I'm Still Here!

Where to start?

Larry has been at Fort Campbell three weeks today. He is beginning to acclimate to his new surroundings. It is very hard for him, being away from his home. I believe routine is his security. He is, however, expanding his horizons, learning a lot, and making many new acquaintances and perhaps a good friend or two. Four more weeks to go....seems like an eternity. What a different life I have being alone all the time.

My life has certainly slowed down, not due to his absence, but to my many (so it seems) ailments lately. My heart doc found my Carotid Arteries to be 99.9% blocked in one and 60 to 70% in the other and ordered no dancing or unnecessary movement, especially bending down or over, until he at least unplugged one of them, which was for a five week period! Two weeks before that he found my new stent that was just installed in January to be 80%blocked, which he cleared to only 10% blocked at that time during my November Angiogram! So, three days ago I had the worst Carotid Artery cleaned out. Yikes...came home yesterday. If I recover from this one, I will be thinking twice about getting the other one done...sure was a very scary and painful procedure; not to mention having to spend 36 hours in the recovery room with NO TV!!! That's enough to make anyone go nuts..listening to all the patients before and after surgery and the worried families coming in before their loved ones procedures all worried and then feeling better after their procedures, but scared at how bad the loved one looked after surgery! Also, how scary it was to see the hospital personal so worried about my recovery. Finally, I assured them they didn't have to worry, I felt fine, I was tough and a survivor. When they finally told me what the problem was, I told them to quit giving me that Morphine and give me Tylenol and a cup of coffee and my blood pressure would return to normal. Apparently it was very, very low...not good when procedures are done on Carotid Arteries they told me. Anyway, sure enough, I was right and a few hours later the doc ok'd me to go to a regular room. If they would have informed me earlier why they were so worried, I could have clued them in much earlier. Darn that Morphine..it just doesn't like me or me it. I ended up being the talk of the hospital and they kept pumping me full of the strongest coffee I ever tasted for the rest of my stay. In fact, when I left their yesterday, my BP was 159/78 and the nurses were lovin' it! Hard to believe at a hospital, Eh?

Had a rough nite last nite. Guess I over did it by traveling home 100 miles, visiting my girlfriend's sick sister for an hour, picking up Swiffer, unloading my friends car, then getting in my car to drop off pain med prescription, grocery shopping for milk and 15lbs of cat food for our wild cat (which was really heavy for me to carry), then stopping at Panda Express for a to go dinner, couldn't get their door open and instead of asking for help, I pulled 'til it opened and I think I really strained my incision. By then I felt too bad to go pick up my meds, so went home, took Tylenol and had a very rough, painful, and worrisome night.

Today, I took a shower and boy did it feel good. One thing really different now is that I can feel my scalp a lot more. I guess I have been burning my head with the hair dryer and didn't know it 'cause today it was REALLY hot on my head, now that I have some feeling up there! First thing I think I said in recovery was that my hair hurt! Weird! One of my foster parents picked up my meds for me today, so boy will I be drugged up tonight probably. Hope to get a good nite's sleep.

Hopefully, tomorrow I can make it to church and get my Christmas cards ready to mail on Monday. Then Monday lots of paper work to do and various things to research and unscrew up. You know, if something can get screwed up, the corporate world will figure out how to do it, like hospital bills and stock brokers, and the U.S. mail, etc!

As I close, let me end on a positive note with giving my utmost gratitude to ALL my family (especially my husband, Larry and daughter, Jacque) and friends (especially my friend Shirley and her husband, Ed, who took me to the hospital, supported me through all this, let me stay at her condo the night before the surgery and then took me home to Prescott Valley)for their prayers and support through all this. I know it has been just as hard on them and maybe even more difficult in some instances because of the miles that separate us. I am so very blessed to be loved by so many. Sure don't know what I have done to deserve all this love. Guess that is what God's grace is all about. He gives us so many unearned blessings because He loves us so much! It is such a spiritual feeling to feel so loved (the true meaning of Christmas.)

Merry Christmas and much love to ALL my loved ones and friends and the little ones that I work with that need a lot of love and to their foster parents who try so hard to help them feel loved and safe.

Your mama, grammie, grammie nana, friend and CASA