Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tuesday Update

Tuesday evening again and I am all alone with my thoughts. I have had a very busy week and expect to be busy for the next couple of weeks. As Dick said, we have triple Friday celebrations. Last Friday we celebrated Dick's 75th birthday. We went to a buffet and of course I ate too much, but it was wonderful, maybe the best salad bar I have ever had.

Next Friday we will be in Irvine, celebrating Todd's White Coat Ceremony. We are still so very grateful that he was accepted into Irvine Medical School. He will do very well there, I am sure. I am going to try very hard to stay on this planet until he graduates and gets his M.D.

The following Friday we will be in Lake Tahoe for the big wedding. Friday we will be celebrating our 39th year anniversary. I am sure we will enjoy it immensely as we plan to go to Harvey's fish buffet for dinner. We used to go all the time whenever we were on our way to Nampa Idaho to visit my oldest sister. She died several years ago, so haven't been back since. It is a great place to go and we hope that a lot of our family will be able to join us, unless our son and his bride have something else planned for the night before their wedding. It will be kinda fun having their anniversary the day after ours.

After those three Fridays, I will probably come home and crash for at least a week.

Some of you may remember what a terrible time I had last year trying to get a bridge for my lower teeth. I wanted it to be like my upper teeth, a permanent bridge that was supported by implants. My wonderful periodontist planned to put a ten teeth bridge in, supported by five implants. He did the implants and it takes quite a while before they are properly snug in the bone, so while we waited, one of the implants got infected and he had to take it out. He put in another one right next to it, and it too got infected, so he had to pull it out (ugh, such horrible pain connected to both of them) that only left me with four implants, which he felt were not enough to support the ten permanent teeth bridge. Instead, he elected to have me do an implant supported denture, which he wanted my dentist to do. Unfortunately, to make a long story short, it was a disaster right from the start. It didn't fit, still doesn't, and I kept having to have him adjust them. Instead of adjusting the teeth, he tried to make them fit by adjusting the abutments on the implants by making them longer, which everytime I took them out, it caused the implant to get a bit loose because of the force put on the long abutment. One of the front implants got loose, so it had to be extracted. Now I am down to three implants. He had me go to a specialist today, a Maxillofacial Prosthodontist, who helped me immensely by adjusting the bite. He has some more work to be done on it, but instead of starting from scratch, which I was afraid he would do, he will be able to make this one I have work. I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to take it out and throw it away as far as I could. At least I won't have double expense. It has cost us a fortune already.

So, my friends, that is about it. Pretty much caught up to date. I am so grateful that I am doing better. If it weren't for my back and legs, I would be in great shape.

Our weather has been crazy the past few days so haven't done my pool exercises. There has been rain and even lightening about the time in the afternoon when we usually go in the pool, so won't do it as long as it is raining, even a little. It is supposed to be better tomorrow. It has been so muggy. High temperatures (1o4 today) but the dew point has been in the 60's and 70's. Just awful. I'll be glad when we can go back to those pool exercises. They really do help me.

Hope this finds all of you well and happy.

My love,

Darlene

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Back Home Again

Here I am again with my usual Tuesday evening post. It's good for me to just do this once a week, I think. It is just enough to keep me involved a bit and not too much for me to handle.

Our beach trip was way too short, I'm afraid. I had a really bad experience with my back. I wasn't meant to sleep with my dear husband on a queen sized bed, I'm afraid, since he needs three fourths of it. That only leaves me with a fourth and I usually try to sleep on the very edge of it. Unfortunately that means I have to sleep on my left side, which is not good for me. I woke up on Saturday with such pain in my back that I could barely get myself out of bed. We did manage to get over to the beach house (Sue's) but I was so miserable that after a few hours there trying to deal with my back and also the cold weather that everyone else thought was wonderful, I just decided that we would be so much better off if we just took off for home. So in the afternoon Dick started to pack all the things we had at the beach house, a special chair for me to sit in, my wheel chair and a few other items. Then we had to go back to Nancy's house where we had been sleeping (Nancy is my oldest daughter who lives in Huntington Beach just a few miles from Newport Beach) to get the rest of our stuff. We drove home and got here about 7:30 in the evening. I immediately started the heat/cold treatment with the heating pad and frozen gel packs and have actually been doing that since we got home except for today.

Today we went in the pool where I was able to do my exercises and afterwards went in the jacuzzi so that I could get a good water massage with each of the water outlets. When I got back in the house, I rubbed mineral ice all over my back as far as I could reach, and I really felt much better. I am going to do that every day until my back is all healed.

The sad thing, of course, is having to be here, thinking about all the family fun that I am missing. That is sad because I so wanted to be there for all the time that Sullivan was there. That little guy took to his Great Grandpa Robbins right off. I was warned that he likes men better than women so I understood. I was just barely getting him to sit on my lap for awhile before we had to leave. Who knows when I will see him next. He is doing so well though. His kidneys are working much better. I heard them talking about it to the gang, but unfortunately I couldn't really hear what was going on because I couldn't wear my hearing aids. There was just too much noise going all all the time and it is so amplified that I had to do without the aids as it hurt my ears too much to wear them. I am going to have to call to find out what the doctors said this last time he was seen by all of them. They do consider him a miracle child.

I am probably going to have trouble everytime I go to the beach now because I just can't seem to stand any degree of coldness. I just am so uncomfortable when I get so chilled. It just seems to go to all my bones. Everyone else was perfectly comfortable. The weather was typical though, cloudy until about noon when the sun finally came out to warm things up a bit. There was a breeze though most of the time and that just seemed to do me in. I may not be able to go there again. That's what happens when you get old and used to warm weather all the time. I am just not a very good at travelling anymore. Right now I feel like I never want to leave home again.

I am definitely going to go to Todd's white coat ceremony on August 5th though. I should be in pretty good shape by then and I am so looking forward to this. We were all so emotionally drained while waiting the verdict which would impact Todd so very much. It was the most amazing feeling when we all found out that everything was going to be okay and that he would be able to start medical school as planned. I hope I never have to go through such a terrible time again as long as I live.

I think I have sat is this chair as long as I should so will sign off, hoping this finds all of you, my wonderful blogging friends feeling well.

Love,

Darlene

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Beach Time Soon

This will probably be a short post tonight. Dick went to his regular Tuesday meeting, but I have my daughter, Jayne with me so don't want to spend too much time on this crazy computer. She is watching a show right now that I am not so into, so will take advantage. I am a little too full though as we had our own version of turf and surf. Rib eye steak and sauted sea scallops with lots of fresh steamed veggies. So very good.

So far we have had a great time since she came. We went shopping to try to find something new for me to wear to the wedding next month, but didn't see anything that I liked as well as the things I already have, so I expect I will just wear a skirt and a dressy top. It is going to be on the beach at Lake Tahoe and me son informs me that he is wearing chinos and a sport shirt to get married in. The wedding invitation says casual dress and to wear appropriate shoes for the beach (whatever that means) I asked Sue what she was going to wear and she says she is thinking of wearing dressy pants and a dressy top. I'll be darned if I will wear pants to my son's wedding! I didn't get to go to his first wedding, but at least I will sorta dress up at this one.

Today we spent most of the afternoon in the pool and the jacuzzi. It was fun and even though the temperature outside was 110, it was still nice in the pool. We both added a lot to our tan and I am about as dark as I want to get. I look better with a little tan I think. Tomorrow she is going to beautify me. I have to tell you that she is very good at this sort of thing. She is going to trim my hair, give me a manicure AND a pedicure and best of all, trim my eyebrows. My brows are so light and grey that you can hardly see them at the ends. I can never see them enough to pluck them. I hate the way some people my age pencil a dark line where you can't see the hair. Jayne reminded me that it's best to use a powder rather than a pencil on ones brows. I have some, I just forgot that I did. She will do her best to make me look my best. It seems like the time has just flown by since she came Sunday. We will go to the beach Thursday and we are both looking forward to seeing everyone. We all have such a good time at the beach when we are all there. The only one that won't be there is Rich. We will all miss him, but Jayne will REALLY miss him as they always pal around together. Those two are so close and I love that.

Will get back at you next Tuesday...........til then, my love to all

Darlene

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I don't know what the heck happened, but I tried to post and it showed up four times with nothing there. At least I hadn't written anything, but everything just went away and when I brought the blog up that is what I saw. I'll try again and hope that it all works out this time.

I have been feeling a little better every day. I even have times during the day when I'm not dizzy. I will be glad when that goes away completely.

Anyway, this post is not going to be about my health. Hopefully it will be a little brighter. As most of you know we are planning to go to Sue's family reunion on the 21st. It will be so neat to see all of her family again. I'm also looking forward to seeing Todd's new apartment, so I'm hoping someone will leave Newport Beach with us long enough to take us over there. I'm still so stoked that he will be starting medical school in such a short time. Our daughter Jayne hadn't planned on coming this year as she felt she couldn't go to the beach and to her brother's wedding in Lake Tahoe next month. She called us a few days ago and said she had accepted a new job. She gave her two weeks notice thinking she would be working a couple of weeks more this month and starting her new job on the 1st of August. She will be back in her element, having worked most of her years in retail. She was an assistand manager waiting to be promoted to manage a store of her own. Unfortunately, people in manager jobs in the Salt Lake area never leave those jobs. She could have gone to Colorado or Arizona, but she couldn't leave Salt Lake because of her 20 year old daughter who is autistic. She lives with her dad. But Jayne takes her a couple of days and nights during the week. She and her husband (yes, they are still married) but haven't lived together for over ten years. They each own their own home but are still very much connected when it comes to taking care of Kirstin. Jayne worked for Mervyn's for many many years, so when all the stores closed, she had to get a new job and ended up as an assistant manager waiting for a transfer as manager of her own Harbor Freight Tool store. It also seemed like she wouldn't go anywhere because managers in that area just don't quit. She got a call from Marshall's who are opening five stores in Utah. She will be an assistant manager and they are going to train her to open as manager of their second new store. I think she will enjoy getting back to her rat race that she was always so much a part of. She will also be getting a sizable raise, so she is happy about that. When she gave her two weeks notice, they wouldn't accept it, so she has all that extra time that she had planned to be working. She decided then to come to Newport Beach and I just found out that she is going to come and stay a few days with us before the reunion. We will be seeing her on Sunday. Talk about giving my spirits a lift!!

We will be adding to our tans by being outside quite a bit. She loves hanging out by and in the swimming pool. Fortunately for her, our weather is going to be much nicer for a few days next week. It will go back to the 90's and that is really nice weather for July here.

We are all trying to lose a few pounds before the wedding so I won't be doing any baking or anything. In fact, I think she was pretty happy about that because whenever they have come to visit us, I always bake up a storm and make all kinds of goodies to get fat on. This way she won't have to worry about will power.

Well, blgging buddies, at least you will know that I haven't forgotten you. One of these days, I will write about my other kids in a little more detail. You all know so much about Sue. I do have three other daughters and our only son, Rich. I love so hearing all about your children and grandchildren. Maybe you might be a bit interested in hearing a little more about ours.

Til then, thanks again for all your kind thoughts and wishes for my recovery. Please excuse mistakes, I just don't have the energy to try to edit this.

My best to all of you.

Darlene

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Back Again, at least for awhile

June was really a crazy month and I am so glad that it is over. Hopefully I will get back to some sense of normalcy this month.

We didn't get to go to Salt Lake this month. We had planned to be gone the first two weeks of this month to visit our daughter, Jayne and our granddaughter, Kristin, her husband Craig and my sweet little Sullivan (Sully). It's disappointing but at least we will get to see Krisitin, Craig and Sully when we go to Sue's family reunion in Newport Beach later this month. I should be feeling lots better by then.

It is such crazy weather here. Our dew point is at 70 so it has been very very humid. I don't mind hot weather when it is dry, but with the humidity, it's truly awful. It just saps everyone's energy and when you don't have a heck of a lot to begin with, it can be pretty horrible. I just wish that I could get over this terrible dizziness.

I did get a great report today on my chemical stress test. No problems found, so probably will never know what caused my stupid pain when I had to go to the hospital when Sue and most of the family were here for their annual golf trip. It is such great fun. The guys go golfing every morning and the rest of us sit around and visit and just relax. I usually have a whole lot of goodies baked in advance so there is never any reason for anyone to be really hungry. I was so bummed though when I couldn't be here for Sue's birthday celebration. I should have just stayed home because the pain went away about a half hour after I hit the emergency room, but they made me stay overnight anyway. I did write about that experience before. I was just glad to get out of there early the next day.

I am going to try to catch up reading some of my great blogging friends posts tonight. I may not get around to all of them because It is only 7:00 and I am already feeling tired. It seems like I spend most of my time in my chair. Dick did buy us a new chair for the office though and I must say it is a lot more comfortable, so maybe I'll be able to sit here longer than I thought.

Thanks for all your concerns and good wishes that you have sent my way. I appreciate all of you dear blogging friends.

My very best to you all,

Darlene

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sorry

I tried to post yesterday on my blog and it must have gone to blog heaven. I also tried twice today and even though it said it was posted successfully, it didn't appear. One time it just posted the date, so I am doing it a third time on my word processer and then Dick will attempt to paste it and transfer it to my blog. I am just feeling a little worse each day, but my doctor doesn't want me to go off Cymbalta, so he is keeping me on 30 mg until I can tolerate it. This is why I am going to have to go on vacation from blogging for a little while. It wears me out just to type. Hope it won't be for long.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Totally uninspired

Well, Dick has gone to meetings tonight at the church and it is my usual night to blog. Only one problem though, I have absolutely nothing to write about.

I swore I would not blog about my health anymore. That can be so boring. It has actually been a pretty slow week. I have pretty much done nothing. Dick has been such a sweetheart. He takes such good care of me when I'm down. He is a darned good cook, he does all my laundry and cleans my floors. I am not sure what I would do without him.

We're hoping that I will feel well enough at the beginning of next month to take a couple of weeks to go to Salt Lake and visit our daughter, Jayne. I can hardly wait because I'll get to see my great grandson, Sullivan, who is doing so well. He has had way too many operations for a little guy who is just fifteen months old. He is now walking, even though he was pretty late doing so. We are so thrilled because we weren't sure he would even be able to sit, much less walk. He doesn't have stomach muscles, but his legs and arms are so strong. While he was still in utero, they had to go in and pump his bladder because it had twice as much liquid in it as it should have had. His problem is called, "triad syndrome." He is such a smart little guy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with his brain. He is doing so well now, that we are hopeful. He will eventually have to have a kidney transplant but they are hoping it won't be until he reaches his teens. His kidneys are now working at 50%.

You can see who I am thinking of the most tonight. I do have other neat great granchildren and most of you have seen many pictures of them on Sue's blog. They are such lucky kids because their mom has taken them so many places and they have such great experiences with her. She has so much patience and I do admire that. We enjoyed them so much when they were here for our Anderson reunion.

This just has to be pretty boring for all of you. I just really did want to write something though. I haven't done a thing all week, so haven't read any other blogs either. I tried to read a few today, but just got too tired, so I'm back to my favorite chair now.