This is the “surprise bag” of yarn that I’d ordered. It’s supposed to be enough for 3 pairs of socks. I had also ordered two skeins of “festive feet” Christmas coloured sparkle yarn. The one in this bag just happened to be the same as what I got separately. I had ordered two in this same colourway, thinking one skein per sock. Seeing that this package is meant to give 3 pairs of socks and has only one skein of this yarn, that means the one skein is enough for one basic pair of socks. Altogether, that means I got enough yarn for 5 pairs. Probably more, because I am asking my daughter to knit me some ankle socks, not tall socks.
Yes, these are for my daughter to knit socks for me. I don’t knit. I crochet. Socks can be made in crochet, and I’ve made custom socks for people in the past, but nothing using actual sock yarn. My daughter has been making herself socks in 100% wool and having a blast. They work great for her needs, but will wear out and get holes faster than sock yarn. Sock yarn contains a minimum percentage of manmade fibres specifically to combat wear and tear, so they last longer.
She is finishing off a pair of socks for herself right now, and then she will start making me some sparkly ankle socks.
She’s going to be a pro at turning a heel by the time she’s done making me several pairs! I don’t expect her to make 5 pairs right away, though!
I’m going to have sparkly socks to go along with my sparkly hat collection.
I also got some mirrors and reflective embroider thread. I plan to be making Christmas decorations with shisha mirrors. It’s been a long time since I’ve done sisha embroidery. Long before things like YouTube tutorials were available!
The mirrors I got are round craft mirrors, not thinner, hand cut mirrors typically sold for shisha embroidery.
If I’m going to be stuck inside with enforced low activity levels, I figure it’s a good time to break out my crafting materials and start making things again. If I can make enough (not just shisha embroidery) to sell at the local annual Christmas craft market in November, I’ll give that a try, too.
Speaking of enforced low activity levels, today was an odd day. It wasn’t a bad pain day, and the bleeding was not any worse. I took my morning pain killers along with my regular meds and supplements, at the 6 hour scheduled time as usual, then went back to bed. Before long, I started feeling bizarrely dizzy. Just turning my head a bit while lying down was enough to trigger dizziness strong enough to make me feel nauseous! This is a known side effect with the Percocet, but I’d never had anything like this before. I suspected it might have been because I took them on an empty stomach, and I was feeling quite hungry. It took a while, but I managed to get up and reheat some food my daughters had made for breakfast, and I did feel better afterwards.
When it came time to take my afternoon scheduled Percocet, I took a half dose and not on an empty stomach.
I still got really dizzy.
I was at my computer when my daughter came by to talk to me before going to get the mail. It had been more than half an hour since I took my half dose of afternoon painkillers, and the dizziness was hitting me hard. Hard enough that I actually had to get my daughter to help me get into bed and lie down!
Thankfully, it did fade away and I was eventually able to get outside for some fresh air, though the girls had to do the evening outside cat feeding. Oddly, it’s now been almost 2 hours since I took my evening dose, along with my regular evening meds and supplements and, as I write this, I’m feeling increasingly dizzy.
So… maybe it’s not the Percocet? I don’t know what else it would be, though.
Well, I’ve got only one dose left in this trial prescription. Then I’m back on the T3s. We’ll see if that makes a difference, over the next few days.
Meanwhile, I would like to start planning out some embroidered Christmas ornaments with shisha embroidery!
Oh, on a completely different note, I was rather impressed with Amazon. We had made a claim to get a refund on that office chair my husband ordered back in July, just yesterday evening. This morning I checked, and it listed the claim and refund was done! That was really fast. I’m rathe impressed.
Now we need to figure out where and how to get my husband another chair that will meet his needs!
Pain levels kept increasing earlier than usual, with no physical activity that typically triggers it. I ended up spending most of the day in bed, which was incredibly frustrating.
A couple of things of note, though. First, the good stuff.
I did head out not long ago to do the evening cat feeding outside. More because I just couldn’t handle the inactivity anymore. Of course, I walked around a bit and checked on the garden beds.
The Black Russian sunflowers at the chain link fence bed are mostly blooming, and very busy with bumblebees!
The Mammoth sunflowers seed heads are still very small, but some of the plants are now easily 7′ tall. Hard to say if we’ll get anything out of them.
Checking the tomato bed, there are plenty of Orange Currant tomatoes to pick, but I did not have a container for them. Same with the beans. I’ve asked my daughters to do those later. I checked on the Blueberry tomatoes, which are supposed to stay a dark colour with light blossom ends. Some of them felt soft and ripe, so I picked them.
I won’t be taste testing them myself – I’m willing to try with something tiny like the Orange Currant tomatoes or Spoon tomatoes, but just thinking of eating a normal sized, fresh tomato – even smaller ones like this – makes my stomach churn. Odd, that.
I didn’t take a photo, but I pulled the Gigenthemum poppy plants with their fully dry pods and set them on the curing frame near the tomatoes I picked yesterday.
By that point, I needed to get indoor and sit down again.
*sigh*
On another note…
Back in July, my husband ordered himself a new office chair through Amazon. A bariatric chair that can double as a sleep chair, if necessary. Only after placing the order did it tell us that tracking wasn’t supported by the delivery company. It did have a delivery date in August. A long time, but okay. We’ve had that before, and things would still show up at the general store the post office is in. Frustrating, but not something we were too concerned about. Once things arrived, we’d at least see it chance to having been delivered.
What we didn’t know is that the seller had tried to contact us. My husband never got the messages (the system should have sent him emails about them). After the delivery date passed, my husband was going to get a refund, but never got a verification on that.
Which is when I looked around and found the messages from the seller. One saying there was a problem and asking for an alternate address. Basically, they could not deliver to a post office (so why was the PO box address accepted? That happens pretty often) and needed a physical address. So I answered on behalf of my husband.
There were some messages back and forth and we finally got a Purolator tracking number. That lead to “shipping label created”, and never changed. After a while, I sent another message to the seller telling them that, according to Purolator, they don’t have the parcel. I told them that if there was a problem with the address (Purolator delivers to the general store but not to our physical address), they could use the physical address for the general store.
I got a message back saying they would contact the delivery company with the new info. Not long after, I got another tracking number, saying the package was in transit, and an apology for the delay. I responded to that, and then we waited some more.
And waited.
Purolator tracking still said “shipping label created” and never changed.
This morning, I tried to contact Purolator about it but all the system could tell me was there was only a shipping label created. They don’t have the package.
So I messaged the seller again, telling them this and saying that, at this point, we want a refund.
Some time later, my husband forwarded an email to me from Amazon.
My message could not be delivered, as “The seller associated with your order or inquiry has left the Amazon store or is no longer able to receive any further email communications.” Then it gave a link to request an A-Z Claim.
Which is when I gave up on being bedridden and went looking.
According to the Amazon listing, the seller is still there, the chair is still available, and even on sale now.
I went through the claim process, copy and pasting the email from Amazon about the seller no longer receiving messages, and saying we wanted a refund. My husband has already gotten a response from Amazon, and they are looking into it.
Hopefully, that means he’ll soon get his refund and we can look into buying a chair from somewhere else. With his current chair, he got some extra life out of it by replacing the wheels, but it’s still breaking down. He can’t sit normally on a chair, so he really need something that can handle extra wear and tear.
The problem is, finding something that works for him off line is almost impossible. Mobility aid places don’t carry office chairs, and office supply places don’t tend to keep specialty bariatric chairs in stock. You can only order them online – and they can be mind bogglingly expensive. An actual sleep chair is a completely different design unsuitable for his space and needs.
Well, I am not sure just how things are going, right now!
Last night, as I was going to be, I started feeling very ill. Nausea is s potential side effect with the new painkillers, so that might have been it.
Or it could have been the piece of birthday cake I’d had not long before. I may have been sighted out.
Or it could gave been both.
Either way, I had to message my daughter to help me just to get to the bathroom, which waz an extremely slow and careful walk. She got dome Pepto into me first, which seemed to work.
After I was finally stable enough to lie down, I took only 1 tablet instead of 2, for the next two doses. That didn’t quite cut the pain, but there was only mild dizziness. By the afternoon dose, I was back to 2 tablets, they kay riwn right away.
That seemed to work, because I felt well enough to get things done outside. I changed out the water in the tub all the cat beds, etc. were soaking in. That was really gross. I expect to be changing the water out at least one more time before I start using the wheelbarrow as a tub to wash individual pieces.
The kittens were looking for food around the shrine bowls, so while the tub was draining, I decided it was time to move the catio back to the inner yard. It topped up all the other kibble bowls to distract the adult cats away, then cleared and emptied the catio, including the weights on the roof to keep it from blowing over, into the wagon. The catio itself could then be walked over and got set uo where it was before.
Once everything was put back, eith fresh food and water, I went back to working at the tub nearby.
I then had to keep chasing away adult cats and skunks that were stealing the kittens’ food.
Which scared away the kittens.
*sigh*
While I was doing that, my younger daughter was doing some pruning of the lilacs by the house. We had talked about propagating the Korean Dwarf Lilac, so she went ahead and planted sone near where the sea buckthorn is, to fill gaps in the hedge. They may not take, but lilacs are much like willow or birch. You can just stick a branch in the ground, and it can grow. It’s really sun baked and dry out there, though, so they will need frequent watering for them to have any chance at all.
My daughter is dealing with a lot of her own pain, and walking with a cane again, so dhe headed in once the pruning and planting was done. After I finished refilling the soaking tub – and chasing off more skunks – I was feeling well enough to stay out and water the garden beds.
I didn’t get any pictures, but I’m seeing some Chocolate Stripe tomatoes starting to ripen. There is a single white Caspar eggplant developing. I even spotted some tiny melons developing, and one of the winter squash climbing the chain link fence is showing several female flowers, and even a few squash developing. With no season left to mature, unless that Super El Nino keeps things mild for a long time.l.
The pain killers were starting to wear off by then, so I headed back inside for a while. Just as I was sitting down with supper, my mother phoned. It was actually a pretty good call. She mostly just wanted to chat.
While we were talking about her health, my mother suddenly declared that she has a round belly, too, so maybe she has what I have.
…
I tried to explain how this could not be true. I don’t think she believed me.
*sigh*
I ended up having to cut the call short so I could have my supper, and my evening meds time was coming up. While I was eating, I updated my brother and SIL on the call … then they showed up! I wasn’t sure if they woukd make it out this weekend.
When I finished eating, I headed out to give the kittens a top up, since the cats and skunks steal their food donations quickly. I found the two bravest ones on a shelf in the catio. They ran off as I added some cat milk to the remains of kibble in the bowl, but they were soon back.
I still had to chase away Sweetie and two other adult cats, so the kittens could eat.
My brother passed by on the way to the garage, so we got to say a quick hello. He wanted to get their zero turn mower out and cutting the grass in the outer yard whike it was still light out.
I headed back inside just in time for my alarm to go off gir my evening meds. Including a full dose of the new painkillers.
I’m now in bed, in an over abundance of caution. I don’t want a repeat of last night! I’d forgotten my daily post, though, so I am doing this on my phone.
I much prefer my desktop!! 😁
I hope the night goes well.
Tomorrow, the main goals are a dump run, then a trip into town to get a birthday card and a visit with my mother. She’s turning 95 this weekend.
She is doing amazing for her age! Even with all her aches and pains, and declarations that she is dying. 😁
I did not tell her I was planning to visit while on phone with her, just in case I’m not physically up to it.
Morning was quiet overall. My poor daughter has been caning it today; the last while of taking on a lot of what I normally do during the day has not been easy on her.
Still, she was well enough to do the morning routine and, when our prescription delivery came in, to meet the driver.
I got my new meds. Just in time for my afternoon painkiller dose. I got to take new new generic Percocet instead of the T3s. I have enough to take them at the same schedule, every 6 hours, for 7 days.
So far, it seems to be working! I’m not holding my breath as other painkillers I’ve tried did work for the first while, then gradually stopped working. However, it meant I did not get that gradual pain building up and lasting for several hours.
I took advantage of that, while trying to still maintain light activity levels.
I decided it was a good time to start the very, very last “spring cleaning” of the sun room!
I moved things around to make space under the canopy tent, then brought out the cat carriers. They got dismantled and scrubbed down. Some of them have bolts with wing nuts on them that were getting rusted, so I set them in a bowl with some CLR.
Then my daughter and I went to the general store to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble, which my daughter was able to carry for me (I felt perfectly able to do it, but I’m banned) and the mail. Which included an unexpected, long thin parcel for my husband.
After we got home and unloaded, my husband presented my daughter with a new cane he’d got for her! She has a fantastic “tactical” cane that she doesn’t use because it’s too top heavy.
Also in the mail, finally, was our ambulance bill. Since they only came and treated my husband, but did not transport him anywhere, the bill was only $100, and we’ll be able to submit the receipt to my husband’s insurance for partial reimbursement. Not too shabby!
The carriers could be reassembled by then, and I brought over an old toothbrush to scrub the bolts that had been sitting in CLR. Once those were rinsed and dried off, I treated them with WD40 before using them on their respective carriers again. We now have five clean carriers ready. There’s another in the sun room but the cats knocked it off the shelf so many times, it can no longer be closed. Then there’s the huge donated one that is in the catio, with a cat bed in it, as a trap for the kittens. You can see the before and after for the cat carriers in the first to images of the slide show above.
Once the carriers were done, I got the flat sink stopper I’d picked up not long ago and started filling the old bathtub I dragged out of the junk pile. It still needs more coats of enamel paint sprayed on, but there is enough that it can be used. While I had the hose going in the tub, with some laundry detergent added, I started bringing over various cat beds, blanket and caves from the sun room. Not everything would fit, though.
You can see in the last image of the slide show above, how it is now. I added water until it reached the overflow opening, poking at everything with an old broom handle to get it submerged and soaking, then tried to “stir” it a bit.
The handle broke.
I’ll be using a garden hoe to continue, later on. For now, it’s all left to soak overnight. It’s all pretty disgusting, to be honest. I expected to change out the water and soak it in detergent a couple of times before I start to actually wash the individual pieces. I’ll most likely transfer them into the wheelbarrow individually for the final cleaning. Then I plan to give them a final soak/rinse with the 10% cleaning vinegar.
That old tub is going to be very handy.
While doing all this, I kept an eye on the kittens. They all got their evening cat feeding. The kittens their their kibble softened with cat milk. I also brought out some of the donated cat treats. Some I used by the house to distract the adult cats, while kitten treats went into the catio “trap”.
I am getting quite frustrated. I’m leaving bait for the kittens, but keep having to chase away adult cats and skunks. Which startled the kittens, so they stay away instead of coming for their treats.
They have been enjoying their new “home” in the remains of the junk pile, though. Lots to run and jump and play around.
There’re some sort of old chair cushions in there; a matching seat and back. The seat cushion was leaning at a steep angle, but several kittens still found it made a cozy bed.
Once the tub was set up and soaking, I tried sitting by the catio to “fish” for kittens. Four of them had zero interest, and they all seemed to be easily startled.
When I was ready to move on, I took the cushions from the junk pile and lay them on the ground inside the catio, opposite the big cat carrier. Hopefully, this will encourage them to sleep in the catio instead of in the junk pile.
There was a surprising amount of bush beans available to harvest! The ones planted later, around the Arikara Squash, are absolutely prolific right now.
The two red tomatoes in the photo are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. The other three plants of that variety all have tomatoes so dark, they’re almost black, but one plant is producing red tomatoes instead, which are ripening faster. The plants are otherwise identical looking.
There were quite a few orange currant tomatoes ready for picking, too. The most I’ve picked at one time, so far!
While in the area, I checked on the one Arikara squash that’s maturing. It’s gotten as big as I think it’s going to get, and the shell is starting to harden. I had set it on top of a brick to get it off the ground, and I picked up the squash to check that the brick wasn’t causing any damage.
It wasn’t, but I found several huge snails!
Thankfully, the squash is big enough and hard enough that they’re not interested in trying to eat it. I still flicked them away. Then I went into my stash of lumber cast offs in the garage and brought back a board to set under the squash, on top of the brick, to give it smoother support – and hopefully, the snails won’t want to climb around it!!
After that, I checked on the grapes (second photo in the slide show above). It’s really hard to find them under all the foliage, but there are a LOT of grape clusters hidden in there. They look quite ready for picking. Not this evening, though. Hopefully, they’ll still be there tomorrow and we can start picking them and maybe make some jelly or something. It’s been a while since we’ve made grape jelly. The last few years, the raccoons got to them before we did.
By then, I could tell I was reaching my limit and didn’t want to push things. Once inside, my older daughter suggested we make up some individual charcuterie platters for ourselves for supper, which was quite enjoyed.
By then, the painkillers were definitely wearing off – just in time for my evening 6 hour alarm to go off and it was time to take some more.
As I write this, it’s still a bit achy, but it does not seem to be getting worse. I’m about ready for bed, though, and it’s not even 8:30 yet!
It looks like we’re going to have some absolutely beautiful weather over the next while, including days with more rain. Daytime highs are expected to mostly be in the low to mid 20’s C/68F, with overnight temperatures staying in the teens. Our average last frost date was September 10. As of right now, the forecast for the 10th is a high of 19C/66F, and the overnight low at 13C/55F. Absolutely no danger of frost at all.
Thank you, El Nińo!
At this point, the long range forecast suggests we’ll see our first frost around the 20th or so. I’m hoping for a repeat of one of our first winters out here, were we didn’t get our first frost until November and almost had a brown Christmas!
I’d rather like to see that again – and just a mild winter, overall.
I’m getting too old for winter, and we have too many things that break down – including ourselves! – when it gets colder. 🤣😂
Now, if I could just get a few cats off my bed, I might be able to call it a night.
I’m so glad I was able to be productive today! Even if it was just a little bit.
Today was quiet, for the most part. We’re all pretty drained, exhausted and fighting different kinds of pain.
I’m incredibly frustrated. The weather and temperatures are absolutely ideal for working outside, and I can do next to none of it.
I never took the hydromorphone my husband gave me, last night. I waited until I was more confident that I had no T3s left in my system and, by then, the pain had subsided on its own. I wasn’t about to take such a high dose without genuine need. When my 6 hour alarm went off during the night, when I would normally have taken more T3s, I wasn’t even dealing with a lot of pain in my hip, so I skipped it. In the morning, there was just a dull ache. This time, I took a tramadol instead.
It made no difference.
Aside from my daughter doing the morning routine outside for me, we mostly just took it easy. We did have a planned outing, though. My husband has a birthday this month and my older daughter treated us to his dinner of choice. Normally, that would be pizza, but he can no longer tolerate dairy, even with Lactase, so he chose Chinese food, instead. With this, we typically order just a lot of meat and seafood, with my husband also getting some chicken fried rice. We order enough to last us a couple of days, at least, which got us some free rice and deep fried wontons, and we prefer to do our own vegetables at home. This time, my older daughter baked the last of the bush beans and summer squash we had in the fridge, which was quite delicious.
My younger daughter and I headed out shortly before 1, to miss the lunch rush and to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble on the way out. We both were thinking today was Tuesday, though. It’s Wednesday, which means the general store closed at noon. We’ll have to go tomorrow, instead. Which is fine.
When we got to the area around the restaurant, we had to drive around the block a couple of times trying to find parking. There was nothing nearby at all, and we ended up parking closer to the marina. I wasn’t even sure it that area was public parking, or parking for boat owners.
By this point, I was having trouble walking, but still well enough that I turned down a cane when my daughter offered to get one out of our collection in the back of the truck for me. We placed the order and paid for it, then set a pick up time long enough for us to make a side trip to the grocery store. We wanted to pick up drinks for everyone, but ended up getting a Boston Creme cake that was on sale, even though there is still a bit of the Costco slab cake left. I noticed some good sales on grapes and a few other things, so my daughter and I also picked what we needed to have a small charcuterie later on, to go with the new cheeses we got in the city. By the time the groceries were paid for, I was relying on the cart to use as a walker.
When we got back to the restaurant, there still wasn’t any parking nearby, so I dropped my daughter off by the door then pulled over in the lane around the corner. After she got back with the food, I had to ask her to do the driving. My alarm had gone off for my afternoon T3 dose just as we returned to the truck after ordering the food, but it made no difference. The pain just kept getting worse.
It has since subsided again, and I’m down to a dull ache. Tomorrow, my Percocet gets delivered. I’m really hoping that works better than the T3s. If it doesn’t, then I’ll probably end up with my own prescription for hydromorphone – just not as high a dose as what my husband is getting!
After we enjoyed our first day of birthday take out, I felt well enough to go outside and do the cat feeding. I even watered the south garden beds, though I wasn’t up to doing the main garden area, too. After a couple of hours, I went out again to top up the kittens’ bowl of kibble softened with cat milk in the catio, since other critters have been stealing their food. Then I set up the camp chair and started fishing for kittens.
The little black one with the white stripe up the side of its nose is more enthusiastic about it. One of the tabbies got curious and started coming over, but not close. The other kittens were much more interested in playing among the white lilacs.
The Grink wasn’t interested this time, but Sweetie sure was! At one point, she was stalking the lure at the same time as the kitten, but she does not like the kittens at all. Without the distraction of the lure, she growls and spits at them, and I’ve even seen her bat at them.
I did manage to get the little black one close enough that I could reach down and touch its back, but it did not like that, so I didn’t push my luck with it.
Then my alarm went off for my evening meds, so I headed back inside.
Tomorrow and the day after, there are people from the rescue available to meet up with us, so I’ve talked to my daughter about working on getting kittens closed up into the carrier. That will mean heading out fairly often to see if they’ve gone in, and maybe setting some treats out as bait. Hard to do that and keep the other cats away, though. Thankfully, the rescue have us quite a lot of donated treats, including some just for kittens, so we could probably set out some for the bigger cats as a distraction, then put the kitten treats out for the little ones.
I pray for quick success on this! With their mother gone, there’s only so much we can do to protect them. We really need to get them in to the rescue for fostering and adoption! Otherwise, their chances of survival are very low. At this point, it even looks like Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos, are gone! Sprout had Sprig last year, along with two others that disappeared. The older white and grey that we are also trying to catch is Sprout’s from this year, and I am sure she actually had more than one kitten.
We have had so many adult cats disappear this year. We would expect that with some of the males disappearing for the summer, then coming back for the winter, but these are mostly females that have disappeared. At least a couple that I’m sure had a litter somewhere. Among the others, both fixed and intact cats have disappeared. The person at the rescue whose daughter had been fostering Domino is pretty devastated that they brought her back, and now she’s gone.
Such is the reality of yard cats.
I say as I hear the sounds of cats fighting outside my window!!!
My daughter and I didn’t have to go anywhere today, which turned out to be a good thing. We were both pretty wasted.
My daughter had done out to do the morning cat feeding, but was feeling quite terrible, so she ended up going back to bed to try and get some sleep. She told me she’d had nightmares for some reason, and got little sleep. !!!
While my doctor has not officially put me on bed rest, I did try to take it easy.
It didn’t make a difference.
As the day wore on, the pain returned even though I’d done nothing that might trigger it. I tried lying down again and it just kept getting worse.
I did eventually give and and went outside to do the evening cat feeding and switch out the memory cards. I do that every week or two instead of daily, now. As I went by the crab apples to get to the sign came, I made a discovery.
We lost another tree to yesterday’s high winds. Another dead spruce. This one looks like we can actually salvage it to use in raised beds. The last one that fell in this area – falling right on a crab apple tree – the trunk split down its length, so not something I want to use longer lengths of. This one seems pretty intact.
By the time I was done switching out the memory cards and walking through the garden beds, I was at my limit. I ended up setting a camp chair near the catio with the cat toy fishing rod. All the kittens were in the junk pile. I messaged my daughters and let them know the status of things, and they later came out to water the garden for me and take care of a few other things.
I had significant success with one kitten in particular.
The Grink and Sweetie made things difficult, as they were very interested in catching the worm, even if it meant going right through a kitten. After a while, though, they tired out enough that the kittens had a chance. The black one with the white line on the side of its nose came close enough that I was able to pet it and almost picked it up.
The tabby in the last picture of the above slide show is another braver one. My younger daughter sat in the chair to play with them before they came in and that one went under the chair – and she was able to pick it up and put it on her lap!!
None of them were going into the catio, though. The kittens that weren’t interested in the toy were busy playing in the junk pile, along with the older white and grey singleton.
So, no chance of catching them today, but progress on the socialization front.
Meanwhile, my pain levels are still increasing. I think today, I’m gong to skip the evening T3s, wait a couple of hours and try the hydromorphone. I forgot to call the pharmacy to see if the fax with my new Percocet prescription came in. I’ll have to do that tomorrow.
It I weren’t planning to wait to get the T3s completely out of my system first, I’d be going to bed right now, and it’s not even 7pm yet. I’m having difficulty sitting upright in my chair.
Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.
I am quite glad we left as early as we did!
On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.
I found a furry little slug in the carrier.
It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.
It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.
In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.
Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.
The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.
*sigh*
Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.
*doublesigh*
With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭
I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!
Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.
I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!
We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.
In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.
I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.
Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.
She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.
Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.
There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.
That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.
It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.
Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.
I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.
At least I can use the riding mower.
On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.
Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.
We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.
Okay, yes, the stock up shop did get done yesterday, but my daughter did most of the actual work, so that doesn’t count. 😁
This morning, she did the outside stuff for me, as usual, and even stayed out to do a deep watering of the garden. We’ve been dealing with flea beetles, all of a sudden. The nasturtiums work as a trap crop for those, and they are absolutely covered with them. So many that, when startled, you can hear them bouncing off the leaves and petals like rain.
They also love the Daikon radish. These had all bolted and were being left to go to seed. They are now all stems and pods. No leaves left at all. My daughter has been blasting the beetles off with the hose, but there’s really nothing that can be done. They’re also on the remains of the cabbages. I’m not sure if the netting would have been enough to protect them, had they not already been harvested!
In the early afternoon, my daughter and I headed in to town. We wanted to get some ice cream to go with the birthday cake, among a few other small things. We ended up getting several ice creams. A small tub of lactose free ice cream for my husband, and another small one for me, since I’m not big on ice cream, and my daughter chose a larger tub to share with her sister. They like to add a scoop to their coffees, sometimes.
By the time we were done the shopping, I was starting to feel dizzy, so my daughter took over the driving. It wasn’t that bad, but just bad enough that I didn’t feel it would be safe for me to drive.
After everything was brought in and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats, and I was feeling well enough to do that. I was eventually able to spot the four remaining kittens. We have the food and water bowls set up in the catio, which is great for luring them out, but is also a problem. The other cats and the skunks go in there and steal the kittens’ food! Hard to chase them away without also scaring the kittens.
Once that was done, I broke out the riding mower. There’s no way I can use a push mower of the weed trimmer – my daughter will be taking care of that part of the lawn care – but I can at least use the riding mower!
I ended up mowing for almost 4 hours, and I am so happy! I was able to get all the inner yard done, including in the main garden area. Everything I can get to with the riding mower. Some areas can only be done with the push mower or the weed trimmer, which my daughter is planning to work on tomorrow.
It felt so good to actually be productive. The forced inactivity is driving me bonkers. The yard looks so good, now, too. The outer yard and driveway still need to be done, but that can wait a bit longer. My SIL has been doing that area with their big zero turn mower for the past while, but they’ve got their grandsons still and will not be coming out here on the weekend, so I hope to get at least part of it done with the little riding mower. We are not touching the zero turn mower, at all! 😄
I was happy to get it done while it was still light out, too. That gave me a chance to top up the kittens’ bowl with kibble and cat milk again. It was completely empty, and I know the kittens didn’t finish that off one their own. Even while I was mowing, I had to chase both cats and skunks out. I made sure to top up the gas tank before running out, driving the mower to the garage to reduce the amount of walking I had to do, and ended up driving towards the catio so the noise would drive off the critters stealing the kittens’ food!
After refilling their bowl, I paused on the way back to the house to get a couple of photos at the chain link fence. In the time it took for me to do that, I spotted kittens heading for the new food I’d left for them. Encouraging!
These two photos are both of Black Russian sunflowers. The Mammoth sunflowers are not blooming at all, yet. Both varieties are supposed to have large seed heads, but I don’t think that will happen. The ones in the photos are about the size of the palm of my hand. It should be interesting to see how much bigger they get.
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we’re at the end of August already. About two weeks away from our average first frost date (I’m not going by the new date ranges). Just a few days until September. Good grief!
I’m hoping that Super El Nińo will help us out with a long, mild fall and no frost for a long time. Since moving here, we’ve had one year were the first frost happened in November, if I remember correctly. The shorter days will still set things back, but if the frost holds off, it’ll be good for the garden.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to say that I did NOT over do things by getting the lawn mowed. I’m so thankful for that riding mower!
I had a much interrupted night last night, so I was quite thankful that my younger daughter is still insisting on doing the morning routine so I can sleep in. When I got up, I was feeling quite good, overall.
Which made me very suspicious.
As we were getting ready to head out, I checked on the catio and found this adorableness looking back at me.
They still run off when we come by, but not as far, and they tend to stop and watch. When this one started looking like it was going to run out of the catio, I backed off and continued on my way, rather than give it a reason to feel more nervous.
I felt well enough to be doing the driving on the way out. We stopped at a gas station in the town along the way to get some road drinks and a snack to tide us over. My daughter had eaten breakfast, though, while I hadn’t, so the fresh potato wedges I got for both of us ended up just for me. Which meant we didn’t need to stop for lunch while at Costco.
When we got there, our first stop was filling the tank. Regular gas was at $1.489 and it cost me $68.99 to fill the tank from a little over half.
I did make sure we brought my walker while my daughter pushed the flat cart and loaded it for me.
I am so glad I had that walker.
By the time we reached Costco, the pain was starting to return. The more time went by, the more often I had to stop and just sit for a while, keeping an eye on the cart as my daughter ran around getting things. When we got to the line to pay, I gave her my cards and settled at the other end of the cash desk until things were being loaded onto the belt and the cashiers were scanning things on the cart. With a long drive ahead of us, I let my daughter know before dashing to the washroom. By the time I came out, she was done and heading in the direction of the exit. Once I caught up with her, we squished ourselves to the side and paused. My alarm was about to go off, so I took my pain meds then my daughter dashed off to refill my water bottle from the fountain. Which gave me time to get my usual photos.
Does this look like $900 to you?
Yes, we have a birthday coming up! This time, my husband’s. It’s early to get a cake, but we have never been ones to celebrate on the actual day, and a cake that size will last us several days!
So, what did we get for our $900 and change?
Let’s start with the cat stuff.
We got two 9kg bags and two 11kg bags of dry kibble, a case of wet cat food and a box of XL puppy pads.
For non-food items, we got our usual toilet paper, plus a case of facial tissues, all purpose cleaner, and a 2 pack of the Head and Shoulders that we use as an anti-fungal body wash.
In beverages, we got a case of Monster, a case of Vanilla Coke Zero, a 3 pk of oat milk and two 2L of kefir. We also got a large box of Earl Grey tea.
For dairy, we got 5 pounds of butter, a block of Old Cheddar and of Mozzarella cheese, plus a shaker of Parmesan that was on sale.
We did not get a lot of meats. Two panini packs of sandwich meats, a 6 pack of canned chicken, and two packages of loose mild Italian sausage meat.
In breads, we got two 2 packs of rye and two packages of tortilla wraps.
In case lot foods, we got an instant oats variety pack, a case of tomato soup, spaghetti, Ramen noodles. In fresh/frozen stuff we got a case of Pizza Pops, rainbow tortellini and our usual double flat of 5 dozen eggs.
Then there was a large jar of mayonnaise, another of peanut butter, a box of Sweet and Salty mix granola bars that was on sale, a bag of Basmati rice, and a jar of strawberry jam that comes in a jar my daughters like to reuse for their tea.
For my husband, there’s the birthday cake, plus a giant bag of nachos and a large Caesar Salad kit. My daughter chose two nigiri platters for herself and her sister (which I have been reimbursed for), plus I chose a sushi platter for myself.
That’s everything. That all came out to $900.72 While there were a few things on there that we don’t get every month, the only thing that was completely not usual was the birthday cake.
*sigh*
My daughter took care of bagging our stuff (we did remember to bring ice packs) and load up the truck, and she drove home. We made a rest stop at a gas station just outside the city where we got a couple of drinks and small snacks to pay for our toilet paper 😉 and then it was straight home.
Once at home, I left everything to my daughters to unload and put away so I could lie down for a while. I actually did feel better by the time we got home (the drive is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take), but I definitely could not have made this trip on my own without leaving myself in really bad shape.
I think this worked out. We should be able to do our second stop up shop in the weekend like this, before I see the doctor on Monday afternoon.
I kept feeling worse and worse all day. The pain was back, though not as extreme as the last time I ended up in the ER. It was the other stuff that came with it. Fatigue. Dizziness. Breaking out in sweats. Overall weakness. Feeling dehydrated, even though I was being careful to get enough fluids.
After things kept getting worse, I finally broke down and tried to call the health line number. This is a number in our province that we can call to talk to an RN about whatever’s going on and getting advice, including whether or not to go to the ER.
I got a robot voice telling me that “due to technical problems”, they couldn’t response, try again later, and then it went to a busy signal.
*sigh*
Not long after that, I asked my daughter to drive me to the ER. Last time, I was able to do it myself. This time, I could barely walk, never mind drive.
The girls loaded me (wearing a night gown and moccasins, because I didn’t have the energy to change) and the walker up and we headed out. I made sure to bring along the sheet I got from the hospital that listed the three procedures done during the surgery, and my new prescriptions. I was admitted immediately – by the same person that admitted me last time!
The first time a nurse called me into the triage room to take my vitals, I walked in but asked for the use of a wheelchair after that. The only one she could find left was actually meant for children, which was fine by me! As we were talking, I mentioned what happened when I tried to call the health line. She scoffed in frustration, saying they just tell people to go to the ER.
Next, I was wheeled over to the lab to get some blood work done. That went well. I have excellent veins. They always have the hardest time with my husband but, with me, it’s very easy for them! I’m pretty sure I recognized at least one of the staff in the lab as having taken blood from my husband.
I ended up being seen by the same doctor as last time and she remembered me (it wasn’t that long ago!), which made it easier to explain that yes, I’d seen the specialist she was able to get me to see so very quickly, and that yes, I’m post-op. My follow up appointment isn’t until the 15th of next month, though.
As we were talking, she even commented on my obvious discomfort. I’m glad my daughter was there because at one point, when she asked about my symptoms – something I’d already repeated several times to others – I was having difficulty speaking and my brain was too fogged to remember them all, so my daughter was able to list them off for me.
In the end, we had the same “problem” as last time. There was little that they could do for me in the ER. There was concerns that I was still bleeding and we went over how the T3s basically do nothing for the pain. She wanted to wait for the results from the lab, which would tell her if I needed a transfusion or not (I did not expect anything like that), or an IV for fluids, if I were dehydrated.
The main thing that they could focus on was pain control. She suggested hydromorphone, which my husband is on. I told her that, so she knew I was familiar with it. If the T3s aren’t working, she was willing to prescribe some to me, but that falls under the “controlled substance” label. In the end, she said it was okay if I took one from my husband to try and see if it works, or if I would have a reaction to it. I didn’t know what his dose was, and she told me to take 1mg, so if he’s on 2mg, I should break it in half.
For now, though, I’m to take two T3s every six hours, instead of the 1-3 tablets every 8 hours as needed, but not at the same time as the hydromorphone, if I’m going to try that. I got all the other warnings – no alcohol, don’t try to drive, don’t go swimming, etc. I told her, if I’m going to take it, I’ll be taking it and going straight to bed!
She approved of that.
She then told me that, on Monday, I need to call the specialist that did the surgery, tell her that I’d gone to the ER, and to get in to see her as quickly as possible, rather than waiting the 4 weeks.
Until then, I got an injection of tramadol for the pain I was dealing with right then. The nurse that came to me in the waiting with the injection recognized me from the last time I was there immediately! I think it was my sparkly hat. 😄
Not long after, the doctor came by with the lab results, which turned out to be really good. One of them was even better than the result from last time, and she told me to keep doing what I’m doing.
The main thing was, I did not need a transfusion or IV. I had just got the tramadol injection, so she said I could go home.
Then my daughter went and brought the truck over from where she’d parked it once I was admitted and we were soon on the way home. As we were driving, she commented on how quickly they took care of me. I suggested it might have had something to do with how terrible I looked.
She agreed. I was looking very ill!
Once at home, my younger daughter drove right up to the house to unload me and help me to the door, where her sister was waiting to help me once inside.
Have I mentioned how much I love all the arm bars and hand rails this house has? Quite a few times, I’m sure!
My older daughter had just finished making supper and, though it was early, got a plate ready for me, as I’d had only soup and toast all day. By this time, the tramadol was starting to do its job and I was feeling better. I did end up lying down again, as I was completely drained.
I don’t know how long I was down for, but I was awakened by the screeching of skunks fighting outside my window. I ended up going outside to see what was going on. I never saw the fighting skunks, but I did chase off two huge ones. One was coming around the corner of the house. The other was in the isolation shelter! Earlier, my daughter had messaged us to let us know she’d gone outside to feed the cats, but there was a skunk in the sun room that couldn’t leave – cats in the doorway were blocking it. So she went out the other door. While in the yard, she checked the sun room and found the skunk stretched out and taking a nap, right under the door into the old kitchen! So she didn’t go into the sun room at all.
Between that and the skunks, when I went out, I found all the kibble trays were empty. Even on the house house roof, there was only a few dregs.
By this time, my younger daughter had come out to check on me. I was going to top up the food bowls, but she did that for me. While she did that, I went over to the branch pile to see if the kittens were out.
I was feeling so much better that I kept walking around – slowly – to check on the garden beds. My daughter walked with me (turns out she was supposed to get me to go back inside, and failed!) and, when I spotted some colour hidden deep among the orange currant tomatoes, she picked them for me.
She found another spray with ripe Orange Currant tomatoes after the photo was taken. I think there were about 6 or 8 in total. Those vines are covered with sprays of tomatoes – so many!!! – and they’re all very green! The girls tell me the Orange Currant tomatoes are very delicious.
We did pick the one red Manitoba tomato, but it ended up going into the compost pile. The skin on that one got damaged while it was still green, and it was in pretty bad shape. There are more, but none are turning red yet.
Our single Arikara squash is getting huge.
Tomorrow, my daughter plans to harvest beans. She got the one golden zucchini that was ready, this morning and the garlic is ready to have their roots trimmed off and the soil brushed away before they come inside. She had planned to do a few things in the garden for me today, but got side tracked with having to drive me to the ER! I’ve been ordered not to have any more medical emergencies. 😂🤣
Meanwhile, at the moment, I’m feeling much better. The pain is gone, though I’m still feeling really weak. I’ve got timers and alarms set for the different meds I have, though I will be out of one of them rather soon. If things get bad again, I might try the hydromorphone. I have a slight problem with trying one of my husband’s, though. The doctor said to take 1mg, and split the pill if he’s on 2mg.
He’s on 12mg, and they’re not tablets, but gel caps. It’s the highest dose they’re allowed to give out, if I remember correctly, but I didn’t know what the actual number was until talking to my husband about it and he double checked.
I will admit, though, that I have actually tried it before, when the pain got extremely bad some time ago. I took one before bed and it worked incredibly well. No bad reactions, and it actually killed the pain, unlike the T3s. It also helped with my hip and shoulder pain. I was able to actually sleep. This is something to avoid, though, if only because he’s already so limited on when he can get refills.
Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow – and stay better! I still have to call the specialist’s clinic on Monday, though, and get in to see her as soon as possible.
The Re-Farmer 