UPDATE

UPDATE

Ok. I’ve had folks checking up on me and asking for updates… so here it is.

Thank you for your concern.  It is appreciated.  =:]

Life has been busy recently. 

On the good end… my amazing daughter, Bear…

Who took her final test for nursing school on the afternoon of Aug.6^th

And gave me my newest granddaughter in the early hours of

Aug. 7^th…

And then…

Graduated from nursing school on Aug 24^th!

 The Bear

I am so very proud of Bear.

To top it off, her doctor offered her a job in his clinic…

After taking some baby time.

Now that’s the way to work it!

Here are some pics of the event...

 Avery Rebecca

 Proud big brother.

 Turkey, G'pa Fuzzy and Avery

(The cigar is out!  I swear it !)

 Turkey lost his tooth in the parking lot.

Olivia dancing... she knows how to celebrate!

Squeaky was living with us and helping out with Randy.

But he was offered a job with Xerox…

As one of the tech people for their line of smart phone products.

And has moved north again to take advantage of that.

I’m pretty proud of him too.

That brings us to Randy and myself.

We took a trip up to DPH to watch the Bear graduate

And meet Avery Rebecca.

I fell deeply in love with her, sigh.

Spending time with her proud big brother was fun too.

So much happiness there that it was hard to come home.

But home we came.

Roxy was crazy happy to see us.

You’d think that we had been gone for a week

Instead of over night.

I had a last “day off” of doing laundry,

Making lunches for myself and Randy for the week.

I snore.

Very loudly, I am told.

So we have opted to use separate bedrooms for sleeping…

Now that Squeaky is gone and one opened up.

I never thought that I would like that arrangement.

But its a lot like when I was a kid and finally got my own room…

I do like the freedom of sleeping however I like…

Including sprawled out kitty-corner if I wish.

I can have the air conditioner or fan on as long as I like and not have to

Worry about Randy getting grumpy about being cold.

I love to be cold when I sleep.

I can watch whatever show I want and not have to consult

The man who doesn’t like most of my shows.

So that was a nice surprise.

Otherwise…

We wait.

I am waiting to be old enough to retire.

So that I can be home to help the man.

We are still waiting for disability to be determined.

It should be a “Duh” sort of decision.

His doctors all say he cannot work,

Cannot drive.

So we wait.

I’d much rather be proactive about it.

Waiting is no fun.

  But I am good at it.

=:]

I had a bright idea...

 I had a bright idea.

It was a simple idea really.

One I often have this time of year.

Add to my garden's evolution.

Those three masses of day lilies sit on one side of a "mound".

I was recently told by my MIL that said mound was made of loam.

"Rich, friable (crumbly) soil with nearly equal parts of sand and silt, and somewhat less clay."

It seemed easy enough to get in there and dig some holes in that rich crumbly soil.

Pop in some nice perennials and wha-lah!

Lovely flowers.

 

It seems that loam, 

when ignored for years under weed fabric

and bark dust...

bakes into a hard rocky adobe like material.

Naturally, I attacked it with my toy shovel.

 Yes, the kind of toy garden shovel you buy a six year old to use while helping in the garden.

I like them.

The handle is not too long...

I am short.

The area that a toy shovel digs out is the size of a 6" plant pot.

A shovel full of dirt is not very heavy.

I will not bore  you with the details of the day's effort.

5 holes were dug...

5 plants

(3 Shasta Daisy, 1 English lavender and 1 Coreopsis)

were successfully installed into the ground.

It took me 

ALL DAY LONG.

There were some amusing moments. 

Recently Randy bought me two "Pocket Hoses".

These are a marvelous invention!

They expand in length as the hose fills.

Cool beans!

This not only amuses you to watch,

but makes for a nice, light weight hose.

 

 

I decided to help the soil loosen by setting up a sprinkler.

I unscrewed the nozzle and attached the little metal star shaped sprinkler head.

I carefully dropped the sprinkler upside down and ran to turn on the hose.

The hose did not expand the way it does with a nozzle.

Too little pressure.

Fine.

I got my second hose and attached the 2 so that they would reach the area I needed watered.

Once more I dropped the sprinkler upside down and ran to turn on the water.

Success!

I hurried over to flip the sprinkler over and it went insane!

It was like holding onto a frantic snake that sprayed water.

By the time I got the darned thing on the ground where I wanted it...

I was soaked.

I was soaked again later when I needed to move it.

At least they helped to keep me cool as I amended the soil, 

weeded and shoveled bark dust around.

I am telling myself that I know Shasta Daisy 

and that these three little bunches

will indeed become lovely large plantings...

until they blend together for one large mass.

Right?  Right?

Right?

 

 

Tomorrow I have more to plant.

Sigh.

Another Lavender, 2 Blanket Flower, 4 Black Eyed Suzies

and a big Sweet William.

More of my "bright idea".

I will say this for gardening.

It is something I can lose myself in entirely.

Put on my MP3 and get lost as I pull or dig or snip.

Best of all...

at the end of my day,

I sleep like a rock and wake refreshed.

Oh.

I got a sunburn too.

Haven't had one of those for a long time.

Fortunately I am one of the lucky who turn tan overnight.

I hope you all are having a great weekend.

The SSS posts made me hungry.

But then, most things do.

=:]

 

THROW THE DUCK!

Someone never tires of the game "Throw the Duck!"

In fact, if you are busy weeding or some sort of outside activity...

unavailable to throw the duck...

Roxie will throw the duck herself and then chase it.

But only if you are in the yard and giving applause.

Tomorrow is my return to work.

I actually got primo hours.

When I walked in to be "re-activated"

I got a hug from my shift manager who told me how glad he was to have me back.

Nice.

I am told that things did not go as smoothly as they do when I am there.

Um... how about a raise?

I'm pretty much ready.

The man is well stocked with food he likes.

I made myself a big pot of red beans and rice.

One of my favorite dishes that happens to be cheap and will feed me all week.

(Buying food at work is a budget killer.)

The hardest part will be getting up early again.

Funny how the sleep time creeps later and later when you don't have to be anywhere.

Or

Getting my feet used to standing on them all day long again.

I must admit to some excitement.

I have not been out much since Randy's stroke.

My time has revolved almost completely around him...

because I wanted it to.

Squeaky can and has watched out for him and he will do so daily now.

Gotta keep the man safe!

My work life, 

suck as it does,

 is mine.

We all need our time in pursuit of separate experiences.

That gives us something to talk about.

Removes boredom.

Opens doors.

Gets us OUT.

And I am sure that the man is ready for a bit more...

 eh-hem!

"silence".

hee hee

Have a glorious Monday!

I know... meh Monday.

But each day is a gift,

 may as well open it with gratitude.

=:]

BACK TO THE GRIND

Bottom of Multnomah Falls as it runs away to the Columbia.

 

 

Wow. 

 Seems like ages since I was last down here.  

I guess it kind of is.

 

For an update:

 

The man came home on May 2.

He walked into the house without the aide of a can or walker.

Yay!

 

 There have been wins and losses.

Randy cannot drive now.

He has "neglect" on the left side.

This means that though he may actually see something,

the brain acts as if it does not see it.

It has made reading and math difficult.

And like Randy says, 

he cannot afford to "not see" a child running into the street.

Now he relies on me or Squeaky to help him out with 

those things.

He has outpatient therapy to help correct these losses.

It goes slow.

They say 6 months to a year before he can learn what will or won't come back.

Meanwhile we have jumped through the hoops of obtaining 

disability.

And we are still jumping through more hoops.

To talk to him, 

you would not notice a difference.

His thinking is fine.

His speech is softer and bit more husky.

But he is thinner and he is less outgoing.

He slept a lot at first, but less as time goes by.

 

 

He is not working in the shop.

This makes me sad...

it really is one of the major joys he has in life.

He has to wait until they are sure that he is safe out there.

sigh.

 

 Squeaky came to be the Randy wrangler/ house help while I work.

I find out on Saturday when I will work.

Part of me is happy to go back.

The part that wants to have money again.

The part that gets bored being home all the time.

 

I hate to leave Randy...

even if Squeaky is with him.

I'm sure I will call on my lunch.

 When I get home I will have things to talk about.

So will Randy. 

Another step toward "normal".

=:]

 

SHIFTING

He was getting a bottle of water from the fridge and it slipped from his hand.

I woke when the bottle hit the floor.

He was clinging to a door frame.

"What are you doing?"

My sleepy brain was not really getting the gravity of the situation.

"Trying not to fall down." he said.

Rewind.

Randy had been having trouble with his hand not wanting to work properly.

His grip would let go on its own.

He had been having trouble with the check book and Randy always balances to the penny.

Little things.

I was concerned.

On Monday I took him to the doctor.

Randy told her that he had stopped taking his medication because he had run out...

and that's what he thought was the trouble.

I told her flat out that I thought he was having mini strokes and it scared me.

She listened to both of us,then to his his heart, lungs, and arteries.

In the end she decided that Randy's reasoning sounded more likely...

and wrote him a new prescription.

He was smug about being "right".

Monday night (the same day) he went to work and his boss sent him home early,

saying that Randy wasn't himself.

That really scared me.

But not near as much as that bottle hitting the floor and finding him

clinging to the door frame.

Fast forward...

My first thought was to get him to the hospital.

I could not lift him myself.

I ran across the street to the young, buff neighbor's house, but no one answered.

I ran down a long driveway to the other neighbor's house

Kim was home and ran on ahead of me back to the house...

 where Randy now lay on the floor because he had tried and failed to get to his feet.

I stopped on my porch and called 911.

I wanted to throw him in the car and take off,

but we would never get him in there.

He was too much dead weight.

A fire truck responded and then the ambulance.

I locked up and followed in my car.

When my mother died, there was an obvious shift in the world.

Everything felt different.

Like, how can the world keep going on when she is not here?

The world goes on.

I felt that same weird shift as I followed them to the hospital.

My world had taken a new deep shift.

Gratefully he did not die.

He looked at me before they took him in for a CT scan and said

"I will only say this once... you were right."

I would have much rather have been wrong.

Randy had an Ischemic stroke...

a blockage or reduction in the flow of blood to the brain.

The left side of his body is affected because the stroke is in his right hemisphere.

He can talk, though it was slurred at first.

He has some trouble swallowing on his left side of his throat.

His left leg and arm are weak.

He can walk with assistance.

He has lost his left side peripheral vision,

so his brain does not recognize that his left arm exists and he rams it into things.

I am on FMLA leave and so is he.

We are looking at a year of recovery.

I'm in the process of filing for disability for him and trying to figure

out how I can work and care for him.

Too much crap in my head if you ask me.

But the word has shifted and I must follow the shift.

He is out of ICU and in a normal room.

He takes walks, and does various therapy.

He wants to go to the local mall and walk around and around

until everything works right.

In his damaged head, that sounds very reasonable.

Just the ticket!

What is or isn't reasonable is a problem for him right now.

So comes the comical portion of my current journey...

trying to convince him that he has to stay there is a 24/7 job.

He tries various ways to escape.

None of them work.

Catching him pisses him off.

He believes that we... the hospital staff and I are in cahoots.

That there is a royal conspiracy to keep him from his normal life.

I have become his enemy depending on the time of day and how loopy he is.

I am not living on a cot in his hospital room to be there for him out of concern and love...

I am there to keep him prisoner.

I admit it.

His kooky actions make this part of my agenda.

He has an alarm that goes off if his butt leaves the mattress.

It plays "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in the most obnoxious

electronic tones you can imagine.

At 4:00 A.M. it is a horrific sound.

Yet I am soooo grateful for it.

They installed it after he tried to get away and fell flat on the floor.

Now he grumbles that his ribs hurt and refuses to admit that he knows why.

I am in a very frustrating and upsetting place right now.

Family and visitors are very good for him...

overwhelming for me sometimes.

But I know that family and friends make recovery faster.

I am grateful for the staff who does so much for him.

Grateful for my own support group.

I have really great kids.

So allow me to leave you with some weird stroke humor...

Randy wanted to escape.  He wanted me to help him and after some exhausting arguing over it, I allowed him to have his underwear back.  He insisted on putting it on himself (because there is nothing wrong with him in his head) and I watched in utter exasperation as he began to put them on backwards and kept pulling on the back of his sock, missing his underwear all together,  in his vain attempt to pull his underwear up.  I said "At least let me help you get them turned around right... they're backwards." 

He gave me a stare as if I was beyond dumb and said "Well then I guess I'll have a pocket to keep my poop in!"

 

 

So today, let me wish you all the joy of having your underwear on right.

Despite the great poop pocket, you're better off that way.

 

=:]

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