Healthy Thoughts

I am sending out love and healing thoughts to a friend at church who had a stillbirth on Tuesday night. I am devestated for her and her family.

Our friend Nadine, who is undergoing inpatient chemo treatment is continuing her heartwarming trend of cheerfulness and upbeat energy. She had a brief setback this week but is back to her regular room, and enjoying her new bald look!

My mother's cereberal artery clot has not reabsorbed and she continues to be at risk for another stroke. She can now raise her big toe but none of the other ones, and she has a bit of peripheral vision returning. She is under strict orders not to drive or list anything.

Jude and I had a Very Long (tm) doctor's visit yesterday. He has two warts on different fingers, both impacting his fingernails. They had to be shaved and frozen (freezing and poison at home was not working). He was very cooperative until the freezing part (which he knew would hurt) but we survived. If all goes well, they will disappear and we will not have to see the pediatric dermatolgist in a month to have them surgically removed (one has been there for a year).

I had a long list of things to discuss - it seems that I have developed some sort of quasi-allergy to my own progesterone at peak times of the month and it's not going to go away until menopause. No help there! I have been having some strange heart palpitations and I'm to let her know if I develop chest pain or lightheadedness or shortness of breath. If I do, I have to have one of those monitor thingies. Woohoo. I also have a ganglion cyst on my hand, and go for a surgical consult on Monday. I cannot wait to have this thing gone. I have arthritis in both wrists and my fingers and it's aggravating my hand to have the cyst there. I also have an ear infection (I think I've had it for about 3 months now), and am supposed to start taking my allergy medicine daily (but I can't find it). I hate my allergy pills because they are big and stick in my throat. I am not a very graceful patient (but better than Jude. Eric didn't have to hold me down while Dr. J. looked in my ears, thank goodness!)

Soren has to go see a pediatric GI, since her tummy meds are aren't working, and Lucy has to go to a ped dentist for a suspected cavity (see below list of crap to see why this may be the case). I mostly blame my husband and his mother who can't tell this kid no, and let her eat ridiculous amounts of stuff that Is Not Food. Ugh.

In non-health related news, we had a lovely two day impromptu vacation at Keuka Lake, during which I forgot daughter 2's dental appointment to repair a filling, and husband forgot his Soul Matters group. Oops. Oh well, it was worth having a couple of days by the lake. Emma's friend J. went along and they and daughter 2 tent camped in the yard of the cottage. Our golden retriever escaped once and was returned by a nice, friendly, laughing neighbor, thank goodness. Our beagle brat ate the pizza leftovers when Jude forgot to shut the porch door. I read 2.5 murder mysteries while we were there, taught daughter 2 to play War and Blackjack and 2 new types of solitaire, and she taught me to play Spit. We also played frisbee and wiffle ball and catch and she built a fairy house. Jude and Lucy got very dirt and ran around like lunatics, eating everything in sight. We all polished off a case of Pepsi and a huge pack of Gatorade, a box of oreos, 2 loaves of breakfast bread, 3 packages of maple candy, lots of peanut butter and nutella, 2 packages of chicken, a huge container of mashed potatoes...the list goes on.

It rained for half the time but we had fun anyway :). It's good to be home again too. Thanks to Book for letting us borrow his cottage! It was awesome.