Mountain Mama's Point Of View

  Mr. BoJangles checking in here. Mom has been busy lately. I am not saying she is ignoring us dogs, but lap time has been very short lately.  As soon as she swallows that vile coffee she likes so much, she is up and heading out to do what she calls her chores. Is she the only one here with chores? Us dogs don't have chores. I am not saying that we should, but I am very small and I don't know what I would be able to do. I like to run and I like to chase my wubbies (I have quite a selection, but my favorite is the squirrel). Today was just such a day. No rain in sight and the air was crisp and cool. Mom drank her coffee, then gave Dora a fat worm. She put food in our dish and washed the water dish before filling it with fresh water. She said it was full of backwash. Backwash? I will need to investigate what this is! Mom always leaves the door open when the air conditioning is off, so us dogs can go out to our yard whenever we like. I was napping when I saw Mom come in and head ...

  What shall I write about this fine day? Are you like me, having wonderful topics in your head all day long, but when you have the opportunity to sit down and write, you draw a blank? The last couple of weeks have revolved around The Patient and his many needs. The weekend was horrible. He was having pain behind his knee. He was walking on his toes and gasping with every step. I found it to be incredibly annoying, I knew if he did not listen to me and stretch that muscle, he was in for a very long recovery. No pain pills left, relying only on Tylenol. You know those charts on the walls of the hospital rooms with the illustrations of pain levels? They should be updated with pictures of the faces The Patient makes when he is in pain. Very graphic! Anyhoo, Monday morning, The Patient called to me from his bed. "Call Susan, I can't stand this anymore." he rasped out theatrically.  "Is that your phone, right there next to you?" asked the caregiver. He looked confuse...

  Our nights are getting cooler and I wake to temps in the 60's. As pleasant as this is, my garden suffers. I have at least two dozen big green tomatoes on the vines. They need the temperatures to come up considerably to ripen. The beans are still producing daily, the peas have slowed down, as well as the squash. I only got 3 cucumbers from the vine and it is turning brown.  As much as I love the cooler temps, it makes my garden look sparse and sad. I suppose today is as good as any to build my frames and cover them with plastic to create my green house over my garden beds. Since I found the electric stapler, this will be a  breeze. My flower gardens are showing signs of hibernating for the winter, as well. I now have four hibiscus. The two that produce the large white, with red throats are already setting seed. The apricot one and the red one are still blooming. Had I clipped back the spent flowers sooner, the white ones would have bloomed again .... my bad. Cosmos are s...

  I was joking with the surgeon that since he put the cow vein in The Patients leg, all he wanted to eat was beef. I failed to mention that all he ever wanted to eat before the surgery was beef. I suppose he is a cannibal now, eating his on kind! Two days ago, when asked what he would like for dinner, he asked if we had any short ribs in the freezer. We did, but the making of short ribs needs to begin very early in the day. I did get them out of the freezer and he got fish for dinner that night. Braised Beef Short Ribs is worth the effort! I use my instapot for this, since I can saute in the same pot used to slow cook the ribs to yummy perfection. The prep is the hardest part. I was dicing and slicing onions, celery, and carrots while browning the meat and gathering all the ingredients for the feast to follow. Short ribs are well marbled with fat, so just a touch of olive oil on the bottom of the pan to keep the meat from sticking is all you need to start. The fat will render itsel...

  I have been recovering from my toothache, which was accompanied by my headache, so my knee decided to act up as well, then my hip and sciatic nerve must have been jealous because it joined in on the fun. Rain and winds and weird formations in the sky occurred as well to make my hands and one of my toes ache incessantly. I was a hot mess, but being a hot mess does not exclude one from their daily responsibilities. As you all know, I have The Patient to take care of. He is out of pain pills, but, to his credit, he did offer the last one to me. Being wise beyond my considerable years, I did not partake of the offering. I knew full well that I would never hear the end of his generosity. Instead I took Tylenol and Ibuprofen and I soldiered on. While The Patient is busy being a pain in my a$$, I decided to make my escape to the great outdoors and get started on removing all the vegatation from the shallow ditch and replace it with rock. Where, you might wonder am I getting enough rock ...

  It is harvest time! I have been getting up early to pick peas and beans and squash and tomatoes. Monday was a wash as far as my garden went. The Patient had an 11am appointment with Susan.  She removed the stitches. The glue was holding them and making it difficult to grab the suture material. This was traumatic for The Patient. I have removed stitches from small children with less drama. Susan agreed with me that his creatinine level and the lowered blood pressure were a result of him not drinking enough fluids. So, no renal study for now, unless he presents more symptoms. She instructed him to get up and WALK every day. He either chose not to hear this or simply ignored it. Left to his own devices, he has slept until 1:30 for the past two days. It always amazes me that he can fall to sleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, despite having slept so long into the day. When I commented that he was asleep when I went to sleep and he was asleep when I woke up. Apparantly I hi...

  Despite the fact that I have yet to finish organizing my shed, I decided to tackle The Patient's shed. His shed is smaller and located close to the house in case I am needed. I can only work in it in the early morning and late afternoon when the sun is not bearing down on the metal roof. My shed is under some massive trees and only gets sun on one short side. I can lose myself in my shed as I am putting stuff away. As long as I have water to drink, I can stay up there for hours. When I tire of being inside, I can step out and into my largest garden area. I can weed for hours on end. I listen to books on my phone or simply let my mind roam. It is so very peaceful in my gardens and many prayers have been said in this setting. As everyone knows by now, I never found my everyday cutlery. Everyone calls it silverwear, but it is stainless. I don't clean silver! Other things have been unpacked and then disappeared. I had been looking for the electric stapler. The Patient was just go...

  The Patient continues to heal and every day is a little better. The surgical wounds look good. Last time it was just glue holding the man's leg with the cow vein together. It wears off slowly. This time the wounds are larger and more irregular. The longest incision is on the calf and it has a jagged Z shape at the top and some sturdy stitches that will be removed in 11 more days. He has been careful with his Oxycontin and has discovered the pain relieving value of Tylenol. After ignoring my advice last time, he is finally listening .... selectively. His foot was swollen in the hospital from the sudden influx of circulation. Everytime the doctor or the PA came in his room they would tell him his leg should be elevated. Nobody made any move to elevate it, though. When I mentioned it to him, he would ignore me and my efforts, so I just let the mumbling beast alone for the most part. My only use was to escort him to the bathroom. The ride home did not help with the swelling as he was...

  The picture of me is not very flattering, but here I am. This was taken during our last adventure. We will not be taking another adventure soon ... I am sure Mom has told you about the lastest hospital visit for Dad. It is a mystery why he wants to let himself be cut upon! I would not willingly go let a doctor CUT me! Okay, I know that I had a surgery when I was very young, but I did not go willingly. Mom took me and I threw up in her car! Just ask Eddie, he went with me! That was then, this is now. This morning Mom slept late. Us dogs were okay with that, we slept with her. When we got up and she was drinking coffee ( I have sniffed her beverage of choice and I am appalled that she sips it so happily!) she was petting us dogs and telling us that she was so happy to get caught up on her sleep and that she felt great. Us dogs were happy that our Mom felt great and remembered to feed us in a timely fashion. Everything was right in our world, not like the almost three days she left ...

  I don't consider my housekeeping skills to be flawless, but if I get involved in some weed pulling, or decide to shovel rocks for a day or two, it does tend to leave other things undone. I do keep my kitchen and bathroom clean and the laundry rarely gets behind. Other things do, though. Wanting a clean house to come home to after the surgical adventure in Atlanta, I was cleaning up all the clutter and getting things in order when I noticed Dora, the adorable turtle, making lots of tapping noises. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does, her water level is low. Imagine my horror to discover NO WATER in her habitat. The horror was not for Dora, but for where the water was. Maybe I did not push the plug in all the way when I last cleaned her home the day before. The little stinker managed to get the plug out and she even moved it halfway up her ramp. Her habitat is atop a cube shelving unit that serves many purposes besides keeping her out of Toni's path. Toni wants...

  While on the way to Atlanta, The Patient drove, leaving me to ponder whatever popped into my mind. The first part was in the dark. The trip through the mountain was dark and scary, so I mostly pondered dying in a crash on a hairpin curve. The day was getting lighter as we drove along and I was reading bill boards and road signs. My Dad would have been reading them aloud and then making up a song to sing. I do that, too. The Patient finds it annoying, so now I just do it in my head. The first one to make me wonder was Elf School Road. This one is not far from home and I wonder how roads got their names. Obviously, someone named them for something relating to the area. So, is there an Elf School? Who teaches elves in this school? How do you qualify to be taught by ..... Oh wait, do elves do the teaching or are they the students learning to be elves. I have many questions about this road that should lead to the elf school. Another one we pass frequently is God's Glory Road. Is this ...

  It might be cliche, but what a difference a day makes! My bed welcomed me and I fell into sleep quite early. I am alternating tylenol with the Oxycontin and it seems to be keeping his pain under control. He had an oxy around 1:00 am, then tylenol at 3:05 when he accidentally knocked his water cup to the floor. He might have gone longer without anything if not for that. I was able to get right back to sleep both times. When Mr. BoJangles decided to start the day at 8:00 I was surprised to find him still sleeping peacefully. People in our country forget that tylenol and aspirin still work as pain killers! They turn to the strong narcotics before even trying something else. He had no narcotics between the hours of 1:00 am until 9:00 am. He was able to get up and to the bathroom without my assistance this morning. He used his cane and our compact living quarters provided plenty of things to hold onto with his other hand. He is back in bed asleep, enjoying being in his own bed and not...

  Bless my bi-polar self! Dr. Ross arrived in a timely fashion to speed the discharge along and apologize for the misunderstanding with the PA. Everyone hopped to and the discharge went smoothly, they didn't make me sit there while they read the intructions aloud to me and we were on the road in time to beat the holiday traffic. However, his blood pressure is too low and his kidney function numbers were not good. It could be attributed to the anesthesia and pain meds, but this didn't happen with the first surgery. Now he will have to have a contrast study on his renal arteries. This was not good news. I had plenty of time to ponder this new issue as I drove and am resigned to more medical issues with him. The three heart attacks, the clogged femoral arteries and now the renal arteries ..... all due to smoking cigarettes. I see young people everywhere lighting up and I just don't get it. The information is out there. Pay attention! The trip was uneventful, other than trying ...

  Waiting to be released from hospitals is as bad as waiting to be admitted. The key word is "waiting" here. Always waiting. Shift change has come and gone and the promised pain meds has not been forthhcoming. HeWho is experiencing more post op pain this time around and it is easier to keep it under control with regular doses, rather than wait until he is sweating and squirming around complaining. A lot easier for me, as well! Yesterday and last night we had excellent nurses who responded quickly and anticipated his needs. Night nurse and day nurse came in together yesterday and last night to get a report and meet him. This morning, nothing. He was promised his pain meds almost two hours ago and has called since shift change. Still nothing. They don't want me in the nurses station, really they don't! Not having anticipated my two night stay, I am without clean clothes and my hair is doing it's own thing and looks like an oil spill occured during my very long stay....