The Monday After…

Yes, it’s the beginning of another new week, and the Monday after?  Well, actually it’s the Monday after a lot of things.

It’s the Monday after mine and Ed’s brief trip to Florida.  We had a great time visiting with family and friends, but, apparently, the trip almost “did both of us in”, afterward.  Both of us spent most of last week resting on the couch and in the recliner!

Actually, Ed had been sick for a couple of weeks, when we left.  He’d been battling head/chest congestion, and had finally given in and gone to the doctor a few days before our trip.  It’s been exactly three weeks, since Ed caught his “cold”, and he’s still not rid of the mess!

In fact, Ed gave me quite a scare, on Thursday night, when he coughed, turned bright red, and grabbed his head. (His previous heart attack began with a cough)  I asked if he was okay, and he said his neck/head hurt.  He got up, took his shower, and promptly went to bed.  A short while later, I heard him in the bathroom violently throwing up.  I thought, for sure, we were on our way to the emergency room again!  He said he was okay, but we both spent a long, restless night, wondering what was going to happen next.  He never threw up again, but he was pale and weak for two days afterward.  Neither of us has a clue what happened.

Then I came down with a case of sinus congestion, and started taking Sudafed right before our trip, which apparently caused my blood pressure to drop, on the way home from our trip.  I started feeling bad on the way home, but didn’t figure out the problem for a couple of days.  I just knew I felt weak, “faint”, and had shortness of breath.  After taking my blood pressure, and discovering that it was low, I put the pieces of the puzzle together and stopped taking the Sudafed.  My blood pressure slowly began to rise.  Add to that, excessive joint and back stiffness, from riding so much in such a short period of time, and I was down [on the couch] for the count!

Meanwhile, during our “down and out session”, it began to rain here.  It rained over six inches in twenty-four hours!  Our house was literally surrounded by water when we woke up on Thursday morning.  We had to wear rain boots to even go outside!  The road leading up to our house was underwater.  It was crazy!  Finally, after lunch, on Thursday, Ed was able to get outside long enough to “ditch” some of the water away from the road and our yard.  Then we got another inch of rain on Saturday!

rain, rain go a way…

Whenever we get excessive rain, in a short period of time, our well water gets “muddy”.  So, for now, we can’t drink the water or wash clothes.  Well, I suppose we could drink it or wash clothes in it, but who would want to, when the water in the faucet is brown???  I can barely stand the thoughts of taking a shower in the murky stuff, but there’s no choice.  Sigh.

In addition to the excessive water outside, some of us had “excessive water problems” inside!  The roof on our daughter’s house sprang a leak…in her daughter’s bedroom!  What a mess!  This isn’t the first leak they’ve had–and they just had their house re-roofed back in 2009! They’re trying to get to the bottom of the problem.

Unfortunately, Ed and I ‘sprang [another] a leak’, too, just inside the living room door.  It wasn’t our first leak either.  We battle leaks on a regular basis, thanks to Ed’s inexperience at putting on a tin roof, several years ago…  For now, we have a mixing bowl [in our attic] underneath the  leak, until Ed can take care of our latest problem. I hope it doesn’t involve a trip on top of the house, again.

We ended the week with a family Super Bowl pajama party at our daughter’s house, last night.  She’d planned to have everybody over, then ended up not feeling well, on Sunday.  She spent most of her day on the couch, while her husband made the soup for the party.  At the last-minute, she texted everybody to wear their pajamas because… well, she just didn’t feel like getting dressed, and didn’t want to feel out of place.  Almost everybody wore their p.j.’s, and it was fun!  This could be the start of a new tradition!

We watched most of the Superbowl game, but may have gotten distracted a time or two, catching up with each other’s week.  Our youngest son had a near encounter with a tornado, on his way home from work.  He saw the tornado, on Ft. Stewart, but, only from a distance, thank goodness.  The storm hit the nearby army base around 5 p.m.  Fortunately, nobody was injured in the tornado, but there was a lot of damage to trees, cars, and homes.  Around 40/50 people were actually displaced from their homes.

tornado hit nearby Ft. Stewart, GA, this week

Meanwhile our son-in-law experienced”the day from hell” during his Saturday shopping trip, in preparation for the Superbowl party. (Think lots of spilled/dropped things, along with accidentally pushing the car’s “panic” button twice)  Both of those stories trumped anything we saw during the game…well, with the exception of a couple of funny Doritos commercials and one very funny Hyundai commercial, shown below.

Our daughter swears her husband will be like the daddy in this commercial.  She’s probably right.

Today, the sun is shinning, Ed and I are feeling better, and it’s shaping up to be a better week–we hope.  As for our plans, I think we’ll take our forms to the tax man.  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Happy Monday!

Miscellaneous Monday…

Hopefully, this week will be a little less eventful than last week.  I began last week by having to be at the doctor’s office at the crack of dawn, to have blood drawn.  That’s never a great way to begin a new week, and the rest of the week seemed to go downhill from there…

On Monday night, our youngest grandson, Evan, came down with the stomach virus.  Ed and I were supposed to go over, on Tuesday evening, and take Evan and his daddy some supper, because Jennifer was working late.  Needless to say, we changed our plans.

Next, we found out that our daughter-in-law, (and neighbor) Christina, had come down with the virus, as well.  A couple of days later, Evan’s daddy and Christina’s husband came down with the virus, too.  With all of the virus germs spreading around, we decided to postpone Ed’s birthday party for a while.

On Thursday, I had an appointment with a dermatologist, whom I’d been referred to by my primary care physician, concerning a scaly patch on the bridge of my nose.  My doctor told me the dermatologist would probably freeze my nose or give me some kind of cream for it.  My appointment was at 9:30 in the morning, and we live over forty-five minutes away.  What was I thinking to have accepted such an early appointment?  For sure, it wasn’t about having to get up at the crack of dawn again!

The dermatologist took one look at the scaly patch on the bridge of my nose, and told me it was pre-cancerous, and would need to be frozen. She also noticed a tiny growth in the crevice of my nose, about the size of a pimple, and asked me how long it had been there.  I told her I didn’t know.  She told me she would need to do a biopsy of that, as well as a small spot just below the base of my neck that I’d shown her. This visit was turning into a bit more of an ordeal than I had planned.

Can I tell you how bad it feels to get a shot in the crevice of your nose?!  Can I also tell you how badly it feels to have someone freeze your nose with spray?  The shot at the base of my neck hurt, too, but was a piece of cake compared to the face!  When I left the office, my nose felt like it was on fire, literally!  (Ed explained that freezing is a burning process, it just uses cold instead of heat.)  The day after the process, my face looked like I’d been punched in the nose!  Four days later, it still looks that way.  My eyes are swollen, and my  nose keeps oozing this gross, clear stuff out from under the huge scab that’s forming…  Now I know why the doctor asked if I had any important plans immediately coming up before she froze my nose!  Now, I have to wait for the results of those biopsies.  I’d appreciate prayers that my biopsy reports come back good.

Ed’s 66th birthday quietly came and went…on Friday the 13th!  The only bad luck we had was having to postpone his party with family because of the stomach virus.  I cancelled the order for a large birthday cake, and opted to make him a small German Chocolate cake, instead.  I bought some six-inch cake pans to make a cake that was just big enough to make about eight slices, because German Chocolate cake isn’t listed on a “heart healthy” diet, but– a man should celebrate his birthday with his favorite cake!

If all goes well, our family will be celebrating Ed’s birthday, together, a week later than we originally planned.  It’ll be a good excuse to eat cake again 🙂

Ed’s been a little more tired than usual, lately. I’m hoping it’s just his body getting used to all of his new medications.  Those blood pressure pills really seem to zap his energy because he feels fine until he takes those.  Some mornings he takes a mid-morning nap, and that’s fine with me. Lord knows, I’ve had plenty of those kind of days, too.  I hope his tiredness will eventually pass, and his energy will return.

Our weather was cold on Friday and Saturday nights, and I liked it!  In fact, we actually had our first frost on Saturday night.  The cold weather is supposed to be short-lived, however, with temperatures back up near 80 by mid-week.  It was nice while it lasted.  Unfortunately, the mosquitoes will be back out in force, again.

These days I’m keeping a food journal of what Ed and I eat for each meal.  This helps me keep track of what we’re eating, and helps me decide what to cook (or what not to cook).  Ed’s only allowed 3 eggs per week on his diet.  I guess it’s a good thing the daylight hours are short, and our hens have begun molting, so egg production is down!  Our 9 hens have laid almost 1700 eggs since January of this year!  “Our girls” have earned a well-deserved rest!  (FYI: We didn’t eat all of those eggs, we shared with friends and family.)

It’s shaping up to be a busy week around the house.  I’m going to get a head start on my Thanksgiving cooking, and put it in the freezer.  So many delicious dishes, and none of them are really “heart healthy”–but Ed has the hospital dietitian’s permission to enjoy Thanksgiving–in moderation 🙂  Which reminds me, since I’ve joined Ed on his diet (which is really supposed to be my diet, too) I’ve begun to lose the weight I gained while I was laid up with a bad back all summer. Hooray for that!  Ed’s weight, however, has stayed the same.  Hooray for that, too, since he’s already thin.

Have a great Monday!

 

Friday Fragments…

It’s a little late to be posting Friday’s Fragments, but I’m going to do it anyway.  I’m desperately trying to get back into the habit of blogging on a more regular basis. It’s hard to find time.

We’re only two days away from the two-week anniversary of Ed’s heart attack.  I’m hoping and praying every day that goes by Ed will become stronger and healthier.  He seems to be getting better each day.  Thank God he’s only recovering from a heart attack/stent, and not open heart surgery!  I often find myself thinking, what if….  I’m so thankful he survived!

I finally got the Halloween decorations packed away, and the Thanksgiving decorations put out.  I’m so thankful I didn’t go “all out” for Halloween, this year.  It’s almost as if I knew something was going to happen, before it actually did.

I’m tired of 80 degree weather in November!  Where oh where is fall?  Some of our trees are putting on new leaves, and the grass will need mowing again, soon, if things don’t change!

Today, I purchased the turkey for Thanksgiving.  I bought a 19 pound turkey!  If anyone had told me, twenty years ago, that it would take a 19 pound turkey to feed our family, I would have laughed!

Ed and I finally made our way to the ‘tag office’, and purchased a tag for our new vehicle.  Because we put this vehicle in both of our names, with mine listed first, the tag will be due in my birthday month.  The other two vehicles will be due in Ed’s birthday month. Talk about being confusing…

Ed and I have been eating “healthy” for nine days.  So far, we’ve eaten three bags of ‘ready-to-eat’ salad, a carton of grape tomatoes, one cucumber, and a head of lettuce!  Salad is still good, but not as good as it was nine days ago.  Thankfully, grilled chicken is still quite tasty 🙂  For the record, 1% milk looks (and tastes) like 99% water and 1% milk!

As if Ed and I haven’t had enough things to deal with, this year, we now have added one more thing to the list!  During Monday’s checkup, I mentioned to my primary care physician that I  have developed a ‘scaly patch’ on the bridge of my nose.  I wondered if my glasses had caused it, but wasn’t sure.  He checked it out, and has referred me to a dermatologist to rule out skin cancer!  The reason I became suspicious, in the first place, is because our daughter was recently diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma on her nose.  She currently awaiting an appointment for Mohl surgery to remove the rest of the cancerous cells, to be immediately followed by plastic surgery on her nose.  (And in case you’re wondering, no, we’re not sun worshipers.  Just unlucky, I guess.) No matter what, I will never forget 2015, as long as I live!

On a more pleasant note, tomorrow, we will be attending the birthday party of our youngest grandchild, Evan.  Here’s a picture of Evan, taken on his actual birthday:

 Evan actually turned two on October 30, but his party is being held tomorrow.  Time has passed so quickly!  There’s no way he should be two already!!!  Evan’s a busy little fellow, so I’m sure he’ll enjoy his birthday party tomorrow.

That’s about it for this edition of Friday Fragments. I hope everyone has a blessed weekend!  Go out and make it a good one.