Ouch!!!

Well, it had to happen. After 11 years of service at my job I fell. No really, I fell. Well, Ok, so I didn't really fall so much as the chair broke. We have some really flimsy chairs at work in the dining room. We were celebrating our January birthdays and a farewell to Fr. Orlando. I had already finished eating and we were all sharing stories about Fr. Orlando when all of a sudden I felt the chair begin to bend at my right hip. Before I knew it I was sinking then, plop, I was on the ground and I landed on a metal portion of the chair. Ouch!!!!!

My injury is right at the point where the cheek meets the thigh. I'm ok as along as I'm standing or lying down. It's when I sit or stand that it hurts. It's that bending motion that kills me.

All of the maintenance men were right on the spot to help me up but I was soooo embarassed that I told them I'm ok, just let me get up. Well, easier said than done because my butt began to hurt so, I had to take them up on their offers. Then our Children's Choir director who is also a marathon runner brought a ice pack (ice in a ziplock bag wrapped in a towel) and told me to sit on it to stop the bleeding on the inside from my pulled muscle. So there I am sitting on an ice pack. We all get up to leave and she tells me to take it to my office and continue to sit on it for a little while longer. Well, you guessed it. Ice melts, the bag sweats, the towel gets wet and so do my pants. Now not only does my butt hurt but I have wet pants and no dryer. Finally my pants dry and now I'm cold. Can I please just go home!!?????

I get home and when I get off the truck Ouch!!! I go to change clothes and have to sit to take off my compression hose, Ouch!!!! I have to stand up to go into the kitchen to fix supper for my mom, Ouch!!!! I fix supper and need to sit down and prop my legs up higher than my heart, Ouch!!!! I now have to get up and go to bed, Ouch!!!! I get in bed, Ouch!!!! I lie down, Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!! Goodnight!

Well, treadmill here I come!

It's not a New Year's resolution, it's a prescription from one of my doctors. I have been having a constant pain on my left ankle on the inside bone. My M.D. sent me to a vascular surgeon and he did an ultrasound on my leg and said that the valves in both my legs are bad.

Bad news, there is no fix or cure for this. The blood that travels up and down my legs is not all coming back up and it is starting to gather around my shin area. Right now it is more noticeable on my left leg and barely on my right leg. If it goes untreated eventually I could develop ulcers on my leg that will begin to bleed out because the blood has no where to go.

Good news, we can keep any more blood from gathering there by:
1. Exercising
2. Losing weight
3. Burning out one of the veins in my leg ( out-patient laser surgery)

So, I have retrieved the treadmill I had given to my cousin Chonita, of course I aske if I could have it back and the reason that I needed it. My doctor has prescribed that I walk 30 minutes each day and begin a diet.

I have to admit when he first told me about my bad valves I began to cry and he asked my why I was crying and I told him about my dad having had 6 stints in his arteries because of blockage and was this happening to me. He assured me that this was in no way related to what dad had. He said this is something not even close to it. By exercising I will build up my leg muscles and the strong muscles will help pump that blood back to where it needs to go. He told me to not even think about blocked arteries. These valves are located in the lower part of my body and even though they can't go in and fix them we can help the blood flow better by taking the pressure of my legs.

I now have to wear compression hose on a daily basis to help ease the pressure from my legs and at the end of my day I have to take at least 30 minutes each day to elevate my legs higher than my heart to help the blood flow back up my leg.

Cito and I got the treadmill last night and I got on it to try it out. It still works. I need to buy some silicone spray for the ramp but it works just fine. I walked for 15 minutes this morning and plan to walk another 15 tonight. Cito recommended that I start at 15 minutes each time until Monday and then I can go 30 minutes non-stop.

My co-workers are really something else. When I told them about this they offered to walk with me during the first 30 minutes of our 1 hour lunch break. We are going to walk around the top floor of our Religious Education building for 30 minutes each day and then have our lunch the last 30 minutes. They didn't want me to walk alone and they said they needed to walk, too.

Please pray that God give me the strength to continue on this journey.

Merry Christmas To Everyone

So, how did everyone spend their Christmas? We spent it at my brother Frank's home with his wife Maria and stepdaughter Audrey. It was really nice. It was my first visit to their home and it is beautiful. I fell in love with a great recliner/rocker that they have. We all met their for dinner and gift exchange. My family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with dinner and gift exchange and this has really worked out well for my married brothers & sisters because their in-laws do Christmas on Christmas Day. Isnt' it neat how God fits people together.

We had a great dinner and we all received some great gifts. My sister Ramona and her family weren't with us and we were also missing my nephew Tommy, Jr. Ramona lives in Nederland, TX and her children and grandchildren live down there too, so she was with them. Tommy, Jr. was with his Mom but he'll be with us for New Year's.

My Christmas wish for everyone is that God continue to fill your families with His blessings.

December 7, 2008

Well, it's been 4 years to the day that our dad passed away. I don't know if my siblings do this but I find myself, since Thanksgiving Day, reliving each of the events that took place up until dad's death. He went into the hospital on Thanksgiving Day, 2004 and never came home.

I can recall each day and how he looked. We all would visit him constantly and I remember what the doctors would tell me and how I got the call from his doctor the day he died saying dad wanted them to call mom and me and let us know that they were taking him to ICU before he would let them take him. He wanted to tell mom how much he loved her. He told her 3 times before he hung up. I remember the look on the doctor's face when he told me that he wasn't responding to the CPR and should they continue. The doctor saying that he went so fast the doctor didn't have a chance to do anything. But what I remember most is the day he died I had gone to see him during my lunch hour and when I left they had hooked him up to an IV giving him blook because he had lost some overnight, but the way they hooked it up when I went to kiss him goodbye I couldn't reach him. I stretched over the machine as much as possible and he did too but we couldn't reach each other. So we gave each other an air kiss. If I had known that it was going to be my last chance to kiss my dad I would have found a way to get to him.

Never take any moment in life for granted and never wait until tomorrow to let someone know how much you love them. Tomorrow may never come. You know you hear people tell you this all the time but until you've experienced the loss of a tomorrow, you won't understand it. So, to my family who will read this, just know that I love you, I love you, I love you.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, we had a great weekend. My sister Ramona came up from Nederland, Tx with her husband Tim. They stayed with Mom & me here at the house. We started our weekend by attending 9:00am Mass on Thanksgiving morning. It was a really nice Mass dedicated to our dad. It also would have been his 82 birthday. After Mass we went to my sister Maria's apartment where her in-laws were going to celebrate their Thanksgiving. Yes, we crashed their celebration. Not really, Maria invited us. After filling our bellies we came home and stayed up late watching a movie and eating ice cream.

Friday Ramona & Tim went shopping all day. Mom and I stayed in and I took advantage of the time to do some housework. When Ramona & Tim returned they began to fix up Mom's bathroom. It really looks nice now. All that is left to do is paint and cover her window.

Saturday we all met at the cemetery to take dad his birthday balloons. It was really a beautiful sight seeing all those balloons going up to heaven with our special messages on them. Of course mine got caught in the trees and popped. But I know that dad got my message anyway. We later went to Luby's to eat lunch and then back to Mom's house for some fun.

We spent the afternoon playing cherades pictionary style. I came up with 14 different movie titles and you had to draw out the title and see if anyone could guess the movie. Of course, this group needed some motivation after filling their bellies with food so, I told them that as they won a game they could choose from my library of VHS movies and take the one they wanted. It worked because they later began strategizing with each other as to which movies to go for next.

Cito, I hope none of them were yours.

John & Jacque left about 7:30pm and Maria left about 10:00pm. All in all we had a really good time. We were missing our brother Cito but he and his wife were celebrating her parents 50th anniversary in Iowa. Besides we'll be together again for Christmas but this time we'll be missing Ramona & Tim.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too.

Quiet but productive today!

Well, other than the wind blowing leaves all over the yard, nothing much happened today. This is a good thing. I was able to spend some time putting my room in order. Mom took a long needed nap in her room and Gia kept wanting to go outside and bark at the dog next door. She can't see it because of their privacy fence but she can hear it and that's enough for her. Did some laundry, fixed breakfast and supper and now just sitting around watching the Wizard of Oz.

I'm gonna have to take some time to redo our budget because our pay periods are going to change effective January 1, 2009. Now instead of getting paid every 2-weeks, pay day will be on the 15th & last day of the month. Damn, just when I had it going right with the budget. Oh, well. Finances 101 here we go again.

Mom survived Halloween without a scream.

This was our first year to NOT hand out candy to the little tricksters so, mom asked me to take her next door to sit with my cousin who was handing out candy.

We sat out side on her driveway which she had decorated with cobwebs and a blacklight. She was decked out, too. A long black dress with a black cape, a 3 skeleton head walking stick. She was sitting next to a small round table on which she had her candy tray, and a small pumpkin. Not to mention her glass filled with blood, from which she occasionally took a sip. She also had a vicious black hound sitting at her heels. It was dressed in a scary devilish costume. I had never seen "Boots" look soooooo cute. She was the cutest little chihuahua.

We had some cute little kids show up all in their costumes and then it happened. Across the street there was a group of kids and I noticed that one was really tall and dressed all in black. When he turned his head his face looked different so I studied it really hard. Yep, just as I thought, he was wearing one of those ugly rubber masks and it looked really freaky. Now I know not many people know this but when my mom was younger and worked at Baylor hospital she was scared by someone wearing a rubber devilish mask. Long story short she has never been able to tolerate those masks and even my brothers have never been able to get near her when they would wear one. So, here mom was in her wheelchair sitting outside and here comes this tall kid, wearing all black with a white rubber freaky mask and black hair sticking out all around it (picture Edward Scissorhands) coming across the street in her direction. I did some fast talking to mom and explained who was coming across the street and that there were little ones with him so if she got too scared she might scare the little ones not to mention he was only coming for the candy and not her. I explained to my cousin and her fiance why those masks scared her and they told her there was nothing to worry about because with all of us with her no one was going to harm her.

Well, Edward came and went without any incident but I don't care how far he walked away, he was never out of mom's sight. She kept her eyes on him from the time he reached the candy tray until he disappeared into the night. We didn't stay outside much longer after he left. But that's ok because he was with one of the last groups to show up.

The sad part of this whole story is how much our street has changed. I remember when we were young you could go to every house on this street and collect candy. Last night I could have counted the houses giving candy on one hand. It's not the same old neighborhood anymore. It's sad to see what the future is looking like for the children of tomorrow. Will we still rush home on October 31 to fill our bowls up and sit by the door waiting to hear the tiny voices say "Trick or Treat" or will it just be another night like all the rest?