It wasn’t the week I had expected. Today I was going to be cleaning and getting things in order so that I could enjoy a few days with Rebecca and Garrett, and mentally preparing myself for a hysterectomy this coming Wednesday. I had everything worked out, and allowed myself just enough time. Then, Bam! Literally. My head met the bathroom floor at 1 a.m. this past Wednesday morning, and plans changed.
I hadn’t felt well upon going to bed Tuesday night, and my temp was 101. I remembered thinking that I was probably getting some bug, and I had to get rid of it before my surgery the following week, so I would sleep it off. George had suspected something was not right with me for a few days, so he got me to the emergency room, which was not an easy task, unsteady and light-headed as I was. The ER doctor ordered lab work, and an EKG and decided that I had had a “dizzy spell” and sent me home.

Fortunately, my doctor had requested lab work from me a week before surgery, so I called in, and said that she could check with the ER and see if the lab work done there would suffice. It didn’t take long before I got the call back, that she had read my lab results and was concerned with my overnight misadventure and elevated white count. Neither of us knew where that was coming from. She mentioned my appendix might be worth checking out. She was going to check into the operating room schedule and see if she could get me in earlier.

Thursday around noon, they were wheeling me to pre-op. I went in around one, and remember seeing the clock in the recovery room at 2:50. Dr. K came by at some point and mentioned an infection, and said it was good we hadn’t waited another week. Later I understood more fully that my fallopian tubes had become infected, and the infection had started to spread. I dozed off and on till they found me a room, in Pediatrics! It was after 6 p.m. before I had a bed, and George and Rebecca could be with me. It was actually quite a pleasant place, with a comfortable bed, and a view of the hills out the window right in front of me. There were two empty cribs in the room, and I took two photos with George’s cell phone, because I knew I would think back that I had been hallucinating. The nurses were the best, as pediatric nurses usually are. They saw me through a roller coaster of blood pressure readings and IV drips to push both fluids and antibiotics into my system. My blood pressure dropped incredibly low at one point, causing a stir, and a call to Dr. K, and talk of a possible transfusion. Fortunately, that didn’t become necessary, and my pressures came up to where they should be.

A bed became available on the regular unit Friday evening, so I said goodbye to the wonderful people who cared for me in pediatrics, and headed down to the second floor. It wasn’t the same after that. 2nd floor was noisy, I had a view of the sink and the bathroom, and I was just one of the crowd. I asked for help getting out of bed each time, because that fall to the floor was still fresh in my mind, but by the time the night shift came on, I was on my own. Hysterectomy patients are routinely discharged within 23 hours, so they were fitting me in to that mindset.

Saturday morning Dr. K was in, and gave me the okay to go home. I was very anxious to have the IV tubing and the leg compressors unhooked, to have uninterrupted sleep and a real meal. Surprisingly, pain was rarely an issue after the surgery. That had been well-managed, and I only asked twice for anything not already provided.

So this weekend, I am home, I am laying low, I am being cared for, and it wasn’t what I planned. Garrett and Rebecca bought the groceries so that we have wonderful foods in the house. Everyone, but me, is cooking and cleaning and keeping up with the household responsibilities.

It’s a beautiful summer day, and we will eat our dinner on the deck, I will watch the birds, catch up with the blogs, do some reading, put my feet up, and relax. I hurt just a little bit, but it’s almost time for those pain meds. It’s so good to be home.

Posted: August 17th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 7

We spent the perfect weekend, staying put, and getting things done. I always feel better when my life is in order come Monday morning. I cooked, and cleaned, and caught up with the laundry. I puttered around the yard, spent time watching the birds, and we had our meals out on the deck. There was time for an instant-message chat with Rebecca, and a phone chat with my dad. Today we did some shopping, and after dinner we headed out for a evening of birding.

Thunderstorms seem to be moving in tonight, again, but the days were beautiful and relaxing.

Posted: August 10th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 2

It just can’t be August. It was such a cool day. I was only in the kitchen for a few minutes this morning, when I turned off the ceiling fan, and went back to the bedroom for a sweatshirt. When I left work today, the sky looked menacing, and more like the skies of an autumn day. We had dinner out, at the airport restaurant, then a short drive into the country before coming home. I want to soak up as many sights of summer that I can, before it is truly over.

The birds seem to know that change is in the air, as the visitors to my feeders, themselves, are changing. Blue jays are suddenly back, after months away. A couple of cedar waxwings landed in the willows yesterday, and they are rare in my yard, for sure. Most surprisingly, a hairy woodpecker made an appearance, not only this morning, but again late afternoon, at the suet feeder. I have had downies continually, since I have fed the birds, but this is the first hairy that I have ever noticed. She made herself known, by picking a fight with a blue jay, while I was watching out the window at breakfast this morning.

Posted: August 8th, 2008 under birding, day-to-day.
Comments: 1

This week we have had fresh peaches, corn, wax beans, and blueberries from the produce stand. We have had swiss chard and green peppers from our own little garden. Our tomatoes are plenty, but all are still green. We have added to, and stirred the compost several times. I have pulled weeds, and tended to the flowers.

George has given the deck another protective coating. The awning has been down, and up, and back down again, as we anticipated a thunderstorm. The days have been warm, the nights, cool. Some days the sky has the look of autumn, and then there is that distinctive little chill in the air.

The grackles and the redwing blackbirds are fewer in the yard. The squirrels are back, and a yellow warbler stopped by.

The radio and newspaper suggest winter preparations to offset the cost of heating our homes, and the school calendar has arrived in the mail.

All signs point to summer winding down. I don’t like to think about it.

Posted: August 7th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 4

A card table covered with a blanket to make a fort, or a wooden swing set under the willow trees, I have always liked that feeling of privacy even as a child. When we constructed our deck a few years ago, we were suddenly “exposed” to at least twelve homes that semi-circled around our back yard. With my need to feel sheltered, we bought a steel gazebo. That gave us some privacy to enjoy our deck for a couple of years, but the canopy was not well-made, and had numerous tears develop. We replaced it once, and patched the second one with needle and thread, but it was not holding up to the elements. This year we decided to take it down, and install a retractable awning instead. Even Martha likes it.

Posted: August 2nd, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 4

A view from our deck on a summer morning often brings a unique view of the sunrise through the trees. These pictures don’t do it justice. It appeared that the tree was harboring a ball of fire.

Posted: July 30th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 4

Summer is my favorite season, and always has been. That is probably so, because my birthday falls in summer, and when choosing a wedding date, we chose a summer afternoon in August. Summer was always a time of rest and relaxation, for vacations, and new experiences. Anymore, the rest, relaxation, and vacations have to fit into my work schedule. So, yesterday, as we drove to Orchard Park and back (three hours one way), I spent a lot of time looking out the window, trying to soak in all the sights, sounds, and smells of summer. I love the cornfields, fruit stands, the young animals in the fields with their mothers, the smell of newly mowed grass, the bird calls and songs, the colorful flower gardens, even the angle of the sun in the sky in the evening. In a few weeks, the sky will change, and the air will feel different. It’s such a long wait from one summer to the next. I guess that is why I can’t let it go by unappreciated.

Posted: July 28th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 3

Whew! It has been a long stretch of days since we could wake without an alarm, and set our own pace for the day. Still, there was so much to do, just to catch up from our recent busy-ness, and tomorrow we are off on the road again. Today I baked cookies for Garrett’s birthday, started catching up with laundry, and tackled the most-needed housecleaning. We had to go birthday shopping, and made a special trip to the produce stand for blueberries, peaches, plums, nectarines, wax beans, and cucumbers. We had passed so many roadside stands last weekend, and I had wished we could have stopped. Now we have some of our summer favorites to hold us for awhile.

Posted: July 26th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 2

Wishing there was less work, and more time to enjoy summer. We are getting ready to head off this weekend for a whirlwind trip to Vermont, for a wedding. We will barely have time to unpack our bags, before we will be headed back home again. I hope there will be just a little time to relax, take in some new sights, and breathe in the summer air.

Posted: July 16th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 4

This is the best time in the summer, for color in the yard. I enjoy walking around in the evening, seeing the different plants and flowers we have growing now.

This was a second packet of hollyhock seed that I planted last year. The flowers remind me of the “carnations” we used to make out of tissues, for decoration, when I was younger.

I bought this perennial at the garden shop. It looked pretty desperate for a home and some water, and now it is perking up, and I love the colors.

Our tiger lilies were a nice surprise this summer. The neighbors had pulled up the bulbs last year and offered them to us. They looked pretty sickly when we put them in the ground, and we weren’t sure they had survived.

These are some of the wildflower mix George spread around out front last year. I love the delicate color.

Another hollyhock surprise, shorter but the most colorful.

This is the one lone lily left after our midnight visit by a deer. There would usually be at least eight blooms around our lamppost.

Then there is the grey of rabbit and squirrel, together under the bird feeders, cleaning up the seed.

Posted: July 12th, 2008 under day-to-day.
Comments: 7