A Long Day

Thursday morning, My alarm went off at 3:30 A.M. I changed my alarm from The Rolling Stones, It’s Only Rock and Roll, to Brandy by Looking Glass. It is a much gentler wake up. It doesn’t almost give me a heart attack when the alarm goes off. Especially at 3:30 in the morning.

I always check the weather on my phone to see what the day will be like. The weather looked promising with lots of sunshine. We were headed to Nashville for a follow up appointment for Mark to check on the shingles. They are doing much better but we also needed to see what the new medicine was doing to his kidney function. Hopefully it was not disturbing it at all.

I ran downstairs for coffee and let Scruffy go out for a pee. I got the babies some food and me a large cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast. I had to boot Molly out too so that she could get a bathroom break in before we left. It was still be dark when we left so we had to put her back inside. I’m not taking any chance on coyotes.

We had to be on the road by 5:30. Our appointment was not until 8:30 and we gain an hour because of the change from the eastern time zone to the central time zone. It is about a three and a half hour drive for us and you never know what Nashville traffic may be like. The reason we like really early morning appointments is because we get in and out before the appointments start backing up. This gets us back home by around 2:00 PM.

I packed a cold pack with waters and a few snacks. Mark can’t have anything to eat or drink until after he has blood work. He sleeps on the way over. I sip on a yeti full of coffee and listen to my music and drive.

The drive over was uneventful, traffic was not too bad. It seems like we have made this drive a hundred times, probably have I have never stopped to add it up.

We arrived about twenty minutes before the appointment time and checked in. They told me that I would not be allowed to go back for the visit this time because they are only allowing the patient. I smiled and said nothing thinking oh yes I’m going, that happens to be my kidney as well. HA!!! And I did.

Mark and I were both concerned that the shingles were not healing as fast as they should be but the doctor reassured us that with him it was just going to take some time. More time than it usually does for the average person. She said the tenderness and some of the irritation could last for months. She also was not happy to hear that Mark was back to work full time she said his body was still healing and needed extra rest. All I could think was “preach sister” he won’t listen to me. When we asked how she felt this new anti-viral medicine that Mark was taking for the shingles was affecting his kidney, she said it should not affect it at all, for the length of time he would be on it. He will have to be on it for another week or so. She said his one kidney was functioning at the same level as anyone else with two kidneys. This is what you hope for of course but it doesn’t always turn out that way. Whew!!! we were relieved!!!!

Mark had to go to the lab and get his blood work and I made a trip to the Starbucks, located inside the hospital, to get him a coffee, his first of the day. Within an hour of arriving at the hospital we are out the door and headed home. After another hour the results from his labs started coming in on his Vanderbilt patient portal that he gets online. Everything looked great!!! The kidney, Baby Kay, was still going as strong as ever. What a relief.

I would like to say we zipped right back home but we ran into one delay after another, car wrecks, road work, road closures etc. We finally made it home by 3:30 exhausted but so relieved that everything was going well that it was all totally worth it.

I hope you week is going well.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

A Darth Vader Kind of Saturday

Last week I got a phone call from the Assisted Living Center where my mother in law is living. The director was letting everyone know that limited visitation would be starting. I knew there would be restrictions, but oh boy are there restrictions!! I know I should be glad that we can visit at all, and I am, It has been seven months since we have seen her. We talk on the phone all the time but haven’t been able to visit since March. Only one person can visit at a time right now so Mark and I decided it would be me. She and I are really close.

I set up a time to visit for Saturday morning, yesterday, at 10:30. Oh yes that is one of the restrictions. You have to set a time, you have to wear a shield, I was told that one would be assigned to me on my first visit. The visit could only last for about fifteen minutes and we had to remain six feet apart. Oh and the visit would have to take place outside. I asked if the outside visiting area would be covered and yes they said it would.

When I woke up yesterday it was pouring down rain. I did not even think about cancelling the visit. I was sure she had been waiting and counting the days since I had told her about it last week. I had to run to the grocery store to get some supplies for my mother in law before the visit. I would stop back by and get my groceries after the visit. The Center is about thirty minutes from my house.

Once inside the grocery store I noticed some amazing pumpkins. I wanted some for fall decorating and they had those large flat-ish white ones. I ran and got a cart and wrestled two of those and several orange ones and then several small white ones into the cart. You see how my ADD is kicking in here? But the thing is I knew I would have groceries to buy when I stopped back by later and no room in the cart for them. Anyway, I got the pumpkins and the couple of things she needed and headed out. It was still raining. I got the wet pumpkins into the trunk and headed to the assisted living center.

When I arrived at the center I went in and called the nurse, because they never have anyone in the front, to let her know I was there. She came out, took my temp drilled me with the usual COVID questions and gave me a shield. She said this would be my assigned shield and if anyone else in the family visited they could use it. YUCK!!! I also had to wear my mask. To say I sounded like Darth Vader would be an understatement .Hellooooo I am your daughter in law!!!! My little mother in law can barely hear when I am sitting right next to her. I knew I would have to yell now to be heard. Not to mention with the mask and the shield the shield was fogging up until I couldn’t see. I had to drive around to the outside, covered, area where we would meet. Nurse M had rolled her wheelchair out to the covered patio where we would visit.

It was wonderful to see her. As I said she couldn’t hear me. I had to yell to be heard but that was o.k. I did show her some pictures on my phone because she loves seeing pictures of the babies. So all in all an o.k. visit, just different as so many things are these days. Maybe someday. I can tell that she is much more confused than she was a few months ago. I just hate that these people can’t have visitors. I think the isolation is really making them decline even faster. She will be 87 next month and to be able to visit with her family she would probably risk COVID. But I guess that is not for us to decide.

After getting my groceries I realized I had been out and about for a few hours and I had had coffee, water and a Diet Coke!!! I really really didn’t want to go to the bathroom at Walmart. I could wait until I got home. I know better than this, someone my age, with my bladder and one kidney doesn’t play around with things like that. An almost twenty minute drive home, backing down my long driveway, fumbling with my key to get in the back door. Let’s just say I know better. Everything went well, I backed down the driveway, jumped out of the car and walking very carefully yet as fast as I could I got through the garage to the back door. Fortunately we have a bathroom right at the back door. Everything was still going well until Molly, my big outside baby who stays in the house a lot, saw her opportunity to run in the back door. She ran in front of me to get in and blocked my way. I ran through the back door screaming for Molly to get out of the way while I was kicking my shoes and pants off. As soon as Kitty Kitty heard the yelling and saw the shoes flying she made a beeline for the stairs. I think my pants landed on Scruffy. Mark came into the kitchen and barely blinked an eye. It’s not the first time I have raced in the back door and ran straight to the bathroom. He’s used to it. He was probably considering calling the Assisted Living Center to see if they had an extra room for me HA!!!

That was pretty much my Saturday. How has your weekend been so far?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

I Am A Proud Helicopter Wife

Hello friends, how are you? I told you in my last post that my husband has dubbed me a helicopter wife. He has had shingles for a few weeks now and yes I probably have been hovering over him. I have become mama bear, nurse, queen nurturer and everything else I can possibly think of to describe how I am acting. I think my husband may have a few other choice words to describe my actions. I guess never being a mother to children of my own often makes me feel entitled to be a mother to the world. LOL. I have been told by people that I tend to mother them. Especially my husband, family, friends and my team members at work, ok. a lot of people. At work I am the one who calls when someone is sick so I can check on them. I tend to tell them what to eat or not eat and offer to drive them home when they are sick or feeling bad. You may hear me saying things like: “stop drinking that energy drink don’t you know they’re no good for you!!!! Have you eaten this morning? no wonder you are feeling light headed, here’s some crackers. Go back to the break room and get a cold cloth and put it on your head and you will feel better. And just how much sleep did you get last night?” I tend to go into full mama bear mode when it’s my people. So you can imagine how I have been with the hubs. I have been trying to dial it back a bit because I know he is getting tired of all the attention, but it is hard for me. I quit taking pictures of his shingles every day to document the healing progress, just in case we need to show the doctors the pictures. I thought this was a great idea by the way. The shingles blisters are getting so much better day by day it is just a process. The shingles is a long process of healing for someone who isn’t on immunosuppressants let along someone who has to take them.

So I guess if all of this makes me a helicopter wife then I am one. SO WHAT??? I am a proud helicopter wife!!!!!

Are you a nurturer or someone that likes to be nurtured? maybe both?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

Happy Sunday, Happy October!!!!

Hello friends and how has your weekend been so far? Mine has been very quiet and lazy and that is just fine for me. I went back to work on Wednesday after being off a couple of extra day with Mark because of the shingles bout. To give you an update on him he is doing much better. The shingles still look really bad but they are improving. He will have blood work tomorrow at a local doctor and then we will do a trip to Vanderbilt in a couple of weeks to meet with the transplant team. This is to make sure the kidney is still doing great even though he is taking some meds that are not the best for it. Hubs has gone back to work and I have been given the name Helicopter Wife because of all the hovering I have been doing. But you know what? I am ok with that.

As I mentioned I went back to work on Wednesday and it was a really laid back rest of the week. After all the excitement over the weekend it was good to get back to a really quiet and normal pace. I decided that I wasn’t going to do much over the weekend and I haven’t. I had to run some errands and do the grocery thing yesterday and I did visit one of my favorite thrift stores in Madisonville that just got opened back up. But I took it easy today.

I made banana bread. I like to slice this up and put it in individual baggies and put them in the refrigerator. Then I pull out one for breakfast or a snack and pop it in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds and it is yummy!!! They last for about 10 days this way.

***I just started a new book. I love having a lot of time to read. Of course Scruffy is never far from by side. HA!!!***

The weather has been beautiful. It is so hard to believe that fall is here. We have had some very cool mornings and then usually warmer temps by noon. I am loving it!!!! The cool weather and rain should make for a very colorful fall foliage.

***You can tell a subtle change in the colors.***

I can’t believe how fast September seemed to fly by. It’s hard to believe that Christmas will be here in just a little more than two months. I tried to think of all the things that happened in September but to be honest it just seemed to pass by so quickly. I did read a couple of awesome books I have to mention. The first two are picks from my Book Club that meets monthly and the Diary Of Anne Frank is one that I am rereading from many many years ago.