moving into the 21st Century

Finally got a computer that works from the house. It's difficult to find dependable service when you live in the middle of approx. 800 acres. We have had lots of drama around here lately, the QUEEN has been in the nursing home for approx. a month. She is doing better and that is where she needs to stay, we'll see. I have been enjoying my down time.

I had yet another surgery on May 15th and have one coming up in a month or two. Hopefully, it will solve some of the annoying problems that have been tormenting me for a while now, if not then I will have tried eveything possible.

So,, to conclude, all is quiet in the Rabbit Hold for now. I don't feel so much like Alice at the moment.

HONEY, I'M HOME

Well not really, I've been at home the whole time. I've just been out of the blogging loop.

I've begun a new career, well sort of, Caregiving. Something that I did for a very long time, left and have come back to in an adminstrative role. My husband also has a new career, so at 50+ we are both upwardly mobile and exhausted, because we are too old for all of this stuff. It's that old dog, new trick thing. New tricks make you very, very tired.

The dementia situation in the Rabbit Hole is getting worse. We have days where the Queen in just as lucid as she can be , but for the most part, she is declining both physically and mentally.

Without some type of outside help,whether from family or the company I work for, she really is not going to be able to stay at home unassisted for much longer. All day is too long. My husband has worked second shift for as long as she has been there, until this new job and now we are gone at the same time. She spends that time in the bed, asleep, dehydrating and loosing any thought of staying active and in touch.

I have lots to say and very little time, more later.

TAGGED?

My daughter tagged me re: six wierd things about myself !

I told her I didn't know anything weird about myself, I was normal.

I quess that is weird.

1. I, too, know how to make molasses. We do it every year at my mom and dad's. That's also one of my daughter's.

2. I had a cousin that was on the Batan Death march in WWII and lived.

3. I had never been out of Tennessee until I was 19 years old.

4. I acutally had to wade a creek to catch the bus when I was in high school.

5. I've always wanted to be a writer.

6. One of my favorite meals is popcorn and warm chocolate cookies. Wait, that may be normal !

NEW RABBIT HOLE

I presume that everyone has figured out by now that I hate change.

I am very much a creature of habit and consistancy and my world has

been rocked.

Our Greenbrier office merged with the Springfield office on Sept. 1

Did I mention that I also hate moving? Anyway, we moved, new

offices, new faces, new personality adjustments. Just new all the way

around. I don't like new, I like familiar. My desk is also at the top of

a very steep set of 18 stairs. Those stairs have kicked my butt on

several days. But jeans are fitting better. They will either cure me

or kill me.

As to my last post, I've been back to my Radiation Oncologist, who

has referred me to a specialist at Vanderbilt, who is out of town, of

course. I'm waiting to get an appointment time with him, so in the

mean time it's tiny meals and pain pills, which helps too with tired

legs after a day of too many trips on the stairs.

ANSWERED PRAYER (at someone else's expense)

As most of you know, I had a run in with cancer almost 4 years ago. I've found out since then that the cancer was the least of the battle. Radiation can do a lot to a body. Over the last four years my plumbing keeps rerouting itself (visulize as you wish) I now poop in a bag that I call "fluffy". Hey, you have to give some things a name just so you'll have someone to blame it on.

Anyway, long story, longer, I have been having some pretty major discomfort in the past few weeks and went in for test this past Friday. I was very anxious about this, as I was already miserable, and knowing what I was about to experience, so I prayed for relief, something, anything.

I had the sweetest young technician taking care of me and a lovely Russian lady that was helping her. Very helpful, very caring.

Well, I walked into the x-ray room and saw the equipment they had set up (lower G.I. ish) and said, that won't work on me. Scar tissue, etc. , won't work. Dr. says we'll try it anyway, won't take as long. O.k., gonna hurt, ignore me, unless I tell you to stop and you're gonna need a lot of towels (I've done this a time or two) we give it the old college try, it didn't work, off come gowns 1 & 2 , Doc says we'll go in the other way, TOLD YA !!. come back in see a familiar set up, looks like it will work, tech has never done a colostomy before, now I'm the teacher, we're good, Doc. comes in, away we go, there is a hole in the tubing, big leak, off come gowns 3 & 4, back out, new equipment again, we'll get it this time, all is going well, can see it moving about on the screen, give it a little more juice, the clamp breaks. Have you ever seen the garden hose flying about and you just can't catch it YEAH !!!!!!!! I'm wet, Doc's wet, she's wet, Olga is running about trying to dry everyone off, and I get the giggles. I told them among all of their apolozies that they were an answered prayer. Just proof that someone else can have a worse day than you.

Off with gown 5 & 6, back on the table, everything goes smoothly, except my little helper won't look at me and I can tell she is crying. Don't have any results yet, but I got four free meals at the hospital cafeteria, YUMM......

I went home and slept until 5:30 p.m.

EIGHT HOURS AND NO CAKE

This past Saturday was my sister-in-law's nephew's wedding. An affair that my mother-in-law has been looking forward to for a very long time. As time drew nearer, hair appointments were made, outfit chosen and altered, etc.

Also as time approached we were privy to more and more details. 475 quests rsvp'd to a wedding in a sweet little church the size of a postage stamp. 500 + people have rsvpd to a reception 20 miles away on a block where another wedding in being held across the street with an outdoor reception down the block. Possibility of no parking.

Transportation has been ordered, for the hair appt. , MIL getting ansy,(Friday) calls the hair dresser to say that she may be a little late, he replies, no you are really late, your appointment was for yesterday. In all fairness, I believe that was his mistake, anyway, it definitely puts a wrinkle in Sat. Now we have a 1:30 hair appointment in the mix. My husband takes the good car to work (air conditioned), I leave at 12:15 to go borrow my mom's, go back, load up the queen, go to the dump, the dollar store, McDonalds, because it is a long time until we will eat again, drop her off at the hair dressers. I have taken a book looking for a few minutes down time, when my daugher calls, Come eat lunch, one of my friends is in town, (her best friend's mother ) and they are at O'Charley's. Put up the book, back to town, visit 30 minutes, run back and pick up the freshly styled MIL. Get home have a few minutes to crash, tell her to sit up and nap, don't lay on that hair. 4:00 get dressed, loaded, off to KY to the church, arrive at 5:20, wedding starts at 6:30, we are very eary, but we didn't do all of this to watch it on closed circuit T.V. in the basement, we want a front row seat. Nephew/usher helps get her out, up the ramp, door is locked/I'm parking/walk around, she is melting in the heat, standing at a locked door while he is inside trying to unlock the door. Inside, seated, all is well. Wedding is sweet and over far to soon for so much work. Get ready to go out, the bottom falls out of the sky, wet quests everywhere, get her down, around and under an overhang, in the car and off we go, back toward town and the reception, thunder and lightening all around. Get to town find a parking place, she decides it's just too much trouble in the rain and we head home, arriving at 8:00 p.m. 8 hours and not even a piece of cake.

Could have been worse, we could have been going to the outdoor reception half a block down,

On a sweeter note, my husband had to go out to the store and brought us home two slices of chocolate cake. Yummmmm................

She slept until 5 p.m the next day.

It's Over, It's Done, It's Permanent !!!

We had the second and final yard sale for the mother-in-law,over the holiday weekend. By lunch we had reduced her inventory by about half and by 2:30 p.m we were way past hot and packing up the remainder to go to one of the ladies of our community that holds charity yard sales every weekend. She is very charity minded and would rather it go there that to Good Will .

Being a compulsive spender and collector, the sight of a bucket full of money had her head spinning. She didn't much like the suggestion that she spend it on getting her car repaired, sold and moved out of my yard. We'll see, I've made the deposit, I quess the rest is up to her.

While we were all very glad to be done with the whole ordeal but it just makes everything very final both for her and for us. Her home has been rented out and all of her stuff is gone and it's beginning to feel permanent.

I quess we will start to paint and spruce up her nest.