Still Here

Alive that is.

Jen's Grandmother passed away Wednesday evening. She was 96 years old. Of course Dan and Jen were making plans. Funeral, wake and how they were going to get the time off. Then there were the boys to deal with.

They didn't know their Great Grandmother. They couldn't understand the concept that their Grandpa's mommy had died . Explaining death in terms a 5 and 3 year old can understand can be very hard.

To them, the word Great didn't mean anything. Grandma is the only word they understood.

They refer to Jen's mother as the "other" Grandma. She is a refined, well dressed woman and involved in the arts. Classy lady. Loves those little guys as much as I do.

I am the total opposite. Blue jeans, sweatshirts, McDonald's and apt to be found on the floor crawling around with the kids. I have baskets of toys and you will often find the boys using all our pillows and a couple of blankets making a tunnel in our living room.

By process of elimination, they thought I had died. There is a school carnival tonight and we are going to watch Peyton while Dan takes the older ones. I will see them, so maybe I can help clear up the confusion.

On the other hand, there is Peyton. He has gotten so much better with people since Mom went back to work. But. Two hours. Alone. No brothers. No Mom or Dad. Only Grandpa and Grandma. I might feel like I had died by the time he goes home.

Wondering

By now, I suppose you are wondering why I waited so long to post pictures of Raidyn and Leigh's family.

Very simple. I had 1,495 pictures on my memory card. I can't believe it could hold that many. It was too many to load on the computer and find the ones I wanted.

Shannon took me to WalMart 2 afternoons this past week. I burned CD's while she shopped. The first day, I chose by event and burned three of them. Easy part. Then I had to come home, look at the CD's and delete the pictures from my camera as I found them. Tedious! Day 2, I burned three more. Then I had to look at these CD's and delete them as I found them. I had to be careful because I wasn't sure I had copied every picture.

I will NEVER go that long again before I dump my memory card.

Our "Other" Daughter

Leigh. She was in town to see her family and took time to bring her boys over. We had never seen either one of them. She usually sends a Christmas card with a family picture on it. Joaquin was born this last November, and we didn't get a card. I think Leigh had her hands full.

Mateo is almost two. Joaquin was born November 20, 2008. ( I think.) Leigh, you will have to comment and tell us their birthdays.

We had a great visit and enjoyed the boys. They are adorable ! Come back soon.

My Playdate

Dan called one morning not long ago to tell me Raidyn was wanting to see Grandma. I called him to set up a "date". Before we knew it, Grandpa was on the road to pick him up. He wanted to come NOW. Just him and us. No competition. He loved it.

He walked into the house and told me he was starving. (As if he hadn't been fed at home.) He knows we always treat them to happy meals when they come over and I think he wanted to be sure he got one. ( He did finally get one, but later at lunch time.)

He only stayed 3 hours, but I did get my "grandma" fix. He talks not stop. Whatever he is doing, he is talking. Every sentence started like this. Grandma, Grandma - Grandma. I can't even guess how many times he said it.

Before he went home, he made sure to get a promise that he could come back soon. He even picked up all of his toys without being asked. I was so impressed. Bob and I had a great time!

GUILTY

As charged. Grand Theft. Blatant. No excuses.

I confess. I am guilty of stealing Colleen's "thunder". Taking steps to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

"Thunder" is on the way. Should arrive sometime this weekend.

Hugs and kisses.

Found Online

I just got an e-mail from Colleen. She found this picture of Corey online. I would say it is not quite five years old. That was quite a hectic day.

Corey was the poster child for Bikers For Babies that year. Ken, Colleen and Corey were where they were supposed to be. Because they had to leave so early, Bob and I were supposed to bring Riley and Shannon later.

We couldn't get into the speedway because of the motorcycle traffic. I know we waited over 45 minutes before they let us through. I am talking 4 across, non stop. You would just have to see this event to understand how big it is, and how much they do for these kids.

February Birthdays

Sunday morning our family met at Val's for a February birthday brunch. Jen, Dan's wife, had a birthday on the 2nd. Spencer's 10th birthday was the 12th. Mine is upcoming on the 28th.

1. Spencer, Damien & Raidyn
2. Shannon
3. Peyton
4. Spencer
5. Jen

Casey wasn't able to be with us, as he had planned to go to Chicago with a friend this weekend. We did have Shannon with us. She is back from Germany for a few weeks. She flies to Michigan Friday, and next week she and Colleen will fly to San Antonio. They are going to look for an apartment for Shannon and Kevin. Kevin will retire from the Army in April. They have to have an address established for the Army to ship their things to. Shannon will come back here for 3 weeks before flying back to Germany. We will see her and Kevin again sometime in April.

Sequel to Fat Lip

There was one symptom I didn't tell the doctors about. Didn't event think of it. Until this morning.

Sometime, days before my first fat lip, I told Bob something was biting me. Once in a while. Really itched. Irritating. Not really like bites either, more like little welts.

This morning while posting, I thought something bit me . Then another one. And another one. By 11:00 I had welts all over. Colleen called and I told her about my "bites" and what was happening now. She said I had flea bites. Said Dan has a dog and Raidyn probably brought them when he came over the other morning. I said "My house does not have fleas !!". We argued, and then I got out my handy dandy new lap top and googled flea bites. Found pictures and description of bites. I was right. Then I got to thinking about miserable things I had heard other people have. I thought of shingles. I googled that and knew right away that wasn't the problem. Then I thought hives? I googled that. OMG. I have hives! The article even describes hives and what they can do to lips.

I called my doctors office and told them what I thought. I asked if I could possibly get in so he could see it before it went away. (What was I thinking?) They said to come right in.. The nurse helped me get my coat off and took my crutches. She looked at just my arms and said "You have hives". She took my vitals and as she left, she said she would be back later to give me a shot. I thought she was joking. The doctor came in next and asked me how I was doing. I said I was itching like crazy. From across the room he looked at me and said, "You have hives". Unanimous. He said, first we have to get you a shot. Then you need to start on an antihistamine. Then you need to get some lotion from the drug store that might help.

We discussed my diet. I said boring and too much fast food in the last 9 weeks. Nothing new there to cause problems. We discussed medications. The only thing I have taken recently that was different, was the prednisone. He said, "stop that right away". ( I think the foot is going to start swelling again.) He asked if I had gotten any new clothes. I said not in the last 9 weeks. I thanked him, he left and the nurse came in laughing and gave me a shot in the butt. I can't remember the last time I had a shot. Seems like I get all mine through IV'S.

I went home and called Colleen to report what I had found out. We went through the list. Medications, food and clothes. I said nothing there. She said I was wrong. She said I did get a form of new clothing. THE BOOT. The time line of the start of my problems works. Because of the swelling, I don't wear a sock in the boot. Bare foot.

Could I be having an allergic reaction to that darn thing ????

Fat Lip

Actually mt bottom lip was swollen. It happened a week ago this morning. I got up and nothing was wrong. Then the left side of my bottom lip started to swell. Fast! By the time Bob got up my lip was so swollen it had actually turned out. By 1:00 PM the swelling started to move down my chin. I decided to go to my doctor's walk in clinic at 3. Bob took me. It was one of my doctor's partners who had clinic duty. He just stood there, looked at my face and said it was probably an allergic reaction. Said there was nothing he could do. Said it would probably go away. But. If the swelling started down my neck, go to the emergency room. Duh !! I knew that much. I went home, and sure enough, Saturday the swelling was down. Never gave it another thought.

Then Tuesday morning. No problems. I had an appointment with my periodontist at 8:00 AM for a routine cleaning. The hygienist did her duty and my dentist came in to check her work. After my dentist finished, she got up and started visiting with me about a possible bridge. She stopped mid-sentence and asked me what was wrong with my lip. My mouth and lips were numb so I didn't know it. This time my top lip, left side was starting to swell. I touched my lip and was shocked. Just like Friday. I told her about Friday and going to the doctor. I also told her about my foot and how terribly swollen it still was nine weeks after surgery.

She was shocked the doctor didn't give me something. She left the room and came back with 2 benydril capsules and had me take them. She wanted me to see my own doctor about my lip. She was concerned about my foot and why it was still so swollen. She asked if I was watching for blood clots. I said no, should I? She said yes. She thought there was no reason for my foot and leg to be so swollen 9 weeks out from surgery.

By the time I got home a few minutes later, the swelling had moved past the middle of my lip and was going up towards my nose. I called my doctor and was able to get an apt. for 2:30. I told him about Friday, my experience that morning and my dentists concern about my foot. By that time the medication had reduced the swelling of my lip greatly, so he didn't get the whole effect. He gave me a prescription for Prednisone, an anti inflammatory. He said if the swelling came back he would have to start allergy tests. He was also very concerned about my foot and leg being so swollen so far out from surgery. He said, "That isn't right". He thought the medication might help that too, but if it persisted to come back in.

My dentist was so concerned, she called me at home that evening at 9:00 to see if I had seen a doctor and if I had found anything out. I told her about my day and she was somewhat relieved. Wow, was I impressed with her!

I took two pills when I got home as directed. By morning, the swelling in my leg had gone down and some of the swelling in the foot had gone down. By mid-morning the ankle was swollen again but not so much the leg. It stayed swollen until this morning when I had some relief again. No more problems with my lips swelling.

I am getting real concerned about my foot. I still am not allowed to walk on it. I don't even see the surgeon until March 4th. Then , if it is better, he said I would have to start physical therapy.

At this time I have no idea how soon I may be able to go back to work.

Cast

After eight weeks, the cast is off. I am still tethered to my crutches. I now wear a huge black boot. It protects my foot from most bumps. I can lean my weight on my heel, much like I did with my casts but I can not put my body weight on my foot. No walking for at least another month.

The foot is ugly. Still very swollen. I do a stimulation treatment everyday. It sends little shocks to the bone in my foot, meant to stimulate the bones to heal. I used to do it through a cap built in my casts. Now I take the boot off and have a portable cap I strap on my foot to hold the device that does the stimulating. I thought this was going to be so great. Wrong! I got the boot off, did the treatment and rested my bare foot on the couch for a while. Then I thought I had better get the boot on in case I needed to get up for something. That is when the trouble started.

I couldn't get the boot on. My foot was so swollen it hurt to pull hard on the boot. The guy who fitted me with the boot, put air into a valve on the side of the boot to inflate the heel area in the boot. He then gave me this "simple" little thing so I could remove or add air as I needed for comfort. I tried to remove air as I thought I would have more room to get my foot in. Wouldn't work. I tried everything. Nothing worked. I got very frustrated and upset. I swore. That didn't work. By this time Bob got into the picture. He said I was doing everything wrong and to give him the tool and the boot. I did. (If the darn thing hadn't been so big and heavy, I would have thrown it at him.) He worked and messed with it for quite a while. He swore. That didn't work. Couldn't get air in or out. He gave the darn thing back. ( I wanted to tell him, "I told you so" but I kept my mouth shut.)

Our solution. I sat on the couch. Bob stood in front of me holding the boot and toe flap. I forced my foot it. Painful. Very. The metal parts on the side of the boot cut into my swollen ankle and into the side of my foot. Everything throbbed when we were done.

I took two aspirin, went to sleep and didn't wake up until three this morning. Which is where I am right now. Today I will take the boot off while I shower and wash my foot and leg real good. There are still tape strips across all of the incisions that I will have to work off with soap and water. And dead skin. Nasty.

Then I will do a treatment. Then I will put on a pair of jeans!!!!! Then we will repeat the process I described above.