Mr T and his drain 

Trying times

Don't have a lot of time today, but it's been a rough week. I found an infected abscessed gash on T's back Tuesday night. I took him to the vet yesterday (Wed) and they had to take him to surgery to clean, trim the edges and evacuate the abscess, and then they placed a drain so that it would heal properly.

Now that he's out of anesthesia, he's decided it all my fault and won't have anything to do with me unless I'm asleep. *sigh*

Being left alone all day apparently freaked Midas out as he is not being his normal hyper self. He's also steering very clear of T - I think he's afraid of the drain. He got too close to it last night and backed up. LOL

So I have one dog holding a grudge and another one who's scared. Life's grand, I tell ya, just grand.

What possessed me?

For some insane reason, I decided I should eat some veggies. I stir fried onion, celery, yellow squash and zucchini last night with some italian seasonings. I also had a bean burrito. I know, I know...what a combo! The burrito was supper, I just tasted the veggies as the plan was to cook ahead.

I'm giving it all away today. The refried beans are going to work for the mexican potluck, and the veggies are going to Priscilla. I'm going back to my protein diet. It likes me. LOL

Bathroom adventure

quick funny story. I rehung the bathroom door last night before I went to bed. (note - remember, it used to be white and now it's dark oak). 4:30 am, Carole wakes up, does the half-eyed-open bathroom shuffle in the dark because, as we all know, if you turn on a light, or completely wake up, you don't get back to sleep very easily. So, shuffle out of bed, shuffle down the hall, left turn shuffle into the bathroom - BAM. Headfirst into the dark door that my half awake brain interpreted as the dark bathroom, because, of course it wasn't the door - the door is white.

So much for staying asleep. It didn't hurt, but it sure did wake me up.

A new chapter begins

I've not said much about it until I was sure that I would be able to keep it up, but I have become a Flybaby. :-) www.flylady.net will tell you everything you've ever wanted to know about FlyLady. As those who know me well know, I am NOT a good housekeeper. I am not even a mediocre housekeeper. I'm a TERRIBLE housekeeper. LOL With FlyLady that is slowly changing. My kitchen isn't spotless, but any means, but my sink has been clean for 5.5 wks. I'm slowly reclaiming bits of my home. It's not all clean yet, and I don't expect it to be - I'm just keeping the same areas clean and expanding them a bit each week, while teaching myself those tidy household habits that most people seem to learn growing up and which I've NEVER been any good at, though I remember hearing many of these lesson from both my parents as a child. I guess hearing and listening aren't the same thing. LOL

In the meantime, I came very close to ditching this house and buying another, but have backed off of that idea for the time being. My plan is still for resale in the future, but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I've started refinishing the woodwork in my house. So far I've stripped the bathroom door completely down, and done about 2/3 of the hallway door. I also did one thin piece of molding which had been sitting around ever since I moved in. It's a bit rough on the body, but very satisfying to see all that gorgeous wood reappearing from years of ugly paint.

 

more family photos

 

Leonard, Tammy and family come to visit Chattanooga, May 06

 

Crazy mutts

I have a funny dog story from Sunday. I went out on the front porch to do some cleaning and the front door didn’t latch. I turned around in time to see two streaks of lightning take off down the street. I said some *very bad words* and ran inside to get my car keys and the leashes because they were down the end of the street by the time I got as far as the sidewalk. The neighbors across the street were on their porch and pointed down the street so I drove towards Hickory St and couldn’t see them. I could hear dogs barking so I turned into the alley that runs behind my house. I came up behind a house a few down from me and immediately spotted Midas. I stopped the car and opened the door and he came RUNNING full speed at me and jumped into the car. (He HATES the car!). I still didn’t see T, so I drove down the alley to Holly St (going behind my house in the process) and went back around to my street. As I got near my house, I saw the neighbors across the street laughing and pointing. I look over, and there’s T sitting on the front porch waiting for me. As soon as he saw me in the car, he came running off the front porch and up on the car door, looking in the open window at me as if to say “Hey! Are we going for a ride? Cool! Let’s go!”
The neighbors later told me that he left Midas, came across the street to greet them, and then back to our side of the street and up on the porch. All in about 5 minutes. *eye roll* Crazy mutts.

Hospital Memoirs

It occurs to me that I never posted my funny resident story from a few weeks ago.

Situation - I've been in the hospital about 20 hrs, haven't slept in 34. My surgeon has been consulted and his senior resident has come to see me. He's doing his info gathering and I'm already seeing that he's the type who's decided what's wrong and is trying to make my words fit his picture. Remember - my presenting symptom was sudden onset abd pain followed by a near-fainting spell. Since I fainted, he's focusing on making sure they didn't miss any cardiac problems before putting me under anesthesia for surgery. He's just about done gathering his info and is at the "well Ms Lee, we'll be adding you to the surgical schedule for tomorrow" stage when Jr Resident comes in, apologizes for interupting and sits in on the rest of the interview. Sr. Resident continues, saying we'll review your labs and EKG before going to surgery and I point out that I've not had an EKG. He says "really?" I saw "yes" - nothing more said.

They get to the assessment stage of the deal and I have Jr resident on my left, leaning over doing his listening with the scope deal, and Sr. Resident on my right near the end of the bed. The Jr. does his thing and after a few minutes, while listening to my belly, he says "did you say you haven't had an EKG?" and I say "that's right". As he's listening to me, he looks up at his Sr resident with what must've been a question face, because the Sr immediately starts to say "I'm sure she did she just doesn't..." Picture me - lying there, on no sleep hearing this bozo start to say I don't know what I'm talking about!

I cut him off before he could finish the sentence (and truly piss me off- never a good thing when I'm lacking sleep), and said, "I'm a nurse, I KNOW what an EKG is, and I HAVEN'T HAD ONE - in fact I've NEVER HAD ONE." Sr. Resident backed off in a major way, assured me that he'd make sure that one was ordered and left, hurriedly. Jr. followed him out the door after a few more moments.

Funny thing though - I was in the hospital for 36 more hours, and SEVERAL of the Jr residents made it a point to drop into my room at least twice before I was discharge, but I never saw the Senior Resident again.

As words go, it was reasonably mild, but I think I truly embarrassed him in front of the Jr. He deserved it, and judging by the attention the Jr's gave me, they appreciated having the arrogant jerk put in his place. It probably didn't help his rep any that I told all 3 of my doctors what he said and EVERY nurse I had. ROFL. Don't piss off a nurse - you'll never live it down.

Ok, while we're on hospital stories - here's my favorite stupid nurse one. I went in on Monday night, got to my room early Tuesday morning. I was NPO all day until 1 pm when they ordered me a lunch tray. I ate the lunch tray, had a supper tray arrive about 5:00 and had started to eat that too, when my GI showed up, after discussing me with my surgeon. He and I go over the plan and he tells me he wants me to have a CT scan that night, and that I'll be having a scope as well as the rectal exploration under anesthesia the next day. As he leaves he says - don't eat any more of that! *sigh* It was such a good looking tray too.

So, about 6 am, my nurse walks in tearing up little packets and saying "I've got some medication for you to take - just 4 little pills" as she starts towards me. I say, "what is it?" She says Dulcolax as she starts to hand them to me. I held my hand up like a traffic cop and said "NO". She said "what?" I said "no, I can't take Dulcolax - I tried it for my last scope and I got really sick." "HMMMPH" sez she. "HMMMPH" think I, not appreciating her overworked attitude, considering she's done NOTHING for me in 12 hrs except page my doctor (when I got cranky about being NPO for 12 hrs with no IV) and order me a tray.

About 6:20 or so, while I was on the phone with one of the several Suxters who called to check on me (I SO appreciated those calls from my family and the Suxters , though I was so freaking tired, I'm not even sure I remember everyone who called now) when she walked in carrying 3 bottles of Mag Citrate as my bowel prep for the scope. UGH, thinks I, and finishes my conversation.

When I'm off the phone, I'm sitting there looking at the mag citrate, and suddenly think - hey! I'm supposed to have a cat scan - I don't want to start this until that's done, right?
So....out I walk to harass my poor *overworked* nurse who's sitting at the desk. "Um, scuse me, but I thought Dr. Yates wanted me to have a cat scan tonight? I don't know if I should start this prep if I'm going to have that..." Poor over-worked nurse (snort) gives me a disgusted look and says, I don't have any orders for a cat scan. Me - "are you sure?" She *sniff* flips order pages in chart, runs finger over the page and half of orders - "no, no cat scan. You do have orders for a CT scan, but I know they're busy and doubt that'll be done until tomorrow".

Me - dumbfounded - head back to my room and pray to God that my night shift nurse this night is the same one I had the night before, because I've now found out that not only is my day shift nurse a bitch - she's a stupid bitch that doesn't know that a cat scan and a ct scan are the SAME BLOODY THING!

My saintly night shift nurse, Grace, doesn't say a thing when I tell her what has happened, but by 7:15 I have my first glass of CT contrast - when the CT was delayed she found out what the scoop was, she took me down there HERSELF, ordered me a bedside commode so that I wouldn't have to spend the night sleeping on the bathroom floor, and brought me IV Zofran immediately when I started to get sick from the mag citrate. She restored my faith in my peers, bless her.