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.

Predators in the Rabbit Hole

Beware, guard your elders ! There are people out there who deliberately take advantage and do so without any regard for the people that it effects.

As you all know by now, my husband's mother lives with us, and a great deal of work has gone into pulling the financial leeches off of her in the last year. She has never been the best manager of her finances but things have gotten progressively worse in the last couple of years. There were several automatic drafts coming out of her account that when investigated were dinky little insurance policies for "when you're hurt and miss work", she is retired and 74 years old. After requesting copies of these policies three of them had expired upon her turning 65 (but in the event she had not canceled them they were still good until the date of termination , BET NOT !)and one reduced it's money to be paid out by 50% at age 70.

I worked in home health and hospice for years and my biggest pet peave was with insurance agents that came collecting from these old people, taking their grocery money to pay the premimum on a $2,500 death benefit policy that they had been paying on monthly for years and had paid out far more than their family would receive upon their death.

Yesterday, mother-in-law had a very long day, she had made a doctor's appointment for 2:30 p.m and had to ride the Mid-Cumberland bus because we were all at work. They drop her, pick her up and are really very helpful. She did however have to ride all over the county holding on to her walking device so that it didn't roll all over the bus. When she got home at about 4:45, she noticed someone pulling in the driveway , so thinking it was me, waited for help to get in the door. Chick gets out, says how are you today, no other information other than "I've came to pick up your insurance premimum" to the tune of $65.00. The lady has dementia, did not remember all that had transpired a couple of months ago, and that these very same policies had been canceled. Needless to say, I was furious, she was devasted that she had forgotten and had been taken advantage of, again. We set the wheels in motion first thing this morning, stopped payment on the check, called the insurance company (Chicago) and told them what we had done. They made a notation that she was not to be approached again. I've gotten on the web site and requested that a local agent call me. BECAUSE !!! my husband said that the last couple of weekdays while he was working outside a little white car had pulled into the drive and upon seeing him, had turned around and left. A LITTLE WHITE CAR is what Chickie-doo was in yesterday, when no one was home but the victim.

While I'm ranting, there are also a couple of stores in town that don't treat their old folks right. They get to know them, are very sweet, know all the kids names and ages and what they like and take her money , then she has to charge her medicine and accrue interest on the account.

That's not happening anymore either, we have paid off almost $723 of $5 to $10 copays and she cannot go into the local department store unescorted. We now have another new rule, do not write a check for anything unless one of us knows about it, getting her to remember it is a different hurdle. I'll put a note in her check book.

Your parents and grandparents may not like you meddling in their business, but warn them to look at their policies, etc. and keep and eye on the stipulations. They are paying on things that they will never get back.

GETTING READY

My baby child called the other night, needing his mama ! He was told by Navy physicians that he either had mulitple melonomas or lukemia and did he want to come home to be with his family. As my husband said, it has always been my job to talk him off of the roof and that't what I did. After testing him with a UV light, he does not have any skin cancer, which I knew from 1,500 miles away, I've seen him without a shirt his entire life, nothing suspicious there. After doing several hours of research, I believe I've discovered what it is, and as I told him on the phone, he's just moldy. It's a non-contagious fungus, much like athlete's foot only on his trunk and treated in very much the same manner. I've a good mind to go give a several very young, obviously bored doctors a slap up beside the head. What happened to diagnosing the problem before handing out the death sentence? If I can find out what this is without a medical degree in a few hours, why did they have to scare him so badly. That has been my WHAT? moment this week. In my head, I was already planning all I would have to do in order to go be with he and his wife.

Anyway, he is still waiting for blood work, but I feel sure that there is nothing to be alarmed about. ( Except a mad mama)

On a lighter note or maybe....

We're counting down the hours until we clear out the Queen's rabbit hole. Everything is bagged, tagged, stacked and boxed up ready for the big event. This has been much more draining on everyone involved than we ever imagined. Rather than going ahead and dividing up the keepsakes among the two brothers and the grandchildren, my husband has just boxed it up and put it away. As his mother so politely put it, I'm not dead yet!

The big day is Saturday, rain or shine. We haven't decided yet if Grammie actually needs to be there, I vote no. Too difficult to watch you life drive off a dollar at the time. Just boxing up put her to bed for two days.

It's also a birthday weekend for my daughter and son-in-law. We are supposed to go over there for a night out after the yard sale. Somehow, I don't think I'll be much company.

Hopefully no more worrisome Ah, Ha moments this week ! I would however take a funny one, if I came across it.

POSSUM ON THE HALF SHELL

Had one of those moments on the way into work this morning. It is not uncommon to see road kill in this part of the U.S. My son and I came to the conclusion, a long time ago, that some redneck had 50 gallon drums of dead animals flinging them out on the road, you know, Hey, Bubba, if it's Tuesday, it must be skunk !

Not today, today was armadillo ! Yes, armadillo, we are not in Texas, where did he come from, is someone missing a pet ? I had heard that they had been sighted in the area. All we need is an armored possum. Opossum , for you, city slickers that don't know what I'm describing. I have always heard road kill armadillos called , POSSUM ON THE HALF SHELL.

I think I'll just drive in Monday with my eyes closed.