Snow!!!

Out my front windows....it looks like this right now....we are in the middle of two big weather fronts that decided to join forces....of, course it is a snow day. Megan gets to stay home from school but Ben still needs to get to work this afternoon....he just checked and the buses are running so that's a good thing....I wouldn't want to drive in it and I certainly wouldn't want hubby to go out in it since his incision still has some open gaps. Maya was suppose to do a shift at the coffee shop this morning but I was able to use the storm as an excuse for her not going in.....maya has been showing signs of some regression these last two days.....it's a little scary, and we're not quite sure of what to do....I've been trying to get her into a program that helps people , like Maya, but you need a doctors referral ....tried to get her into the family doctor but they're closed today with the storm and the soonest I can get her an appointment is next Wednesday.....

Please pray for our daughter Maya......and for our little grandson Samuel who got influenza a bit ago and now he has pneumonia....poor wee guy......


That's a pic of him falling asleep during his lunch when he had the influenza....usually he looks like this.....


Well, not always covered in chocolate cake...but certainly smiling and happy...he's our Smiley Samuel!

Have a good weekend, people!

Recovery

Good Morning.....at our house these days, we are in recovery mode.....first Maya and then Don.....






Things are a lot quieter in our household these days then they had been for the previous month......Maya is slowly getting back to her life..(today, she resumes her driving lessons) and hubby has a huge incision ,that the visiting nurse that comes and checks it every other day, is healing well....

Don and I are very appreciative of all the help that we received and all the prayers murmured on our behalf....we really don't know how we would have got through this whole nightmare without the help and prayers....

Life does go on....different appointments continue to fill the calendar, although I had said that I'd love to go into hibernation when all this was done! Life doesn't really allow you to do it....although the weather is certainly cold enough to want to!

I'm hoping that the family will all be available to gather on Easter Sunday for a family dinner...Don, Maya and I missed it on Christmas Day.....it would be nice to gather together.....someone pointed out to me how our family pulled together throughout all this trial.....and when I looked back on it all, they were correct....it does this mothers' heart good.

Once again....

Life just keeps on a-comin' .......

Life for the last number of weeks has read like a soap opera....only worse....I haven't watched daytime soaps in about twenty years but I think I could give it a run for its' money....

If we even go back further...say to last April, when hubby took a really bad turn, physically...we had no idea what was going on but of course feared the worst....went thru a summer of testing....until the first week of September when he was officially diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Three days after that, I fell and broke my wrist which put me out of commission for several weeks.....then at thanksgiving, hubby started to feel unwell again, ended up in the hospital with an abscess on the abdomen wall....was in the hospital for a week getting it drained...Then Emma found out she was pregnant.....not a time for celebration, unfortunately....a few weeks later towards the end of November....the abscess returned and hubby once more was in the hospital for several days to have it drained...then at fourteen weeks Emma had a terrible miscarriage...where she delivered this tiny, miniature baby, all by herself...I got there in time to drive her to the hospital to receive medical attention.....that was on the 11th of December....then two nights before Christmas, Maya, our twenty year old daughter, came home from her shift at the coffee shop, went to bed and woke up, Christmas Eve morning a completely different person.....she was admitted into the hospital on Christmas Day....hubby and I got the turkey in the oven then left all the preparations for the rest to do....there were 17 people at our home , having Christmas dinner while hubby and I sat with maya in the psych ward at one of the city hospitals. The doctor calls it Conversion Disorder....it's when the brain breaks under stress and manifests itself physically in your mind and body. Something like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This weekend Maya came home on a weekend pass...we hope she's able to stay home....we are exhausted...every day for the last three weeks we've been at the hospital daily....sometimes twice a day...long hours.....

And it keeps on getting better.....a week and a half ago, hubby saw the surgeon again...he wants to do the surgery...he said it should be February or March...I thot, oh good...maybe Maya will be a lot better by then...I certainly can't be in two hospitals at once! Last Wednesday the surgeons office called...they have a cancellation this Wednesday....they want hubby to take it....we discussed it at length...he decided to go for it....so, this Wednesday he's scheduled for a resection of his bowel.....a very painful and long recovery I've heard....he's to be off work at least two months....that means as well as his day job, he can't teach his classes...which means we won't have the money to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary in Hawaii this June....hubby is really disappointed....I'm resigned to it...I'm not sure Maya would be ready for us to leave her anyways by then...I told him that maybe we can do it on our 41st.......sigh....as long as he gets healthy is all that matters.

So, that's life right now...told you I had the soaps beat....

Hope you people have a good weekend...and if you're the praying kind and if you could remember...please pray for Maya and my hubby, Don....it's going to be a tough few weeks while he's in the hospital...and maybe you could pray for me too....I surely would appreciate it.

Good Morning Company Girls!

It has been awhile since I have blogged...life keeps getting in the way!

We are coming into the Christmas season and I will admit to having somewhat of a panic developing since I've hardly boughten anything ....there are no decorations up...the tree has yet to be cut down and transported home....in other words , pretty well absolutely no preparations have been made and less than a month to go!

In looking back over the last few weeks, the schedule has been slightly overwhelming to the point that at the beginning of last week I declared that I was running away from home on Friday ( that was last Friday) ....people laughed but I was truly serious! Hubby had an appointment with the surgeon that had been set up when he left the hospital in October on the Thursday, so that's why I had to wait for the Friday.....the surgeon was supposed to give him all the details of the upcoming surgery , which we really needed to hear to fill in the blanks and answer all the questions we had......this was not to be, we had the appointment but not the answers.

Son Ben, started a special bus transportation class that runs every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon til the middle of December...this is a class where they teach developmentally delayed adults to take public transportation in the city. Ben does have some experience locally but not city wide so it was thot that this would be beneficial for him......unfortunately this interferes with my quilting group which meets for the day, every Tuesday....so Ben comes with me and I leave group early to take him to his class...then I find something to do for two hours until he's done...unfortunately it's located in the part of the city where there isn't any shopping, so I'm no further ahead in Christmas prep!

Back to the surgeon visit last Thursday.....when we arrived the surgeon took one look at Don and said ' you look great'.....and he did, he'd gained back some weight, his colour looked good, he had energy....so the surgeon said...'since you're doing so well, we'll just set you up with a cat scan and see how things look'.....kind of like putting things in a holding pattern.....good grief.....what a way to spend your life...not that we want surgery...but to put off the inevitable was kind of disappointing....he did an exam, and even though hubby said the area where the Crohn's was tender and a little thick feeling the last couple of days, the doctor said it was probably just the Crohn's ....he would put in the requisition for the cat scan...which usually takes a number of weeks to happen.

That was last Thursday....Friday....my running away day, was also hubby's alternate Friday off....so, I asked him if he'd like to join me in running away...he said sure...right after he got his Twinrix vaccination and also a needle for pneumonia ....not that he has these but they're part of the preparation for the drug therapy they want him on after the surgery....whenever that is.....so,.....we ran away late in the morning.....went down to our favourite place ...Niagara On The Lake......had a lovely lunch and went to a few shops.....by later in the afternoon I was quite weary of running away so we headed home....good thing.

When we arrived home hubby started not feeling well....chills, nausea, fatigue...he thot it was the vaccination reacting .....the Crohn's area was becoming more swollen...the rest of the evening, he just dozed on and off...not wanting to eat.

The next day Saturday, I was supposed to go to a craft show with eldest daughter.....but hubby didn't look well at all.....he insisted that I should go, and if needed we could go to the hospital when I returned....I had him show me the Crohn's area and when I saw one side if his abdomen twice the size of the other side, I put my foot down and said we were going to the hospital now.

We arrived at the hospital and they looked after us right away...blood work and ultrasound revealed that the abscess had returned and would need to be drained...he was admitted...again....they started him on two very strong antibiotics right away...

The next day, Sunday, we were surprised when a porter showed up at his bed saying he was there to take him to intervention...that's where they put the drain tube in...we were quite surprised...and so were the doctors later on...they never put drains in on Sundays....turns out the doctor that did it was called in for another emergency procedure and decided to do hubby as well....this was great as hubby was still feeling nauseous and lethargic from all the infection in his body....

Two days later we were back home...the doctors telling him that since the abscess came back so quickly that surgery would have to be done...now it's a case of waiting til the infection clears up and going back to the surgeon on the 13th of December...the drain tube will stay in til that time.

The previous week had been rather intense because Emma...daughter that left home just over a year ago, has found herself pregnant...for real this time....she wasn't getting herself to the doctor so I offered to go with her....she gladly accepted....now this was a pretty big deal , on my part because Emma lives in the Toronto area.....I've never driven the major highways around Toronto, on my own...I google mapped her location...(I don't have a GPS)...then I wrote each highway/ exit I had to take on individual post it notes....put them across my dash and set out!....hubby laughed when he heard this but multilane highways around major cities intimidate me!.....about an hour later I arrived.....poor Emma has got herself in quite the dilemma....she's one of these pregnant woman that has morning sickness ALL morning....some people might say it serves her right but I'm her mom and I feel bad for anyone that is constantly vomiting....I, myself hate that, so don't wish it on anyone. We saw the doctor...he needed blood work to confirm....we went to the lab, got that done...in between runs to the bathroom...then I took her to the drug store...got a script for nausea, went to the grocery store...bought ginger ale and soda crackers....and took her back home....that took all morning....the blood test did confirm the pregnancy but for some reason Emma's been out of communication for almost a week now, so I'm not sure what's happening there.

One if my older sons, was in a motorcycle accident a number of years ago and is just getting a financial settlement now....not that he deserves it, but that's the way the system goes I'm afraid.....he was just as much responsible for what happened to him as the guy that was driving, but the lawyers see it otherwise....so now he's come into quite a bit of money...unfortunately the guy will probably spend it unwisely...you see his birth mom drank alcohol while pregnant and now he has Fetal Alcohol syndrome...very bad....he does not make good decisions and acts impulsively....but he's 29 years old...not too much we can do....trouble is...all the guy really wants is what a lot of people take for granted...a home and a family....he just wants to be like everyone else.....

So, all these things...plus day to day living with 3 developmentally delayed young adults...has put me way behind in Christmas prep....and also made me want to run away.

Do you ever want to run away? How do you handle it...where would you go?

Location:Are you ready for Christmas?

Joy

Good Morning Company Girls!

Although it is still dull and dreary out at this time of the morning.....we must keep pushing on....a lot of people post that fall/autumn is their most favourite time of the year...I, myself find it depressing....I hate to see everything dying off and everything so barren....but that all seems so insignificant in light of the week that some people have endured. My goodness, some of those pictures on the television of what some people went thru with the big storm, ...well, it just made you really thankful. We experienced the wind and the rain, but fortunately we didn't lose power. I was really afraid of that....we have a sump pump to take away the excess water off our property....no hydro means the water doesn't get taken away and means my basement gets flooded. Eight weeks ago, before I broke my arm, I was on a schedule...a mission to clean my basement and purge all unnecessary paraphernalia taking up residence there...it was supposed to be done by Thanksgiving! I was on a roll...it was getting done...I was very organized about it...dividing the basement into sections, doing a bit at a time....unfortunately the broken arm kind of bunged that up, and the mess is still down there...I was alarmed that if our power went out, all that stuff would be a soggy mess....wet stuff is much harder to move than dry, that's for sure! I was so thankful that our power remained on! Hopefully, I can get back to the huge clean up very soon...the arm and hand are making progress....I can move the fingers although they still swell and I can't wear my wedding rings yet...very disappointing....I can't lift any weight without experiencing pain....I am trying to use it as normally as possible...well, lets put it this way....as normally as possible for me!.....there's never been nothing normal about my arms since I was born without fifty per cent of the muscles in them!

Moving on....hubby had another doctor's appointment yesterday.....he still has the drain in his abdomen to drain the abscess ...fortunately the nurse practitioner has taken charge and before we left he was given an appointment for this Saturday to have an ultrasound and hopefully the drain tube removed. So back to the hospital we go and hopefully that will be done. I joked that we should have gotten a monthly hospital parking pass since we've been there so much! I also have to return to same said hospital next Tuesday to have another exray of the arm done! Parking at hospitals is very expensive! It's like adding insult to injury...geesh! Then, in a few weeks, on the 22nd, hubby has an appointment at the hospital, with a surgeon, to discuss cutting out the section of Crohn's disease that's taken over his bowel..well, a part of his bowel.....this getting old is for the birds..really...

My older sister and her husband are retired...which is a good thing because, being the eldest and a take charge kind of person, she has pretty well taken over the care of our mother. Mom is in a retirement home, so yes ,the day to day needs are met but sister is there almost daily making sure those needs are met...plus she takes her to all medical, dental and financial appointments. Twice a year sister and her hubby trek down to Florida for a few weeks for a holiday. It is much needed since she does so much for our mother...I will admit that that quite often I feel guilty that with the constraints of having a large family that it usually doesn't leave a lot of time to help my mom. I'm grateful that sister and her hubby have that time....so, myself and my one brother are on tap to take care of mom for the next three weeks because sister and her hubby left for Florida this past week. I have all my instructions and hopefully all goes well .

Emma called me last night and apparently her and her boyfriend got kicked out of their place yesterday....so, she's come full circle and is back at a shelter..she called yesterday, from the shelter...next week is her nineteenth birthday. This shelter is 66 kilometers away from our house, it's the other side of Toronto...I hate Toronto traffic and hubby isn't able to go with me, I'm not sure what I can do to help her....sounds kind of lame I know, but it's more complicated than that...really. I have to keep reminding myself that this is what Emma wanted when she left our home a year ago.....to be on her own, to live her life the way she wanted, without rules....but...my mother's heart is sad.

Praying this week and this weekend for fellow Company Girl , Star Walker Neely....her and her hubby are in Uganda to hopefully bring back their new daughter! Cant wait to see pictures...they have to stay there a very long time ...away from their four kids at home....must be soooo difficult...

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend....hopefully hubby gets the drain tube out, hopefully Emma finds a place to live and she doesn't have to stay at the shelter very long....hopefully I can stay on top of things with my mom and nothing goes wrong....hopefully youngest daughter Megan doesn't drive me totally around the bend....hopefully, daughter Maya, who starts her drivers Ed course tomorrow does well in the classes...( class work is not her strong suit)...that's a lot of hope.

I read Sally Clarkson's blog today and the last few lines caught my attention......
Joy comes through exercising faith right on the path that God has led. Faith catalyzes joy as we worship by choosing to see God right in our midst at this place, in this step of life.

I'm going to try and dwell on this thot this weekend.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's Pouring.

Have you ever heard that expression....when it rains , it pours......well, life is really pouring right now.

Last April, hubby started to feel quite poorly. On and off for the last year, he's had a problem with his digestive system. It's been all out of whack, not working properly since July of 2011. There have been times when he's been quite incapacitated by it, but he's kept motoring on. He went to the doctor many times....the doctor kept saying...well, try this medication, or go off this medication...that may be causing your trouble. They said he was anemic, so they determined he needed extra iron in his system. This continued on til this past April when it hit him hard. I was scared, really scared......I've known this man for 42 years....never have I seen him this poorly...he lost weight ( 10 pounds less than a month), he was constantly exhausted, his colour was extremely pale......hubby went from a man that was always on the go, doing everything....to someone who sat there, listlessly, unable to move.

Back to the Internist that he saw three years ago.....more tests.....finally a diagnosis...Crohn's Disease.....thank God it wasn't cancer.....he was put on a steroid that would fix him up....and seemingly it did.....24 hours after starting the meds, he was back to his old self...we were all SO relieved....okay, we could learn to live with this...watch his diet, take his meds...life was good....that was six weeks ago, this Thursday.

Five weeks ago, last Sunday, I very stupidly, fell outside, in the dark, and broke my wrist....the same wrist that the doctors fused together in a bone fusion operation, fifty years ago. The doctors said that between all the arthritis and fragile bone and swelling in there that they'd put a splint on for a week...come back after that...we did...than they put the cast on. They said it was for three weeks...I was pleased...when they did the bone fusion it was on for three months! Three weeks I could do...but, I guess when your fifty years older, three weeks seems like three months! Then everyone said that....oh no, this will be just an exray and check at three weeks...they'll probably put another cast on....I wasn't impressed.

So hubby and I went along for the three weeks.....him looking after me, the broken wrist was useless, the fingers so swollen that I could barely move them. He had to help me with virtually everything....bathing ,dressing, I could feed myself but I could prepare very little. People would say...good thing you have the three kids at home....but they are so delayed that they are of very little help.

The Thursday before thanksgiving, hubby started to feel unwell again...the area where his Crohn's is located...where the small bowel empties into the large, seemed to have something going on...it was swelling and painful to touch.....

Thanksgiving came and went...family dinner at eldest daughters' home....Emma showed up with her boyfriend..she said she was sick and spent the whole time in bed....it was really a combo of drugs, lack of sleep and anxiety...I wasn't impressed....the boyfriend tried to hitch hike back home....couldn't blame him...all of a sudden, thrust into a family celebration with 18 people he'd never meant before..but really..hitch hike? He didn't even know where the Pete he was, never mind how the heck to get back home...daughter lives 'in the boonies'.....a couple of hours from where Emma and boyfriend live.....anyways, that day was finally over....

Two days later I had to go for the cast removal...hubby still wasn't well and tried to get into see the internist at the same time (they were all at the same hospital) ...they couldn't see him that day, but said...come back on Thursday..two days later.

They removed the cast...said it was still healing...that slow and steady would be the course for it and put a removable splint on it.....said...'come back in a month, we'll check it again'.....

Two days later, hubby went to his appointment...by himself, as I had to take Ben and Megan to the dentist for their check ups. When I returned home, hubby sent a text....the clinic thot he had an abscess that would have to be drained...but they couldn't do it at that hospital...they recently changed the in patient status of that hospital to 'only children'....so hubby said can you meet me at another hospital....so I did, ....we naively thot...okay, they'll look at it, drain it, and then we'll be home.

We are sooooooo naive......this hospital admitted him...he would need another cat scan so they could confirm the abscess....but the scan couldn't be done til the next day.....

The next day, they did the scan...after he went all day without food.....at about 4 pm.

On the third day (the next day)...they confirmed, yes, it's an abscess, that has to be drained. That turns out to be a little more complicated then we realize...again....this requires a radiologist, intervention they called it....being taken into this room with huge machines all around...very intimidating...but he had to wait til the fourth day for them to have a spot open.

So, on the fourth day...this past Sunday, they finally drained the abscess....
The drain is still in, it has to stay in for 48 hours after no drainage....

Yesterday, the fifth day...the doctors...many doctors came in total, in the morning....all pretty well saying the same thing.....get the infection cleared up and look at surgery....nobody could exactly say when the surgery...one doctor finally said, in the next few months....they'll cut out the Crohn's...but it'll grow back, they assured us...they'll be subsequent surgeries down the road...good thing we have many feet of bowel! He wanted to come home today...the sixth day...the doctors said that would be pushing it.....they did do an echocardiogram on him yesterday...when questioned the nurse said she didn't know why it was ordered...nice....hubby was upgraded from clear fluid to full fluid diet...he's thrilled....

So, we will see what today brings.....everyday, I go to the hospital in the morning and stay all day til it's dark....sometimes I take my own food to eat...hospital food is very expensive....the parking is very expensive.....the hospital is a half hour drive away.....hubby and I have had lots of time to talk...which is nice...but sometimes he's too tired and needs to sleep...so then I read.....it's a long day....the kids are on their own...which isn't a good thing but there isn't anything I can do about it...it is what it is, hubby says...that is so true.


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Thanksgiving Weekend

Good Morning Company Girls!

This is a holiday weekend in Canada...Thanksgiving.....other than we always have our holiday on a Monday instead of a Thursday...and ours is in October instead of November.....a Canadian Thanksgiving isn't any different than the American one.

Turkey tops the list as the protein of choice.....plus the usual accompaniments.....mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls(buns), cranberry...various veggies....carrots, peas, or corn....or even broccoli..for the last number of years eldest son has made a lovely sweet potato casserole...all smooth and whipped and calorie laden.....dessert is always pie....pumpkin, for sure...with whipped cream....and an apple and some kind of berry....I usually have some kind of dessert for one of my kids that doesn't care for pie....

This year, because of my broken wrist eldest daughter is hosting the family meal,.....hubby and I still plan on cooking the turkey and then taking it to her house for son-in-law to carve.....
If everyone comes....there might be as many as twenty.....one son and his girlfriend, are doing thanksgiving with her family and Christmas with ours this year and that is fine...that's what happens when they grow up and get connected with other families. Emma says she's coming but I'll truly believe it when I see her walk in the front door....not sure about Corey...it would be nice if he did since he hasn't come to one in a few years.....this year we hope to take my mom with us....it might be confusing for her, her dementia is slowly advancing....but I don't want to leave her at the retirement home, so we'll give it a try.

The plan is to celebrate on Sunday.....that is the day that works best....which is kind of nice cause then you have the holiday on Monday to recover....

I'm actually looking forward to a quiet, relaxing weekend....well, Sunday will be far from quiet but the other days, so far look good....

For the last three weeks I've been looking forward to getting my cast off on Tuesday...but, it would seem...as many people have suggested...that this wont be the case...people have said that this is just a 'check', apparently they remove the cast, take an exray and decide if the cast needs to be reapplied...well, a new one put on....I've been discouraged all week about this but I think they're probably correct...the arm and fingers are still swelling regularly and sometimes I still have some pretty significant pain from it. :-(. I think I'll probably be having another cast put on. Very frustrating since I had great plans for getting my house in order before winter this year....I was purging and organizing...I even had a written out schedule...the basement was supposed to be done for this weekend....not happening, and hubby has warned me that even when I finally have no cast that I'll probably have to take it easy with the arm for awhile.....sigh...you know what they say about the best laid plans.....

On Tuesday, I also have to go for an appointment with a social worker that apparently gives employment support ...Ben is having some significant difficulties with his job at Shoppers Drug Mart...it would seem that he's not doing as well as everyone hoped...then, in a conversation with a worker about something else, this subject came up and she said that there was this employment services that could go into his workplace and help him work out the trouble spots with Ben and his employer....good thing! I hope it works cause I would hate to see him lose his job!

This whole world of intellectually delayed kids in the adult world is a difficult journey to travel and wade thru....they should really give you a manual!

So, that's my world right now....still a little unsettled but that seems to be the new norm.....no quilting yet, which is a bummer.....but I still go to class and have fellowship with the ladies so that's nice.....

Take care everyone and have a wonderful weekend!