Week from hell, weekend in heaven...

Monday, Dave was off work to take care of his follow up and to recover from his experience in the hospital last weekend with a severe anxiety attack.

One of the things that didn't get done last weekend was his dad's groceries.

Dave's son was supposed to go do that (told me he WOULD do it, in fact), but he never did (you may recall that Dad's care giver quit suddenly due to illness a few days prior to Dave's emergency ambulance ride adventures).

That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because when Dave went on Monday to get the groceries, his dad had fallen and cut his head open.

He was gushing blood, and there was blood all over the house from Dad walking around bleeding.

Dave called 9-1-1 and spent the day dealing with this major crisis -- right after his own crisis.

The e/r doc ordered a head CT, and everything came out okay. No internal brain bleed, no concussion.

They cleaned the wound, put 16 staples in it, and released Dad home.  The gash is 3 inches long.

Due to his age, we had hoped they would keep him overnight, but they did not, so Dave called for a non emergency transport to get Dad home.

Meantime, Dave contacted his boss and explained everything, and said he would not be at work Tuesday, either.

Dave called his eldest brother in Houston (who has power of attorney for Dad's medical and legal), who is retired, and he said he would possibly come up and help out...maybe around Friday.

So... Dave's family is a major fail in my eyes at this time!!  First, Eric doesn't do what he says he is going to do to help out, and then.....

I would have been on a plane on Monday, since my brother was already on shaky ground, and now THIS happens!!

(His brother actually went fishing the day after Dad's accident--he doesn't get in a hurry about ANYTHING, and apparently doesn't really understand what Dave had just gone through....or doesn't care.  Dave's middle brother, in Kansas, still works, so he did what he could from afar, including starting the search for a new care giver for Dad, and staying in regular phone contact.)

Dave took his dad to the doctor on Wednesday to be checked out.  He's okay.

Anyway, Dave eventually talked his brother into coming SOONER, but he did not come until Thursday, so that meant that Dave had to miss work all week.

Since he spent so much time at Dad's, making sure he was eating and taking his meds, Dave was also able to clean up most of the blood.  There's a big area on the carpet, though, that will have to either be removed or cleaned professionally.

Dad is doing okay. He gets his staples out next Wednesday, and Dave's brother will take care of it.

Friday was my birthday, which was kind of a big deal.

55 and still alive has been my theme.  Many women diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer do not live into their third year of treatment, so I am VERY aware, and very happy to be having another birthday!

I'm not just alive, I am thriving.

In recognition of this, we booked a fully equipped, modern cabin in Broken Bow, OK (where it's green and hilly, and there's a national forest).

This was another reason we needed Dave's brother to come to town and help out with Dad.

After last weekend, and then last WEEK, we both really desperately needed this quiet, stress-free get away.  This cabin cost us $300, and was pre paid.

Rain was in the forecast, so we planned to just sit in our cabin, and read, and listen to the rain.

That is exactly what we did... in addition so using the hot tub (when it was not raining), and the tv and dvd players.  We laughed our butts off watching funny dvds.

The drive down on my birthday was beautiful, with fields of flowers, and partly sunny skies.

We got here before the rain, so we went out for dinner, and got back to the cabin and soaked in the hot tub before a drop ever fell.

There was a whip-poor-will in the woods, and we sat on the front porch swing and listened to him sing, as the wind blew through the trees.

It has been VERY therapeutic.

We are still there right now, letting the dishwasher and the laundry finish.

The bad news is, on Friday night/early Saturday morning, a MAJOR storm ripped through our home neighborhood, knocking down full grown, huge trees; limbs and branches; and the POWER.

Our neighbor lost her beautiful, enormous silver maple (thankfully it did not fall on either of hour houses), and we have been told that our back yard is a huge mess, but that none of our trees are down.  Just limbs and branches.

Our power line is on the ground in our back yard.  From what we saw on news reports, 40 thousand OG&E customers were without power at one point.

Our neighbor tells me that there's only a small area of our neighborhood that is still dark, and our house is in the middle of it.  Dave just called OG&E and there are no updates regarding the outage in our area.

Great.

It's 42 degrees in OKC this morning, and our house sitter says it's 60 degrees in the house right now.

Maybe the food in the fridge and freezers won't rot if it gets cold enough in the house.  Chances are, though, that we will have to throw everything away.

We'd been saying we needed to defrost the deep freeze.....

It's pretty cool that this cabin has a washer and dryer, so we don't have to take any dirty laundry home, since we can't wash it!!

I think MAYBE this has been enough stress and anxiety for this year.   ALL AT ONCE.  Can we stop now, please?

At least this weekend has been a lovely respite.  There were storms here last night, too, and the power flickered out a few times, but it came right back on.

Sigh.....wish we could just stay, but it's too expensive!

Have a good Sunday!

Addendum:  Our back yard is not full of branches, it is full of trees.  The power and cable lines were ripped off of the back of the house.

It was 50 degrees inside when we got home, but the temp dropped to 41 outside last night, so it is in the 40's inside this morning, to be sure.

We got a crappy motel by the highway, and had to leave the cats in the house.

I will not have to miss work (because God FORBID!), and Dave has our handy man guy coming out this morning to re-attach the electric meter and riser to the house.  Then Dave can all the electric company to turn us back on.

Emergency crews came yesterday, finally, and put the line up by the meter. It was NOT a live line, but was already shut off.

Dave called the 24 hour insurance company hotline yesterday and opened a claim.

Off to my cheap motel shower....

Rough weekend

So.

Dave's been having more problems with his anxiety lately, and had put in a call for a new doctor to help him with it.

The soonest new patient appointment he could get was at the end of June, which seems absurd to me when the new patient is in crisis mode.

Anyway, he dropped me off at work on Friday morning, and went along to his office.

A couple of hours later, he called me saying that he thought he was having another heart attack.  He had called 9-1-1, and someone would let me know where they were taking him.

Fortunately, they took him to the hospital right across the street from my office, so I did not have to have someone take me home to get my car.  I told my supervisors, and ran across the street.

LONG story short, Dave had a FULL cardio work up (including a stress test), was kept in the hospital under observation, and was declared as healthy as he can be!

He does, however, have anxiety attacks!

The last time we went to the e/r for chest pains, that was also declared non-cardiac, and purely anxiety related. That was in 2011.

Anyway.... here comes the long story.....

We waited for over six hours for them to discharge him from observation. That was absurd.  I'm documenting it all here so that we will remember everything when we get our survey from the hospital.

After his stress test came back "A+," (in the cardiologist's words to Dave in person), the nurse on shift, Angie, said that he was released by the cardiologist, and that we could get him whatever he wanted for breakfast, and that she'd be back in a bit

After he ate, he got dressed, because all of the monitors had been removed after the cardiologist declared him healthy, and he was not being treated for anything, not even having his vitals checked (after a while, anyway).

Then, maybe an hour after he ate his breakfast, the nurse came in and said that the hospitalist didn't want to release him yet, because of what the cardiologist had said.

???

What the cardiologist had said was that Dave is in practically perfect health!  He declared the event an anxiety attack, and said that the pain was chest wall pain from Dave tightening up during his panic.  The nurse herself had used the words "he's released you."

So that made ABSOLUTELY no sense. We asked for a clearer explanation, and all she said was that she would call the hospitalist and "challenge" her decision to keep Dave another night.

Dave kept going out to the nurse's station and asking what was going on.....and she just brushed him off.

She'd say she'd be in to talk to us, and then she'd sit there and chat with her friend, and never come into the room.

One of the times he went out to talk to her, she said that the hospitalist was on the unit, and would be by to see us.

I SAW the hospitalist walk by our room, and she never even looked in.

She had no intention of talking to us.

There were only 3 or 4 patients in the unit, so it wasn't like it was taking her hours and hours to make rounds.

Then she left!

It was extremely aggravating.

Dave went out to the nurse's station several times, and got nowhere.

Finally, he went out and asked where the ice machine was, and Angie FINALLY said that she was working up the discharge papers.

What, she couldn't be bothered to come in and tell us that he was being discharged?  Or WHY it had taken 6 hours?

Guess not.

When she FINALLY came in to discharge him, she was really abrupt and rude going over the discharge instructions.

I said I had a question, and she said "LET ME FINISH."

Wow.

I wonder if she got in some kind of trouble for not discharging us at 11 am, and she was taking it out on us?

We have a feeling she was the one who actually dropped the ball, because as we were leaving, she said that the hospitalist was the one who wanted to just let us leave, so her story switched completely.

If the hospitalist had wanted to keep him another night, she would have come IN to the room, instead of just walking by.

We are pretty convinced that Angie was lying to us, that SHE had made some kind of mistake, and that we were supposed to have been sent home at 11 am instead of 5:30 pm.

Anyway, Dave's son DID come to the e/r.  That was a good thing.

Then he took me home (after they moved Dave to observation), so I could get my car, and go back with Dave's med information, pajama pants, and electronics.

But he did not come back in the evening like he said he would.

Whatever, at least he showed up at the beginning (and kept in touch via text yesterday while he was at work).

Friday night, Dave insisted that I go home before it got fully dark.  We both needed to rest.

SO, I came home.... and did all of the laundry, vacuuming, cleaned the litter boxes, cleaned the bathroom, did the dishes..... I wanted all of that stuff done, so that I wouldn't have to mess with it over the weekend.

It also helped me to relax to just do normal stuff.

As it turned out, it was good that it was done, since I didn't get home until about 7 Saturday night (after going to get Dave's car so he could take it home,  I went to do half of the errands that we didn't get to do Friday night like we usually do).

Dave had some issues last night, which is understandable after everything he'd been through, but he is doing MUCH better today.

I am about to go out and start mowing the grass, and he is going to get the groceries.

He is going to take tomorrow off to follow up with the PA he normally sees, and inquire about a referral to a doctor who can help him with his anxiety NOW.

Daily Gratefuls

The morning after my first condo tenant baled on me, I was in a panic.  I thought I was going to go bankrupt and lose all of my assets.

I started a practice that morning of trying to think of three things for which I was grateful, and focus on that.

I have done that every day now for going on 6 years.  I post my Daily Gratefuls on Facebook, so that the practice is visible to myself, mostly, and to encourage others to do the same.

I have seen it become a trend across my friends network, and I have heard from my friends that they have friends who have also taken up the practice.

What makes it "mine" is the way it's done.... This morning, I am grateful for my home. I am grateful for my job...etc.

It's such a simple thing, but it really helps.  I am pleased that so many people have adopted it!

We worked hard around the yard yesterday.

Some of our tax refund money that's left (after the multiple little home improvement projects) went toward plants and soil and stuff for the yard.

I didn't do much of anything last year with planting or potting, so this year, I'd like to pick that up again.

Today, we are going to a drag show and brunch.... very traditional Easter, HAHA!

Since we aren't practicing Christians, Easter isn't really on our radar.  If there weren't stuff advertising products for the holiday, like chocolate eggs, we'd never even know it was happening.

My scans were done on Friday.  Unless there is really bad news, I will get the results when I go for my regular monthly visit to the clinic.

If there is bad news, I assume they will call me to leave work and come in right away.

That's happened a couple of times before, so I am trying not to hold my breath and anticipate it happening tomorrow or Tuesday.

That being said, however, I will not fully relax until the end of the day on Tuesday.  I figure by then, the scans will have been read, reported, and in my file. No news will be good news.

Hopefully.

Distractions are good, though, and I will have work and dance class on Monday to focus on.

I found out last week that my FMLA expired over a year ago.

A friend who is a human resources expert said that it was my employer's responsibility to inform me that my paperwork expired....but she doesn't know the people I work for.

The funniest part is that I DID EMAIL my boss  in January of last year, and asked if I was supposed to submit new paperwork.

Her exact reply was "No, you should be fine."

SO, I got new paperwork, mailed it to the doctor, and picked it up when I was at the clinic on Friday.

I will hand it in tomorrow....that way, in case I DO have to leave to go for text results with no notice, I cannot be penalized for it.

(yes, I would be penalized without FMLA papers in place.  Another funny thing is, my employer didn't know my paperwork had expired either, so when I had to leave for the bad news in Oct., it was marked down as FMLA!)

Must be getting on with my day.  To anyone who celebrates Easter, hope you have a joyous one!

Scan scheduled

Saw my doc on Thursday, and he agreed it's time for a follow up scan to see if this oral chemo is working.

I will go on Friday, 4/14.

My office is closed that day, for Good Friday, so I didn't have to burn any sick time hours.  I was glad to be able to set it up that way, even though that sort of ruins my work holiday.  Oh well.

Better to save the sick time in case I need it later.

The date is also the anniversary of my late dad's birth, so hopefully, that will bring good luck.

I will not get my results until my next treatment day, May 4.  That was what my doc wanted to do on the last two scans.

I questioned it those times, but just let it be this time.

We had fun last weekend at the Cubs season opener watch party.  The food at the restaurant was only okay, but the atmosphere was fun, with all of the Cubs fans.

Before the game, a bunch of them started singing "Go, Cubs, Go," and it made me get misty-eyed!

Yesterday was a perfect day for yard work, so we did.

I mowed the front and side yards after I got home from my hair cut appointment.

Dave got a chain saw a couple of weeks ago to deal with a dead tree that had fallen from our yard over the fence into the neighbor's yard during a wind storm.

We have a stand of several "trees of heaven" out back that are dying or dead.

Yesterday, he cut two more of them down.

Next Wednesday is "big trash day" for our neighborhood, so we worked hard all afternoon.

We have a wheel barrow, and I made 8 trips with stuff that I could manage without hurting myself.  Dave moved the big logs, and I moved the medium ones and most of the brush.

I only got half of the back mowed because he was working back there, and had branches and limbs spread out for cutting into manageable sizes.

Maybe I will finish today, if the predicted rain holds off.  It doesn't look like it's going to rain this morning, so I should be able to get it done.

Anyway, we spent a good amount of time in the hot tub last night to help us recover from all of that hard work.

Today, Dave's legs and back are sore, and my arms, pecs, and feet hurt. HA!  But WE DID IT ALL with no help from anyone younger and stronger.

(Dave's son is still ignoring us)

We've done a lot of that kind of stuff around this property... Like when we demolished and rebuilt the shed extension ourselves a year ago.

We got a letter from the vet last week that it was time for Annabel to go for her annual check up and shots.

I didn't want her to go, because of how awful her last trip to the vet was....  But Dave insisted, and said he would take her while I was getting my hair cut yesterday.

Well, it was awful again.  They had to sedate her (an additional $80) just to get her out of the carrier.

She is never going to the vet again.  Hopefully, she will stay healthy, and in the meantime, we will find a vet who makes house calls.

At least this time, she didn't shit all over herself and the carrier.

Poor baby.

Our little home improvement projects got done this past week!  The tax refund paid for : lights under the carports, a barrier at the joint between the old and new car ports, a garbage disposal, faucet, and drinking water filtration system installed in the kitchen, and a new closet door in our bedroom!

Everything looks GREAT!  Now, we shouldn't have to spend any more money on the house for a while!!

Thanks for your continued good thoughts and hopes on my behalf during this journey!

Have a great week!

Cubs season opener!

Of course, we can't watch it at home, because the service we subscribe to for Cubs games thinks that St. Louis should be in our local broadcast viewing menu.

It's not.  We're in OKLAHOMA.

ALSO, you would think that MLB tv would realize that we pay for their service because we don't have cable, and the game is on a cable network as well as being in St. Louis, so it's a double black out for us. Sheesh.

SO, we are going to a Cub Fans in Oklahoma facebook group watch party at a Mexican restaurant near our old apartment.

I hate that we have to spend even MORE money to see some games, but oh well.  It's not like we'll do that for EVERY game that we can't get on MLB tv.

We'll just do it for the important ones, and the season opener is important.

My (currently) every two months visit with the oncologist is next Thursday.

This marks 6 months on the oral chemo, so I am thinking that we will be looking at doing another scan.

This has my anxiety levels up.  If the scan comes back bad, I will have to go back to IV chemo, and lose my hair again, and use up my paid time off hours at work again.

So many things will change again if I have to go back to chemo.  It means probably not being able to take that vacation we planned for July, or being able to move forward with out daydream-to-reality trip to Wales that we started talking about for next year.

I am trying not to worry about it, but I can't help it.

My dear friend Cathy shipped me a "weighted blanket" as a gift.  They are supposed to help with anxiety and restlessness.

I slept under it for a couple of nights, it's really remarkable.  It's a bit difficult to sleep under all night, though, and I am thinking it will be most useful for naps,  for wrapping up in when I am feeling an anxiety attack, or to take with me in case I have to go sit in a chemo chair for hours at a time again.

The night before last, I woke up under it completely drenched in sweat because it was too warm.

We didn't get all of the yard work done last weekend, and we won't this weekend, either, because it's actually been raining a little.

Dave finished raking the front yard yesterday, after starting it, and having to abandon the piles, last weekend.  The front yard looks much better.

The only thing we really still have to do out front, which we have been wanting to do since November, is add some soil to the flower bed out front.

In Oklahoma, you have to buy dirt, so this keeps getting put off, either because of weather or funds.

Maybe next pay period, we will finally do it.  It is too late for the tulips and daffodils that never bloomed this year, but it will help for the other things that still have yet to bloom.

There are also some trimming/cutting jobs that Dave can do with the new chainsaw before "big trash day" on April 12th.

I finally got sick of my cell phone not working right, and went to buy a new one yesterday.

My old one wasn't updating, wasn't ringing when I would get calls (which MOSTLY come from doctors and the pharmacy these days----ugh), and wasn't able to accept new apps.

Its operating system was obsolete, and it was really starting to bug me.  It was three upgrades behind, and just wasn't working anymore.

As it turns out, my service provider had a promotion going that I qualified for ( I have a month to month pre-pay account, it's so much cheaper!).

I should be getting a rebate form in the mail, and once I send it in, after about 6 weeks, I will get a gift card in the mail.

Seems stupid, but that's how they do it.  Dave says they should be able to just DO the rebate right there at the register on the computer....OR, they should just sell the phone for the price they promote as "after rebate."

I agree.

I prefer the iPhone operating system, but have gotten used to Android, and can't really justify spending the absurd amount of money it takes to purchase an iPhone.

Aside from finishing the raking, Dave got his dad's groceries yesterday, and used some of our reserved tax refund money to get the faucet, water filter, and garbage disposal in preparation for the handy man HOPEFULLY coming next week to get going on this year's improvements.

I did some house cleaning, including vacuuming under things (which turned out to be pretty hard work) and mopping the floor.

I had hoped to use the steam cleaner we bought  a year ago to do the wood floors, but I ran out of... wait for it... STEAM!

Maybe today.

I have a couple of simple cooking projects for today that won't take too long.  Made beef and black bean burritos yesterday, so with today's projects, our empty "lunch" containers should all be full again.

First things first, though..... I want a big breakfast today, and am going to add another cooking project to the list... Bacon, sweet potato hash browns, and fried eggs.  Yum!

Have a good Sunday and GO CUBS!