On The Blackwater

Musing on retirement, writing, puppies, and whatever else strikes my fancy

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Spending my life in 20-year increments: DC, Calif, Maine, & now in the BlueRidge Mountains of VA, where my YoChon, Sadie Mae, has started to blog...

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Size is relative!

When I mentioned that the kidney stone was HUGE, the largest the nurses there had ever seen, I need to clarify...See, they gave me the stone in a glass tube, and it looks like a lady bug! The top is jagged (not a good sign) but at least it is out of my body and in the tube!

Thanks for your kind thoughts, Becky.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Kidney Stones...arghhhhh!

Thursday night, I wasn't feeling well, thought it was the flu. Around midnight, I woke hubby asking he to get me to the ER. Now! He realized that the symptoms I had, severe pain down my left side, vomiting, the shakes...were serious indications that kidney stones were back to haunt me.

He drove me to Rocky Mt ER and they took me by ambulance to Roanoke Carilion, where XRays and CT scan helped with the diagnosis.

I'm home and feeling GREAT. They put a stent in and will replace it to be sure they get all the little stones.

Sorry to be so graphic, but I feel it's always good to let people know what they might need to watch for. After all, kidney stones usually invade men, not women. But my doctor tells me I will probably continue to produce them. They are ugly little things! The nurses said mine was the largest one they'd ever seen. Oh goody!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Tears Over Haiti

Babies, orphans, horribly injured young children...every day, I'm in tears. I read a piece about a wealthy couple with an enormous house full of advanced technology, and I want them to consider the children, to stop bragging about what they have and find a way to help in Haiti.

I've called the Red Cross and donated on-line, because I know every penny will go to help, and with organizations matching donations, the Red Cross is amazed at the huge amount they've raised. And babies lie in the streets, or under rubble, crying out for help.

Tonight, a rap artist was in tears. He had carried two young children to the morgue, but was turned away...the morgue had no room. They sent him down the road to the cemetery. When he got there, Haitians were fighting over the grave sites, the 'holes' in the cemetery. He was just stricken with grief.

One woman said a child came up to her carrying her bible, and asked if she would read something for her. The woman flipped open to this: Oh Lord, why hath thou forsaken me?

So sad. Yes, there is a bit of comfort to learn that people are still surviving. Sanje Gupta, it turns out, is a neurosurgeon, and he operated on a young girl when schrapnel had pierced her skull. He saved her life. In another case, rescuers found a child needing surgery, but they had no anesthetist...incredibly, two anesthetists were just then being flown into the airport. They both rushed to the field hospital, and her life was saved.

I need to dwell on these small victories.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Night at the (smithsonian) Museum

Movie Review: I watched Night at The Museum: Smithsonian and it was great fun. Definitely a movie for the grandkids, but enough inside joking comments to intrigue adults. Amy Adams is perfect as Earhardt. Everytime she is on the screen she is an absolute delight. My son said his wife took their boys to see it and they all just loved it.

and now the flu strikes

Dick has had a terrible long-lasting 'cold.' Now we're learning that several friends have been diagnosed with a flu...not the swine flu...that is contagious. Dick has been sleeping for hours and hours.

Meanwhile, our driveway is still frozen solid. Staying here in the house is beginning to feel stifling. Hubby has to get me to the store and sit outside in his truck while I get the bare necessities. Whine, whine, whine!

A big pot of homemade chicken soup was perfect for this cold weather. Dick also discovered that several of our windows had dropped down, so he raised them and locked them in place...he also lit the fireplace. And when I mentioned that my feet were cold, he got a pair of his wool socks and gently put them on my feet. Maybe it isn't so stifling here in the house after all!

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Frigid Weather!

We moved south from northern Maine to get away from cold and snow and ice. Our gravel driveway and the road leading to our driveway are both covered with thick ice. Thank heavens Dick has a 4WD truck as my PT is huddled in our garage, shivering with the cold.

We've brought the 2 Labs into the house every night. Temperatures of 14 are just too dangerous. Of course, little Yorkie Sadie Mae is enjoying being high up on our bed and ordering the 2 Labs around when she deigns to join them on the floor.

This frigid weather can leave any time...