Saturday, February 23, 2013

Another Busy Saturday

I awoke at 3:30 this morning and was never able to get back to sleep. When I wake before dawn that way, I do my move the rest of the night. I really need to get a sleep aide. Sometimes warm milk helps if I take a Tylenol with it.

I will meet Bob at 7:00 for a light breakfast. We will be meeting Tony and Gay for lunch at 11:30. I will take them over to the apartment after lunch. I guess this afternoon I will try to see Leslie. I have some time to pack. We haven't even closed on the house yet. I will need to pay my second month's rent on Friday.

I want to order my bamboo shade for the living room today. I want to get them all up at the same time. I will ask Bobby and Karan if they will help me with that job. My Bob always did those things while I read the instructions to him. I no longer have a power drill/screwdriver.

More later....

Tony and Gay met us at Sirloin Stockade and we had a really nice visit and then we went over to the apartment. They thought it was really nice.

After they left I went out to see Leslie. She is still doing well. I was exhausted. I hadn't had a good night's sleep in a week. I wake up about 3:00 and cannot get back to sleep. I stayed about an hour and then came home and lay down in the recliner and took about a two hour nap. I feel somewhat better. I packed another eight boxes this afternoon. I need to get some more banker's boxes. I still have boxes of books to pack.

The worst thing is the garage and shed. There are yard tools in the shed and lots of old boxes of "stuff" in the garage. I don't know what I will do with it. I guess I'll put a lot of it in the trash. I also need to climb up in the attic and get boxes down from there. What a mess!

Friday, February 22, 2013

A Very Busy Day

Today has been a very busy day. I made a run to Independence to get my hair done at 7:00 AM and then right back home again to go to the apartment and get a few things I was going to need to fix lunch. I then came on back home and did my taxes.

I finished that just in time to fix lunch for Bob and he and I had the first home cooked meal in over a week. Then this afternoon I ran out to make a deposit and to fill my gas tank with gas. I got the decorative wall switchplate and the two Roman blinds in the mail that I ordered to replace those that were the wrong sizes so I went over to the apartment to put the switchplate on. The landlord and his son were taking the refrigerator and range out. Cyndi and Jeff traded me their glass top range for my Dixon mower so I wanted to get that avocado green one out of the kitchen. I also want to use my own frig because it is larger and has a larger freezer. Unfortunately it won't be hooked up to a water supply because of it's location in the kitchen. But it will be much better then the one in the kitchen there.

I will ask Bobby and Karan if they will help me put the blinds up. But first I have to order the custom bamboo blind and valence for the living room window. I will buy a large plastic container to put the drapes that are presently up in. They look just like 1953. I want Roman shades all around. They are so easy to keep clean with just the upholstery tool of your vacuum.

Tonight Bob will come over to watch TV. Tomorrow at 11:30 Gay and Tony will be down to have lunch out with us. Afterward, they want to see the apartment.

Carla came today to pick up the authorization to get my payoff on the mortgage. It shouldn't be long now until I can move. I will have to pay my rent again on Friday the 1st.

More later....

Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Freezing Rain Thursday

I awoke about 4:00 AM to the sound of rain. It's freezing because the temperature is under freezing. It's supposed to snow on top of that. That'll be a mess! Thank goodness I don't have to go to work anymore. I can hole up in the house and stay warm and dry. Also, I don't have to worry about my car.

Yesterday I drove to Independence 15 miles north to return the blinds that were the wrong size. When I got there, I found the Penney's catalog store had gone out of business. So, I turned around and drove to Bartlesville 40 miles south to return them. About a third of the way there, it began to snow slushy snow. I continued because I was soon past the point of no return. I got them returned and immediately turned around and drove home.

It was messy and I got my garage messy with it after I put the car away. One or two of my packed cardboard boxes out there are wet on the bottoms. I don't know at this point what is is them and I'm not going to brave the cold garage to find out. I did move the car out and try to sweep some of the ice and water out of the garage. I saw Inky out there in the wet and cold and invited him into the garage to eat and curl up on the swing cushion back by the hot water tank. He is still in there. There is a litter box in there so he will have a place to go.

Leslie went home from the hospital yesterday morning. She has been named their poster woman. She has done remarkably well. She has taken almost no pain medication and has not needed any. She gets up by herself and puts her brace on and sits in a chair or walks down the hall. She is amazing!

I still have my cellulitis. It is much better but still with me. I still have five antibiotics left. I just put makeup over it to try to cover it.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Better Wednesday

Things are much better today. My daughter is doing well in the hospital. I spent the past two days there. My cellulitis is getting better every day. I received the Roman blinds for my apartment yesterday. Two were the wrong size so I am taking them back to the catalog store in Independence this morning to send back. I don't know how or when I will get the others installed. It's not a priority at this time. My closing on the house is not until March 15th.

A friend has offered me a glass top range and I would like to use it in the apartment. I am leaving my glass top range here at the house. I also want to take my own frig. It is a lot larger then the one in the apartment and I need the freezer space for my meat and frozen veggies. I also need to have Cox put another outlet in the den over there for my internet connection.

Sometime I need to get my income tax done too. But I have awhile on that. I use taxact.com and do it myself anyhow.

We are to get a winter storm this afternoon and evening with freezing rain and snow. It may miss us. So much of the time it does. Wichita's weather report goes north of us and Tulsa's often goes south of us. Here in southeast Kansas we are in a hole and often the forecast is not accurate for us. If the winter storm misses us, I will go out to my daughter's home and stay the day and night. If it doesn't, her husband will be with her because he will not be able to work. We will play it by ear.

I am concerned about my younger son. He has broken up with his girlfriend AGAIN. She continues to see an old boyfriend and that concerns him greatly. His state of mind concerns ME.

Thank God my older son is happily married. I don't have to worry about him right now.

More later....

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A Stressful Tuesday

I awoke at 3:30 this morning to let the cat out and take my meds. After I let the cat back in, I couldn't get back to sleep. Finally about 4:30, I got up. I e-mailed my director last evening and told her I really needed to give up my part time job. Leslie, my daughter, is going to need some help while she's healing. Besides that, my face is still red with the cellulitis. It's a lot better but certainly not back to normal. Leslie will have a long recuperation since she has an incision in her abdomen, her hip and her spine.

It will not be easy. She lives in the country and her husband has a very demanding job. He's kind of "it" because his boss has cancer and really depends on him. I will go up to the hospital early this morning to try to catch the doctor or at least his nurse, Monica. I have questions. I was disgusted yesterday that neither the doctor or even his nurse came out to talk to us after that horrendous surgery.

Bob and I have appointments in Independence this morning at 10:00 and we will eat lunch at Big Cheese afterward and then come on back home. I will go back to the hospital to see how Leslie is doing after they get her up today and put that back brace on her.

More later...

Actually, it went wonderfully after all. This morning they got her on her feet and she walked up the hall to the elevators with me. She will wear a back brace for six months. She has four titanium screws in her back. They are permanent.

They thought she would be off work for three months but have decided she is doing so well she can just play it by ear. They will take the staples out in two weeks and after that she can drive some.

I am so gratified.

I feel much better about it.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Surgery Monday

This is the day of my daughter's surgery. She is having an Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion. I will go over to the hospital at 8:00 and sit in the surgery waiting room until they are finished and she is in recovery.

Bob came over last night and we watched "60 Minutes" and then "Killing Lincoln" which was on the National Geographic channel. It was pretty good. I got to bed about 10:00 and slept pretty well. Missy woke me up at 3:30 to go outside. I stayed up awhile let her back in.

The church group went to the Railroad Inn in Independence for lunch. It was good as usual. We seldom go there because it's quite a ways out of our way. After lunch I came home and prepared my letters. They won't go out today because this is President's Day and there is no mail delivery.

More later....

Using the local orthopedic specialist may have been a mistake. We arrived at 8:00 as we were told. They took her to a room at 9:00 and at 11:15 she was finally taken to surgery.

I understand there is a new procedure that does not require a piece of the hip bone to be inserted into the spine but this surgeon evidently doesn't know that procedure. He is doing it the old way and removing a piece of bone from her hip to use in her spine. It is now 2:00 and I have heard nothing. It is to be a three to four hour surgery with a couple of hours in recovery.

I am concerned.

More later....I am going back to the hospital.

It was a huge surgery. It was to have begun at 8:45 but they didn't get to her until 11:00. They went in through her abdomen to her spine. They took a piece of bone out of her hip to put into her spine for a bone graft. It wasn't over until 2:30. She did really well from what they said. They said she would be off work three months but then today they said it depended entirely on how well she did with her therapy. She figures perhaps six weeks. Tomorrow they will help her into her brace and get her on her feet. They said the more she could move around, the better.

When they got her into recovery they said I could not come back to see her because they were going to have another patient in the same recovery area and it was a sterile area. I told them I was very unhappy about all the delay in the surgery and had waited all day to see her and I WAS going to see her. They said they would send a nurse back to get me and I could go in for twenty minutes and that's what they did. She immediately took my hand and held it. I was not about to let that doctor's protocol keep me from seeing her.

There is a newer procedure that does not use the bone graft from the hip but he evidently is not familiar with it. He was supposed to be very good and was well trained in a prestigious hospital but I was not impressed.

We will see what we will see.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday Again

Well, it's Sunday again and my face is still not healed. It's much better but is still red and still peels a bit each morning. Thank goodness for makeup. I will go to church today. I missed last Sunday. That was my worst day. My face burned and itched all that day.

We were so busy yesterday that after we watched a movie last night and Bob left, I took my bath and went on to bed about 9:00. I slept well. Missy woke me up about 12:30 to go out. I let her out and went back to bed. About thirty minutes later, I got up and let her back in. She went right back to sleep too.

She is going to be traumatized when we move. She's not much for change at all. Any time something unusual happens, she climbs up in my bed and under the bedspread and hides. When I am gone for a week, she is angry when I get back home. What a strange cat! She doesn't like much of anyone else. She tolerates my son-in-law and even Bob but doesn't make up with them.

Tomorrow I will go over to the hospital to wait in the surgery waiting room while Leslie has her back surgery. It is scheduled for 8:30 so I will go about 8:00. I hope it goes well. I am very apprehensive. I have heard of so many back surgeries that just cause worse problems. What she is having is an Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion. It's a big surgery.

More later..