The Spider Won

 We have been enjoying the See's fudge my sister sent us from California. Only a few pieces left now. I would highly recommend it. It is not too sweet, just right, and chock full of walnuts. I put it in a Christmas tin covered with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out once I sliced it into pieces; it comes as a big slab.

All that remains

This morning after breakfast I saw a small insect on the counter. It looked like a spider. This was an extraordinary spider it turns out. I brought the heel of my right hand down to smash it, and it jumped from the counter into the adjacent kitchen sink. I didn't go after it  right away because my hand was hurting. I guess I "broke" a vessel. By the time I looked again I could not see it. I have a purple hand. The spider won.

We have mostly grass to view from our windows as we are in the 40's and today 50's. Rain the next few days will finish off the piled-up snow. Have a blessed 2023.

In the Deep Freeze

 Today is not fit for man or beast. We woke to minus 9 degrees; at lunch it was minus 3 but predicted to start falling again soon. The winds are around 25 mph, but there are definitely gusts higher than that. The birds have enough sense to hunker down somewhere and not come to the bird feeders. We probably have all the snow we will see from this storm, unlike areas near Lake Michigan. It isn't the amount but the blowing of the snow that reduces visibility and drifts roads shut.

This is what my front door looks like currently. Our polywood porch rockers are coated with snow, too.

I put out my holly placemats last night. The Pfaltzgraff Winterberry trivet I have owned several years; the coasters also have been around many years. It is a set with different birds depicted.

Tomorrow I am going to make split pea and ham soup for lunch. I sometimes make this for New Years, but with our blustery weather I decided to cook up a batch sooner.

This afternoon I will have a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie as I enjoy my warm comfortable home. My bathroom scale decided to die (it has a digital display) this morning so I guess I can feast on goodies with no worry of seeing the "damage".

Merry Christmas to you.

Internal Hordeolum and Other Matters

 October was a momentous month for me. On the 14th, my spine doctor and I agreed to have a lumbar laminectomy done. Alas, that will not happen for several months as I deal with other health issues.

On the 15th, my left eyelid was red and swollen and painful. When I turned the eyelid up, I could see a small white dot, but it didn't want to drain, and my eye started crusting especially overnight. After trying warm compresses as I had on other styes and seeing no improvement, I saw an optometrist at Grossnickle's on October 24th. 

I had an internal hordeolum (sounds like an exotic dance or a wild musical instrument, doesn't it?) It is just a stye, but one more under the eyelid than along the edge, and it involves an oil gland. It is more painful than an external stye. The optometrist gave me a prescription for an oral antibiotic; styes are infections by bacteria. Usually, warm compresses will help the eye drain, and there is no need for antibiotics; but the internal stye often will not drain. I probably got mine from rubbing my eyes frequently when I had itchiness from allergies. He also prescribed an ointment. He suggested I purchase an eye mask they sell at Grossnickle's that you heat in the microwave. I had been putting cotton balls in hot water, but the cotton didn't maintain the heat for very long. With the mask, I can easily wear it up to 10 minutes, and it stays warm. 

At my follow-up appointment two weeks later, the eye did not hurt much, and the crusting had stopped but it was still swollen and the little white/yellow dot was visible when flipping the eyelid up.

I was told to make an appointment with one of the ophthalmologists if the swelling did not go down, and it could be surgically drained. When I finally did make an appointment, the swelling was the size of a pea. However, it was flatter by the time I saw the doctor, and he said it had become a chalazion. He didn't recommend draining it because there wasn't much to drain, but the meibomian gland was probably still slightly blocked. 

While dealing with the hordeolum, I had the blood in my stool on October 17th, 18th, and 19th. That meant my primary care doctor would not sign the release for surgery for the spine until an upper endoscopy was done. As I mentioned in my previous post, the surgeon wanted a colonoscopy done as well. 

It has been downhill ever since. The scopes, the aspiration pneumonia, the diagnosis of a fairly large hiatal hernia, the stay in the hospital.

 One bright spot is that after having reflux, regurgitation, and spasms for several years (and definitely worse this past year), I have been referred to a doctor that specializes in these problems. He is not a gastroenterologist, but a general surgeon who deals with GERD, hiatal hernias, and does bariatric surgery for those needing help with obesity. I will be having a manometry test on January 5th. This measures motility issues. The barium imaging I had done showed some possible motility problems. On January 12th I will have another EGD scoping but with BRAVO (some kind of device attached to my esophagus to measure pH). These tests will be done in the brand new Lutheran Hospital downtown Fort Wayne. 

I have felt under siege for the past few months, but the new year promises some answers and possible improvements.

Aspiration Pneumonia

 The week of November 20th was not a good one for me. I did the bowel prep for my colonoscopy on the 21st. My scheduled 11:45 a.m. procedures didn't take place until 1 p.m. on the 22nd. This was done at the local hospital in the surgical center. When I woke up from the conscious sedation, I was coughing a lot. Once that settled down, my husband drove me home. My throat was a little sore from the upper GI scoping (EGD). I drank a cup of decaffeinated tea to soothe my throat and ate an English muffin. I figured we would have a light early supper, maybe just soup for me, around 5 p.m.

Around 4:30, a wall of fatigue hit me, and I felt cold. I crawled under my electric blanket trying to get warm. I cranked it up again and again, until I was shivering so hard my whole body was shaking. I felt really bad. 

My husband took me to the emergency room at the hospital where I had been earlier for my colonoscopy and EGD. We didn't have to wait even 10 minutes before being admitted and placed in a room. I had a fever, and they said my heart was racing. Lots of waiting for tests including a CT scan of my abdomen and chest. Several people came through and drew blood samples. 

Several hours later the nurse who had checked me over when I arrived, popped back in to announce that I had pneumonia. By 10:30 p.m. when I was wheeled to my hospital room, I was coughing again, and my chest hurt when I breathed in. 

I spent November 22nd (p.m.) to November 25th in the hospital. I tried to enjoy turkey breast, sweet potatoes, and green beans Thanksgiving evening, but I had little appetite. I had asked the food department to give me just small portions, but still didn't finish it. I think one of the antibiotics (flagyl) causes loss of appetite and makes food taste bad, as that has lingered even when home and taking it as oral medicine, not IVs.

When I was discharged, I found part of the diagnosis said suspected aspiration of food causing pneumonia. At my follow-up yesterday, the nurse practitioner called it aspiration pneumonia, and said yes it could have been caused by some of the secretions that were disturbed by the scoping entering my lungs. So I don't think it was food, but saliva or gastric juices. 

I had not spent time in a hospital since 2003. I knew it would be unrestful, but I was surprised by the constant churn of employees. Maybe it was more than usual because of the holiday. I soon learned that when I rang the call button, and the tech or nurse said they would be in my room soon, that meant at least 30 minutes and often several hours would go by. I became rather adept at unplugging the IV "cart" and dragging it with me to the toilet. 

It is ironic that my husband and I have been avoiding group activities and watching church service on-line to avoid COVID and the flu because I thought that I might have back surgery in November, to end up with pneumonia. It will be several months before scheduling back surgery is a possibility.

This beggar is not very happy with the "rations" filling my life, but I have to accept that this is what God wants. It is my portion for now.