Sunday, August 13, 2006 What's on your agenda for today????

Any volunteers to take my place at a bridal shower today? Please, huh, please??? (down on my knees begging). I have become such a hermit. If I can't go in my jeans, I'd rather not go at all?? I love these folks, I do - I just don't want to get dressed - (whining again). And when did I become a whiner? Spent yesterday afternoon going through my closet just trying to find something that I can still get into - oh yeah - THAT's when I started whining.....
40% chance of rain here today... Never did get any yesterday. DH watered for me last night and is washing my car for me this morning. I wonder what gives!
My little gem magnolia is putting on a new bloom this AM. One of the 20 glads I planted has actually bloomed but looks like it would rather not have(its kinda pathetic looking)...
Sat on the front porch early watching the moon and feeling so peaceful and serene..
Life is good!
Hey, do ya'll think I could pull a wagon behind the motorcycle to the roundup????Still hoping Mom comes so we can bring the car. Did I tell ya'll we are riding the bike to M'boro for Labor Day weekend to see the kids?!!!! I'm so excited I could pop. Haven't seen the babies in almost a year (and of course, I'll be glad to see my sons too)

I'll trade you! I have to go to graduation. Jeans are not an option. Formal attire, pantyhose (obviously a torture devise invented by men) and then my cap, gown and hood. Lovely. HOT HOT HOT.
One year they forgot to turn on the air conditioning. Hopefully not this year.
Does the bridal shower come with appropriately spiked punch? There may be a saving grace in there somewhere. ;-)
Cute kids! I forgot what a little girl looks like without a telephone attached to her ear. I'm saving money to have my daughters surgically removed. Not sure if she'll make it. The withdrawals will be terrible. She'll prolly go into shock!
Happy Sunday everyone!

Deb, CONGRATS on the graduation!!! I'm afraid little girls and cell phones seem to be born together these days. I could have strangled my son for giving both of his cell phones for their birthdays! I never get to talk to them anymore (the two standing together with the baby goat -tall one and dark one). The little one will still talk to me on the phone. The other two occasionally find time for email!
If the punch gets spiked, I'll have to be the one to do it. ...gives me an idea!

Thanks msfarmergirl. Not my graduation, my students. I refused to walk the last two times I graduated. I'm a clutz. Put me in front of a crowd and give me a complex instruction like "walk across the stage" and I get flustered. I'll trip on air. It's tricky stuff. :-) I dread graduation even more now. I get to call names, announce and then the dreaded hand shake. When you reach out to shake with the right hand, do you hand the degree under or over with the left hand? See why it's so confusing. Wow. I can't imagine they think that I can keep all these things straight at one time. I suppose I'll consider it a good day if I don't walk out on stage with my skirt and robes tucked into my pantyhose. LOL.

Spike the punch!!! Then drink some for me. Salut!

That's EXACTLY the same reason I'm crabby about this shower. I'll probably fall IN the punch! I'm such a clutz. My poor Mom holds her breath when I'm in social situations. She's so afraid I'll trip over something or burp or "cut the cheese"! or something dreadful to embarrass her. She so wanted a southern belle.
I should have realized about the graduation - of course its your students.....had a brain fa..!

LOL..with all the "Grace"s of the world. I'm a klutz too. I use to dance professionaly...very garcefeully while I was performing but walk off the stage and it's...trip,stumble,fall,bang into stuff. Still do. My legs look like I've been attack by a tribe of pygmies most of the time. Half the time it's from running into handles on the wheelbarrow or into the benches in the greenhouse...other half are"where'd that come from?"bruises.


To all the Grace's of the world...I salute you with these words of wisdom..."Way to go Grace.Have a nice "trip"?"

P

As I said the other day, I'm going to work on my Christmas cards and think cool weather thoughts. Well, the card ideas have progressed nicely, but the "cool" part has only happened because I have the A/C on full blast in the craft room!

Actually it has been at bit cooler out, low 90s instead of low 100s. I'll take that and be grateful.

ginni
(This is just a rough proto type - more work to come to finalize the actual finished card. I just *love* making paper!)

Good Morning Everyone!!!

I fear I must fire the maid. I knew she had been working less and less but I didn't realize she was doing almost nothing, that is until I got my new glasses Friday.

I must run, a maid's work is never done.

Judy

Good Afternoon Everyone

I am with you Judy. I thought that my house was clean until I got new glasses. Then for days I was convinced that the glasses were just dirty. LOL Now I just don't wear the glasses amazing the house stays cleaner.

I am going out to ride my horse. Everyone cross their fingers and say a little prayer. I haven't been on her in a year. I figure if I can get the saddle on her that will be a good start. That saddle gets heavier every year. It is still so cool here it just makes me want to go for a ride. Maybe I can talk some of the neighbors into going for a ride too.

Betty

Betty,

Don't we wish we had a maid to fire!!! Bob said perhaps my humor this morning was a bit fuzzy.

Maid Judy taking a break!!

Betty, I wish I lived close to you I would love to go for a ride - I LOVE horses and don't have any. We're getting RAIN!!! Yeah!!! I've been fighting these kidney stones ever since I went to the hospital on the 3rd - this is driving me crazy! I can't even go sit through church service! I think I'm going to clean some more seeds.

mjfulgham

Is laser surgery to bust them up, an option??

Judy

I'm going to go to another Urologist - the one I went to after the hospital I think was a little nuts. We looked at the x-ray and we couldn't see anything - he said it was in the bladder and "too hard to make out" but if I was still in pain this Wed. 8/16 he would schedule surgery - my question is if the stone is "too hard to make out" where the heck is he planning on doing surgery???? He SCARES me!!! I'm getting my regular Doc. to refer me to someone else. Thurs. night I thought I was going to have to go back to the ER I guess I had another stone. I don't know anything about all this!

mjfulgham, if your stones are too small to make out, then they're probably passable. And they don't do anything for you if the stones can pass on their own. They should give you a pain killer like hydrocodone or oxycodon though. But that's about all they'll do.

I've been dealing with them for about 12 years. A sign that one is passing is blood in the urine. You can also feel the pain travel from your kidney, down your side into your groin area. You will most likely have intense back pain, to the point that you can barely walk. It's a crippling kind of pain, as you may have already experienced. You may even pass out, so avoid driving when the pain is intense.

Last Sept I ended up in ER with a kidney that was about ready to explode. A stone had blocked my kidney and it couldn't drain. They put in a stent to roll the stone out of the way. And a month later I had lithotripsy to bust up the stones because all of mine were too big to pass.

I'm still having problems with my kidney even though I had surgery in May to clean out the kidney. Something else is wrong and I go for an IVP later this month to see how well my kidneys are functioning and to see if there's another blockage somewhere. I've had a kidney infection for over a year now and the doc is trying to find out why. Nothing we've done has worked.

If they can't find the source of your pain, ask for an IVP. It's like a CT scan with dye. But it takes about an hour or two. They take xrays at different intervals over that hr or two period to guage your kidney function. Maybe the IVP can show where the stone is if there is one.

At the very least, if they think it's a stone, they should have given you some pain killers. Kidney pain is just about the worst thing you can endure, short of labor. Hope you find a doc you can count on and get some relief soon.

I'll ask about the IVP - I'm going to try and get into the Urologist that my Dad goes to (he has Bladder cancer- remission now). Yes, I know the pain your talking about. When I went to the ER I thought I was dying. I had been vomiting all night and the pain was unbelievable - I had no idea what was happening, I finally gave in and went to the ER and that's when I found out I had a kidney stone. They did a cat scan and said it was a 3-4 in size and it would probably pass on it's own. Then a week later I had the intense pain again without the vomiting (the night after I went to the urologist and had the x-ray) I took 4 ibuprophin(sp?) and a pain pill and finally went to sleep and still feel like I have a UTI. It's crazy!

A UTI will cause the pain too. And the worse the UTI is, the more pain you'll have. Your kidneys or bladder or all of them could feel very bruised. That's a sign of inflammation and you should be on antibiotics. UTI's often accompany kidney stones due to the scaping the barbed stones do. A simple urine test will tell if you have a UTI.

Always get some difflucan after taking antibiotics too. It helps counteract the yeast that could build up. That's why I had surgery in May. All the antibiotics built up a yeast mass inside my kidney. The tiny stone fragments left from the lithotripsy were trapped in the yeast. So they had to cut my kidney open and explore one day. The next day they went back in to actually remove the mass. Two days later, they shot dye directly into the kidney thru the incision to check for any other stones or masses. You may not know you're developing yeast, so get the Difflucan. It's a pill you'll probably take twice in three days.

Good luck!

Wow, you've definately been through it! Thanks for all the info! This is all new to me and the Urologist I saw sure didn't seem to have any answers and didn't seem to be able to tell me anything. Thanks so much and good luck with all yours also!

If you have any questions after a visit with a urologist, holler at me. I've done quite a bit of research in trying to pinpoint my own problem and maybe I'll have more info to share with you later. I hope you can catch the problem before it escalates.

Thanks so much! You've been very helpful! Michelle

Wow. I wish there was something I could do for you. I have a very high threshold for pain. The only time I ever asked for help with the pain was after my uterus ruptured and my baby was on the loose swimming in my innards. I've heard that kidney stones make having babies feel like a walk in the park. I had 3 babies, all over 8 lbs, and only said ouch once, and that was before they called in 4 backup surgeons (apparently, my request for something for the pain made my doctor of 20 years realize that it was serious).

Is there any correlation between kidney stones and calcium intake? I've heard, but you know wives tales and all...

My DH is plagued with kidney stones. Had to have to lithotripsies last year (still paying for those!). His Dr. was very knowledgeable. He also has a high threshold for pain...the Dr couldn't believe he went to work with his stent in. One of the stones was large and they had to put a stent in to keep it from blocking the urethra until they could do the litho. He kept on going until one day he was headed for his truck and doubled over in the yard...I knew he was in trouble.
He still has them occasionally - they pass mostly with a lot of pain and a little blood. He swears he will never go through another litho, etc but we'll just have to see about that. He HATES going to the doctor and hates paying them even worse. MEN!
Mj, hope you work things out soon. Its hard going around in pain...it affects everything...even attitude. I know all about having to find a Dr. you can trust. I've fired more than one in my time.

I'm going to a new Kidney Doc. tomorrow - Butterflychaser you have been alot of help! My reg. doc thinks the stone is lodged at the bottom of my left ureter and the mouth of my bladder because I still have some pain and blood in my urine - I hope I don't have to have one of those stent thingy's!!! I do know I'm sick of this pain!!! I never could imagine this was worse than labor and I also thought maybe people just meant when the stone came out that was when the pain was - NOW I KNOW!!! These things HURT! I'd rather go through 12 hours of labor again! Butterfly, let us know after you get your procedure done! Michelle

Michelle,

Positive thoughts being sent your way... let us know what the doctor says.

Judy

Michelle, hope things go well today. Hand tough girl and give those docs "what for" if they don't offer some real relief!

Michelle, I will be thinking about you today. Hope the Doc visit goes good.