What Did You Do Today?

[gja1000]

The kids are here this weekend. Five year old Emma was looking at my wedding pics and she asked me who it was. When I told her it was me and her Papaw, she said, "you were MUCH younger then". LOL!

[Lindsey]

What a week! Tuesday I went to work and felt awful. I knew I was getting sick. My cousin and I are the only people I know who get what we call "skinhurt" when we're getting sick lol. It feels like my skin just gets hyper-sensitive and anything touching or rubbing - especially on my back - feels very uncomfortable and almost painful. The closest I can describe is like when you have hair that grows one way, say on your arms or whatever, and you push it the other way and it just feels uncomfortable... that feeling x 10.

Anyways, I got home and tried to go straight to bed, but after sleeping about 5 minutes, Scott woke me up and said we need to take Layla to the vet - she's peeing blood. Our vet thought it was a ruptured bladder and although it didn't look that way from x-ray, we should come back in a few hours after making her drink lots of water to see if urine is leaking. Riiiight.... instead, we drove her to emergency at the small animal hospital at the college in the city. I cried the whole way. Turns out, it's her mis-managed bladder infection gone bad. It's now in her kidneys as well. It is being properly treated now and we should be okay after 6-8 weeks of antibiotics.

The next morning, I had a terribly painful throat. I decided to drive in with Scott, pick up my laptop at the office, and work from home for the day. Then Wednesday night, I woke up at 3 am and it hurt so bad I couldn't swallow at all, and it was painful to even breathe through my mouth. I went to the doctor and he swabbed for strep throat, and said it would take 24-48 hours for results. If it is, I can go back for antibiotics, and if it's not, it's just a virus and I should use lozenges and take Tylenol. I worked from home again and let them know I would also work from home Friday. Thursday night - same thing, I woke up at 3 am. I gargled salt water and it took an hour for my throat to feel well enough to try to sleep again. What do you know, I also woke up at 3 am Friday night! But managed to fall asleep again despite the pain. Now it's 5 am and it was too painful. I just got up and gargled salt water and now I'm making tea with honey.

It is just not letting up! It feels sooooooooo much better during the day. I wonder if it's just because I naturally swallow more and it doesn't get so dried out? I used a humidifier in the bedroom and it hasn't made one bit of difference. The pain is just almost unbearable. I am leaning towards this being a virus, but I am kind of hoping I get a call saying it's strep throat so at least I know what will get rid of it.

[judy]

Bad week for some of you! Linds, I hope you feel better! How is Layla doing? Did her original vet ever get back to you?

Betsi, how was that colonoscopy? Fun, huh? I hope you got the come back in 5 years report!

Diana....run...don't even pack! Don't go back until you feel really relaxed!

Janet, Ricky is still going to move out? You haven't mentioned it. It is very difficult, but he will come visit you, and might even bring you his laundry! If you cook up a week's worth of meals for him, you are sure see him at least once a week.

[Janet]

Ricky is still planning on moving, but don't think he's in a big hurry. He's in the process of changing jobs, doing the mechanical work he's been wanting to do instead of sales at a parts store. He'll make about $5 more on the hour and have all kinds of benefits and a 401K. He hasn't told his boss yet, but will as soon as they let him know he's hired at the new place Pep Boys. Ricky told them he would like to give Advance two weeks notice. They've already sent him for the drug test so he will definitely pass that.

It had been three weeks since my floors have been swept, wanted to take it easy because of my neck, and of course, no one volunteered so today, I took my time and dusted and swept. I took a Lortab before I started and one when I got done. Then I took a nice hot shower and feel pretty good. Have a little ache, but nothing serious.

Tomorrow I'm going to be driving the bus. I'm really excited to see the kids, but there will be a few who won't be glad to see me...lol. I'm going to drive for four days and then on Friday I'll be getting my injection at the hospital as an outpatient. Then I will be off for another week, if I'm better, I can go back, if not, then he wants me off another week. Hopefully it will be only one week.

[gja1000]

Hi all! WHEW! What a busy couple of weeks. I hope things will calm down a bit this week - actually they won't but it will be a different kind of "busy".

Gary is doing much better on Prednisone - he thinks its a miracle drug and asked why he can't take it all the time. OH MY! He just doesn't understand the devastating side effects of long term steroids. But I'm worried that he is going to be on them more than off them for the foreseeable future. Sigh.

The kids were here this weekend and we had a great time. We went out to eat, shopping, and just general visiting. It was a lot of fun - I miss them so much, but WHEW! I'm tired! LOL!

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday are pretty quiet - not too much going on at work. Gary has an eye appointment tomorrow and I have to take mom to see her orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday. I think he will release her from her broken leg repair - at least I hope so. She seems to be doing pretty good.

I am going to San Antonio to a nursing education conference Thursday to Saturday noon. It is only 90 miles away, so if something happens and Gary needs me, I can be home in a little over an hour. It's a big conference and I'll see several people from around the country that I only see at conferences, so I'm looking forward to it.

[Lindsey]

Layla is doing okay. Her urine seems to have cleared up a lot. We're just trying to take it one day at a time. I think we need to take her in for another culture on Tuesday.

I woke up this morning with one very sore and watery eye covered in gunk. It was pretty veiny when I woke up so I just wore my glasses all day. Tonight, it's completely red and hasn't stopped oozing gunk all day. Pink eye again?? At this point I just want to throw my hands in the air and give up. Back to the doctor in the morning I guess. I can't miss the whole day of work tomorrow... I stayed home 3 days last week and worked at home all weekend, and I'm kind of out of work now. I need to go get more!

My throat is not better at all... if anything, it's worse. It is so swollen it hurts to even talk.The back of my tongue is swollen as well.

When it rains, it pours!

[judy]

Time for a visit to the doctor!!!

[Lindsey]

PINK EYE!!! For Scott and I both. I stayed awake all night, and he woke up in the middle of the night with itchy red eyes. We got some antibiotic drops today, and we're staying home until tomorrow.

As for my throat, the doctor said it's a virus for sure and there's nothing I can do but let it run its course. It was the reason I stayed awake all night. It hurts so bad, it feels like someone shoved a sword down my throat. Trying to swallow almost brings me to tears!!! Oh well... hopefully this is the worst of it and it will start going away soon.

[DianaB]

Oh, Lindsey, I hope you feel better soon. There's so much sickness going around here. The kids are finally better and Karlie went back to school today after missing ALL of last week. Dean's better but, oh so whiney, and has an awful runny nose. I guess that the school's been hit hard with students and teachers......they're saying that the influenza is going around.....Yuck!

Poor Layla.....she's really having a hard time right now. Give her some extra love from me.

Gayle, I'm glad to hear that Gary's better. I worry when I hear that he's not well.

Betsi, I think that you should find somewhere to go so you don't have to hear all the roof repair all day long. It would drive me crazy!

Janet, it sounds like you're doing better. Yay! I hope the shot helps even more!

I did go shopping on Saturday but it was with Dae Lynn. She hired Kera to come and watch the kids and we both went to some flea markets and Wal-mart. It was so nice to get away from the kids!!

Dae Lynn was worried about having Dean at church yesterday and having him around the other kids so after I taught Sunday School.....then Dae Lynn had to teach Children's church so she brought Dean and I took him back home. I had someone pull up to the house but I couldn't see who it was or even if they stopped......then later I saw them drive away. I asked Glen about it because he's always giving someone permission to come and pick up something but he didn't know who it was either. It has us both worried because we're always at church on Sundays. It may be time to start locking the house up.

Tonight we're going swimming!! Yay!! There's an indoor public pool at a neighboring town and Amy is taking some kids from church and we're going to go. Glen was there the other day and said that the water is really warm so I'm looking forward to going. I'm so ready for swimming weather!!

[gja1000]

Lindsey, I'm so sorry your throat hurts so bad. I can understand because that happened to me once. My throat hurt so bad I couldn't drink enough and I got a horrible urinary track infection and ended up in the hospital on IV's and antibiotics. So, please take care of yourself. I'm so sorry about the pink eye, I just can't believe that you have it again and now Scott has it. I'm so sorry that Layla is having troubles too. I hope she is on the road to recovery.

Diana, I'm so glad you had some time away from the kids. I would be worried too, about the car in the driveway. Someone stole my friend's Yorkie in Oklahoma last week. They live in the country too and someone took her while they were gone.

I was really tired today but I came home from school early because Gary had an eye appt and I had to drive because they dilated his eyes. His eyes are a little worse this year but not too bad yet. He has macular degeneration and has developed some floaters, but the doc said things were OK.

[Lindsey]

Diana, I hope you had fun swimming!

Scott worries about our house and even if we're gone for an hour, the doors are all locked and the alarm is set. I'm not too worried because I grew up in a small town and I don't think there's much of a threat. There is a retirement home next door and stay-at-home moms and retirees surrounding us. I'm sure they'd notice if someone weird was trying to get in our house. But in your case, I think I'd start locking up too! With nobody to watch over your place, you never know who could show up.

Gayle, that would be heartbreaking for your friend. I hope she gets her yorkie back!!

I'm glad Gary's eyes aren't getting too much worse yet. I hate having my eyes dilated! I can't see a thing.

We had another dramatic night. I was trying to get some work done in the evening so I was on my laptop on the main floor, and Scott took Layla upstairs for a bath. I heard him call me frantically so I went upstairs, and he had decided to give Layla a trim but she kicked reflexively with her back leg and he cut her with scissors. He didn't know how bad it was but there was a LOT of blood. It wouldn't stop bleeding. I took over pushing a tissue on the wound and had him call the vet. She said she'd meet us at the clinic in 2 minutes. By the time we got there, Layla had bled through the wad of tissue and onto my jeans and hands. I am SO queasy with blood. I could hardly stand it.

Scott held Layla down while the vet cleaned her up and gave her some shots to freeze it. She started the stitches, and there was blood all over the counter, and Scott started getting woozy. I had to take over, and Scott ran outside and threw up I couldn't look back at the blood but even just knowing, I was sweating and starting to get woozy too. I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, the computer systems were shut down so after Layla was bandaged up, we could just leave, and we can go back to pay tonight. The cold air felt SO good!

I didn't want to say much to Scott because I know he felt SO bad, but I did mention that from now on we should use clippers only. He was just trying to cut a big mat from the back of her leg.

Anyways, Layla got out of bath time yet again, but the other two haven't learned yet how to hurt themselves to avoid baths! So they got baths and I tried to get back to work (unsuccessful) so we watched tv and went to bed. Overnight, my eye infection finally spread to the other eye. I was being so careful! Oh well, I held it off for 2 days. I'm not sure how much my drops are helping but they don't seem to be as goopy, but still quite red. I came into work this morning and a woman here was surprised to hear I don't have strep, because she said usually strep and eye infections go hand in hand. But the doctor said my throat problems are just a virus.

[DianaB]

What a scare you had with Layla!! I'm sure that Scott felt so bad. It's a good thing that neither one of you are in nursing or doctoring with being woozy!

The swimming was wonderful! Glen and I got to swim very briefly all by ourselves.....so nice! Once the others were there the noise level went up and really echoed in the building. The water was just a tad bit cool for me but if I kept moving then I didn't notice it.....and I move a LOT in the water. I consider it exercise. I can't wait until it warms up so I can swim! I could drive over to this other town to swim but it's really not worth the price of gas to go 30 miles and back each time. After we swam Glen and I went to a new steak house and had a really good supper then we went to Walmart......there's always something that we need from Walmart even if we've just been. I picked up a few gifts for Dean and Karlie because they both have birthdays coming up and we met a new guy at church and his girlfriend just had a baby so we bought a baby gift. Then......I know that we shouldn't have......but we stopped at Braum's and got ice cream! They have a carb watch ice cream that is lower in carbs.....but that was definitely offset by the waffle cone and dipped chocolate that I had put on!! It was so good!!

I have to tell you what happened this morning......I laughed so hard!! There was a piece of cheese on the counter from last night. I decided to have the dogs do some of their tricks and give it to them. So I had Reuger dance, sit, and lay down.....then I had Jazzi sit (that's all she knows so far). At that point Dean walked up and saw what I was doing and saw Jazzi sit AND saw that I was giving them his cheese! He said "Sit" and immediately sat on the floor by the dogs!! I started laughing and gave him a piece of cheese!! Glen came in and I told him what had happened so he told Dean to "lay down" so Dean moved back to where his head was on the carpet intead of the hard floor and layed down!! We had such a laugh at him!! Too cute!

[Lindsey]

That is so funny Diana! Dean knows how to get treats too! Smart kid!! Lol

I know what you mean about Walmart, I never walk out with JUST what I went in for I always have a few extras.

I made it through almost a whole day at the office! I was told by lots of people to just go home but I stuck it out... If I went home I'd have to drive back in and get Scott. I guess I know I can work from home whenever I want but a part of me feels like I should still be in the office, or that people are thinking badly of me for staying home so much. I'm just not used to the flexibility yet!

Anyways, I left work 15 minutes early and we went to the college to get some different meds for Layla. The results of her culture were in, and almost all I could understand on the phone was that she needed new antibiotics. The vet there has a really really thick French accent so it was tough to understand! But when we saw her in person I got a little more out of it. Some of her bacteria wasn't TOTALLY sensitive to the antibiotic she was on... it was killing some, but not all. So now she's on 6 weeks of a new antibiotic, with another culture in one week. I feel like we're on the right track now and I trust this new vet 100%.

It's weird that we have nothing to do tonight. We got home late and now it's only 7:30 and I feel like I should be going to bed! Maybe I'll go watch tv and play some games on my tablet!

[DianaB]

I so hope that the new antibiotics work for Layla! Poor girl....she's been through so much. It sounds like the new vet is going to stay on top of things.

We had a bad storm last night. I was taking a bath so I really didn't get to see it on the internet. I had my Kindle in the tub with me because that's where I read......the electricity went off and my new cover has a light built in so I just flicked it on! Glen knew I was in the tub.....and was surprised that I had a light right away! The electricity was off about 30-45 minutes. I didn't know that anything more went on....but town's electricity was off all morning and Janet called to make sure we were alright! That's the first I had heard about the really bad storms that had hit. Even in town we had roofs blown off and a lot of damage. I would guess that it's wind damage not tornado. I hate it when storms turn deadly.

Since town didn't have electricity Dae Lynn and Karlie didn't have to go to school. And Glen left this morning for a snow skiing trip with the church youth. Jaci and Nate were going as well. They'll have a good time. Then tomorrow evening after Dae Lynn gets home from work I'm going to my Aunt Marva's......finally!! I'm so excited! We always have a good time!

I've started planting stuff in the greenhouse......some tomatoes and flowers.....and some lettuce, radishes, and spinach. I guess we'll see how it goes. This is really not what I had in mind for a greenhouse but I guess I'll give it a try. I really like messing with houseplants but it will be nice if I can start my own flowers for the yard. I spend so much money on buying them. I guess we'll see if I can do it. The storms really worry us because the greenhouse is made of glass......one hail storm and it could be trashed. Glen's thinking about what he can do to protect it.....so we'll see what he comes up with.

[Blueyes]

I'm glad to hear ya'll are ok, Diana! I wondered about you when I heard about all the storms this morning. Dean is sooo funny! He cracks me up

My GI tests came out fine. I'm glad I don't have to do that for 5 more years! The roof is finished, and we got new insulation in the attic. I sure hated to spend all that money on a roof...I could have had a new swimming pool Now I need to paint the shutters. They are black now, but I think I'll do them a dark sage green.