Stitches For All

On Sunday we were loading Carrie’s SUV with stuff for a day at the zoo when Frank hit his head on the open back door.  They went on to the zoo, and I took Frank to the Urgent Care Clinic where he recieved two staples in the top of his head.  He then believed he had a concussion and spent the rest of the day actually LOOKING like he had a concussion.  He is fine.

Then on Monday I was scheduled to have the knot in my forearm removed by Kleinpeter, the surgeon who did my thyroid surgery.  My GP said it might be a cyst but it was not in the skin layer.  The surgeon thought it might be a blood clot from a previous IV.  It was neither.

It went to pathology to see what is.

Meanwhile, in the minutes prior to surgery, Frank shows the surgeon his head with the staples.  Now he gets to come in with me when I have stitches removed in two weeks.  Talk about upstaging me.....






My arm is doing  well, a one inch slice is glued and stitched together, much like the Improv Triangles I am working on right now.

Parrots?

Man, the pictures from Houston are rough to watch.  I heard a lot of references to the Cajun Navy though.  Those are Louisianians with boats who go into the flood areas and bring people and their pets to safer places.

It made me proud to hear the Houston Police Chief and and the Houston Mayer talk about my Cajun Navy and how they were helping the rescue effort.

           

My elbow surgery went well, he said it was the easiest he has ever had with that kind of thing.  The injections they gave me to numb the spot worked so well that by mid afternoon my elbow was finally noticeable.  And hurting.

And I found that it is very difficult to see your elbow and even more difficult to take a picture of it.  

I worked on my Improv Stripes again.  And again it got bigger.  I put my foot down and, in no uncertain terms, made it straighten up and fly right.  I have one more space to fill in.

But the dilemma is that America's Got Talent is on.  I DO have a TV in my sewing room, you know. 



From here........................................

To here....................................see that one little space.  Let's see if I can fill it and not create another whole row.

whole sections are sewn together.  Like the top right extends to halfway middle to about 2/3 the way down.  And the bottom right is one together now as well.

The top left is mostly together.  Each piece is not tied to any one spot, which is probably why they are so mobile all the time.

When I looked at yesterday's progression, I kept seeing that parrot sitting over the quilt.  You know what that is, right?

Funny, huh?  There is no way I could make a parrot that perfect!  LOL

Maybe I should take a page from Carol at Quilted Fabric Art and try my hand at one though.  This one looks pretty cool!

Hospital??

I knew you would think it was me, but it is not!  I am here with a friend who is having surgery. Waiting, waiting, waiting.  It is a complicated thing, so we wait.

Her son was the groom at the New Orleans wedding two weeks ago, so we are talking about the fun of an old New Orleans.  And he was there watiting as well.  By 2PM she was moved to the ICU where she will stay form the night.  We got to see her briefly at 3 pm and I headed home. 

She is semi alert and doing well.  Medicine is truly amazing!  She is having electrodes implanted in her brain that will keep her hands from shaking.  And out of surgery, her left hand was steady.  amazing.

She will be home tomorrow.  Yea!

Night Before

All day long I kept thinking like:  at 8:00 AM tomorrow I will be in surgery or just coming out, at 10:00 AM I might be heading to a room; at 2PM I  will maybe wake up for lunch; at 4PM they will have me walking down the hallway to see what torture they can inflict upon me.

I have my lanyards and my tea wallets.  

I had lunch with Ann, afternoon tea with Paula and dinner with Carrie.  They are keeping me busy and not thinking!  Carrie and Andrew will have the run of the house. 

I have asked Carrie to post tomorrow night about how I am doing.  Maybe she will remember.  I hope so.  If not, I will post later when I can.

I am looking forward to this time tomorrow!

glen

Three Days Till D-Day

He has assured me that I will not feel a thing!

I told Bo that when they go out to talk to Frank to just tell him the facts.  there was no need to describe anything or go into major details or anything.  The doc justsmiled and said, Oh, he must be an engineer!  (Just the facts, ma'am, don't bother me with the details!)

I told Dr. Gorgeous that I wanted to be totally asleep and not know anything that he is doing.  I wanted to be out, out, out!

Off in La La Land and I didn't want to hear the drills, hammers, saws or staple guns.   Or whatever else he had in there.

My new knee will be the newest thing out there.   And because I am allergic to  nickel, it will be zirconium!  Like they sell on QVC!

How fun!

What is OXINIUM^◊ Oxidized Zirconium?

The femoral - or thighbone portion - of your implant will be made from OXINIUM Oxidized Zirconium - a patented and award winning ceramicised metal alloy that Smith & Nephew spent more than a decade developing.

During manufacture, OXINIUM implants undergo a process that transforms the implant's surface into a hard, ceramicised metal - while still retaining all of the durability of the underlying metal. In addition to being more durable than a true ceramic, this metal implant's ceramicised surface is more than twice as hard and therefore twice as resistant to the kind of scratching that can cause a cobalt chrome implant to wear out before its time.

Also, unlike cobalt chrome, the OXINIUM material contains almost no nickel (< 0.0035% vs. ≥ than 0.5%) and is therefore biocompatible for patients with metal allergy or metal sensitivity.

While I am Waiting for My Hair Dryer to Appear

Having my knee replaced first week in July.  If I was wavering at all, the Alaska trip solidly convinced me that it needs to be done.  It was frustrating not to be able to hike and do the things we always have done in Alaska.  So I'll put my big girl panties on and get it done.

I am having the foot on that leg tattooed with a beautiful feather because I want to point to it and say, do the one with the tattoo on it, NOT the other one!  I chose my surgeon because he was so good looking, not for his surgical ability.  Not really, but he is really good looking............And oooooohhhhh, that french accent!  He says "I am going to cut your knee wide open and hack out the bones" and makes it sound like he is seducing you.

I am sitting here in Baton Rouge and my hair dryer, straight iron and all 9 pairs of my underwear is sitting in Houston.  Who would have know that i only had 9 pairs of underwear?  If I don't find them before the surgery, I will buy some new sexy ones..........

glen

Chloe the Smelly is Home

I worked on putting the top together for my Paint Chip Challenge and got that done.  Now for the borders.  And it will be finished.  It is looking good!

Blue ribbon material here.  You betcha!

Chloe came home today along with Cali who had her fluid dialysis and is pissed at me for taking her to the vet in the first place.  But tomorrow she will feel better.

I vant to be left alone.....

Paparazzi look at the celebrity's
new nose job!

Chloe has some heavy drugs, an antibiotic, and two, count them TWO painkillers.  Must be painful.  Her nose job is obvious in the swelling on the side of her muzzle.  And the inside of her nose is bloody red. I imagine this is fine and will improve daily.  She goes back in two weeks.

She felt great coming home and passed out asleep from the effort.  Then she woke for her dinner and I added extra water in her kibble because she needs to get the anesthesia out of her system.  She ate it all and drank some as well.

Then the pills knocked her out again.  She is oozing a bit from her nose, an unpleasant side effect.  Of course she wants to lay on the sofa.  And she must be hurting because she tried to bite DiNozzo's nose off when he smelled at her mouth.  That settled him down pretty quickly.  He is nothing if obedient to his elder women.

Sigh....when will she be home?

He had been so sad, looking and waiting for Chloe to come home, just look at that face.

Looking for Chloe 

We are ALL glad to have her home and safe with us.  Thanks for your thoughts of Chloe in her surgery and I hope you can continue to send her your healing thoughts.  The worst is over, she will only get better!

Dutch update - The boy is home

I want to thank everyone for all your posts and well wishes for the Dutchman.  I don't have the time right now to personally contact you all, too many things are going on today.  It piles up and piles up and piles up and I struggle to handle it all.  Valerie is helping me this morning with Dutch while I take Frank for his colonoscopy.  Like we couldn't have rescheduled that? 

Dutch is home and after 3 hours is finally resting. When they shaved his leg you can see he is gray underneath but still see his patterns of color.

I was not prepared for him to not be walking on his leg at all. I thought he would only be limping. the incision is only about an inch and a half on the side of his back leg just below his knee. It is all swollen and I have been putting an ice bag on it when he lets me. He doesn't like the cold.

It looks like he has been shot or something. I'll bet he feels like a tractor ran over him. He has not gone to pee yet. I am sure that will be fun. we have to literally carry him at
his full 98.8 lbs! Yes, fun.

We should hear from the biopsy end of this week or beginning of next.

Like I said earlier, let it be the fungal osteo myelitis....please!!

UPDATE:  he moved around last night several times by himself, but his leg is still not working properly.  This morning he peed and feels a WHOLE lot better!  LOL. 

My sweet boy...glen