Accident Update

Howdy, friends & family!
Yep, I'm still alive and kicking...well, maybe not kicking yet.  My whole right side is one solid black and blue mark and I've got a knot on my chest wall that hurts if I even LOOK at it.  I just can't believe all this has happened.  We saved so hard and long for that car, our baby, and now in just a moment it is totaled to smithereens.   I'm glad to be alive, of course, and I think God everyday for watching over me.  But I'm still quite depressed over the whole deal.  I still haven't heard from the claim adjuster about the car yet, but hopefully they will call soon and we can get a rental car soon to tie us over for a little bit until our next car.

My husband is still in the hospital, but his lungs are improving.  Unfortunately, they found a lump in his groin, so he will have to have an ultrasound of the area.  Hopefully it is nothing.  We need some good news for a change!!!  So please help me pray for him.  He was in the hospital LAST year in July, too!!  July is turning into to a sucky month!!!

We had a doozy of a storm last night, so my father-in-law will have the internet connection off until they return from their trip in four days.  So don't worry if you don't hear from me.  As soon as it's back on, I'll keep you informed of our happenings.

Hope you all have a great day!!!!
God bless you all~~

PS.....I've got almost the whole Janet Evanovich collection in HARDCOVER (I'm missing the sixteenth book) in which I wish to sell as I got them all on my Kindle.  They are in excellent condition.  I've even got the brand new one, "Smoking Seventeen."  Buy one or buy them all!  I'm reasonable...name a price and they are yours.  A price ABOVE $5.00, though, please.  You can write in the comments that you are interested and I'll get back to you.

Be Sure To ALWAYS buckle up!

Howdy, friends!
I wish I could start this post on a positive note, but I can't.  Two very unfortunate things happened to my husband and me yesterday, July 22.  The first thing, my husband is back in the hospital with pneumonia.  He started spiking temps on Thursday night and it hurt for him to cough.  He was in so much pain, I had no choice but to take him to the Urgent Care, which in turn sent us to the hospital.  He's on two very strong antibiotics to kill the germs, but as of today, it still hurts him to cough.  He was in so much pain, that not even Morphine IV could control it!  At first they thought he collapsed a lung, but according to the X-ray, it showed a bad case of pneumonia.  So he's been in the hospital for two days now.  Imagine being sick like that and in the hospital and having your wife tell you something awful like this.......

I had an early morning doctor's appointment on Friday at 8:45am.  I didn't get home from the hospital ER until about 2:30am.  So needless to say, I was pooped.  I got up at 7:30am, got dressed and went about my usual schedule.  I remember driving down the road clearly, then all of sudden, my car hit 30 feet of brick wall and it flipped over!!!  I remember being in the car, upside down, held in place by a very tight seat belt that was choking my neck.  Needless to say, I unbuckled it and dropped to the ground (or the roof of the car, as the case may be.)  I tried to get out the passenger side door, but it was jammed shut.  I could hear voices outside saying something about gas, and I started to panic!  Luckily, a good samaritan got me out of the car and over to the curb away from the car.  This really nice lady sat with me until the ambulance arrived.  I was extremely shaking and upset and when I looked back at our poor car, I just wanted to vomit.  We had saved so long and so hard and now I'd gone and wrecked it all up.  I wanted to die at that very instant!

The ambulance came and loaded me up on a back board and C-collar, so I couldn't move my neck at all!!  They started an IV and warned me I was in for a bumpy ride.  They weren't kidding!!  The lady that sat with me called my in-laws, so they could come to the hospital with me.  I was in the ER for about 7 hours and had a CT scan, X-rays, and an MRI.  Luckily, all it showed was a bone spur in my back and 3 cracked ribs.  They said I was extremely lucky to not have been hurt worse and by wearing my seat belt.  I will never again forget how important those are!!  They let me go in the afternoon and said that I would feel worse before I felt better.  Boy, were they right!!  I woke up today and I hurt so bad where the rib was cracked and I've got black and blue marks all over.  My neck, where the seat belt was, is all bruised, along with my whole chest.  I can barely move my arms.  But I thank God above for watching over me and getting me out safe.  Thank you, Jesus!!!

And a HUGE thank you to my sister, Barbara and my mother-in-law for taking such good care of me.  They got my prescriptions and stayed with me the whole time in the ER.  I am so fortunate to have such a great family!!

After we left the ER, we went off to another hospital to see how my hubby was doing as we hadn't heard from him all day.  Come to find out, he was still in ER holding waiting for a bed in the tower.  We got there just as they were moving him to a nice room.  The moment I saw his face, I started to cry and tell him what had happened.  He was shocked, naturally, but glad that I was alive and not paralyzed or something worse!!!  I hated having to tell him our beautiful car was toast, but as everyone in the room said, that is just a "thing."  It can be replaced.  I cannot.  But I still feel really, REALLY bad about ruining the car.  I may NEVER drive again!!!

That's my news and if I could ask a favor of you to please pray for us.  For my husband's speedy recovery and for a car that we can afford FAST.  Life sure does SUCK without a car!!

Hope you all are well and are having a good weekend.
Hugs to you all,
A VERY SORE MISSY!!

Thanks, Gina, for my beautiful new siggy!

Painful Weekend

Howdy, everyone!  I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, I just have had so many problems with my back and left shoulder that sitting up in a chair for any length of time is torture!!  I figured I'd come and spend a short while on the computer while my hubby is taking a nap.  Now, if I had my laptop (which is in laptop heaven) I could lay in bed and compute in comfort.  But not any time too soon.  Gotta get the surgery, then a job, then I can get a laptop and a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader.  I've already got my wish list!!!

My hubby is doing "status quo."  He has had some periods of nausea and vomiting since coming home from the hospital.  We never really "fixed" anything while he was there!  We had to go to get his prescription pain patches at the pharmacy and when I came home, I read the little insert that comes with the prescription information.  I read off the side effects and Frankie had almost EVERY ONE of the side effects.  Painful stomach, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, ect.  And those are just the side effects Frankie has had....so we are going to ask Dr. P about this.  He is Frankie's pain specialist and orders the patches.  Maybe if he tried something different, he could stop heaving up his breakfast and lunch every day!!!  It has to be something with the medicines he takes.  He's had about every test known to man and they keep coming up negative.  Which is good news, but also news that we haven't found the source of his misery yet.  Poor guy!!  Keep your fingers crossed that his appointment on Wednesday of next week will go OK and maybe get him on something else.

I've been hanging in there.  I've been on 10mg of Prednisone for about two weeks now.  It's horrible.  I'm so stiff in the morning, I feel like the tin man in the "Wizard of Oz."  I need some joint oil to spray on......I wish!!  And next week I should find out if my bariatric surgery is covered.  If it is, then I start all the tests and I work on going down to the final 5mg of Prednisone.  That would make it going from 20mg (which I've taken for years now) to 5mg a day.  I think I'll have to go in for my surgery on a stretcher!!  Which, if you think about it, I will be doing that anyway!!  LOL.....  don't mind me.  I'm demented!!

We've been having a beautiful weather snap, too.  It was in the 70's today.  But I hear we are due for rain on Monday and cooler temps.  Of course!  We just had the car washed!

Nothing else to report.  I'm just tryin' to survive and get through each day with hope that my insurance will cover my surgery.  I never have hoped or wished for anything like this or as strongly as I do now.  I NEED this surgery to help me back to a healthy weight.  And then I'm gonna STAY that way if it's the last thing I do!!

Hope you all are well and enjoying the weekend!!!
Big hugs,
God bless,

HOME!

Howdy, everyone!

Sorry this update is a little late.  I've been enjoying my hubby's time at.....HOME!!!  He came home yesterday from the hospital.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the answer we were seeking for in why he is always nauseated and vomiting.  I think it's just going to be something we have to live with - like his leg and muscle pain from taking his cancer drug, Gleevec.  He couldn't have that upper GI test again due to there was still too much barium inside his system.  So the doctor said he could have that as an outpatient and said that if he could eat some regular food and keep it down, he could go home.   So they sent him up a tray with a chicken salad sandwich (which he wouldn't eat....he doesn't do "salad") and replaced that with a ham and cheese sandwich and some chips.  It was between lunch and dinner, so he had to take what he could get or wait around for supper.  I didn't want that....I wanted to get out of there!  So did my husband.  He said that earlier that morning, in his old room, his new room-mate flipped out and it was really quite scary.  Security was called and they had him in restraints.  So they moved Frankie out to another room.  With a much nicer room-mate!

So far, so good.  No vomiting since he has been at home.  He found that if he takes his nausea pill with the Reglan, before he eats, he is OK.  He's had sandwiches, some Pop Tarts, iced Tea, chicken and soup.  I'd say he was a little hungry after four days of nothing!

I'm just glad he's home!  My shoulder is killing me after lugging that damn walker in and out of the trunk.  My hubby is so kind to take care of that for me.  But when he's in the hospital, it's all me!  I tried going up to his room on the 6th floor without the walker and regretted it so much.  I was in even worse pain, because of my lower back.  When I use the walker, it helps keep me "aligned."  If I don't have it, I hunch over and with having all my weight on me, it really hits my back something awful!

Well, that's about it.  I better get off the computer and put my feet up before they start swelling.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and don't want to go all swollen up!  I have enough problems to deal with!  Hope you all have a great day and thank you for your thoughts, prayers and comments.  And please do sign my guest book down at the bottom of this page.  I LOVE seeing who stops by!  :0)

God bless you all,
Until next post,

PRAY

Howdy, everyone!

STILL NO NEWS from the hospital.  Frankie is still there, still bored and still hasn't had any food.  He tells me he definitely is hungry and all they show on TV is FOOD!!  Isn't that just life?  Same goes for when you are on a diet.  EVERYWHERE you look is food of some sort.  He is supposed to have the upper GI test today and if all is normal, my boy is comin' home!!  So please pray that will be the case.  He's had every test known to man and they all are coming up clean, so he might as well come home and we'll start over again.  But this time, I'm going to make sure he eats smaller, more frequent meals and doesn't move around too much right after he eats.  He tells me that is when he gets nauseated.  It will work out perfectly if he is released today, as he has his primary care doctor appointment tomorrow.

You noticed how I named this post "PRAY"?  Well, yesterday, I received a call from Banner Bariatric clinic and guess what?  They have ALL my records.  FINALLY!!!  After all the calling and visiting of doctors to have them fax their reports to the clinic has paid off.  So the next step now is they are going to submit my records to the insurance agency to see if they will approve the surgery.  This is where I need your help.  Please pray with me and my family that they will approve the surgery.  I told my hubby that the NEXT person in the hospital is going to be ME.....for my surgery!  Sooooo.....if the insurance approves, then I have to go to the educational class about what to expect with the surgery and life AFTER the surgery.  And I've also got a whole page full of tests to do....labs, upper GI and doppler studies to make sure I don't have a blood clot again.  I already had the IVF filter placed (to prevent blood clots in my lungs) when I was in the hospital with the blood clot in my left leg in 2009.  That was so much fun having that sucker placed, too.  I kid you NOT!  I'm just glad it's in and I decided to keep it in, as you can have it out in 5 weeks after it is placed.  I chose to keep it in.  I went through hell getting it there, it's staying!

I'm so nervous.  And scared.  And excited.  So many emotions swirling around me.  I keep thinking, this is so drastic, removing 85% of my stomach.  But it has to be done or the statistics aren't looking too good that I will make it to 65 yrs old if I don't lose this weight.  And I'm excited in that I can take "belly" photos too, like I see on the pregnancy blogs.  Except in MY case, we all clap when my belly goes DOWN, not UP!  Lol..... no, don't worry, I won't gross you out.  I'll just show before and after pics.  :0)  With me clothed, of course!  And, of course I'm scared.  Who likes surgery?  But I tell myself this is just one moment in time.  I keep going forward and with the good Lord above watching over me, I will be OK.

Well, gotta run.  (I wish!)  Shall I say, gotta move?  I'm not moving too well these days due to the fact I'm on just 10mg of prednisone a day.  I used to be on 20mg.  I have to get down to 5mg for surgery.  Man, this is a bummer!!  Anyway, before I go, wanted to share with you a cute pic of Jack.  He is underneath my computer desk and I was just typing away, not a care in the world, and I go to put on my massager slippers and I'm having a problem putting my feet into them.......

I swear, there is NOT one thing in this house he has not laid his furry body on!!!  What a cat!

Oh, and before I leave, please notice my fancy new guest book below.  Please sign it!  I'll love you for life!!  OK, don't wanna scare you.  :0)  I would appreciate it, though.  Right now I feel like a dork because the only entry there is mine.  I'm signing my own book....reminds me of high school!!!

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!
God bless,

Thanks, Gina, for my nifty siggy logo! :0)

Meet Me On Monday Blog Hop!

Howdy, everyone!!!!

Still NO news to report about Frankie.  He is bored as Hell in the hospital and actually, feeling better than he has in a long time.  We just don't know why he is vomiting at home so much!!!  I told him yesterday it may be a psychological thing.  I mean, since his surgery in June, he's done nothing but throw up after most of his meals.  Your brain gets used to one way of life if it's lived that way long enough, so breaking that "habit" is hard.  So he eats and then thinks, "I'm nauseated, I must get rid of this nice food I just ate!"  You can do that and not even be aware of it!  So when he comes home, and when he eats, he's gonna have smaller, more frequent meals and remain still for awhile after eating.  See if that helps.  Who knows!

He couldn't have the upper GI test yesterday due to too much barium in his system from the CT scan contrast.  So he'll get a suppository to help him "evacuate" the barium.  Sounds fun!  I am sooooo glad he is in the HOSPITAL bathroom and not ours here.  I love him dearly, but with how my shoulder is and my legs, I just can't clean another thing!  I'll keep ya posted on how he is coming along.  Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts.  We apprecriate it.  :0)

I'm in the midst of washing up all our towels.  "Mount Towel" was spilling over the top like a volcano that had erupted so I figured it's time to dig in and get 'em done!  In the meanwhile, I thought I would give "Meet Me On Monday" blog hop a try!  You answer five questions and get to know your fellow bloggers.  Try it with me!


  Questions:

1.  What is your favorite kind of fudge?
2.  Is there snow outside your window?
3.  What is your favorite meal of the day?
4.  Do you text on your cell phone?
5.  Waffles or pancakes?
------------------------------------MY ANSWERS--------------------------------------
1.  Most definitely peanut butter chocolate fudge!  Yummy!

2.  Nope!  I haven't seen snow in over 15 years now, since moving to Arizona from freezing Michigan.  I will always remember the white snow flurries of my childhood, though!  :0)

3. I LOVE lunch.  Club sandwiches, grilled cheese & turkey, hamburgers....you name it!

4.  I probably am the ONLY one in America that DOESN'T text on my cell phone.  In fact, I hardly even USE my cell phone.  I keep it only for emergencies.  Am I out of date or what??!!  We can't afford those "smart" phones or the deposit we'd have to pay for any other plan, so we'll stick with Trac Phone for awhile more.

5.  Oh, no doubt about it...........

The more fruity, the better!!  :0)

OK, your turn now!  Below is the linky for this fun blog hop.  I haven't been hoppin' in awhile, so this will be fun and get my mind off my troubles for awhile.  Have a great Monday, everyone!
God bless,

Another Update!

Frankie just called me and he had the scope test and they found NOTHING.  While that is good news, it's also discouraging because we still don't know what's wrong.  He will be having an upper GI series next, to check his swallowing.  Maybe there's something there.  Who knows!!!

When he called me, he sounded like a drunken soldier.  He has NO PAIN at this point in time!  LOL...I told him to enjoy it, having no pain.  So he's going to sleep and I'll go and watch him sleep....or probably fall asleep with him!!

Please pray we figure this mysterious puzzle out soon.  We're getting desperate!

God bless!
Missy

Testing Day

Hello, everyone!

Just thought I'd give a little update on my favorite "patient."  Frankie just called me and they are taking him down for the endoscopy of his esophagus and stomach.  I bet they find some strictures there (narrowing of the esophagus or stomach) and hopefully the scope will widen the blocked areas up so food can pass into the intestines and NOT remain in his stomach!  Won't that be nice?  So I'll keep ya posted as soon as I know things.

My mother-in-law goes to this neat accupuncturist and he taught her some massaging techniques that ACTUALLY helps fibromyalgia pain!  She has started doing the techniques on me and I feel better pain-wise.  I mean, I still have pain, but a least it's not so debilitating that I can't go see Frankie and wrestle around with the walker, too.  Heck, I got the walker down pat.  I heft it up into the trunk all in one smooth motion.  It doesn't do much for my shoulder, but I'm wearing one of those lidoderm patches on my shoulder.  That helps to soothe it.

I slept like the dead last night.  Took me a long time to fall asleep, as I hate being in the bed alone.  Jackie, the little turkey that he is, slept in his OWN bed last night.  I guess because Frankie is gone, there's no need to sleep on the big bed!!!  Little turkey!  I could have used his furry company.  Cats are so funny.  And Jack has gotten used to his sleeping with Frankie every night.  Oh, well.  I put the "Weather" channel on and it droned me off to sleep after awhile.

Well, I'm gonna be off to the hospital soon, so I'll close this post.  Hope you all have a good Sunday.  And thank you for all your thoughts and prayers for my husband and me and my family.  God bless you all!  :0)

Until next post,

Here We Go AGAIN!

Hello, everyone!!

Well, as the title of the this post reads, HERE WE GO AGAIN!  Back to the hospital for Frankie.  Ever since he had his surgery in June (for all you that are newbies to my blog, you can read about all his surgery complications in the June and July posts in the archive) for the AVM in his intestines, he's had problems with severe nausea and vomiting.  At first, it just was every other week or something like that.  Nothing too serious, I thought, as he is on a lot of medications that can cause some stomach upset.  But this past week, it has been very severe and he has been vomiting after every meal.  And I don't mean a little heave....I mean a GIANT heave and I'm cleaning it off our bathroom wall and floor behind and around the toilet.  I don't know where it all comes from, since there can't be too much more down there!  He can't keep anything in!  And his blood pressure was low, lips pale and very dry, he showed all signs of classic dehydration.  Sooooo.....we called Cigna, his insurance and they sent us to their urgent care.  I brought along my camera to break up the boredom as we have been down this road so many times.....here he is in the urgent care.  As you can see, he looks just thrilled to be there!  LOL....

 

I even took a little video, too, of the experience.

I hope nobody thinks I'm goofy or anything....just a little something to break up the time.
We waited for quite awhile in the urgent care and then saw this really nice young doctor that told us there wasn't much he could do there.  Even if he got a CT scan right there, he'd have to send him to the hospital anyway if it found anything.  So off we went to the hospital.  We went to the same one where he had his surgery in June, since they had all the records there.  It was a zoo in there!!  I knew we were in for quite some wait and I was right.  I took another picture of him when we finally got a room.

Doesn't he look all nice and comfy with a heated blanket, TV remote and nurse call button planted in his right hand?  Meanwhile, poor wife is in the corner shivering and snapping pics and videos like some kind of maniac!!  LOL!  To make matters worse, my diabetes decides to act up and what do I have in my purse?  Sugarless gum!!!  So Frankie was a dear and asked for some juice and crackers for me.  The nurse wasn't real thrilled with this and I only got two packages of crackers and one very small juice.  Oh, well.  I treated it like it was a rib-eye meal!  Neither of us had eaten in quite awhile and I completely forgot to stock my purse with some sugar candy for when my sugar gets low.  I hate diabetes!!!  I hope, if I ever get the bariatric surgery, that the diabetes will go away.  It has been known to happen with a lot of people who have the surgery.

Anyway, Frankie had blood work, an IV placed and then he had to have some yummy contrast for a CT scan of his abdomen.  The contrast was berry fusion and he wasn't too excited about it, as he hates fruit.  I took another pic of him and his "cocktail."

 

Look at how thrilled he is!!!  :0)  I had to coax him every "sip" of the way!!  And he had two bottles to guzzle down.

He finally got the contrast down and then waited for a really long time for the CT scan. It was getting to be very late (around 11pm and we had started this adventure at 3pm) and it felt like my rear end was one with those comfy plastic chairs!!  My shoulder and legs were killing me.  I think what saved me was having my Literati e reader there and while Frankie watched TV, I read my book on my reader.  It was soooo nice!  And really did make the time go a little quicker.  

The ER doctor was really nice, too.  He stuck his head in at one point and said that even if the CT scan showed nothing, he was still going to be admitted because his heart enzymes were elevated.  He thought it had something to do with all the vomiting.  I'm glad he told me that plan, as Frankie was falling asleep and I was exhausted myself.  So I left him like this:

He looks so serene in this picture, don't you think?  He's in good hands.  I kissed him good-bye and left.  I actually could find my way to the front lobby without any instruction!  The ER is like a rat's maze and I usually get so lost!!   I found the car, hefted my walker into the trunk and I zoomed off.

When I got home, it hit me.  I missed Frankie already.  Do we know how to ring in 2011 or what?  I hate this so much, I could scream.  I want them to FIX MY HUSBAND NOW!!  And have it last forever!!!  I want my surgery NOW and lose 150 pounds.  I want to go back to work NOW and get money so we can move out on our own.  I want so many things, yet it seems like we keep landing in the same spot.  Nowhere!  Anyway, my sweet mother in law met me at the door with a nice bowl of soup and a grilled cheese and ham sandwich.  She is so sweet to me! :0)

Jackie was really confused to have just me in the bed.  He laid on Frankie's side for almost the whole night.  While I was gone, though, he got "mad" and bored and climbed on top of the computer and my desk and knocked over our external hard drive and left kitty litter trail on my keyboard.  I may have to close Mr. Jack out of the computer room while I'm gone!!  So then he wanted into the towel cabinet and the second I opened it for a towel, he rushed in.  I went to scold him and he looked at me with his cute, killer face and I ran for the camera instead!

The little stinker wouldn't look up when I called his name....he knew he wasn't supposed to be there!!  But he looked adorable, all the same.

Frankie called me this morning and said he didn't get into a room until 3:30am last night.  And the CT scan was normal.  So the gastro doctor came and they are going to put the camera scope down his throat and into his stomach and see what's up...or down!  He'll have that tomorrow.  They have the poor guy NPO (nothing by mouth).  I'll be going to see him soon, so I'll close this post.  Please keep us in your prayers and I will do the same for you.

Hugs to all!!

God bless you,

Siggy bar by Helena