Mostly

Sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen, but most always I feel blessed.

My journey with un-wellness

I feel as if I have never fully recovered from the pneumonia of last November. Oh, I think that once I started recovering I felt so much better that I thought I was better, but I never felt "back".

My hair had been falling out since December and I assumed that it was part of my recovery process. As it turns out, I believe I have had a Vitamin D deficiency since I started recovering from the pneumonia. I have been researching and reading and I have discovered that my level of 7 is extremely low. I have also discovered that it may take months to bring the level back up.

The past few weeks I have been more exhausted and in more pain than ever before. It was dragging me down. We went to our convention last week and were extremely busy and my hips and legs hurt so much, but I assumed it was all of the "busyness". Then, at my doctor appointment the day after we came home, I found out about my low vitamin d and feel as if that might explain it. Then, another part of me wonders if it's just me and I think that the vitamin d "explains it all".

Is it just me, my weight? Or is the lack of vitamin d? I'd like to think that D is the magical cure and once it's up my problems will be over.

I do know one thing. I have not felt totally well in many months and I just want to be better.
I know that I am blessed. It could be worse.

One of those weeks...

Busy last couple of weeks here at the old homestead

On Monday, the 8th, my mom was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Again. It was pretty bad for the first couple of days. Her O2 level was in the low 80's. They wanted to use a CPAP, but she refused. She also refused her breathing treatments until we gave her a stern talkin' to. Her blood sugar was in the 400's! and they put her on an insulin drip. Slowly she started improving.

In all of this, we had family coming from down south. My sister, two of her daughters, one son-in-law and nine of her grandchildren (she has 11 going on 12 all together!) were headed up for a long weekend. At least our mom was somewhat better by the end of the week. She had some wonderful visits with them and we also were able to spend time with them all. The other son-in-law even flew in for a day between business trips. With all that goes on, it was so nice to spend time together - all four of us siblings.

The day they all left to go home, Jim and I headed across the state for our convention. Busy. Jim had to help with set up and tear down. The annual meeting is held and there are several educational seminars to attend. I ended up helping with the registration desk and our Ladies' breakfast. It was a good kind of busy. I enjoyed getting to know some of the other wives. Jim and I will probably only do this for another year. There is talk of combining districts as there are too many directors now (each district has its own director-that's what Jim is). Jim found that the directors who have been there longer have more to do. For the new ones, like him, there's not much to do. We'll see what happens. For the most part, it's a great group of people in our industry and we do enjoy it.

Yesterday, I had my follow-up appointment with my doctor to get my blood test results. I was thrilled to find out that my cholesterol and blood sugar are at normal levels! What a relief! My iron is a little low and my Vitamin D is very low. He said that around 30 is normal, my level is 7. So, I will be taking an extra iron supplement and he prescribed high dose vitamin D for me to take weekly for a month. I have to go back for a level check and will see him a week after that.

I also went to see my mom on Thursday. She is being difficult, as usual, but it's different now. She just doesn't want to be bothered, even though there are those things that need to be done. She argues with the staff and feels she has the right to refuse treatment. That's why she ended up there in the first place, because she wouldn't let my sister and I do anything for her. But now she's still weak and just worn down. Her O2 level is still running low and she's supposed to be on oxygen (she keeps taking it off). Pneumonia twice this year already. She's the same but different. This is taking its toll on her. She keeps getting infections, outside of the pneumonia, and I just don't know how much longer her body can handle it...

So, lots going on and I had to get it out. On paper, so to speak. I'm wondering though about this whole blog thing. I put myself out here, sometimes thinking maybe it's good reading for others. Sometimes entertaining. It does me good to vent once in a while. But I really don't think it's good reading for anyone else. I don't have much of a following. Maybe I should just journal privately. Something for me to ponder - and, no, I'm not looking for sympathy or someone telling me to keep at it. It's just another something that I wanted to write about...

I'm dreaming of...

Jamie and I walking to the Rock House from Laura (Ingalls Wilder) and Almanzo's house at Rocky Ridge in Mansfield, Missouri

I knew it...

 I knew this was going to happen.

I had an appointment on Monday with my primary care doctor. My three month check after my pneumonia. I knew that he was going to do bloodwork. My mother has diabetes and my brother was recently diagnosed. My father's mother had it too. This doctor has been keeping a close eye on it. He was also concerned about my potassium which was quite low when I was in the hospital. And, since my hair is still falling out, he thought I might have a vitamin deficiency (could be D, B12 or iron).

I had to make a follow-up to go back in two weeks, which I did. They said they would call if I needed to come in sooner, which they didn't.

They did, however, just call to tell me that the doctor wants me to be certain to keep the next appointment to go over that bloodwork.

Obviously, that means there's something. Not something urgent, but something.
I just hope it's something that can be cured with an extra vitamin. But that diabetes thing weighs heavy on me...

You know...that age thing just keeps creeping in on us. Jim needs oral surgery next week. He started having tooth pain yesterday which only got worse today. A tooth he had a root canal on years ago is infected.

Okay, I'm not going to count these maladies that we've been experiencing lately, but for Pete's sake enough is enough!

Lab (mix) lingo 101

I administered a quiz yesterday. What words were most recognizable to these two, very different from each other Lab mixes, I wondered.

You might think that I haven't much of a life. And you might be right.

So, in no particular order and, surprisingly, eliciting an equal response from both:

Out

Cookie

Car

Eat

Mama

Daddy

Treat

Blue ball

Chevy (another Lab mix friend)

Ride

and, sadly, McDonald's

Monday adventures

* I told of this little adventure on my myspace (back when I did myspace) blog a over a year ago. I had to drive "Big Red" quite a distance today and was thinking of this story. Decided to move it here...

Jim had an emergency well to drill for a store that had no water. So, first thing I had to run a well permit up to the health department. He had to get permission to drill right away, but we still had to file the permit before he could start. So, then we had to move the rig to the jobsite, which was a little party store where he is set up in their parking lot. He has to drill next to the existing well because there's no other place to drill without having to tear up the parking lot to hook the well up. He had to use cutting torches to cut the pipe off the old well and get rid of the cement post that kept people from hitting the well (with their cars) before he could set up the drill rig. Okay so we're set up and we can come back so he can drive back out with the water truck. I can start my to-do list...

So, I get a few things done, including my grocery shopping and I'm home unloading groceries when Jim calls wanting me to bring the pick-up out. I hate driving the pick-up. It's got an extended cab and an eight foot bed. It's big and I just don't like driving it. He knows that and offers to call a friend who may be off work by then, but, you know, I'm all he's got. We have no one working for us right now and I feel like I have to do things even if I don't like to. Believe me, Jim does a ton of things he doesn't like to do! So, I drive "Big Red" (that's what we call this truck) out there and it's been a while since I've had to drive it, but it was so hard to steer all the way there. When I pulled in Jim wanted me to back into place because he needed to shovel mud into the back and I told him it was hard to steer. Well, he looked at the tires and one front tire was almost flat. That's a big DUH on my part! He put air in the tire and moved it where it needed to be. Usually when Jim drills, he's in a field or yard, not in a parking lot so he needed to haul the mud away. The temps were dropping fast and he needed to get it out of there before it froze solid. I'm telling you that this mud is so much heavier than "regular mud"! Others who have had to shovel it would agree. Jim had only one shovel on the truck so I couldn't even help (what little help I could give would be better than none). By the time he was done the back of the truck was pretty much full of mud. We could leave now. It was 7pm, dark and very cold. I started off and found that I couldn't steer! I called Jim who was a little ahead of me, driving the water truck and he said, "Yeah, you have a heavy load. It'll be like trying to steer a boat." Well, I've never steered a boat but at least I knew that there wasn't a mechanical problem and I just couldn't go over 30 mph or else I couldn't steer at all. It was a looooong drive home! Luckily most of the heavy traffic was done by then, but of course, people don't like to follow you when you're only going 30. I hate people riding my rear! Jim and I try to move our trucks during off peak hours because we always have to travel a little slower. People have no patience! I mean, really, just hold off and your time to pass will come. I can't go any faster even with you right on my rear.

Okay, so we get to within 5 or so miles of home and there are a couple of cars pulled onto the shoulder with their flashers on. I went to go around them and I spot a dog on the other side of the road lying there, but still moving. I love dogs. I love animals. I started crying. I cried the rest of the way home. When I pulled in and Jim came to my side of the truck because the yard was freezing up and slippery so he came to walk with me to the house (yes, he is a sweet guy), I was sobbing and telling him, "Those people hit a dog and it was still alive and just laying there!" He hadn't seen the dog when he went by. He must have thought I was losing it! He's a good guy, he just listens to me...

Well, I was freezing, crying and now it's hitting 8pm and I didn't get supper made.

He took Duke (the dog) and me to McDonald's and we sat by the river and had dinner. That usually helps cure everything...

And, yes, Duke gets a burger too and eats most of my fries and Jim like to get pies sometimes too. So, to avoid me giving Duke most of my pie, he now orders Duke his own pie. Yes, our pup is spoiled and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

And, think of this, if that mud was so heavy as to weigh the back of the truck down so much so that I had a hard time steering then imagine how much mud my husband lifted into that truck! These are the times I really have a renewed appreciation for how hard he works. A well driller is one of the most physically demanding jobs, plus it's not just physical there's a lot of "mind work" involved. My husband is quite a guy! And, the perfectionist that he is, the well makes water, but he feels he can do better and he's working on it today trying to see if he can get a better volume for these people. Hopefully it warms up past the 16 degrees it is now...