December January February, where did they go?
Where did December, January and February go? Oh yes, December was the holidays, no surprise about that month flying by. Christmas was good accept for the attack of the killer dogs. I am severally allergic to dogs. I went over to Ray’s brother’s house for Christmas and got exposed to 3 dogs for about 6 hours. I was told that they would vacuum and keep the dogs outdoors. This didn’t happen, I found out that they vacuumed 3 days before Christmas, not that morning and the dogs had been inside ever since. Also the little dogs were inside while I was there. So by the time we left I was having a hard time with my sinuses, by the next morning/afternoon I was miserable. It had been so long since I had been so heavily exposed that I forgot the rules.
Take extra prescription strength decongestants. I did take a benadryl while I was at their house.
Take shower as soon as you get home and put clothes in laundry. I didn’t do this. So I ended up contaminating part of my house.
End result: sick for the 3 weeks following Christmas till I went to my allergist who said, “Danita, breathing is not optional” and promptly gave me a nebulizer treatment, cortisone, antibiotics and viacodine cough syrup. It is amazing what a nebulizer treatment can do. I was feeling much better that evening and was able to get past the whole thing in about 2-3 days.
During this time period Joan, the matriarch of our guild, passed away. She passed away Christmas Eve. The memorial service was the Sunday before New Years Eve. Her passing was not unexpected, but it was still sad. She was a grand lady and I feel very blessed to have known her for 15 years. She is the one who really taught me to “pick my battles”.
The first 2 weeks of January were very stressful. Two days before New Years Eve I called my parents and this is about how the conversation went. “Hi Daddy how are you doing?” “Oh I am doing better now. I will be seeing the doctor this afternoon to find out if I need emergency surgery.” An alarmed Danita replies “Did you forget to tell me about something?” “Oh we forgot to call you and tell you that my prostate is so swollen that I may need to have emergency surgery?” …. Sigh….So this back a forth to San Diego and surgery/no surgery goes on for 10 days. Emergency surgery was not necessary since taking double doses of blood pressure medication reduced the swelling. However he still needs to schedule surgery for the problem. This brings us up to about the last week in January, first week in February.
Ken, the patriarch of our guild passed away. February 9th was the memorial service and February 10th was the military service with interment for both Joan and Ken. Once again Ken’s passing was not a surprise. I think we would have been shocked if he had lasted much longer without Joan. Joan was Ken’s bedrock. The memorial service was grand. How can a memorial service be grand? The people who attended and shared stories, respect and love for Ken and Joan is what made the service so special. There are memories from that day I will carry with me for the rest of my life. As I am writing this I am shedding a few tears.
On the Wednesday the following the service I called my father, he was suppose to have an appointment with the doctor to schedule the surgery… do you here the sound of impending doom… my dad tells me “Honey your mother is in the hospital, and they don’t know what is wrong. We were at Denny’s having lunch and she started crying, shaking and saying she was having chest pains. I was able to get her to the car and give her an aspirin. The shaking got worse and so I took her to the hospital.” The violent shaking (full body spasms/convulsions) and mental distress lasted about 20 hours, then the moderate shaking continued for another 2 days. The end result of all the test and talking to my father indicated that she had abruptly discontinued a medication she had been on for a number of years. This medication controls muscle tremors… is highly addictive… and when discontinued abruptly induces psychosis, panic attacks, seizures and other withdrawal symptoms. Dad ran out of medication and didn’t think it was a big deal if she was without it for about a week. This hit on about day 4-5.
There is a bright side to this experience. While in the hospital they discovered an irregular heart beat. So after she was released from the hospital she was set up with a Holtz Heart Monitor. From what I could get from both of my parents the Cardiologist and Neurologist think she has been over-medicated and that is what has been causing a lot of her problems. She was on the wrong bp med and too much of the same drug that she had the withdrawals from. So they are cutting her dosage back and adjusting her other meds. She seems to be much more coherent and she says this is the best she has felt in 2 years.
Dad goes and sees his doctor tomorrow and hopefully gets some of his stuff taken care of. I am hoping that he gets the prostate surgery scheduled soon. Maybe after he gets that dealt with he will let them investigate doing something for the crippling arthritis he is dealing with.
Intellectually I know that aging and death are part of the life cycle, but does everyone have to do this all at once? I personally need a moratorium on hospital emergencies and funerals for a while.
On a bright note Miss Millie and I are working our butts off to get stuff down for the Sonora Celtic Festival. The kilns have been going about every day for the past week. Hopefully we will have enough stuff done to fill up all our space and shelves. Hopefully we will sale a ton of stuff and not have to pack it up and haul it home.
On the weight loss front things are all good! I am now down 120 lbs. I am wearing size 18 pants and size 18/20 tops (20 if it is form fitting button up). I have 20 more pounds to lose according to Dr. Asbun. I would like to lose 40-45 more lbs. I will be heading into the gym after Sonora.
So this was a really long post and I will try to update more often. It’s just been a super crazy couple of months.