Medical

Well, most of my plans panned out

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Today was going to be a day of out and about-ing, so I made sure to do the rounds a bit earlier this morning.

A quick glance out the bathroom window showed me that Slick was already waiting for breakfast. :-D

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As I came out with their food and warm water, I found Nicky the Nose making his way out the door, while Slick slunk under the blankets and benches.

Part of my usual routine these days is to turn the electric heating pad back on for another 2 hours, while doing the cats’ food and water, then doing the deer and bird feed.

I came back to this.

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When -18C is now warm! Also, a re-evaluation

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Going out to do my rounds was down right pleasant, today!

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I see you in there… should I run?

I didn’t even bother to wear gloves, for a change. Even Butterscotch came to me after I finished putting deer and bird feed out, wanting me to carry her for the rest of my rounds! :-D

Ferdinand was in the sun room this morning, for a change, checking me out while I scooped up some kibble in the Old Kitchen. Usually, it’s been Slick in the sun room of late. With the warmer temperatures, all the outside cats are more active. Even the water in the sun room had barely any ice on it. There is a down side, though; as things warm up, the sun room is starting to smell very strongly of cat urine. We’re going to have to do a very thorough spring cleaning in there!

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My new view, and warmed up – for a bit

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Since switching up rooms, I have come to appreciate the view in my new office space. I’ve got my desk against the north wall, which means I can see out the window with my peripheral vision.

Turns out, it’s pretty active out there!

Every now and then, some motion catches my eye, and I look up to see a cat – or several of them – making their way through the trees, to and from the roof, or just… sitting there.

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Changed plans

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pain.scaleAh, life.  The things you throw at us.

While, thankfully, my husband did not injure himself when the kittens tried to kill him, and he ended up falling, it did not leave him entirely unscathed.  As time went on, it became clear he did pull some muscles (I guess that should count as an injury?), and now he’s in even more pain than usual. Continue reading →

Vehicular Milestone

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You know, the outside cats make going outside quite entertaining!  Check out Beep Beep!

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Earlier, when I was walking around the yard, she followed me, insisting on attention, until I finally picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.

Later, as I brought the van into the yard, cats and kits scattered all over the place.  Beep Beep went up the tree.  When I came near, she started rolling around so much, she almost fell off!

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A Good Day – and critters!

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Before I go into today’s events, I wanted to share this photo from a few days back.

2018-10-robinsI had been watching the birds at the feeder and noticed some much bigger birds under the apple tree.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many robins, all together (there were several more that I was unable to get in a photo) .  I also didn’t know robins like to eat crab apples!

Between the birds and the deer, any fallen apples get cleaned up, real quick! Continue reading →

Settling in, little by little

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I did my rounds around the yard this evening, and it’s really something to see how everything is settling in for the winter.

While I have been fighting those invasive vines all over the place all summer, there is one area where I am keeping them.  They are, after all, quite pretty, when under control!  They have gone to seed, now, and are all covered with lovely little puffs.

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I spent some time going around the yard, picking up the fallen branches, and going through where I cleaned things up in the maple grove.

When talking to my family about what I was finding, I mentioned the rows of trees that were planted too close together, with many dying because of it, and how I wanted to eventually transplant the three poor little tamarack trees.  One family member told me to just cut them down to give the other trees space.

Nope!  Not going to do that.  I really want to save these trees.

This is one of the reasons why.

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They turn a most glorious golden yellow in the fall!

In the future, I would really love to plant more of them!

It’s not unusual, when I make my way through the yard, for me to have a cat follow me.  That’s typically when Rolando Moon makes an appearance.  Otherwise, it’s Beep Beep or Butterscotch.

Today, I had two cats following me!

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Beep Beep and her boy!

Later, my younger daughter helped me move some leaf piles onto the flower garden by the Old Kitchen.  The girls have been raking the grass, but with the latest drop of leaves, it’s rather yard to tell in some places! :-D  We are starting to use the leaves as mulch in different areas as well as adding more to the garden – and that’s without doing any raking at all in between the trees!  Those will be left to decompose where they are.  We’ll just stay on top of picking up fallen branches in those areas.

Earlier today, we made a trip into town to get some prescription refills.  When they were ready, the pharmacist went through the three bottles with me.  There was supposed to be four, however.  So she went back to check what happened.  It turned out that, for some reason, the insurance wasn’t coming up to cover that one at all.  They figured it was a glitch in the system.

They ended up giving me the refill, without charging us for it now.  When I come back in about a week, for some other refills, they will charge us for it then.

Which kinda blows me away.

When we had issues with insurance, shortly after moving here, the Costco pharmacy my husband had set up with wanted to charge him full price. We didn’t even know there was a problem until they wanted some $400, when we should only have been paying $40 or so.  It was a most frustrating experience, and my husband went without some of his medications for a long time before the mess was fixed – and then even longer, because the fix put him at the wrong rate, which meant we still couldn’t afford it.

I’m rather glad we are with this pharmacy, now!

One of the benefits of going with a small town pharmacy, instead of one in the city!

Something to be thankful for, for sure!

The Re-Farmer

Oh, what a day! :-D

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How the day was going to go was a bit up in the air, to be decided after we picked up our van.  It ended up being a much longer day, but we got the bulk of our monthly shop in, after all.

In order to get the van home, my younger daughter and husband had to come along.  Now, my mother’s car isn’t a compact car, by any means, but my husband tops 6 ft.  Even with the seat back as far as it could go, he had to fold himself in.  He was basically wearing the car!!  Continue reading →

Pizza night

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After all our running around in town today, we decided a pizza night was in order.

This one’s mine.

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Alfredo Pizza.  One of the best I’ve ever had, with broccoli, chicken and alfredo sauce.

Sooooo good!

Normally, today would have been our day to go into the city for our monthly shop, but that will likely happen the day after tomorrow.  I will be out much of tomorrow, as  I’ve booked an oil change, and I’m asking them to check the wheel bearings and take it for a spin, to see if the mystery noise will start.  We’ll see what they say after their inspection, before we make any trips to the city!

I should be able to visit my mother, as well, since she lives just a couple of blocks from the garage I’m going to.  I will have to try to explain to her – again – that when the home care workers come in for a meal assist, they can only heat up prepared food.  They don’t have the time to cook food from scratch, which it turns out she’s still expecting them to do.  Plus, apparently, she was being very rude to them about it, too.  My older brother, who is their contact person, got a phone call about her not having prepared food for them to heat up.  Which we all had made sure there was lots of.  He was able to get through to our mom (he’s not even in this province right now!) and was able to establish that yes, there is still lots of food in the fridge, and even more in the freezer.  It basically just needs to be assembled into meals and heated – and my jars of chili are still there, too, which need nothing extra done.  She was just being a pain, demanding of them more than they are supposed to do.  :-(

Years ago, my mother worked as a home care worker, but things have changed a great deal since then.  She refuses to accept that.  Still, you’d think she would at least treat them better! :-(

Well, she is slated for a total of 14 days of home care.  She should be recovered enough to be able to do a lot more herself, by the time the two weeks are up.   Which should be early next week.  She surgical area is healing well, and her mobility is quite good (especially for someone who is 87 and is in need of a knee replacement!).  She gets tired easily, which I would expect to continue for some weeks, yet, but she’s getting her 4 daily walks in, as the doctor ordered.  It’s basically just down the hall to the lobby area and back, but that’s enough for now.  She’s really doing very well, even if she complains about what a difficult time she’s had!  :-)  She just has nothing in her personal experience to compare it to.  She was totally convinced she was going to die, though that was partly due to her racism.  She had the best hernia surgeon in the province, but he’s from Nigeria, so…  Sadly, it turns out he’s had problems with his own mother, back in Nigeria, who thinks him being a doctor in Canada is wasting his life!  Poor guy!  At least my brother has made a point of telling him how much he is appreciated, for taking such good care of our mother.

Ah, well.  We shall see how it goes, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer

I missed you!

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I had to make a quick trip into town this morning, and came home to DahBoy, waiting for me.

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Okay, so maybe he was just watching the action outside, and not really waiting for me, but it’s cute, either way. :-D

Plans have been changed for the day.  I’ve learned my mother is going to be released from hospital this afternoon.  They were actually going to kick her out this morning, against doctor’s orders and before confirmation for home care, but my brother talked them into making it this afternoon, as was originally being discussed.  I am waiting on my brother to let me know when they are leaving, so I can meet them at my mother’s and help out.

Which meant a planned trip into town this afternoon, to drop some stuff off at the lab for my husband, got done this morning, instead.

Home care for my mother won’t start until tomorrow, but thankfully, my older brother will be able to stay overnight with my mother and be available for her until then.  If he hadn’t already worked that out, chances are I’d be doing it.  Hopefully, if my mother does need help with stuff beyond home care, she’ll call me, at a 20 minute drive away, instead of my brother, who is about an hour and a half away!

I think she is going to be glad to be home, and away from the noise and bustle of the hospital.

The Re-Farmer