As I trip over my own feet again…..

Yes, it’s apologies.  Seems to be that way all the time.  When I don’t feel particularly great, or I’m in pain as has been the case since last year, I don’t write. I just don’t have it in me to do it.  Then the surgeries came along.  Well, the hernia/Gerd/gall bladder one went ok but the aftermath has been…awful.  I’m not going into it.  Let’s say I spend a LOT of time in another room.  The knee surgery was slow in healing until that PT guy got hold of me.  He has really, really damaged something and I am always in pain now.  Don’t say to go back to the surgeon, I did.  He didn’t listen at all but he did keep asking how his new shirt looked.  The outfit he’s with is ranked as THE best, so going to anyone puts me right back in with the same group.  Even the PT group is owned by them.  Besides, after this, I’m not so certain I’d ever allow anyone around my knee again.  There you have it.  No writings as you know, no replies to anything, and just hibernating.  Toodie-Nancy told me I should blog right through the ups and the downs but I felt so crappy I couldn’t.  I even got the longest and most wonderful newsy email from Carrie and I haven’t replied to that, either.  I feel like the worst friend. 

I had a notification from my high school class that they’d opened a FB page. I didn’t have or want a FB page.  I mean, for heaven’s sake, if I wasn’t keeping up with my blog, why would it be any different with FB?  After a dozen letters came in, I caved and opened a page last night.  Oh geezy, why oh why.  The whole thing is sort of throwing me for a loop at the moment, but I’m trying to learn to work the darn site.  Everyone says they love it….maybe I will, maybe I won’t.  Gawd, I’m getting older by the second when I can’t navigate some site.  At least I discovered the “Home” button today and that really, really helped.  We’ll see, we’ll see.

I’m not saying I’m completely giving up on blogging, but I know this extended leave will continue.  Hate to type a sentence and then have to get up and go to the other room.  Do you have any idea how long it took to write this?  Don’t ask.  I have always loved blogging.  I love my blog friends and I love to write and I love to see what everyone is up to, but well…..the other room, you know, the one with the tub?  It’s calling again.  For lord’s sake, how much can even be in a person.  TMI.

For anyone that’s interested, I did copy the link to my FB page, and here it is at the bottom of this post. It’s showing my maiden name first for the school info. I hate losing touch, honestly I do. 

I send oodles of heart felt love and hugs to all of you  XOXOXO

https://www.facebook.com/people/Jenny-Crouch/100005183449171

Do Things Really Happen in 3’s?

                                                            

Arlene, our good, good friend and blogster, wrote to me asking where I was. Yes, it’s been a long time again and I felt I really owed an explanation, so here is the letter I sent to her, and it also goes to you:

                                                 -------------------------------

You have got to be the dearest soul on the planet, Arlene.  I don't mean to disappear.  I think of all the years on WindowsLive Blog and never missed a post.  Then we get to Blogspot and I was ok for a good while but as you know, first Mom died, then my 8 closest friends all in the course of that year.  THEN, I got sick.  All I can say is I hope that I'm getting closer to the end of all the crappy luck.  This knee surgery has been the pits.  It is very, very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for anything.  I hate sitting in chairs for more than about 5 minutes and then have to stand or lie down.  This blasted PT therapist has really hurt me.  A few weeks ago, I was actually getting better and could take the steps up and down.  BUT....he decided on his own that something could be out of place and he literally gouged his finger under my knee cap and you could have heard me scream for miles.  He jumped back and all he said was Opps.  Because of that, I was back on a cane, couldn't do steps, couldn't sleep for the pain and had to cancel the next appointment.  The following week, which was last week, I told him what he did set me back weeks and weeks and now the pain was as bad as the day after the original surgery.  He apologized but then strapped weights to my ankle for the first exercises.  I told him no in no uncertain terms, that it hurt to the point of screaming and that it also was killing my back where I had plates and screws (from breaking my back in '92).  The girl helping him immediately took off the weights, but when she walked off, he put them right back on, telling me it would be fine, and then let go of my leg. I yelled bloody murder.  That was last Thursday.  I have upcoming appts every other day for the next 2 weeks beginning tomorrow but as soon as I finish writing to you, I am calling and cancelling all of them.  He is not going to do this to me ever again.  From the movement under the knee cap to the pain now running the entire length of my leg and to under my foot, I am positive he's made a new rip in the meniscus.  I have a followup appt with the surgeon on June 10th and even though he never listens at all and only keeps saying how great I look and how glad he is to see me, I will tell him what has happened and if he wants to do a new MRI, fine, but he will never, ever be allowed to operate on me again, either.  I'm just done with it all and want to rest my achin' bod and do my own leg/knee exercises and heal.....or at least heal to the point where I can bear it.  It's all been a nightmare and I had no idea I'd be out of commission for this long.  It's been 7 weeks so far, and I know the healing time is said to be 2 months at the earliest and goes all the way to 6 months, but I'll bet anything that didn't take all this into consideration.  I feel like the surgeon and the therapist walked right out of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. 

So that's the story up to this point and I think I'll post this to my page just for an update, but I swear, as this is the way it is right now, I'm honestly not sure of when I'll write much.  Just this typing/sitting has my leg really, really hurting.  It's like piano wires strung too tight and then pinged.  What a bunch of crap to happen, ugh.

But rather than write and just bitch and complain, I'd rather not blog at all until I can be smiling and laughing again.  I sure hope you and the rest of our wonderful group understands.

Always love to you and missing you, too,

Jenny

Yeowww! ~~~

                       

Yessirree, that is what it was like at my first physical therapy session today, but I’m the one on the table.  I’m definitely sore after the workout but I really, really liked the physical therapist --- he listened!  And he also said I should have been in PT beginning the 4th day after the surgery and shook his head at the time passed.  He brought me up to speed on the “real” story of this type of knee surgery.  He said the surgeon, albeit a good one, was dead wrong on telling patients they’d be good as new only a few days after the surgery.  The therapist said even the jocks were a good 2 months to healing, and my age group was certainly longer.  He heard the snap/crack in my shin and he understood when I told him about the tight wire-like feeling running down my leg that actually vibrates, and he was very familiar with my almost asleep feeling in my foot but when it touches the ground, my foot vibrates and moves right up my leg.  He said my range of motion in one particular direction was ahead of the game, but he could see that the swelling was still markedly noticeable and that showed inflammation and pain still going on.  He doesn’t think that the surgeon did anything wrong but does think that it was wrong not to send me to PT within days of the surgery and it takes longer now to get where I need to be.  That’s it in a nutshell although we talked and did measurements and exercises for another hour and made appointments for 2 days a week for a month and then see where it all stands and reschedule accordingly.  He told me to use the cane and to do the exercises he gave me 3 times a day (and a load of reps).  He believes he’s going to be able to rid me of this pain and get the healing going the way it should be.  I like him and I trust him and have a good feeling about him, so I can bear this beginning PT pain ---- sure, I might yell, but it’s for a good cause.  I’m up for it.  So here we go again,  taking care of this and icing and exercising, etc,, and being away from my pc for the most part, but I am determined to get better.  Lord knows when I’ll blog walk but will when it’s feasible and I get used to this new schedule.  Age, who needs it?  Ick.  Well, I guess it is better than the alternative, and besides, my furry ones, Sam and Lucy need me.

See you all when I can.  Enjoy this glorious weather get out and do things.  Pot some flowers.  Sit outside with a good book….add a glass of wine to that.  Wave to your neighbors, and light up the world with your beautiful smiles!

                                             Xoxoxo

PS/  Happy May 1st!   MAY POP!  (You have to really be old to know that one)

Here’s how it started:

                

By the time I was in elementary school, the tradition changed from pigs’ bladders to hitting your friends over the heads with school books and yelling, MAY POP!.  Wow.  Could that have been just a Southern thing?  And all this time they thought the problem was in-breeding, opps.

I Don’t Know What He’s Thinking ~~~

No matter what I do when I follow every rule to the letter, I still end up in an empty corner shaking my head in wonder.  Maybe it’s the “invisible” thing.

I went to the knee surgeon last Thursday, limping and with my cane, and first his assistant, Shea, comes in and he’s all aglow with, “Ohhhh, so good to see you!” Then he asks how I am and my answer was, “I honestly am not sure.  I am still in pain and still limping, and my knee is much warmer to the touch than my other knee, AND the pain is all the way up my leg just shy of the groin area”.  He says, “Have you ever had any problems with blood clots?”  I answered no, and that was the end of that discussion.  Then he says for me to walk for him without the cane.  I hobbled and dragged my achin’ leg and he said, “Ohhh, I see you have quite a limp there”.  I said yes, and the pain is still there, in my knee as you can see the swelling, down to my ankle, the back of my calf, the back on my knee and up through the thigh like I told you a minute ago. To even try to press on those areas almost takes me through the roof.”  He tells me to sit down and then starts pressing hard around my knee and calf. I was not quiet and he says, “That hurts?” What is the matter with these doctors?  Then he got up and said, “Great to see you, and Dr G will be coming in.  You might want to think about having a cortisone shot….”, and I said, “WAIT, you’ve already given me a number of them the last few months and nothing helped.  You can’t keep doing that.”  He thinks a minute (they never read your chart) and then says maybe physical therapy will help and to talk to Dr G. 

Dr G comes in, “Great to see you!”  I am so sick of that phrase by now, just fix me, but I nod and say nice to see you, too, BUT, I am still in pain, still swollen, still limping, and the pain is not only in my knee but……blah blah blah.  I pin him down to the question of, “Could this still be the Levaquin that is causing it?”  He returns to square one like he’s never heard that I had that problem, yet the MRI showed it plain as day.  All he says is, “Hmmm, maybe we should think about a cortisone shot and then if that doesn’t work, maybe physical therapy”.  Don’t you know I wanted to shoot through the ceiling.  I said the same thing again to him about already having an allotment of cortisone and he glances at my chart --- just a glance --- and says let’s try physical therapy.  I asked again about the pain throughout my leg and his answer now just dropped everything to physical therapy, and he said, “Tell the physical therapist where it hurts”.  THEN, he hesitates and says, “Did we xray your hip? Maybe it’s your hip!”  I said, “Hell NO, it is NOT my hip! It is my leg as I keep telling you and telling you.” Guess what he said. “Well, the next time you come in, if the pain hasn’t stopped, we’ll get an xray of your hip.” The insanity never stops. It is not my hip and I will not do the xray. I really wanted to say to him, “Is that buck you’re trying to pass heavy?”  But….you don’t get on the bad side of your surgeon.  Then he stood up and said, “Great to see you;  I’ll see you again in 3 weeks”,  and he left.  Me?  I was now sitting in an empty exam room.

I got myself up, hobbled out and across the hall to the physical therapist business. The girl there was really nice and when she heard I’d been some weeks out of surgery but only now being referred, she was a bit on the surprised side to say the least.  She set up the “soonest” appointment she could which is this coming Thursday.  It’s given me just enough time to debate if I want to even do it.  I can’t take even more pain and I’m positive that Levaquin is playing the part of the pain in the rest of leg, up and down.  I think the knee pain is only the healing taking longer and that would be due to my age.  My surgeon is a sports doc and he deals with all these super young jocks who heal in 48 hours from everything.  He forgets he’s looking at me…..I’m invisible, remember…..and only once has alluded to the fact that “as we get older, we take longer to heal”.  There are moments I think he’s trying to kill me.

And so today, I am icing my knee and leg like crazy, taking Aleve and doubling the dose, watching the rain which I’m sure makes bones and muscles hurt more, hearing the weather report of severe storms beginning tomorrow and through Wednesday night with even the likelihood of tornados, and weighing my feelings about Thursday.  I’ve decided that by early Wednesday morning I will either keep the appointment or cancel it for now.  Yes, my surgeon is passing the buck, and for some reason I feel antlers growing out of my head. As I pass by the  mirror, I see that I am that buck and I’m sort of sick of being passed around.  I didn’t even realize that bucks could be invisible like we seniors are.  Maybe when I see him next I can give him a little bit of hoof in his shin as I smile ever so brightly and say, “Great to see you!”

For now, resting, icing, trying to get in a better frame of mind, and will blog walk when I can sit without throbbing. Pfft.  I didn’t sign up for all this mess.

                                      

The day after my appointment, Mary had gallbladder surgery, so I was at the hospital with her all day and then picked her up the following day and took her home.  She’s doing well, thank goodness, but now we look like Dumb and Dumber walking down a hall.  She holds her side and I limp.  What a pair.

Just a Knee-Jerk (OUCH) Reaction ~~

I haven’t been around for the last days, almost a week now, because I am having problems with this darn knee surgery.  Ever since he dug and dug and dug at part of my knee to get one side of the stitches out, it has remained very swollen and hurts like the devil.  I was doing so well until he got hold of me and now seem to be going backwards.  It’s very hard to even hobble and takes forever to make it down the steps in the morning.  There are way too many times I actually yell and almost buckle over.  I have an appointment with him this Friday, so we’ll see what he says.  That darn clicking-snappin’ sound still vibrates right down to my ankle and that is just not normal.  I tell ya, had I known all of this, I think I may not have agreed to the surgery.  We’ll see;  I just want it to get out of pain.  In the meantime, I’m back to NOT sitting at the pc again……hate this….and haven’t done a blog walk at all.  I WILL catch up and leave a book’s worth of comments to you when I can.  I think that’s pretty much a given, don’t you?

Xoxoxo

                                                    

                                           Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up

Let’s Go Back…Wayyyy Back ~~~

Ahhhh, Spring.  It is just beginning here with little blooms here and there and as I looked out into the back yard from the kitchen window, I heard those long ago sounds from the back left corner of the yard.  We were building a tree house. My friend, Jon, from 2 doors down, his little brother, Gary, whom we bribed with promises of sleeping in it, my best friend, Cookie, and of course myself, decided to make this our Summer project. We planned and we planned and we had it so mapped out that you would have been able to have the whole neighborhood in it.  Then we stood back and realized we only had 3 trees to work with.  Plan B:  ok, it would be sort of a very rough triangular shape, but still big, and oh boyyyyy, we’d have the best tree house ever built!  Plan C:  Gosh, we need lumber and hammers and nails.  Not a problem, we’ll just ride down the road on our bikes and check out that new house being built;  bet they have some extra they aren’t using. And so they did (well, we thought so anyway) and we saw it piled up, so we took what we needed and dragged it all back to my yard.  Bang, bam, bang, bang, ouch, and a few more and look at that!  There’s shape taking place!  Hmmm, not enough lumber; we will absolutely need a good floor and walls.  Back to the house under construction and lo and behold there was even more lumber to be had. Jackpot!  We’d taken all 4 bikes this time, so we could round up a lot more of what we needed.  Back to my yard and all the hammering again.  Oh my! It was becoming really, REALLY good, but wait, we have to have a window or 2, don’t we?  By this time we’d made a rut in the road to the house down the street, but wouldn’t you know it?  There were 2 window frames just propped up and doing nothing on the side of the house and even glassed in!  Back to my yard with the goodies.  Now we hammered the windows in and they worked!  But, you know, you can’t have a roof if it is going to leak on you when you’re sleeping, so back to the house down the street.  Jon knew exactly what to look for and we loaded up the tar paper and all the shingles we could carry and once again built the heck out of our tree house.

We stood back, we smiled, we broke into big grins and then into all out gleeful laughter.  We did it!  A huge tree house with 2 windows that worked and a non-leaking roof.  We were set!  Oh the Summer was going to be the best EVER!

We took turns going up and down the ladder and carrying sleeping bags into “our” tree house.  Then we planned the night.  We made sandwiches galore and took them with us when it was time for dinner…in “our” tree house.  Darkness came, we told stories, we gloated over our triumph of the Summer and even started thinking about making an honest to goodness club.  Our cheeks were frozen in grins.  We drifted off to sleep and woke to the sound of birds chirping, the sun in it’s morning splendor and ………what’s that?  What’s that sound we asked!  Jon stuck his head out of our back window and I saw his mouth fall open.  The woods behind me were being mowed down to construct a NEW house!  Oh no, our privacy will be gone.  If only.

The new house was built, a family with 2 daughters moved in, and immediately claimed the tree house as theirs.  They said it was on THEIR property!  We were all so upset that an actual fight broke out.  No broken bones but a lot of hurt pride.

A surveyor came out.  It was their property.  The parents, theirs and mine, decided the only thing to do was to tear the tree house down.  Ohhhh, the inhumanity of it all!  We kids stood there while it was torn down and actually cried. We were all of 13 years old and it was embarrassing, but the whole thing was devastating after all that work and then only having 1 night of heaven. Then I looked at Jon and saw a glint in his eye and he was looking all around my yard. He sidled over to me and whispered, “You know what? They still haven’t finished that house down the street and I’ll bet we could do it all again. Want to?”

Well, we didn’t build another one and instead, Cookie and I started sleeping on my back porch, you know, roughing it.  It was fine the first week, and Jon would come over and visit and we’d crack caps with rocks on the bricks and set off sparklers and play Go Fish and War, but he was just biding his time. I should have known.  He waited and waited for us to finally go to sleep and then WHAMMMM, threw an entire bucket of ice cold water on us!  His day was going to come, believe you me, it was coming.  That story is saved for another day ~~

_____________________________________________________________

Here is a photo of my beloved dog, Winnie, the homemade ladder going up to the tree house, and the house that was built behind me that was the bane of my existence.  Both of those daughters came to no good and no one was surprised.

                                                  Sic’em, Winnie!

                             

                                                         XOXOXO

To Enter Blog Heaven, read THIS ~~~

Amazing how things come about for us, isn’t it?  If I hadn’t met Diana (Nana Diana Takes a Break), I never would have found out about my “no-reply” status and all the wonders it could open for me if I fixed that problem.  See, Diana kept telling me but I couldn’t understand what she meant.  I saw for myself that there was always a reply button under where I’d just posted a comment to someone on their page, so thought she must not be seeing that.  Ha.  Had nothing to do with “no-reply” at all.  Not even a smidgeon.

Then, last week, I left a bunch of replies on my own page, under the replies that others had left.  Bling…the light went off in my head, and so on Toodie-Nancy’s I also added that I wondered if she’d see it when she looked at her comments.  Ahhhh, by luck, she went back to my page and saw my question to her, and noooo, she had not gotten any notification that a comment on a comment was left.  Now it was coming together in my head what Diana was talking about and I realized that for years and years, I’d gone back to someone’s page to see if they’d replied to a comment I’d left for them.  Wow, talk about work, but it was the only way to tell.  I’ll bet you anything that you, too, have been going back to someone’s page to see if anything additional was said to you on ‘their’ page.

Wait until you see this fix!  EASY and it is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

First, let me say that when my emails were coming in and showing replies to my page, that was good in itself because we didn’t used to have that so many years ago.  But today, after fixing my own setting (you’ll see) from Diana prodding me along and giving such fabulous advice and the most perfect link in the world, I looked at my emails and hovered over your email addresses.  Guess what I saw --- most everyone (not Sally) was a “no-reply” blogger!   That meant you could see the comments left on your page, but you still had to go back to theirs to see if they’d left a comment to you THERE rather than on your own page.  So I fixed what needed to be fixed and tried it out and WHAM! Perfection!

Now, here it comes.  When you fix this setting, you will be able to comment in your emails that arrive and then continue to do that even after they leave something to you on their own page.  It’s just like emailing back and forth and all stemming from the initial comment.  Oh my gosh, it is SO wonderful!  Here is the link.  Read it very, very carefully, because the fix is a different step if you use Google Plus as opposed to regular old blogger like I use.  IF you are on old blogger, do NOT change to Plus because it will mess up all the settings you now have.  Just follow the instructions.  Diana was adamant about that, so believe her.

http://morefromyourblog.com/no-reply-blogger-how-to-fix-this/

Since I’m old style blogger, here’s what I did, and it was per the instructions. In that link, just a little ways down, it said “Here’s how to fix it: Go to your edit profile page…click HERE to get there quickly…”  and that’s where I clicked.  I was now on the correct page to fix.  I ticked “show my email”, then clicked save at the bottom, and it was done.

Now when anyone leaves comments, you’ll see them in email, can comment back to them by replying in email, and so on.  What a breath of fresh air!  Diana and I tried it back and forth a few times and it works like a charm. 

Bet you love that sliced bread now!  I sure do, and I adore Diana!

Xoxoxo

(The only drawback I can see is that after the initial comment, you will not see the subsequent 'replies on replies' from the other (same) blogger on your page. You always see the first reply, just not the running commentary between the 2 of you. Sometimes it's nice to see a running commentary because it makes others think and then they, too, get in the conversation, but boyyyyy, the work of going back and forth between pages, you know?  And besides, it doesn’t stop you from going back to someone’s page and posting openly at all. It’s like 2 gifts in 1.)

______________________________________________________

Small update:

nookworm is no-reply
Cindy at bird bath and beyond is no-reply
Carole at Ramblingon is no-reply
Joe at Joe and Co is no-reply
Toodie-Nancy is working on it, lol,

…and Sally at Whispering Hope DOES have reply, so if her emails are dwindling, it’s because her commenters need to fix their settings.

More Tea? ~~~

The March Hare says to Alice, "Take some more tea", and she says, "But I've had nothing yet, so I can't take more".....

                                          

And so it goes with our local weather forecasters. "Get ready! Get ready! Torrential rains to fall today and tonight with major flooding possible!"

Our exceptionally dramatic weatherman on one of our channels throws his hands and arms out, lunges from West to East, and you can almost hear the WOOOSHHHH as he builds to a crescendo of excitement over the upcoming weather. Did he say rain?  Did he say blizzard-like snow?  We the viewers always get that omygosh-better-get-to-the-store-and-hunker-down-for-the-duration feeling in the pit of our stomachs and sometimes actually brave the entire population that has decided to go to the store at the exact same moment. We've all been there. Many, many times.  Too many if you live where I do.  That's not to say I don't enjoy watching the antics of our weathermen all trying to outdo each other, channel to channel, but here's the ruse:  There was no torrential rain, and there was no blizzard, at least not even close to when they said it would happen.  Maybe the month before, maybe the month after, but when it was forecast?  Not even close.
A good example was 2 weeks ago when we were 'supposed' to get the very last snow of the season and holy moley, for 2 days they ran all the dire warnings at the bottom of the TV screen:  BIG storm, get ready! 6-8 inches of snow on top of 2 inches of ice. It's coming and it's starting tonight, all day tomorrow and tomorrow night. Be prepared!  PFFT.  We all got up expecting to hear that the entire state was cut off from humanity and what did we see? Let's put it this way, I went out to my car in my slippers and saw maybe, and that's a stretch of a maybe, a quarter inch of snow and no ice.  Nothing new. Shook my head and went back inside and fixed a pot of coffee.
Now the reason I tell you this is because THIS week, the weathermen, all of them, said, "Heavy rains expected tomorrow with up to 2 inches in a very short period of time"....but then they added, "....just like we had 2 weeks ago".  What? What planet are they coming from? Maybe it's easier to gloss it over and make us 'think' we actually had that giant snow. The power of suggestion? I think the weathermen have all completely lost it. I say listen to your bones and bunions; those are never wrong. Am I right or am I right? Now my knee can jump into the forecasting business and shoot, I should apply for the weatherman's job! I can stand up there and say in all confidence, "Enny, me-knee, MY-knee, Mo'",  what's that? Mo' weather in store? I don't know, we haven't had any yet.

                                     ~~~With Apologies to Alice~~~

                                

                                                     XOXOXO

____________________________________________________________

In other less important news but just to catch up, today I had my stitches taken out, yayyyyy.  I had questions about this darn ‘clicking’ that is happening and when it does, it feels like a piano wire running through my leg that vibrates. Really sort of worried me but he said it ‘should be’ gone in another month, maybe 2, but that I am doing, and these are his words (I’m puffing up as I type this), EXTRAORDINARILY well.  He said I was actually ahead of the game!  I love that! I do still have to wear this very ugly compression stocking for 3-4 more weeks, though.  So now I look like Igor draggin’ a leg with a stocking on it, and all I’m missing is the hump. 

                                                               

The Real Shades of Gray ~~~

Life is always such a surprise, and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be;  after all, it does have the tendency to wake us up and keep us on our toes, doesn’t it.

I was thinking of all the steps and chapters in our lives and those points that always stand out --- you know, like that first kiss, first love, first car, and the list goes on.  But comes the day when the firsts are real eye openers.  I had mine at the age of 62, just a fewwwww years ago (who’s counting), and when I was talking to a blog buddy, the subject came up and so here I am, getting ready to share it with you.  If you are in my age group, we, the now exceptionally learned and bright seniors, you will be nodding your head in agreement all the way. We will call this life chapter,

                                      The Invisibles, part 1, the beginning

 

It all started over a particular Christmas holiday.  As I do every Christmas, I make up gift bags with all sorts of little things and goodies for my neighbors up and down the street.  That year, one of the things going into the bags was a totally yummy homemade candy.  I pulled out the ingredients and realized I was short on the almond bark. Bark is in a block and used in candy recipes, just so you know. This darn candy is on the messy side to make, so once you start, you really need to keep on until it’s done, and that meant I needed to get to the grocery store fast.  I was already dressed, fixed up, and actually looked pretty darn cute, so I went to the store almost hoping I’d run into someone I knew.  You never do, though, unless you’re a mess, true?  On with the story.  I went to the aisle where the bark is always kept and it was gone.  I stood there looking and looking as if by just standing there like a fool it would make the bark magically appear.  Finally an employee, young man of about 20 or so, came up to me and asked if he could help me find anything.  I told him I was looking for the bark and that it was always right here, and he said, he knew exactly what bark was because his mother used it all the time, and yes, it was always right in this spot.  Right then, another young man, also an employee started towards us and he began looking for it, too.  They said, “Could you wait here for a minute or so? We’re going to ask where the bark has been moved”.  Of course I said yes.  Well, I stayed there, barely moved an inch and this was half way up the aisle.  About 5 minutes later, I saw one of them stopping at the edge of my aisle and then the next one calls out to him, “Hey, Bill, who was it that wanted that bark?”  To which good old Bill replied, “That gray haired old lady down there.”   OMG.  Me??  I looked around. There was no one else in the aisle!  Not only did they think I was old, but deaf as well! 

                                                    Part 2, the clincher

This past July 4th, my best friend, Mary, and I decided to go find a place to watch the fireworks.  In the paper was listed a great place to go and it was free and had food wagons and bands, hot diggitty!  We got all gussied up, looked super good if I do say so, and off we went. We zigged and zagged through the crowds until we found a parking spot, then got out and started walking down this very wide walkway packed with people.  We saw the food trucks, we heard the band and boy, it was great, and so decided to stand where we were as it was close to the band.  Feet tapping, almost dancing, beat going down to our toes, it was soooo good!  Then it happened.  Picture this.  Both of us standing there, looking cute as all get out, into the music, and then seeing 2 couples heading straight for us.  Their eyes are definitely looking our way, they are paying attention to where they are, but……they almost mow us down!  And still they didn’t notice!  They just sort of backed up, side stepped, and went on their way without a word or a glance.  Mary and I looked at each other and said, “Holy moly, we’re invisible, they never even saw us before or after!”  Mary said to me, “You mean you’ve never had this happen before?”  No, I hadn’t!  I said, “Hey, let’s just throw off all our clothes and walk around and see if anyone notices, hehehe”.  She nixed that idea.  I’m the much braver of the 2 of us.

And so the next day, I called Mom’s Bob (most of you know who I’m talking about, but he’s down the street and frail and in his 80s and I always keep track of him). I was telling Bob about the night and just before I got to the invisible part, he broke in and he said, “And you both were INVISIBLE, right?””  My mouth fell open. This must happen to everyone!  He said he became invisible in his 60s and always thought it was the most amazing thing.  What we see is that people in our own age group…the Upper Level, if you will (we deserve the caps)….see each other, but the younger never really see us.  Man, what an eye opener!   My blog buddy added to that saying that he isn’t ignored exactly but that if he was speaking, they listened but then went right back to some other subject like it never counted.  Yeah, I get that, too. I think it’s like a science fiction show where time stops for a split second and only one character is still in the Now.  Craziest thing, isn’t it?  

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And so, that is the end of my rambling thoughts for today. I am headed for the grocery store to stock up on a month’s worth of groceries for the impending Wednesday’s surgery.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, is “getting the house ready for myself day”.  I’ve been told that my recoup will be around 2 months or so.  I may not be able to sit at the pc to either write or blog walk for a bit, I just don’t know yet, but if I’m absent, it won’t be like last time.  I’ll be back. Do that with an accent….”I’ll be back!”

XOXOXO

Yes, Honey, I am most definitely Home!

An update after years of silence: Well, boy, it's been a real trip for a long time. The last time I talked to everyone was about 3 years ago and just wasn't in good health, mind or body, at all. Great news since! Finally I found a doctor that believed me instead of saying, "You look fine to me", and sending me home. I am blessing these 10 incisions in my belly, honestly I am. First was GERD so bad that it scarred my esophagus to the point the scarring had to be cut out. Then, a hernia going backwards and pressing against my lungs and heart. That caused my stomach to move up into my chest. Oh, it's been fun. But the surgeon wrapped my esophagus around my stomach to hold it down and into place. Next was the gallbladder. It was literally at 0% functioning and the bile was oozing out and around my other organs. The bile burned around my gallbladder so much that that scar tissue had to be cut out as well. It all ended great --- no more breathing problems and no more pain! Yipppeeeee. It's not the end of the story. During recoup, I got this darn stye in my left eye and hadn't had one of those since I was a kid. I bought some STYE ointment and did compresses with it as it instructs. A week later I woke up with the left side of my face HUGE and lumpy and eyes that couldn't open all the way. Scared me half to death. And the pain? Omg. So, off to my doc and she sent me to a specialist. No telling where the stye came from, but he said because it was all so close to my brain that I needed to start a very strong antibiotic immediately. You might want to remember this name: Levaquin. On the 6th day of a 10 day dosage, my left leg was really in pain, but I figured I'd just slept on it wrong. The pain increased and by the next day, I couldn't walk at all. I read the pamphlet and there it was, in tiny print at the bottom, "...in rare cases, Levaquin can cause tearing of the leg tendons and ruptures of the Achilles". Holy crap. I called the doc...."Noooo, that hasn't happened, pfft". I headed to the emergency room, well Mary took me, and the doc there said "You look fine to me", and prescribed a double dose of Aleve twice a day for 5 days. Gawd. Two days later I was in my regular doc's office and trying like crazy to get her to look up Levaquin. Instead, she did xrays to check for broken bones. Nothing. She sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. I told him about the Levaquin, but like the rest, he didn't think it was the problem. He gave me a cortisone shot in the calf. Helped for about 2 hours. I was back in his office 2 days later and darn if he didn't give me another cortisone shot but this time in the knee. Absolutely no relief whatsoever. He said he thought it might be a good idea to have an MRI and I agreed. Had it, results came back, tendon tears up and down the leg and a torn meniscus. He said, "Ohhhhh, you were on Levaquin". Yes, I am now in the twilight zone. It was the Levaquin that did it, but now all I can do is hope the tendons heal. Sometimes it's permanent and other times it takes up to a year to heal. Pfft. But the meniscus is a different story. He is thinking that Levaquin didn't help but the meniscus has to have surgery. Believe me, the pain was so much, I would have done it myself. So this next Wednesday, Apr 2nd, will be the surgical date, then I'm back out of commission for a bit but recoup won't be any worse than Oct's surgery. Oh I love this age thing. When I wrote the last post those 3 yrs ago, more happened with my friends. My friend, Lee, that was in the hospital at the time, died, then more died. I think at that post I was up to five. By a year later, it was 9 --- that included Mom, but made it a very hard year and I wanted to crawl under a rock. Things do get better though, don't they. We stand up, brush off, and get on with the job at hand: Life. Back to Oct for a sec. That August right before, I decided to buy a new car I'd wanted for 3 yrs. I thought I might just die being so darn sick and no one listening at that time, so I wanted to buy it and drive it before I couldn't anymore. I had to drive to another city to get this sweetheart of a car, but it was worth it and the day at the dealership was like Christmas and birthdays, and every holiday rolled into one. Best dealership I ever saw. They even waved goodbye from the sidewalk when it was all done. Anyway, here's my little 2-seater car, and then, the link to the vid I made 2 days ago at home that they have now posted on YouTube and on their Face Book page.

                

                                              My vid testimonial link:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTDPvsfdOo&feature=youtu.be            

I would have embedded it here, but can't remember how to do it. We'll chalk it up to age yet again.  I’ll ask around another day.

And now, let me take this time to thank ALL OF YOU who continued to post little notes and well wishes on my blog. There is no community like you and I never forgot a single one of you. I wondered very often how everyone was and what they were up to, you know, all the good scoop, but I really just sort of died out and hid for a long time. Once I start on recoup and can sit at the computer for bursts of time, I'll post again AND I'll visit. After all, I was part of this great blog family then and want to get back into the groove. Face Book? No, I don't have one and might be the last person on Earth without it. I'll see you again. Go laugh at that vid done completely off the cuff, no script, and only one take, and with a mouth so dry I could swear I was spittin' feathers.

Much, MUCH love to you all~~

JennyD

XOXOXO

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PS/ I redid this on Live Writer that I’d forgotten I had. In the meantime, Beth posted the sweetest note to me and she was comment #1 ! What a sweetheart! Here’s what she wrote (and I’m pasting it):

BethFri Mar 28, 09:15:00 PM

God bless you Jennie. You have been through hell and back!! I have been on Levaquin and I had a severe allergic reaction to it. It is number 1 on my list of meds that I am allergic to.
You have my prayers!!! HUGS!!!