Lets keep the excitement to a minimum

Greetings. I keep looking for things to blog about in my nice quiet existence and I’m not having much luck. All is well here, Nick is healing nicely and mostly behaving himself. My BP seems to be coming down some and the Cpap and I no longer hate one another. Instead of me wanting to hurl it from my nightstand each night we merely glare at one another. I guess that’s progress.

 

I cooked for Nick’s family this past Sunday. The five siblings take turns, and we get together about once a month. I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, corn, carrots, green beans, cooked apples, rolls and brownies. Mollie brought over two pies. I don’t think anyone left hungry. Nick made the carrots and the cooked apples, but I handled the rest. I still don’t like cooking, but when I have to I can usually manage.

 

Tonight (Tuesday) we’re having pancakes at church for Shrove Tuesday and Nick and I are helping cook there too. Our minister had challenged those of us in her congregation to read the Bible this year and had a pacing guide for us. I’ve always wanted to do this and this year I did. I just finished the Old Testament and I’m thrilled to be finally starting on the New Testament. To be honest reading the Old Testament has brought up many more questions than it answered, but I’m proud of myself for keeping up.

 

I got to talk with LJ the other night. The cat is doing great, BTW. I’m having a hard time realizing that my baby boy is having a birthday this Thursday. I’m really stunned to realize that my little boy, my baby is turning thirty-five. When I realized this, I turned to Nick to declare, “But I feel like I’m just ready to turn thirty-five!” Nick looked at me and nodded before adding, “Well maybe forty.” LJ’s friends are giving a big party for him at his favorite bar Friday night and he says Nick and I will be more than welcomed to come if we’re in town. It’s my favorite kind of invitation – I’m welcomed, but no one expect me to actually show up.

 

I’ll keep looking for blogging material folks, so stay tuned for the next post of my wildly exciting life!

Doctors, doctors everywhere

Evidently the reason I retired was to have enough time to go to all my doctor appointments. Once again, I feel good and healthy, all these appointments are routine, but there sure are a lot of them. I went to the dermatologist last week. No problems, she said nothing even looked suspicious. Good for me.

Nick will have his post-surgery recheck next Wed. He seems to be doing great. He says the area of the hernia is still a little sore. He’s not picking up anything heavy – that I know of, and I really think he’s being careful. And I’m so glad the surgery’s over with.

 

I went for my regular checkup last week too. My doctor was pleased with everything except my blood pressure. She increased my medication, and all was a little better for a while but now it’s shooting back up and I have no idea why. Saturday at noon it was 180/100 – ridiculous! If it’s still up so high today I’m calling the doctor back.

 

Last Friday I went back to see the sleep doctor – wearing the damn Cpap with it blowing air around is a little like dealing with Chinese water torture. I went in and told them all the problems. I put on the mask and showed them the problem. They made some major adjustment, tightening the mask and that night it worked! It was the first night I was able to wear it all night, more than four hours, since I started wearing it. I hope this works now and I can get the benefits they keep promising from using this thing – more energy, weight loss, lower blood pressure – I could use all these things.

 

And now to the most important doctor visit of all.  LJ and Collin’s cat has glaucoma in one eye. The doctor explained that the pressure would be very uncomfortable, and he felt that the eye should come out. But here’s the deal – the cat is sixteen years old and has other health problems and the surgery would be around $4,000. Now remember LJ lost his job this past summer and was out of work for a while before taking a job for lower pay. Collin broke his leg during that time (when they had no insurance) and he didn’t work for six months. To say money is a little tight would be an understatement.

 

One might ask if paying $4,000 for surgery on a sixteen-year-old cat a wise investment. One might, but I sure as heck didn’t. It was totally up to them and I don’t know what I would have advised anyway. Obviously, it’s not practical from a purely monetary standpoint, but this is their cat and they love it.

The eye was removed this past Friday. It was scheduled the week before, but the vet forgot to tell the boys not to give him some of his medicines before surgery, so they postponed it a week. The doctor said it was his fault and that he would cut $650 off the bill. I don’t understand that, but it makes me happy. I also sent a little to be applied to bill, after all it is my grandcat.

 

I guess my life is now a lovely swirl of doctor visits – at least all my doctors are nice and I do like them. But that doesn’t mean I have to see them all the time. I’d prefer a more casual, see you next year, relationship. Now if I can just get my BP down maybe I can relax a little. 

 

This will be a tough job

I have a strong husband who likes to get things done himself. He does not like to depend on others, even me. I haven’t been able to keep him off the roof, but I have been able to get him to agree to only go up there when I’m home. That way I’m here to listen for a thud in case he falls. Still scary but it’s better than him falling when there is no one here to call for help.

 

At work he’s up on extremely high ladders changing ballast in the lights and working on exhaust fans. He has to lift buckets of parts that weigh over fifty pounds. Some of the boxes he packages weigh fifty to sixty pounds. And he handles a wide array of other jobs.

 

A couple of days ago Nick had surgery, for the first time in his life. He had a hernia repaired.  The doctor said it was more extensive than he had thought, but it’s all taken care of now. 

The doctor also said he couldn’t lift anything over fifteen pounds for six weeks. Nick is a smart man and I know he’ll listen to the doctor… for a while. But I worry what he might try to lift around week five or six.

So far at home he won’t let me get him a drink or bring or get his medicine for him. He’s up and out of his chair to get it himself before I can move. He’s always been this way. I’m worried about sending him to work and I have no doubt he be going back next Monday. One good thing is that his boss really likes him, and I know he’ll be watching him too and lift things for him as needed. At least for right now. But again, by week five, will these men stick with this? I may have to go with him that week.