Legs Everywhere

 Is it Thursday already?  Yesterday was a blur.

Meri called me when she got to work yesterday.  She had slipped on a frozen patch on her walk into work and fell, hurting her knee.  She was in a lot of pain! I encouraged her to go to Urgent Care and after gathering up some knee braces and ice packs that I had on hand, I headed in her direction.

Halfway there, she said that Urgent Care only works on appointments now. *darn covid* and didn't have one until that afternoon.  They advised her to go to the ER so I met her there instead.

The only parking was on TOP of a 4 story parking garage, (all the patients must have driven themselves that day...) so she parked next to me on the top and I drove her back to the front door of the ER, then back to the ramp. By this time, it was almost lunch time and she hadn't eaten anything all day.  So I ran and got us some lunch from Chick-fil-A and we ate quick in the waiting room between a stint with a nurse and when she went to get x-rayed.   

I WISH I got a picture of how she and Ryan had self doctor-ed up her knee.  It was duct tape wrapped with a couple frozen popsicle sticks poking out of it.  One blueberry, one cherry I think. lol!

I'm sure the nurses were impressed with their ingenuity.  I know Robb would have been.  When we were dating, he'd fixed a torn pair of shorts with a strip of duct tape holding the ripped part together from the inside.  I was so impressed!  Creative thinking!  And you'd think being married to a sewist, I'd have mended more of his clothes, but my mom did more than me.

While waiting, I went to pick up Meri's Ryan (bf) from work and bring him back to get her car.  I waited outside the ER doors as he went in to see her quick before attempting that jam packed parking ramp again.

Anyway, I worked from the ER waiting room until my laptop battery died.  

And a funny that I found on Sluggy's FB wall while we waited.

Then was on a "break" until Meri actually got a triage room to sit in and I was able to plug my laptop in.  My boss and co-workers were very understanding about it all.  

Meri had no broken bones, but possibly stretched ligaments and muscles.  She's on ice packs, caffeine and naproxen. 

I got her home by 5, then Maddy and I went back to help her get supper going for her and her boyfriend, Ryan, who was coming over to see her again.  I'm so glad Maddy lives close by now!!  Meri wanted to make Ryan think that she'd hobbled around and prepared supper for him on her own. I wonder if he bought it...  

So anyway, she's fine except for a lot of pain. and embarrassment.  The whole incident was caught on the security cameras of her work building. :)  She showed me.  Legs everywhere!  

I wonder if I could send it in to America's Funniest Videos and win $10k...  Probably not, mainly for teh reason that I wasn't able to get the recording for myself.  Plus she wouldn't be too happy about it.  Sigh. The price of peace. $10k.

Catch UP

We found out that Maddy and Matthew will NOT in fact be coming for Thanksgiving...  

dang.

I guess Robb gets his wish of a Skype/DUO Thanksgiving after all... I just thought those two would be on this side of the camera.

So I told Ryan that he can move his gaming stuff back into the spare bedroom after all instead of being camped out with his gaming equipment in the living room.

I'll be heading over to Meri's soon, to be "Meri's Mom" while she runs some errands that she can't do after hours.  

Leon has been doing well with online school.  Well, up until he finds out that he was supposed to write a rough draft last week for something due today.  whoops...  So he crammed and wrote an essay about how to make a pepperoni sandwich.  I'm looking forward to reading it later.

My MIL has been in the hospital for the past 2.5 weeks.  Several issues, non Covid related, but the last and biggie is pneumonia.  I've been going every morning to see her before work and Robb's been stopping to see her after work. About the same schedule timing on the weekends.  She'll probably recuperate in a nursing facility for a few weeks before coming home.  Not sure yet.  A lot up in the air and she has to be better than she can get even that far.

SINCE it's not Covid related, she's allowed one visitor in her room at a time.

My uncle, my Mom's brother, is in a  Minnesota hospital right now with pneumonia and internal bleeding from a fall.  Since going there, him and his whole family got tested.  They all have Covid..  So NO ONE is able to be with him.  And that's bad...  Mainly because he's got dementia almost worse than my mom did, maybe worse by now.  I haven't seen him for almost a year.  So the dementia is going to take a hit...  

AND today would be my Dad's 86th birthday.  He shares it with one of my nephews in Wisconsin.  I hope Daniel is having a wonderful day.  

I know Dad is.

Forced to Blast from the Past

Looks to be a busy weekend...  

If it wasn't, you'd be asking me, "Who are you? and what have you done with McVal?"

We got a phone call at 5pm yesterday that the hospital had been expecting my MIL to be admitted that afternoon.  ???  ummm, I'm pretty sure she's downstairs playing with her little dog and watching Hallmark movies at the top volume...  

Apparently her blood work from the previous day came back abnormal and the clinic called the hospital to get her admitted but failed to call and let US know...  until the hospital nurses were wondering where we were and called.  Robb wasn't available, so I ran her down and got her settled into her room.   

I brought along a shirt I'd made the other day because the sleeves needed the hem hand sewn in.  And then I realized that I'd already machine stitched it!  Wow, I'd matched that thread really well!!  So I spent three hours going through my personal data on my computer.  I'm a telecommuter so I am mobile when I work and can look at my computer from anywhere, anytime.  Deleted several gig of junk stuff that I should have done years ago.  I sorted the files by size and started reviewing the largest first.

Found lots of copies of the ASG (my sewing group) newsletters from when I was editor.  DON'T need those anymore!  Whew!   

Found the prelim copies of when Ryan did his Hamlet puppet show.  I kept the final one and got rid of the little pieces.  It was already on Youtube also.  I also found several chunks of when he and friends made their own version of Lord of the Rings.  It was so dark, I couldn't make it out, but it was fun hearing his younger voice.

I found my Poe album!  I don't know why the download was in there but yay!  Her voice and music is both haunting and fun.  and I feel somewhat rebellious listening to her.

Heading back to work from the hospital again this morning for a while.  Not sure when they're going to let her leave so we'll see.

Someday when I have more "kill some time" time, I'll clean up some other files.  Robb would be so proud of me. :)  

Playing Catch Up with Dad

The last week has been a blur.  Must like this photo.  Zoomed in from the upstairs...

The tree is up!  And Leon loves it.  I've hidden two Christmas pickles in it and he's not able to find them. Good.

He insisted on having breakfast with it last week.

A chill morning waiting for the bus.

On Wednesday the house was cold.  The furnace was on, but not heating up the house.  I called a furnace guy and he came right out.  I changed the filter just before he got there and the house started warming up again.  oops!  But he did find a problem with the furnace itself and needed to bring his dad the next day.  They found out what the issue was and that's been taken care of for now.  I rue the day we need to replace the behemoth furnace!  But I got a cost on it and know what it'll take.

When the kids were little, they would tell me at bedtime, the night before, that they were expected to bring 3 dozen cookies the next day...  really????....  Now that they're grown, it doesn't change.  I got a call from Meri that needed a crock pot full of chili taken to her house for a friendsgiving on Friday night.  She didn't have groceries for it and had to work all day on Friday.  So on Friday morning, Robb and I got it together in the crock pot and that afternoon Robb put the crock pot in her car where she works.  He knows the code. :)  So when she got off work, she posted this to our family FB group page.  Maddy told her not to eat it...

My Dad...  My dad had been in the hospital since Monday for pneumonia.  He had gotten home on Thursday afternoon, then went back to the ER with chest problems at 6:30pm.   Not good.  

The Facebook messenger sibling conversation was hopping.

On Friday, I realized that I had a full weekend with nothing scheduled.  I am looking forward to getting some serious sewing time done but as I looked at the two days ahead that had nothing scheduled, I suddenly realized I was being selfish.  Here my sisters had been spending their nights at the hospital with dad and I was planning on being 3 hours away sewing to my hearts content.  

Plus when one of my sisters mentioned that they didn't want Dad alone at night in case something happened, my heart ached.  Yep, I needed to be with my dad.  I spoke with Robb and he made sure that he would be here at the house when Leon got home from school.  I packed up a few things and took off.

I got there late afternoon and one of my sisters was about to leave for home.  Visited with dad for a bit and then my brother arrived.  Dad got his supper and Mark said, Hey - let's you and I go down to the cafeteria for a quick bite.  We were gone about 30 minutes as we didn't want to eat in front of Dad.  He's on a somewhat strict diet.

I stayed the night on the most uncomfortable chair in the world.  It reclined a bit, but made so much noise reclining that I mostly sat up with a pillow.  Not a lot of sleep that night.  

Dad's remote/nurse call button fell to the ground when he rolled over once and I jumped up pick it up.  As I reached down to grab it, his eyes popped open and he asked, "Who is it?! What are you doing?"  dang.  I startled him! 

JUST after that a nurse came in and ran his vitals.  crumb.  His blood pressure was pretty high!  

I think I can explain that...

These vitals were in the morning after he'd gotten over his nighttime scare.

whew!   A little more normal.

His blood sugar was all over the place and way too high.  We think because of some meds he's on.  

So anyway, this was my view for the night.  An icky, rainy night. 

 Dad and I had had a great time talking and reminiscing about old times in the morning.  I'm so glad I came!

I love that man.

Also that morning, the rain turned into snow.  I was planning on leaving around 9 anyway, but promptly at 9, we saw sleet, then big fluffy snowflakes. 

Another sister arrived just as I was ready to go.  And on the walk to the car, I got a call from my brother. He wanted to get breakfast with me.  Yeah... I need to hit the road! Darn.  

The way home was somewhat treacherous so I'm glad I left when I did.  

As we talked, I slid through a yellow/red street light.  whew!  I couldn't go much faster than 42-45 mph most of the way, but finally after two hours, I was up nearer to the speed limit.  I nervous "ate" from a giant bag of popcorn the whole way, not even taking time to stop anywhere.  So by the time I reached home, I really needed something hot and substantial.  

and a nap.

I got some sewing in that night and made the cape and finger-less gloves for my bestie's Christmas present as well as a pair for the church craft sale.  Then went to bed early.

Sunday, after church, the four of us attended a children's theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit.  Meri had been a co-director of it this year.  Cute!  We got to see her for a few minutes afterwards.

Got a good long DUO call with Maddy and Matthew.  It's been a while since we'd talked!

And now we're back into the week.  I hope it's an easy one.  

For Dad mostly.  He gets to go home today!

What a rush.

Taking what I'm getting

It was a long weekend, followed by a longer week.  I'm so glad it's Friday!!  So I can have a nice long weekend again.  Well, two days, but I'll take what I can get.

Last Friday night, we celebrated the birthday of my nephew, Josh.  He attends college nearby.  It was great that he actually remembered to come this year because last year he was in the middle of a huge project and up against a deadline and fell asleep in the campus library.  That year, we made a video of us singing to his cake and Leon blew out the candles.

This year he got to blow out his own!  Happy Birthday Josh!

Saturday is where the real fun began.  While we installed the new washer and then Maddy and I worked on the last projects before she had to head back to her last two weeks of student teaching, I happened to check my FB messages.  My siblings and I have a private message board that started when my dad fell off a train and broke his back two years ago.  It was meant to keep us all informed and since then it's been to just update us whenever anything momentous happens in our lives that we don't want to blurt to all the "friends" on FB.

So anyway, back to the message.  I found out that while my mom and dad were enjoying coffee that day at the nursing home, Mom started speaking gibberish and then collapsed, passing out.  Dad caught her and yelled for the nurses.  Mom was rushed to the ER where they found a mass in her colon.  There was a lot of speculation as to what it could be but we were praying for a miracle and trusted that God knew what needed to happen and we'd find out eventually.

I have two sisters and a brother back in my home town and they are awesome.  Taking turns they stayed with Mom and Dad at the hospital.  Saturday night we didn't know much, other than she was there and there was a mysterious mass.  

At church on Sunday, I didn't know that Robb had told our pastor and there was a prayer during the service for Mom.  *sob*  I had to go stock my purse with Kleenex during the next hymn as my hands weren't keeping up.  After church, we took the girls out to lunch and Maddy took off straight from the restaurant to head north again.  While working on the prom dress, I got word that the mass was most likely cancer and the options were bleak.  So Meri's prom dress, anyway, was worked on with blood, sweat and now tears.  I'm sure Maddy's wedding dress will too.  It already has some blood from a poked finger...  

A lot of prayers were silently spoken that night.  Even for Meri because she wanted to see her Grandma.  She begged me to let her go spend the night at the hospital with her.  She won.  She drove solo three hours, getting there around 9pm and stayed with Mom so Dad could go home and get some sleep.  I had to call the school the next morning to say she wouldn't be there.  After much blubbering, the secretary just said, "I'll tell the teachers that she's sick.  ok?"  

The next day, a colonoscopy got scheduled for Tuesday.  Melanie got so many conflicting answers from too many doctors.  The speculation for the mass ranged from cancer to a pool of hardened blood since Mom had lost more blood since arriving at the hospital.  We prayed harder that it was just hardened blood.  We had hope for that miracle and the day was easier to live through.  Robb and I planned a day trip for Tuesday.  During the drive there, we got a message that it was actually cancer and it was blocking her colon completely.  So the surgery was being planned for Thursday.

It was hard to seem upbeat and positive but with my gift of gab, Robb let me jabber away with Mom telling her everything about anything.  She just held my hand and thanked God with Dad that they'd had so many children that cared.  *sob*  Then Robb and I had to head home.  

The surgery was moved up to Wednesday around noon.  So after discussing with Robb, I planned to turn around the next morning and head back alone for a couple days.  He became Mr. Mom for the duration and as soon as Leon was on the early bus Wednesday, I headed out.  I tried to cry it all out during the trip so my face could clear up by the time I got there.  My mom and dad are so cute...

Unfortunately I had a couple phone conference calls to make and I'd told my boss I'd work from the hospital, so after I hugged Mom just before surgery, I went and settled with the laptop in the surgery waiting room and attended the calls.  I felt like I was more intimidating and emphatic than I'd ever been before in the meetings...  "We NEED you to DO this!"  I remember saying.  Well, they DO...  

During my calls, Dad and Melanie ran out got some lunches for us.  Then my dad had me message his sister to let her know what's going on.  She called him immediately.  We found out that her husband was having some major heart issues and they were flying him from Texas where they'd been snowbirds, back to town Thursday and will be arriving at the exact same hospital Mom was at.  How convenient is THAT?!

The surgery went well.  And after a couple hours, Mom came back to the new room that they'd moved us to during surgery.  She was miserable and confused.  With her dementia, she forgot anything that was told to her, thankfully but unfortunately.  We instructed the nurses to not mention the cancer around her.  As far as Mom was concerned, the mass they removed was infection and that's what made her have to come here.  You don't know my mom.   If she gets something like this in her head, she won't let go.  She'll fixate on it and worry over it non-stop.  Even with the forgetting, her brain will work on it behind the scenes making her anxious without her knowing why. 

An Illinois sister sent flowers that had (I repeat HAD) candy in the base.  YaY!

Whenever Mom moved, her incision would scream at her and she'd ask "What do you suppose is making me be in such pain right here?"  Well you had surgery today Mom.  "OH!  What for?!"  

and there we would be again.

I stayed with Mom Wednesday afternoon, night and until 5 on Thursday.  The night was pretty rough.  Mom has good hearing and the pullout couch makes a lot of crinkle noises.  

At 11pm, a visitor came in the room with a quick knock and flipping the light on.  He had two pizzas in his hands.  I sat up stunned and he pointed at Mom as he walked to the bed as if to say, "She ordered this!"  I said, "Can I help you?"  and he walked closer to the bed still pointing.  He realized he was in the wrong room as I told him the same thing and embarrassed, he left, turning the light off as he went.  yikes...  He could've left me a slice...

The nurses finally got her pain managed but when the meds wore off, you could sure tell.  

Morning came too quick.

 At lunchtime Thursday, my brother wanted to meet up with me for lunch.  My sister from Wisconsin and one of her daughters were supposed to arrive soon but Dad was with Mom so I left for a bit.  Visited quick with another sister who was helping with a Radiothon for the Children's Miracle Network downstairs in the hospital.  Her son was the preemie born 6 years ago and was their own little miracle.  He IS a poster child for their efforts!  

That's him.  

So I walked across the street to meet up with Mark.  While walking, I called my Wisc sister to see what their ETA was.  She said, "We're having a quick lunch across the street from the hospital before we go up and see Mom."  seriously???  I'm on my way THERE to have a quick lunch with our brother!  So the four of us had a great lunch over there then we came back to the hospital.  

My sister and Mom.

My niece.  She's a professional model and made me delete the photo where she looked like she was half asleep... ;)

After visiting for a bit, my dad, niece and I went down to see Kristin again and to enter some raffle tickets, then headed to the elevators.  

At the elevator, I was explaining to my niece why Brae was on the poster and how his mom had gotten so involved in the Miracle network.  A few nurses were waiting with us and got on the same elevator as we did.  They must have overheard because they exclaimed, "WE know Braedon!"  you do?  "We work in the NICU! Of course we know him!"  Wow!  I pointed to each of us, "aunt, grandpa and cousin"  

small world!  But big hospital!  What were the odds?

Brae is a rock star...

As of Thursday, Mom was coming back to her old self, JUST a little.  But was dying for something to drink.  Up to this point she'd only gotten the little pink sponge sticks to roll around her mouth.  The nurse in training had stopped in to see Mom and schooled us on what NPO means. NOTHING BY MOUTH.  Then proceeded to sweetly ask "Miss Connie" if she would like a dinner tray.  I suppose so she could yell "WELL YOU CAN'T HAVE ONE!!"   Mom did get a little juice that day... :)

I left around five on Thursday and headed home.  Mom was in good hands and getting better with each minute.  I think you can tell by how snippy she was starting to get with the nurses.  In her mind, she is READY to go home.  

With the dementia, the family has decided to forgo chemo or radiation treatments as they'll just be too hard on Mom and give the dementia a kick every time.  

So the cancer will grow again.  How quickly, we don't know.  

But Thanks be to God, we've got more time now with this wonderful lady and I'll take whatever time we get.

I'm not a doctor.

But...I play one at home!

While the internet can be a wonderful source of information, it can definitely lead you astray sometimes.  On Friday I did a lot of Googling and found that Ryan had anything from Lime Disease to Lupus to Fibromyalgia.  None of them real good things...

Ryan from 5 years ago.  

 

So anyway...  I called him Friday morning and either he wanted to get me off the phone or he wasn't lying when he said that his arm was killing him and he couldn't hold the phone anymore...  We went to see him that night and he had ice wraps around both his legs.  He was still pretty miserable.  He could move his arms better though so that was an improvement!  Tiffany teased him that he was faking so he could just hang out at the hospital and not help her get some cleaning done.

On Saturday morning before my ASG meeting, I stopped in to see him.  Ryan was still asleep and groggily said hi and that he loved me in response to my sentences. 

Briefest hospital visit EVER.  I delivered a card and a couple other items he had asked for and left.  Good thing I hadn't used the valet service.  Oh and he didn't even remember that I was there.

Got a call from him during my meeting that he was going to get to go home by noon!  YAY!  *kind of* 

Was he really that better already?  *And was I going to be helping him use the bathroom the rest of the day??*

When I got there he was up and moving around like he was just leaving a hotel and not a hospital.  I waited for him to go through the instructions with the nurse, then helped him gather up his things.  He wanted to walk to the parking ramp and not have me pull the car up...  *REALLY?!* 

We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home for some pain medication.  He acts as if nothing is wrong, however he seems to tire out easily.  No real pain to speak of anymore.

I know what you're asking... What in the blue blazes was that then!?

Ryan wasn't real technical but he tried to explain it to me.  This was called Muscular Aplasia.  Body builders can get this if they do a super duper high powered workout without proper hydration. 

Ryan's no body builder...  The doctors have no idea what triggered this.

His muscles had all pulled apart and couldn't snap back into place.  Weird.  Enzymes were coming out of the muscles and rebuilding themselves.  He thinks he's becoming bionic now... 

Don't think so.

I thought they were treating him with antibiotics, but it was actually fluids and pain medication.

So anyway, he's actually back to work today!  The doctor said it was ok.  What a crazy miracle huh? 

He might just be pushing himself because his job takes him to the zoo tomorrow with his clients and he didn't want to miss out...

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers!  I am looking at this as a miracle from God.  One day your son is in horrible pain and you think he has a horrible disease and then the next he's skipping to the car...

Where The Cowboys Have Gone...

Once upon a time, in a state far far away, we were on vacation.  Well... not really a vacation but a church convention in Indiana.  So it's kind of a vacation, because we don't have to go to work for a week and we got to stay in a hotel with the kids.  (correction - at that time it was just kid). 

So we were in Indiana at a church convention.  It's really almost a family reunion because so many of my family went to those things!  We left the hotel one day intent on taking Ryan and a foster girl of my parents to meet up with my sister and her kids at the Indianapolis zoo. 

On the way we saw a sign.

WARNING!  (<-- that's not the sign... but I'm just saying, don't believe these signs!!!)

PONY RIDES!  $5.00

 

Ryan had never ridden a pony before!  Neither had Leia!   They were both 3.  I was very pregnant at the time.  We decided to let them enjoy a new fun experience.

Robb led the pony with Leia on it and I led Ryan's.  We walked up a path in the center of a soybean field when suddenly Ryan's little Shetland bolted.  It yanked the rope right out of my hands and I think it actually flew over that ditch into the soybeans.  I couldn't keep up because I was in waddling status as a pregnant woman.

Ryan did a high arching back flip from it's bare back and flipped twice in the air before he landed face down in the muddy ditch.  I got to him first and he was sobbing.  As was I.  Two feet over was a gravel road.  We were lucky it was just mud!

We all rushed back to the farmhouse and as I washed up Ryan in the farmers bathroom, Ryan couldn't stop crying, wincing and whining.  I checked him all over and noticed that one arm seemed limp.  The owner of the ponies kept saying "Don't worry!  Kids are so resilient!!  I'm sure he's fine.  There's no need to rush to the hospital!!"  Because I kept saying, "We need to get him to a hospital!"  I'm sure he didn't want to have to pay for it.

Robb reassured him that this was an accident and he was sure Ryan was ok too.  We got the kids in the car and all strapped in.  Ryan still crying and whining.  As we drove out of the lane, we toyed with the idea of still going to the zoo... But Ryan's whiny-ness wasn't letting up.  Then I'm pretty sure he passed out.  Um yeah...  We're going to the hospital RIGHT now!

We found the hospital quickly and rushed into the emergency room.  We got into a room with a doctor pretty quickly.  By this time Ryan was feeling somewhat better and wasn't crying anymore.  He got an x-ray and we found that his left arm was broken. 

While the doctor checked Ryan out, he asked him questions to make sure there wasn't a concussion. 

He asked, "What happened that hurt you?"

Ryan: "I fell off a pony, right Dad?"

**gggrrreeat!**

Then he asked, "What's your sister's name?"

Ryan looked confused and said he didn't know.  We were quick to point out that Leia was not his sister and we hadn't named his unborn sister yet!  So that wasn't really a valid question and Ryan was being serious.

He should have asked what the name of the pony was that he was thrown from because I'm pretty sure it's name was Bucky.

Anyway, he got a sling on his arm for the rest of the weekend until we got back home and the swelling went down, where upon he got a snazzy glow in the dark green hard cast.  It started at his wrist, then bent at the elbow and went a few inches up towards his armpit.  All his friends at daycare signed it.

It still sits in his memory box in the garage, all filthy and tattered.

So anyway... I'll tell you where all the cowboys are!

They're sitting at home playing computer games and watching "My Little Pony" remakes on tv with their children.

Because real ponies are just too scary!