Election Day 2014

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  I have to finish my 2nd cup of coffee and I am off to vote. It is right up the street so no trial or tribulation out of my way to get there. I have sucky choices. I will just the lesser of the two evils.

   Yesterday I called the Ear dr office that did my surgery. I was able to get in on a cancellation for early this Friday. Early Early EARLY. I will have to leave around 730am. That is okay cause I have to go. I think I have a new infection in my mastoid. The tinnitus is louder now. It had quieted down alot after the surgery. It is back up to where it was before but now I have moments where it is REALLY high pitched for like 5 seconds and then it is quiet. I am not saying deafness but all the ringing stops for a few moments. It is weird. This made me worry. Will I need a 2nd surgery? What will happen to me? My equilibrium? My hearing? These are all the scary questions I keep to myself.

   After therapy today, I wanted to trim down all the dead plants to bag them up. It is a good day for it. It is warmish. I also should wash all the furkids. Ruby is doing so much better. She has 3 more days of her antibiotic. I will see if she needs more but her demeanor is so good. She is running around again. She is so much better and it is a major relief. I will always have to keep an eye on her because it can come back. We will just make sure that it never gets bad. We didnt know.

This is gonna be a short one. I am hungry. I will make some eggs or something before I gotta go. I will let you know what happens.

Feeling Fine

 

  I am feeling pretty good lately. I have been able to get shit done around here and not be completely exhausted. Okay, I have been exhausted and took a long nap yesterday but I deserved it. Much was done by me. Today I did a bit of yard work while the hubs worked on cleaning out the basement. Kid # 1 is out of town and Kid #2 is watching all the episodes of Bates Motel. I LOVE that show. I resisted at first but #1 made me watch the first season. I was hooked. I very seriously doubt I will be cooking food tonight cause I am tired. I cooked last night. That should count, right?

   I think the combo of the cpap machine and the mastoid surgery has done wonders for me. It does not change the fact that I have a shit ton wrong with me that gives me daily pain and attitude but I feel better. I do not see stars when I bend over to clean the yard. I do not get dizzy anymore.<---yes I do but not like before. I get tired dizzy. Big difference. I know the reason why. I have thought that if I were to ever get really better I would take steps to try to go back to work. Just thinking about it. I would have to feel way better then I do today. Just a thought.

  Tomorrow we will get some big  news for our family. We were supposed to hear about it on Friday but I decision had not been made. I am crossing fingers and toes that the news is in our favor. I will come on tomorrow and let you all know one way or another. We have been waiting two weeks for a answer so what is one more day! Ahhhh!

  I posted this video for two reasons. I am thinking if I do cook, cornbread will be a side. And I loved this Jazz song. It used to be the theme song for a cable show called Dinner and a Movie. You would watch the movie and in between the commercial breaks the hosts would cook something pertaining to that movie.
  Have a great rest of your Sunday!

 

Annual planting and other shit

Mexican heather

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Is that a sweet Mexican heather  plant? I went to Lowe`s yesterday to get a steam cleaner for the carpets and I decided to pick up a couple annuals for the pots on the front porch. One of the four new guinea impatiens just died so the pot had sat empty for a couple weeks. I just bought one of these and put it in the pot. I want to see what happens. I do not mind if I have a one off on the porch. I also picked up some Moss roses for the cone hangers. I am glad I got that done before the July 1st. I feel like I have been behind in so many things.
I think I know why.
 As I said before about the dripping out of the nose at night, I am also starting to get all foggy and cognitively fucked up. I went to the DMV on Friday because I had to pay the registration on the Jeep cause she was an illegal beagle. It was near closing time so I knew it would not be a ton of time for me to wait. I felt like such shit. I realized as I sat there that it was all the stimulation going on in the room. The noises, the talking, the people walking around, the lights, the intercom..I was so close to feeling like I was going to lose my shit. Before when this would happen, i would go lay down and it would go away. I could not do that this time. But I survived and the Jeepo is legal now. The taxes here have gotten so high that I had to pay off in installments. tsk tsk.
  So for my health, I am feeling like shit. I try to get some things done so that I can say I accomplished stuff but I cannot do like I was doing before. I cut the dogs hair, I picked up lunch for the kid, I planted, and then after I watered, I swept the front porch. There! I am done! He thinks I am cooking dinner. That is not going to happen. No way. I feel like dog shit.

 Now do not scold me...well nobody will be do not do it on the other side of the screen. I will call the ENT office in all good time. I have to get the brakes fixed on the Jeep (yes, her ass decided she needs new brakes now), I  have a sleep study coming up for my sleep apnea and THEN I will call the ENT about the ears ringing again and all that crap. The part that I hate the most is the dizziness has come back and that was one of the things I was so happy to get rid of.

Fourth of July is coming upon us this week and then next weekend is Sailfest. Summer is moving swift. Before we know it, it will be Autumn. I need to really move my savings up for the coming colder months. I want to have a good Christmas this year and I want to have oil in the tank at all times. I am just talking a blue streak huh?
Oh and we are dealing with fleas finally. Took them awhile but they have arrived. I will have the cash to get the dogs some flea treatments on Tuesday. The cats will have to wait until Friday. They do not complain as much as the dogs do.

Okay...I am done for now. I feel like I need to get into some jammie clothes and lay down for the rest of the day. Sucks. I could have done so much.

Have a great rest of your Sunday!

Ear Progress

 My appointment with my ENT is on Friday afternoon. I wanted to give you an update on how I felt. There are times when the incision still hurts. The whole thing will be sore. Fred will look at it and he says it is fine. I am past the point of any infection. It was sewn in a folded manner or so it feels so it is a very noticeable scar. I guess as time goes on, you wont see it when I pull my hair back. But now you can. The outside of my ear is still numb. I am wondering if that is it. Is this how it will always feel? I am not sneezing or coughing up anymore yucky debris either. All of that is gone. As for the leaking out of my nose. It is still doing it but not as much as before. I will let him know. It is probably nothing. I do not feel run down like I used to.  If infection can make you not want to do anything, then I bet that was a small part of my problem. I am still not a well chica by any means but I am able to do more now. We do not even know how old the infection was. Crazy huh?

  Look what I saw this morning when I was out warming up the Jeep. It was kind of raining kind of snowing but it was too warm for it. And the sun was out so I caught myself a pretty rainbow. It didn't last long. Maybe five minutes. Made me smile this morning. I wanted to chase after it and get some of that gold everyone keeps talking about.

  It is in the upper 40s today. Sun is supposed to stay out. No heat has been turned on for the past couple days. Loving it.
I made the strawberry jalapeno jam yesterday. I wanted to let you know that if you wanted to make it, you use a standard strawberry jam recipe but add in 7 jalapenos minced in food processor. Now, I used the whole of all seven. Seeds and all. You could do it that way or you could have a couple with seeds and clean the rest. It is up to you how hot you want to make it. My friends that love hot said it was really good jam. I am sorry to say that I fucked up the regular strawberry jam though. Too much sugar in a batch of not enough fruit. Plus I was tired and my back was hurting. Not paying attention.  I did not toss it. I canned it for OUR consumption. I will make more this week. I get paid tomorrow so I can replenish the strawberry, sugar and pectin. I have to make a decision on the marmalade anyway. I have to work on the kid`s gifts, I need to buy gift bags, and I have to deliver the jam after I am done with it. I am told that I have to save the money from this time around. I balked at it for a bit but I understand. I need to save money. My plan is to save at least $100 a week. I could save more but I am starting there.
I think my mind is all over the place today because Xmas is not very far away and no body else has made any gifts. I feel that if I am the only one that made an effort, what was the point? I had said in the beginning that i did not want to do gift exchange anymore. One kid suggested we make home made gifts. I ran with that. I see that I am the only one that is doing it. No body has brought any supplies in the house or asked me for cash to buy supplies. I will do what I planned to do but I feel that I will be the ONLY one with not a present under the tree. Kind of sad, huh? As much as I do for this family, you couldn't bother to make me anything. If I get some hurried up card stock scribbled card, I think that would be worse than nothing. I will try really hard to be positive though. Very very positive!
  I hope you have got all your Christmas gifts under the tree. If not, that is okay. Not many people can celebrate like they used to. This is the first year that I have not bought one gift. I just cannot do it. Well, I could but then which bill wouldn't get paid?
I am going to wrap this up for today. I have both sinks full of jam covered pots and utensils. I told you my back hurt! :)
Now I pay the price. This will be tons of fun.

How do I feel?

I am doing much better. There is still some pain on that side of my head. Sometimes it hurts inside my ear but it goes away. I have itching on the skin where the mastoid is located. Still have a cough but it is good. Not like before. There isnt any more leaking from my ear or my incision. And the incision is scabbed over and doing well. I couldnt have asked for a better result so far.
  I have not said anything to anyone but I had an incident yesterday that made me pause. I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner with Natalie and Fred. I was washing dishes and I noticed the drip coming out of my nose again. The water drip drip drip. It lasts for a couple minutes and went away. I will make sure to tell the Dr if it happens more frequently. It could be just part of the healing process. That is what I am going to say in my head. :)

  Thankfully I did not have to have the worse surgery option. I think I would be in fucking trouble if I had that surgery. I would still be in bed. I would still be in pain. I would not be able to drive till the end of December. Yeah, I am good with what I have had. Let us hope that I do not have to have this surgery again.

Shower Sunday!

  I am up before anyone else this morning. I was tired of being in the damn bed. I know I will be back there later but I wanted to just be by myself. No Fred and no dogs. I have one thing that I found out yesterday that is really good. I am not going to have a bill to pay from this surgery after all, I think. I cannot get into specifics but it is in the hands of the union now. Someone fucked up and it wasn't just me. So I got rid of the donate button. Don't really need it. I guess if I get a bill, I will just suffer through like everyone else. It bothered me anyway. I hope that any bill that I get is rectified in some way. This will be our last chance on this old insurance to have it like it was back in the day, after the new year we have new insurance and it sucks major stinky ass. I havent really even talked about it and I really don't want to anyway right now.
  I get to take a shower and wash my hair today!!! YES YES YES! I cannot scrub near my incision. I really need to wash my hair and attend to a problem.

The new fashion craze of 2013

I had to wear that cup over my ear and it was strapped across my face with velcro. Strong velcro. Kind of like a cockeyed jock strap. It protected my ear and it collected the blood and fluid that was coming out that first night. When it was first put on me while I was under, they fucked up. They velcroed my hair into the strap! This poor nurse had to try to gingerly get my hair out of the strap so she could check my ear. I told her she could do what she had to do. It wasn't her fault. Well, she got it out. So I have this big piece of hair that is a sad excuse for a velcro dread lock. I will see if I can save it but i am thinking I may just have to cut it off and call it a casualty of the surgery.
 I was so miserable and in so much pain in this picture. I couldn't even smile if I tried. I am much better now.
  I do have moments of waves of nausea but they are few and far between. My ear and stitches hurt but like a 2-3 on the pain scale. I just take Motrin for it. The antibiotics and pain killers fucked up my gut so the constipation train is slow moving. That is all I have to say about that. My inner ear itches like a mother sometimes. I am a good girl and do not itch. I kind of rub the top of my ear to give it some kind of relief. That shit needs to end because it can drive me bonkers.
 There is still leakage from behind my ear which is weird to me. All of a sudden I will feel something run down my neck. It is bloody but not blood per say. My taste buds are still off but not as bad as the past two days. Every time Fred brought me a cup of coffee, I taste it and internally say YUCK! It just tasted nasty. I was told this could happen and it is a temporary thing. Usually the side of your tongue where the operation happened may become dulled to taste for a few weeks or months. It is not oh so bad. It is not like I cannot taste anything at all.  I did make a pot of coffee this morning. It tastes different but not as bad as days before, so I am guessing it is getting better. I had to make it myself and pour it. If my coffee tasted like shit to me, that it truly was my tongue. I am such a weirdo sometimes.

  I wish I could get back on the saddle of doing stuff but I know I cant right now. I thought I would be 100% by Monday but that isn't going to happen. I can tell from today that I wont be. I was thinking of making egg rolls for dinner tonight. I will roll them and Fred can cook them. I am not even going to attempt to drive until the middle of the week. I have to find out if we get paid early this week because of the holiday. I never remember that.
 So yeah...I am doing better then I even expected. I know that I will be cooking for Thanksgiving just not majorly doing it because I cannot go busting my stitches. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Fred caught a cold from someone at the hospital! Like he is in the bed with the sore throat and everything. I am good. I am on heavy duty antibiotics. I am like covered in germ free Teflon. He has been trying to take care of me but he is sick. So I am NOT OVER DOING IT, but I am going to defrost for dinner and wash a few dishes. Make life a bit easier for him today.

I wish I had the energy to make breakfast. I could really go for some bacon right about now.

On the mend

Hey ho!
 I am doing better. I have moments like this morning where I feel really good but I know I will be back in bed soon. I just come downstairs to air myself out. I have developed a cough. I know it is from all the junk that is coming out of my ear/mastoid. I do not cough when I am up and about. Just when I sleep.

I thought it was going to be gross when Fred took the picture. That I would be all EWWW! but it looks good. My ear still feels weird like it is not part of my body but every day if feels a bit better. Just the top of my ear feels like that now.  I do not the exact specifics because I was so out of it but I have heard that I had a mastoidectomy and a tympanoplasty. I had a bad infection that settled into my right mastoid and it had made a hole in the bone. That means that infection was in there a long time. I have since found out what when you have a long term infection like that, you usually do not have any symptoms, and I didn't. I have a follow up appointment in the middle of December. I have to keep a cotton ball in my right ear and it cannot get wet in there. I get to wash my hair tomorrow. Thank goodness! I cant wait. I am doing good, just still out of it at times After I post this, I am going to go back to bed.
Hopefully I will be more alert tomorrow.