Random Tidbits

I finally got my hot bath, using tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, and bath salts.  Boy it felt great, especially on my belly.  It's slow going for sure, just to get my walking balance back.  The slow intro of food is the most frustrating.   I'm starving, but I know I have to introduce slowly, and meats are far down on the list sadly.  I could devour a homemade bacon/potato omelet this morning, ha ha!  Coffee is back in action, followed by afternoons of tea and water and rest.   Jesse and I took a short nap together.  He pretty much was on top of me, making sure I didn't over due it, ha ha!

First goal, wash a load of laundry, and put it on drying racks.  In a day or two anyway.  Second goal?  Mix up a frittata for Hubby to take to work (easier than standing to mix up a scramble).  That may take a few more days longer.  Bills are an entirely different big job.  I had it all under control, but with being gone so long, we are very far behind on daughter's college.  This part worries me, but I keep praying.  She is doing so well, and now they are giving us a "cut off" date if we don't pay by and if we do not, she can't go to college.  Our medical bills just quadrupled.  Thanks to me. Ambulance ride, xray by the ton, medications, hospital room, etc etc.  I have to keep calm and pray and pray and make some calls.  I haven't put a dent in Hubby's hospital bills yet either.  Anyway.....

~ our egg supply is about 5 dozen right now (ha ha ha!).  With Hubby staying at the hospital (then going to work) and me not cooking, the eggs are piling up.  We are boiling them for me for one "soft food" and the kids are planning to bake up some holiday fare (I get this year off).

~my araucanas are now laying of all times.  Lol!  They must have listened to me about going into the stew pot.

I'm Home.....

I just got home from the hospital yesterday.  I'm a bit loopy yet, off kilter, running on a blip of a cylinder, but I'm home.  It was a long 30-some days of illness.  In reality, it was an illness gone wrong by antibiotics my body could not handle.

I have not been sick for years, and well, the Z-pack as they call it tore me up literally, after getting over the pneumonia.  I tried telling the ER people that the first trip.  They sent us home with more pills, even stronger than the last (blooting my innards to a point of non-function).

Second trip to ER - more xrays, more everything, they put in an NG tube (a tube they insert into your nose and down into your stomach to "deflate" it, and you must be awake and participate to get it in correctly) and ambulanced me to another hospital.  There, they continued the higher, more potent drug, and added yet another.

The purple pill from h-e-double-hockey sticks

Four days of being sick, followed by 10 days of being in bed, one urgent care visit and a visit to the hospital ER, I am pushing myself upright today.

Long story short - low immune system allowed me to pick up walking pneumonia, doctor prescribed a pill that ended up killing all my good bacteria, hence the trip to the hospital.  I ended up more sick than I was in the being, more pain, and agonizing nausea (the just repeated a process that was painful and exhausting).  It felt like the antibiotic was trying to kill me.

I'm not even close to being back to normal.  The trip to recovery is very very slow. My energy level is the lowest of all lows.

While I was in one hospital getting treatment, and pumped with sodium and other things (my sodium was low from not being able to eat), our son was in another hospital getting tests for being sick.  He however, will involve a surgery.  Either last night or tonight he had/or will have surgery for appendicitis.  Hubby is going up there later.  Unfortunately, my health is on conducive to that much moving around yet.  As you can see, my brain is not functioning on even one cylinder yet.

Oh, to top that off, our 17 year-old called Hubby as we were returning from the hospital.  She was screaming she was bleeding all over the floor and had cut her foot.  He raced us home, only to find a few drops of blood on the floor.  Crisis averted.  She doesn't like the site of blood.

By evening, I asked my 17-year old to mix me up a special smoothie.  I needed food in me, and crackers and toast were not tasting good at all.  She brought me the best tasting smoothie, and probably my first meal in 2 weeks.  I ate it all.  With a spoon, to avoid gas.  She mixed organic non-gmo probiotic juice mix with organic yogurt, some banana, and lots of ice.  Oh my gosh it tasted so good.  I most likely will have one for breakfast, if my nausea med kicks in.  The are giving me stuff they give to cancer patients, the nausea is that bad.  This antibiotic really is/was the pill that tried to kill me.  

As for the doctors at the hospital, in the end they would not confirm nor deny that the antibiotic made me sick.  They did every test they could, including a CT scan, and came up with nothing that would cause it.  

I hope this doesn't take too much longer to recover from.

Not Expected

Well, I didn't feel well yesterday morning, and at 2am woke up to a fever of 102.3°F.  I had to wake Hubby up.  Today was pie baking day, along with two other dishes, which required a trip to town.  Yeah, I just wasn't expecting this.    I sipped herbal tea all day yesterday, so I hope it just sped up the burning out of the fever and sickness, but my stomach says no.

If two girls of mine want to bake, it'll happen.  Otherwise they'll go without it for the big meal.  I'm not sure I'll be eating anyway.

Why, oh why?

Thanksgiving Prep ~ Keep on Truckin'

I'll be honest.  I am not feeling the "family" thing for this coming holiday.  It's been a long month for us, and the thought of spending the entire day baking has been taking a toll on me. 

Vet-tech Daughter said she'd cook everything, and just wanted a lot of food. My Oldest Army-college Daughter stopped in and asked for us to save "a lot of leftovers" for her as she has not had time to cook.  No pressure there.

I really didn't want to cook.  We only had one day to have the dinner.  Thanksgiving day.  Oh, and on top of that same day, Hubby's family is having their big meal.  So he wants to go there, and have the meal here too.  In one day.  No pressure there.  

Of course the one volunteering to cook, doesn't care what's in processed food, and said to buy it vs. make it.

Yeah.  That's not happening.

...from the handiwork journal

Now that it's cold out, handiwork needs to resume.  I made these crocheted hand towels back in March of 2015.  they are still looking good.  Other than a bit of faded color, they are holding together nicely and work very well for bathroom hand towels.

I have just a bit more of this yarn to make myself a few more, so that's now in a "to-go" project bag. Trust me, I have very, very little handiwork time right now, and when I do, I am too tired to do it, ha ha!

First Snow ~ Winter Work

It's not hard to believe, in our state anyway, that were were out on the motorcycle on Friday, with a high of 73°F.  Saturday, we woke up to very cold temperatures and had flurries all day long.  I honestly thought we'd wake up to a good amount on the ground, but....
 

...this is what it amounted to this morning.  Sorry for the blurry photo.  It's cold out there and I snapped it pretty quickly.  

I almost didn't think I would get up to blog today either.  I fought a migraine all night long, and my lavender freezer pack was not re-freezing fast enough.  I am pretty sure I kept Hubby up all night fetching it, etc. and so here I am attempting to kill off the last of the migraine with caffeine. 

Hubby and I spent the morning cutting, and splitting wood.  We got a good amount done, but we'll need a few more good long days to get it re-stocked. We have not yet fired up the wood stove.

It's football season, so while Hubby watched his game, I cleared the front porch of furniture.  My college Vet-tech-in-training, had been on the computer doing homework all day.  She saw me outside, and offered to help.  There are just a few small items I need to clean up, but the big stuff is all back in storage.  Cushions are all inside awaiting a good day to wash and then dry outside.  I still have to cover the back porch furniture yet.  I need one more tarp.

It was finally time to set up a heat lamp in the coop.  I generally put two, but last year we used one and it worked fine. 

We still have lots and lots of things on the "big job" to-do list.  We have a kitchen floor joist that needs replaced.  That's next if we can manage it with weather.  Say a prayer we can get it done.  I actually saw Hubby staring at one of the trees we need to cut down too.  He's getting a plan, so I'm all for that.  It's been a long time coming. I caught him looking in the big barn too.  Another plan?  Perhaps.  We are considering pulling the entire barn down on a good day, and cutting up the hard wood for for the wood stove.  Thankfully, he has a few nephews that have helped tear a barn down over summer.  Time, the right help, and good weather.  That's what we need.