Jeri, glad to hear that they at least know what is going on. It might have been caused from all the vomiting as well - I think she has had way more than normal. It will be really hard to avoid spicy things for sure. I would have thought they would have recommended surgery - but I am not sure I have ever heard of anyone her age having that.
I went to Arkadelphia today to watch Jessica's brief walk across a little stage in the coffee shop of the student center. She was escorted by one of the Senior football players (he was 6' 4") that she asked since she was representing the Grid Iron Girls - then I worked on costumes because all the girls costumes have to have a modification! Late this afternoon they found out the results and Jessica made the top 20! She was SOOO excited! I don't have a clue what type of dress we have to have by next Saturday - I will find out sometime tomorrow. She has the "all nighter" practice for Tiger Tunes tonight that will not really go all night but will probably go til midnight. Then tomorrow they have Tiger Serve day from 9 - 12, then tunes work day from 1 - 4, then she has to be at the football game at 5:30 I believe - so somewhere in all that MAYBE we can discuss what she will need! :) This will be a crazy week with homecoming and Tiger Tunes. But it will be exciting too.
Sandra, glad your patients are improving!! Hope they are back to 100% soon - it has been a long ordeal for you all.
Charlotte and Cindy, Kyle and Maddie are getting ready to redo a hard maple bedroom suit that he has. It has some rings and stains on the tops of the furniture that they are going to have to sand out ,..... but they think they want to go back with a darker stain than what it is now. Will they need to stain all the existing stain off and get to bare wood to start with a darker color? I wasn't really sure, but I assumed so. I was hoping they would just do the chalk paint - although my MIL would probably roll in her grave since it had been hers..... but it is so much easier than all the sanding!
Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are actually supposed to have nice weather!
Genna
September - the year is flying by!
Wonderful news all the way around Genna!!! I know that Jessica is excited!!! Congrats!!!
WhooHoo, Genna! Congratulations to Jessica for making the top 20!! I know she must be thrilled.
Congratulations to Jessue! I know she is excited!
Genna they need to google gel stains. That's what everyone is using now. Min Wax and Rustoleum makes it. Hey don't need to sand the entire piece but need to use a stripper. They make some really good ones now. They will figure it out and have fun doing it together.
I never did anything to help Jeff with his dorm room or apartment before he got married. He had his own ideas. Seems the boys are following suite. Kristi kept asking Justin if he was coordinating with the other 5 boys so they would know what he needed to take. He said no! After asking several times she finally gave up and decided to just let him figure it out. She asked if anyone was taking dishes - did he need to. His solution was he only needed a plate and a fork so that's exactly what he took. A plate, fork, knife and spoon. He said he would wash it every time he used it!
Some of the boys had gotten there before they took Justin down. One of them told Kristi he had vacuumed before they got there. She told him she was impressed he had a vacuum cleaner. He said - oh I don't have one but those girls upstairs have everything- why they even have mops and brooms!!LOL. I would love to be a fly on the wall.
Jeff showed me pictures of Clints room and it is really nice. Very large. He has a private room and has use of a full kitchen directly across the hall. A friend of Kristi's had loaned him a REALLY nice sofa. Very neutral color. Then Clint and his girlfriend went shopping for accessories. Jeff said she is very frugal and good with coupons. For about a hundred dollars they bought throw pillows, a picture for the wall, a couple of Ikea tables (coffee and side table), and a rug for the front of the sofa. She helped him get it all arranged and set up.
Clint started off his RA job with a bang. There is one RA for each of the 10 floors in his building and they take turns manning the front desk. They have been trained to be on the look out for kids that may need medical assistance. The college actually has paramedics on staff. Well Clint had a late shift on the very first day of school. Some young man decided to try his wings. He was so drunk 2 other guys were having to hold him up. So Clint called the paramedics and they ended up taking him to the hospital. He had texted Kristi what had happened and she was afraid it might upset him. Nope just doing his job. Texted her back that it was no big deal! He will be really good at it. He is a stickler for following the rules. When he was a LaCrosse referee he whipped an adult coach inline that had been a problem for years. First time he tried to cause problems with Clint he simply pulled out his flag and threw it down and told the guy that was the first flag - the second flag you are out of the game. Everyone else had been trying to talk to the guy and conjol him. Clint simply followed the rules and solved a long time problem!
It didn't matter to Clint that he was a kid dealing with an adult.
Thanks everyone - she is super excited ..... and exhausted from all the tunes practices and the meetings and tests. She had 3 tests this past week. Hopefully that means there won't be many test this week with Tunes performances starting on Wednesday night on the one that they give for all the students. Then they will have performances Thursday and Friday night, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Saturday night. It is a crazy hectic time for them, but overall it is usually fun. Her group's directors are not very good this year - and it has really made things difficult for everyone, but hopefully the show goes well. Getting a dress for homecoming was kinda crazy because the weekend was so full there was NO WAY we could go shopping, so we have just ordered a ton of dresses off line and will hopefully use one of those. If not, we have a backup dress that we bought back in May that she could use if we don't like the way any of the others fit. NOW, if they will just come in quickly so we can have time to try them on! Most of them she paid for faster shipping if they will just get the order processed quickly.
Alex left yesterday for his visiting rotation at Lexington. There is a one hour time difference and he had to be at the orientation meeting very early this morning.
Charlotte, I laughed out loud at Justin's one plate, one fork, etc......... that sounds like my boys at least on the dishes side. Sounds like they have it figured out that the girls will have anything upstairs that they need to borrow.
I had planned to work in my yard most of the weekend, but Kyle and Maddie's project kept me busy most of Saturday. They did most of the work, but I helped get them started because they had never done anything like that....but I had to also help clean out the piece, fix breakfast, clean up the breakfast mess, etc. It ate into my day a LOT..... then we had to shower and get ready to go to Arkadelphia to the game so I didn't really get to touch my beds. I did spend a big part of the day out there yesterday and I made a lot of progress on cleaning up my foundation bed. I didn't get quite half finished but I came really close. I had to water everything down with a hose as I went because it is so dry...... I just ran out of steam and daylight. I also did about 6 loads of laundry yesterday. I felt like I had accomplished a lot but felt like I had been ran over at the end of the day! :)
I have some areas in this foundation bed that are kinda thin on mulch. Would ya'll add mulch now or wait until spring? I am not sure which way, if either, would help in trying to prevent germination of the weeds. I guess if I can get it done, I will just try to get it down this fall to help insulate for the winter - although most of the places that are thin are not right up next to plants, but just covering the vacant spaces in the beds.
Hope we get some rain today! There is a small chance.........
The bed I dug up was like concrete, I don't know how the weeds even lived in it. I watered it down, then put pine needles and leaves on it and then added what topsoil I had here and watered it down good again. I got more topsoil to add before I replant when I can get back to it, maybe tomorrow. The plants are all Iris and daylilies so they are just laying on the ground waiting.
Some places I couldn't even get the shovel to go into the ground, it has really been a dry summer after so much rain in the spring !
Yeah, it was wet here up until the end of July - but when it stopped, it stopped! I think we have only had a couple of very light sprinkles since then. I couldn't do anything without wetting it down! I was thinking the same thing but it didn't seem to slow the grass down! :(
It's really dry here too. I keep thinking as late as it is I don't need to water a lot but I am having a hard time keeping my hydrangeas wet enough. The irrigation system doesn't get some back in the back wet enough. I've had to hand water in addition to turning the irrigation system on. I'm afraid that if I don't keep enough water on them I will lose some this winter.
I did get out late this afternoon and pick up a bunch of dead limbs in the back yard and cut back a few things in the front. They pick up yard waste tomorrow. I had some salvia that had fallen over onto the lawn. Things just didn't seem to do that well this summer. We had such a wet cool first of the summer and then hot and dry the rest.
Yea - from one extreme to the other........... I think most of my plants went into shock
We started the morning off with more excitement than I care for. I thought I heard a noise and came downstairs to find Richard laying in the middle of the floor in den door. He had his pants around his ankles! He had gone to the bathroom and forgot to pull them up then walked down the stairs that way! I have one of those stair baskets on the last three steps. It was mushed on one side and in the middle of the floor too. So it appears he landed on it and then fell on down. He probably only fell a few steps or may have just slip on his back. I tried talking him through getting up but could tell that would never work. He is too heavy to try to lift myself - didn't want to hurt myself too. My strong younger neighbor was home but I was afraid he would also need help. So I ended up calling 911 and telling them he had Alzheimer's and had fallen and I needed assistance getting him up. They sent a small fire truck with 3 men right out. They were really nice and got him up without any problem. It did take 2 of them. Richard appears to be fine. He was just a little shook up at first. I don't know what I'm going to do with him and the stairs!
I tried putting a barricade up one night and he was really upset the next morning when he found it before I got up. He can get up and down the stairs if he is dressed properly. But he is bad about not pulling up his pants and one day recently he put both legs in one of his PJ legs!!! Then he walked down the stairs like that. He could barely move his feet so I'm not sure how he managed to go down the stairs!!!
Charlotte, did you try a baby gate ? You said barricade so not sure what you meant. Cayla puts a baby gate at Eli's doorway when he goes to bed. Of course she has a moniter in her bedroom so she hears him when he gets up. He could see through the baby gate and it might not be so traumatic as something else. It might not be enough if he can walk downstairs with both legs in one side of his pants. He might just crawl over it.
How is your leg doing now ? So glad the people came immediately to help you.
Goodness, Charlotte, that is so scary! He could have really hurt himself. I'm glad he didn't!
We've had little drizzles of rain and periods of cloudy weather for the past several days. I wish it would just rain and get on out of here. It's still sort of humid but not hot. Yes, the summer wasn't kind to our plants either. We were gone on vacation when most of the dry weather occurred and I'm thankful for that. The sprinkler system was on which saved most things, but I still have work to do to replace a couple of things. I'm waiting another month of so before I do it though. And I also need to replace some mulch.
I have a baby gate I bought to try to keep the dogs upstairs if I needed to. That didn't work after we got Charlie! He would just slip through the banister railings in the hallway and jump on to the stairs. I stopped using it because I was afraid he was going to hurt himself by jumping too far.
What I did the other night was tie a sheet across the upstairs opening. Then I had a piece of light weight plywood I put in front of that. He had moved the plywood and was trying to figure out how to get the sheet down. Not sure what he would do with the baby gate! I think I probably need to buy a camera that will allow me to monitor him on my iphone. There is never a dull moment
around here!!
Monday morning I got up to find he had cleared everything off the top of a chest by the sofa. There was a music box in the floor and two large ceramic birds in the floor. One with his head broken off (can be glued without being noticeable). I'm sure he was trying to turn on the lamp on the chest and couldn't see or something! So I've decided to start leaving that lamp on all the time as the first thing he does when he comes downstairs is to turn that lamp on. Tasks that are very simple for us become very difficult for him. He just doesn't have any depth perception,
I know that was very unsettling for you both!!! Do you have a monitor in Richard's room so you know when he gets up?
What a day this has been!!! I don't have a monitor Jeri but I've got to get one soon!
I was in the garage working on a piece of furniture this afternoon. I went up to check on Richard and found another huge mess! He had been to the bathroom and again didn't pull up his pants. On his way back into his room he had grabbed a big picture hanging right inside the doorway over a table. It's fairly heavy with glass - maybe 3x 4 ft. He had totally pulled it off the wall (big hanger, nail and all) and it had fallen between his legs when he fell back on to a small stool by the table with a pillow on top of it! The lamp on the table was in the bed and everything that was on the table was on the floor! I don't how he managed to pull the picture off the wall! Thank goodness the glass didn't break! I guess he was feeling for something to hold onto and of course the picture moved and from there I don't know! How he managed to keep from getting hurt during all that I don't know! I'm calling his doctor tomorrow. I'm wondering if maybe he has a UTI or something. There want be anything left of the house if this keeps up!
Really scary and I believe it was by the grace of God that Richard didn't manage to hurt himself on the outside but I expect he will be feeling it, if not tomorrow than for sure the next. Those jars just shake our poor bodies up and we don't bounce back so easily now. That would make sense that he have some kind of infection but it could be anything. Probably a good idea to get in touch with his doctor.
Charlotte you have had a really trying day, God bless you! If you get a moniter try to get one with more than one handset. The one Cayla has will clip on your clothes. She kept it at the door to go get the mail and the other one in the bedroom.
I want to get a monitor that will also work with my iphone. So I can monitor things if I leave to run an errand etc. I did some looking tonight but didn't decide on anything. I did get my baby gate out and told him I was going to put something in front of the stairs to remind him not to go down without me. I am also putting a sign on it I did give him a couple of ibuprofen. He is out cold now. I hope he is not too sore tomorrow.
I may just get a baby monitor like you're talking about Sandra with 2 monitors to use on a regular basis and then get another one that works with me iphone to monitor things if I'm gone ( to even check what's going on if I have someone here to watch him).
That sounds like a great idea, but wouldn't it require a camera of some sort ?
Yes it does require a camera. They are very small ones. It's like a security camera:
I'm at ER with Richard. I called his doctor's office this morning. They were really short staffed and they were not sure how long it would take to call me back so I told them I was going to take him to ER. Richard's daughter came over and helped me get him in the car and has been here with us until just a few mixtures ago. She had to go PU Sarah from school. We got here around 10:00 and they took us on back in just a few minutes but once they got through with the initial things we've just been sitting and waiting. The doctors office called me and they know he is here. His office is just across from the front door of the hospital. They did an X-ray, a CT scan and drew blood. They are going to start him on an IV but haven't started it yet. I think they are going to admit him. He does need to get thinks straighten out before he goes home. I still suspect he might also have a UTI but don't yet.
Richard is being admitted to the hospital. They are very full and we are still waiting on a room upstairs. His doctor is starting him on antibiotics. He plans on keeping him here several days and will probably send him to rehab for a while after that. He has some congestion and may also have a UTI. They don't gave the results back for it yet.
I'm glad they are gonna admit him. Sounds like the perfect plan for everybody but you Charlotte!!! You will really be played out tending to him at the hospital and everything else you already have on your schedule. I'm glad that Richard's daughter can help you some!!!
So glad you got Richard some help. I hope you don't have a relapse with your leg from all this.
We are headed to Birmingham finally today.
I'm glad too that Richard is in the hospital for some care. Better safe than sorry. It really sounded like something unusual was going on that caused his behavior to change so drastically. Get some rest and let us know when they have some results.
Good luck Sandra!
Charlotte, sorry to hear that Richard has been having so many problems. Thank goodness he hasn't broken anything in all these falls. I hope the antibiotics are helping to resolve whatever the problems are that has caused this change. Please let us know how he (and you) are doing.
Sandra, hope ya'll have a safe trip and get a good report!
No rain here .....they kept saying we might get some but we never did. We could sure use it! I have been busy getting ready for Tiger Tunes and Homecoming. I drove to Arkadelphia Tuesday to watch Jessica try on dresses that she had gotten in - they just wear business type dresses. Then I went over to the Tiger Den where they practice tunes, and they were all getting dressed and doing makeup and hair to get ready for a full mock up rehearsal. I went by to pick up my quilting ruler, cutting mat, and other supplies that were there since they were finished with them. I didn't want them to get strewn after it was over. I ended up having to help a few locate their costumes and get dressed before heading home. Then when I did get home I baked 200 cookies. Last night I made oreo balls and cake balls..... and I remember WHY I said I might never make them again! LOL...... I spent almost 5 hours doing less than 300 total. I could have had several hundred cookies or cupcakes in that amount of time! Shoot, I only spent about 8 hrs baking all those cookies and pies for Kyle's rehearsal and wedding! I am just WAYYYY too slow and the steps are too time consuming to be trying to make cake balls in large batches - or else I am missing the easy method! :) Anyway, I have every boxed up and ready to go to the first tunes show tonight. My SIL will meet Leigh and I there tonight. My sister, BIL, and I will go tomorrow night, and then we will be there most of the day on Saturday. I figure we will have to be at the field by 10 am and we won't get out of the finale tunes show until probably 10:30 or later, so it will be a long day. I may go to Jessica's apartment or my SIL's house and take a nap after the game! :)
My sister had to spend the night in the heart hospital last night to have an early morning angiogram this morning, and I was expecting them to have to do another stint, but thankfully they didn't find any new blockages and said her heart looks good!
Jeri, is Ashley feeling better??
Sandra I hope you all have a safe trip and get a good report.
The doctor came a few minutes ago and said Richard has a bronchial infection. He was also somewhat dehydrated. They are giving him IV's and antibiotics. He said his white count was low but is already going up. I think he might let him go home tomorrow. I bought him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich this morning. He ate the whole thing. That was the first whole sandwich he has eaten in several days.
I'm glad to hear your sister is ok Genna.
Glad they found the problem Charlotte - and he must be feeling better! That is good news. Hopefully, ya'll can go home tomorrow. How does he handle being in a different environment? Hope it is going ok.
Yes, she has a little time that she isn't balled up in pain which is better than no time. She is not dealing well with the prospect of this being her life. I have tried to tell her that she is in a flare up and it has to calm down but she's 18 and all she knows and understands is NOW. Her Dr. refused any kind of surgery.
Did they change her meds or ANYTHING? That is so scary to think she is in that much pain a lot of the time............ that constant pain works on your sanity. :( Especially at her age thinking she has to deal with that forever ~~ must seem like torture. I just keep praying she will get some relief!
Jessica has really had issues a lot of her hosimoto's systems this week - and we both know it is just from the crazy pace she has been keeping the past two weeks and the lack of sleep. Her ankles were swollen soooo badly Tuesday night that she could barely walk but I had her sleep with them propped up on several pillows and she said they finally went back down to normal. I have her drinking as much water as possible, trying to take her meds on a regular schedule and trying to keep her on decent foods .... which is hard with their practice and now production schedule..... but she is feeling a little better - just exhausted! She has a huge test this morning........and a quiz tomorrow that she has to get thru as well.
We cross posted, Charlotte!!
That is a relief Charlotte!! They didn't find any UTI? You had said that he had a sinus infection and you too.
Genna I'm exhausted just reading your post. Boy do I remember those days!!! LOL!!!
I totally missed why Yall are going to Birmingham today, Sandra.
Sandra I hope you all have a safe trip and get a good report.
The doctor came a few minutes ago and said Richard has a bronchial infection. He was also somewhat dehydrated. They are giving him IV's and antibiotics. He said his white count was low but is already going up. I think he might let him go home tomorrow. I bought him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich this morning. He ate the whole thing. That was the first whole sandwich he has eaten in several days.
I'm glad to hear your sister is ok Genna.
We had to go and tell the hand surgeon Goodbye! He said he didn't think therapy would do him any more good than it has already. He has been going 2x a week since June 1st. The report said his right hand was at 30% and his left 98%.
Tomorrow we go back to the shoulder surgeon to see if he is ready to start that therapy !
Poor Jerry has really gone through the surgery.
Richar's color looks much much better. He slept basically all afternoon. He was awake this morning. I brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when I got here around 8. Then I left around noon and was gone a couple of hours. Brought him another PB and J and he ate all of it. I got a little of the hospitable turkey down him tonight but not much. He does not like hospital food!! Actually what they have here is not bad.
They really need to start getting him up some. He hasn't been out of bed since he got here. His night nurse is a really good nurse with a great personality. He is wide awake now so she's going to have her hands full when I leave around 8:30.
They are still giving him an IV. He also had a antibiotic drip all day.
The doctor was here this morning. He is going to keep him here tonight and then tomorrow he is sending him to rehap. Not sure for how long. If the are in the hospital for 3 days Medicare will pay for rehap. I'm sure glad he is sending him to rehap.
Charlotte that is good news they are keeping him and then sending him to rehab, but what exactly will they do in rehab? Are there people who will help him with his daily functions?
Sandra, I hope you get good news today for Jerry. Saying goodbye to the hand doc was a good thing. I'm sorry Jerry will not have more use of his right hand though.
Genna, will be thinking about you this weekend. Know you're busy and hope y'all have a great time! Will look on FB for photos!!
Jeri, I'm sure Ashley is finding her diagnosis hard to deal with, but people do deal with hernias all the time. Just probably not a lot of younger people and certainly not a lot (or any) of her friends.
They will help build his strength back up. They will help him with his balance and walking. They will help him with his daily functions.
He has been really agitated today. A young lady from PT came in this morning to try get him up. He really gave her a hard time!! Told her to leave and don't ever come back! Was even shaking his fist at us! He has finally calmed down. He is usually pretty easy going. He stood up at the side of the bed for a few minutes but he was really shaky!
It doesn't take much down time to lose strength, Jerry started his walking this week and it made his calves sore. He only walked 20 minutes and after 2 days he was sore.
His doc took the pillow away from his sling and told him to use it for another week, told him not to pick up anything heavier than a glass of water with that hand. He starts therapy 2x a week for 4 weeks then go back and he will probably up it to 3x a week then.
I hope you are getting a little rest Charlotte, how is your leg doing?
They can't get him in rehab untilMon so they are going to keep him in the hospital until they get him in. Hopefully on Mon. This will be a skilled care facility/rehap. I looked it up and Medicare will pay for up to 100 days.
My leg is much better but not well. It is still tight and sore. Seems to do better when I walk and keep moving.
I know Jerry will really be glad to get rid of the sling!
My back has not been acting nice this week either, I think it is probably related to the season changing with mine. I hope that is why it isn't being nice !
I'm not sure they will be able to send Richard to rehap Mon or not. He is just really out of it. Very confused. He talks all the time about stuff that doesn't make any sense. I think he is dosing a lot of the time and talking about what he is dreaming. They came a little while ago and took another X-ray of his chest. He is very subceptible to lung problems. He has been flat of his back since Wed. He just doesn't ever seem to really rest.