajar, once he’s finished.  Both things annoy the heck out of me!

My question for you:

5.  Have you ever had a “health crisis”?

Weekend Recap:

It was another slow, non-eventful weekend at our house.  The weather wasn’t decent for doing much of anything outdoors, so I spent most of Saturday catching up with Season Three of “Downton Abbey”.  I only have three episodes left to watch, but I have to admit, I read the spoiler and I know how the season ends…  Bummer!

Ed ran a few errands on Saturday, then he and I took a little shopping trip on Sunday, and went out to eat.  It was nice to get out of the house after so many days of being shut in.  I’m looking forward to some drier weather and milder temperatures this week, plus Ed is taking Friday off, too!

Happy Monday, everyone!