Sitting Home

I had surgery on Oct 2Nd and it is the 31st and I can probably count on one hand the times I have been out of the house. It is the most frustrating thing I have done. This is the most miserable thing I have had to endure in a long time not to mention the pain, and the in-ability to do what I want to do. I can move about the house, however I can't stand for very long on one leg, which is what I have to do, SO I am really a handicapped girl. I can't reach a lot of things in my cabinets and if I want to stand I need to lock the brakes on the wheelchair of I risk falling down or losing it. It is a long time to sit believe me and the bum gets tired. I am so grateful for being able to get around as much as I can and I really am grateful for the wheelchair I am just so sad that I don't get to do what I am used to doing. I am looking forward to being able to getting this cast off in one week and if the healing has taken place that it needs then I can be in a different kind of cast and put a small amount weight on the foot, and maybe use a walker. During this time I get to do lots of physical therapy and everyone tells me that is the worst as far as pain. However everyone said I would have lots of pain after the surgery and I have had some but not too hard to get through, the itching is nerve wracking and at times you would like to tear the blasted thing off. I am so grateful for Ed he has tried to be as helpful as he could and is willing to take me anywhere I feel like going. Unfortunately I don't always feel like going out. As Amy says you can only read so many books and do so much watching TV and movies. I really am thankful, I am just venting and I am grateful there are things I can get to and I get to read the blog each day thanks to all of you that post. I don't know if I told any of you but, Leona's husband Victor had a stroke as he was driving his car and ran the car off the road and totaled it. He didn't get hurt and he didn't hit anyone else . He has been in the hospital for the past two weeks and is making progress, still can't talk, but can stand and do sitting. It was on his right side and so he can't write either. I am praying for my sister, as she hasn't ever taken care of the bills and any of the business at home. So she is having to learn a lot now about things she didn't think she would ever have to know. All of you need to know these things as women, even is you don't pay bills and take care of anything, you need to know how to do it in case something happens and you have to. Leona is 68 years old so let this be a lesson to all of you because Victor has always taken care of it and she has to learn this now. So learn this now while you are young. It is late and I need to go to bed. I love you all and pray the best for you all.

Surgery and Patience

One thing I have learned in the past four days is that I haven't any patience at all and I don't like CLUTTER!!! Ed is the biggest messy person I have ever known. I think his mother taught him. She always had things she was working on laying around everywhere. He uses something and instead of cleaning it and putting it back, he just leaves it where it was used and then has to spend half an hour looking for it when he needs it again. He throws everything on the couch and leaves all of the cabinet doors open, things on the counter, tools stacked where he plans to use them, and on and on. I truly am not complaining, I am just frustrated as we live in a small space and we have to put things back close doors, drawers, and closets, if not everything is a cluttered mess. I can't put things away, at all and so I am having a hard time being grateful, as I guess I have always picked up everything as I go and then I have an orderly house. I am truly grateful that he is so wonderful to fix everything so I can get around in the wheelchair, as I just do not have the stamina to use the crutches to get around the house. He has waited on me, bringing me anything I want or need and I do mean anything. Jumps up from the TV to get me water pills food snacks wash clothes and anything else. Helped me take a shower today and taken me to the doctor, believe me it is endless. I have to prop my leg up to keep the swelling down and to keep the blood clots away and so he is constantly moving pillows covering and uncovering me. I feel sorry for him and I know he is exhausted yet he continues to work. I can see it is going to be a long 6 weeks and I pray that I will be getting around after that, so it will be limited. I will wear this cast for 3 months. So pray for us that we will be able to be PATIENT!!! I think Stormy one of my friends offered to come and sit with me on Thur. and he has a finish to work on so it will give us both a break.
The surgery went well, they had a really great anthologist that convinced me to have a spinal block and a nerve block behind my knee for the pain. I was hesitant but it really was wonderful. The spinal was totally done when they woke me and the knee nerve block for the pain was in place and lasted for about 24 hours. I really appreciated it and the doctor convincing me to do it. It was a good thing as I had to lay on my stomach for 3 hours as the surgeon put a steel plate in the heel as they had nothing to connect the tendon to anymore. So the wound is long and the scar big as he said it took him a half hour to sew it back together. The very best thing about the spinal was that I didn't throw up for days afterward YEA! It takes me at least a week to get over having a general, and I am soooo sick. This was like having a piece of cake. Now if the healing will be just as good and fast I will be one really proud lady. I know that Heavenly Father had a lot to do with all of the things falling into place so well and I am thankful to HIM for all that He has done for me and mine. God bless you all

Surgery and Update

This is going to be short, as I can't sit to the compter for very long and I have been here for awhile already. My neck hurts, and my leg is swollen today as I have been up too long and need to put it up and rest it. Yes today I found out why you elevate the leg!!!! It swells if you don't. So the cast is tight

Surgery: Crutches: Casts

Well it isn't happy news and I haven't posted for awhile. Now I guess I as going to complain at least a little bit! You wouldn't think that an Achilles tendon would take such a long time to heal? I thought just a surgery and then a few weeks in a cast and a few in a walking boot????? Wrong I will be in a cast for 3 months, and then 3 more months of therapy. Wow I will be on crutches and a in a cast for all of the holidays. I asked him what I was going to do about making chocolates at Christmas and he said I could set in a chair and supervise. I don't think I will put a tree up at this point. Oh well maybe it will all be better than I think at this time. I pray that Heavenly Father will help me see a positive side to this. At this point I don't know what I will really face. I was told today that I will not be able to stand on my feet for a very long period of time. We'll see what is going on at Christmas and maybe by some miracle I will heal better than he thinks. I suppose a person couldn't stand on one leg for very long and I will have a walking cast by that time. I will need all of your prayers and anything else you can do for me. I am going to ask him that after the surgery kinda heals a little if I can set at the sewing machine, or a table and do my pictures. On a more positive note the reason I haven't posted much is that I have been really busy, we went to Lizzie's early in the summer and had a blast and loved every minute of it. Then I came home and watched my garden grow, and planted more lettuce and other things. The beans did really well this year I have about 26 quart bags of frozen french green beans, the kind you buy at Trader Joe's and I love them. I also froze Marion berries, raspberries strawberries and jammed marions raspberries and cherries I have cherries in the freezer also. I plan to make strawberry jam later but I may make some now before I go to the hospital so I will have some. I plan to make some dishes that grandpa will just have to heat up and we will make use of Costco and get some of their stuff in the freezer. I have canned apples from our tree, 26 pts. pears25 pts, and peaches 25 pts. So you can see the summer has been fruitful. The beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, did really well this year, but the peppers and squash didn't so as well as last year. The tomatoes were small this year. I froze 12 apple pie fillings also from our tree. I could never have done all of this without grandpa's help, he worked on a lot of the peeling of things etc. I really appreciate him. He picked marion and raspberries from Cathy's yard and picked a lot of the beans. He picked all of the apples and peeled them all wow what a good job. I think you slow down a bit as you age. At least that is what I have done, but grandpa is just like the energiser bunny he just keeps on hopping along. He does get pretty tired when he works a lot which he has been doing lately. We have all had a lot of things to endure this summer and I am ready for it to cease but alas I know all of these things shall give us experience and we will all be the better for it. I know that our Heavenly Father is aware of even the smallest sparrow, and is also aware and loves us. We just need to endure and look to him for strength and trust in Him. I know he will help us to endure our trials and we won't have to do more than we are able to endure. May He help you all in your trials and bless you with his love. I love and appreciate you all Grams

Too Long Since I Posted!

Well too much has been going on and I haven't felt like posting for so long. We have been trying to get our place fixed up so we can have dad's party on Saturday. I had my throat stretched on Friday, and I thought it would be a piece of cake, because the last time it was. But I really wasn't prepared for being SO tired. I think the anesthesia was hard this time and I just seem to continue to drag around. I had planned to go to Sharon's on Fri. after it was over, I couldn't have rode over to the coast if my life depended on it. I went to bed at 8:45 unheard of for me and awoke at 10:20 on Sat morning. Phew I couldn't believe it. I did the same thing on Sun and Mon, so things are kind of behind. I plan to get some things done tomorrow, and I am planning on not working on Friday. So I should be caught up by then. Dad is working outside, doing too much as usual. Somehow our big freezer didn't get closed all the way one day last week and became a big frosted mess, and yesterday I spent several hours defrosting it. It really had a lot of ice and I was really tired after that. I have my garden planted and it is great the beans are coming up already yea! I need a few more flowers. I will get them tomorrow sometime I think. I have to tell you of my adventure before we went to Lizzie's which was wonderful, we had a lot of fun and the kids are so cute and Liz and Shad were so good to us. We had fun seeing Disneyland for the first time in about 40 years. It was a blast especially Splash Mountain, which Tanner loves. Anyway back to what happened before we left, we had decided to defer our taxes and found out the mobile home was still in the guys name that sold it to us.
Some mix up a few years back when the DMV turned all of the titles to the
State, so I go to the courthouse to get the title changed into our name, which was easy as I had all of the right paper work thank goodness. Spent 2 hours in the courthouse as they are so slow, and came out and started to cross the street on the corner of Park there and this woman in a big SUV was on her cell phone and was just turning the corner driving and paying no attention where she was going!!! I could tell she didn't see me and froze where I was and the man behind her sat on his horn, and she finally stopped about 6 inches from my body, by this time I was screaming STOP and the woman sitting beside her was screaming at her and the man was honking, it was a circus. She rolled her window and apologised, the man honking rolled his window down and screamed at her to get her stupid ear out of the damn phone and pay attention, as she came close to hitting someone. Needless to say I got into my car and thanked Heavenly Father for the man honking his horn and for his watchful eye over me. I felt so blessed that I didn't get hit. Well happy summer to you all I am sure it is just around the corner. I love you all

Life and Other Things.

I have been trying to get to this post for awhile. We have had a few adventures since Christmas started. It was planned for us to go to Ed"s and Judy's for Christmas eve and day. But then it started to snow and snow and snow! It stopped here, but continued in the Portland and Vancouver area for days, all through the holiday. So it was a choice, we could stay home, drive seven hours to Vancouver and maybe not make it. We would've only been able to go about 20 or 25 miles an hour after Salem. Sharon called and said why didn't we just come on down there and spend the holiday with them, so we did. There was some snow in the mountains, but it was just mostly rain. I loved seeing everyone at the coast and all in all we had a wonderful time. We came home, and got rested up and spent New Year's eve and day with Ed and family. By that time all of the snow was gone and the roads were clear and it was back to rain. I spent the day after new years with Debbie and Fairy. We went to lunch and visited. Judy had planned to come, but one of the dogs got chewed by the others and had to go to the vet, so that is where she spent her hours. I got wonderful presents from everyone thank you so much, you are all too good to us. It was a really relaxing new year. Grandpa and I got most of the decorations off the tree and everything is out in the shop now except for a few wrapping items. So we need to organize the totes and get them upstairs. I plan to do that tomorrow, and clean the rest of the house. I went to enrichment and helped to sew receiving blankets for the neo-natal unit at River Bend Hospital. We are donating them for the babies that are going home. They send them home wrapped in a new blanket if they have them. Cathy said that we made 35 of them. Not too bad I think for a small ward. I love making something like that so rewarding. We had a funny thing happen on Sat. morning. The kitty was outside and dad opened the garage door and looked out and he said there under the floor was the biggest rabbit he had ever saw, and the cat was staring at him afraid to move. The rabbit darn him had torn up my planter bed digging for something to eat I am sure. He made a big tunnel and a bigger mess. Grandpa was mad and I think that the rabbit was lucky to live. So he started to talk to the neighbors to find out where the rabbit came from and what he was doing in our yard. Turns out the O'Donnell next to us said that there were two of the rabbits and they had eaten up Chris's garden in the summer, and his wife was crying and upset about it. So we found out who they belonged to and they had escaped at the beginning of summer and they can't seem to catch them. Dad told them they better get them before we plant another garden or they won't be around to catch. I really don't want to do anything to the rabbits, but they need to control them, it is bad enough to keep the garden away from the deer here, now we have two tame rabbits to deal with that are the size of a small giraffe. Brother! I have such a great time with that small garden space planning and planting, it would be so disappointing to have it all dug up by them. I pray they will catch them or I will call the animal control and see what can be done. Well it is late and I need to go to bed and get rested so I can do all of the chores for tomorrow. I love you all and hope you all have a great new year.