Cricket

Saw my first Hummingbird Moth on these today but was not with camera at the time. Shame I have to crop them so, doesn't do the flowers any justice at all.

Some of my lilies are blooming. One of the Star Gazers I had was toppled over at the base this morning, another chipmunk victim. I have since given Joe permission for open warfare on them now. Sorry, Elvin. You and yours were warned...

Zoemom - Yes it is terrible what most vet techs make considering the work and hours. I miss the animals but that is it. I got bit only once by a feral cat but it was my fault. I was in a hurry to remove her from the pet carrier and she had babies. I never was tested for rabies.... maybe they watched her for 10 days, I don't remember. I had to go in for rabies shots when I was assisting our large animal vets. A calf had been sick for awhile, and we couldn't figure it out. I took the doctor's coveralls to wash, they were covered in slime. Well, come to find out, they put the calf down and tested its brain and it had rabies! Next thing I know, I am asking them about my exposure! (my hands were always cracked due to the work and washing). I had to go to the County for the series of shots. The nurse there asked me if I wanted to put it through my insurance. yea, right honey. NO... I told her, it is worker's compensation. guess they thought they could pull that one over me. Your medical story is horrifying really. they do make MRI machines to do metal, I just found this out with Joe last fall as he has stents in his artery that goes to his heart. What surprised me was they xrayed his eyes first for any tiny specs of metal. As a mechanic, he has had metal removed from his eyes in the past when not using his safety glasses. We really have to be our own patient advocates today. :( To clarify the MRI thingy though, the tech said the smaller machines did the metal, not the big ones. There is a difference and you want to be sure they know which one to use!!!!!!!!

Took Kody to the vet to weigh him. Last Friday he was 14.8 lbs. Today the chunk is 16.7!

No, Urgent Care is on from 5-9 pm, they just said not to take the meds and call my doctor in the morning. (Mon) I was okay with having a possible reaction, but now my mind is worrying about ovarian cancer. Great. The fact that the practice did not call over a new antibiotic is unsettling, unless they did not get back the culture test. Of course it has to come on a Friday so I have the weekend to fret over it.

Zoemom - Insomnia is awful. Hope you get it out of your system soon! My saga continues... I get a phone call from my doctor's office at 9 am this morning while I am on the road doing business for work. She tells me to stop the medicine and they will call me back as the culture should be back today. Okay, I spend the morning with my cell phone glued to me. I don't hear back by 1 pm so I tell a co worker, I am taking this to keep this infection under control and I am irritated they have not called. And I notice, again, that I seem to have way too many pills for what they prescribed. My co worker Amanda confirms this as well. Nice. I wonder if the medication they gave me is even Cipro? At least the # 250 on it seems okay. the prescription calls for 1 tablet twice a day, for 5 days. So that would be 10 pills. I have about 30 in the bottle. I used to do prescriptions at the vets A LOT so I pretty much know someone screwed up. Well we get out of work early, I come home and take a nap after making sure Joe is all set. I get up at 4 and notice a voice mail on my phone from my doctor's office! The message tells me to call them to discuss. I call, they are gone for the day and Urgent Care won't connect me to the extension the caller left. Now I am really seething. So what should I do?!? I called the pharmacist to see if the practice called in a substitute antibiotic. They did not. He says I only have one more day so I should take the medicine as usually these tendon issues strike the legs. Great. I tell him about the pills. He is irritated that this happened to me, confirms the prescription amount I should have had, and tells me I at least got the prescribed medicine. He then tells me whoever filled the prescription (he will know) gave me the ENTIRE bottle instead of the prescribed amount. Gonna be a BAD DAY for that technician. I ask him if he wants them back, I knew he would have to toss them anyway. He said no. I said to Joe, what if these pills would have been Tramadol or Oxycontin?!? You can BET he would have had me bring them in first thing in the morning and destroyed them. Nope, don't want to be the pharmacy technician! So... I do not know what the doctor wants me to do... I do not know the results of the culture. If it comes back negative then they are going to want me to come in for a Pap again and exam.... I don't know if I should take the meds or not as I have had 3 conflicting answers. Since I only have tonight and tomorrow, I will finish it. And hope for the best. On a positive note, my kidneys across my back is not hurting any longer and although I think I am still visiting the water closet more than usual, the pressure and pain has backed off there as well. I miss the medical care I used to get back in the 80's... at least you could talk to people instead of the electronic phone crap we endure today.

I knew I liked you for a reason. I was a vet tech for 5 years myself. Only left because the pay was horrid and I knew it would never get better so my new job (11 yrs now!) is much better. Anyway, always trust your gut. My first thought is he is casing your place, trying to get to the Ketamine or Phenobarbital or alike. We used to keep it all in our safe but he was probably there to see how to get drugs.

SSE - Me too! The pain just "catches" me when I least expect it at the moment. Like grabbing a file cabinet door today

3 times today hit with that burning nerve pain in my right arm. Will call my PA tomorrow. Might be related to the Cipro, or not. I have a very slight ache in my neck, left side so maybe that is it. Who knows. Funny it chose this time to flare up. Frustrating to say the least. I need the UTI/kidney issues to heal, but I don't need a nerve issue because of it. Hope to take Kody to the vet on Sat just to weigh him. I carry him (gingerly) outside to go potty and I think he is getting pretty big in just one week! Joe bought Kody a little police sweater. He looks adorable in it. He will probably be able to wear it another week!

That can happen to folks. That couple you mentioned.... she is a marketing firm's dream client! I try not to over search things medically, on the internet anymore simply because you can scare yourself $hitless!

Booney - Thanks, I'll determine tomorrow if it stays or it goes

Good to hear. I started having a burning, tearing shooting pain down the backside of my arm last night reaching for the kitchen faucet. Then again reaching for a file cabinet pull. I am going to take one more tonight but if it is worse tomorrow I am calling my PA to see if there is another antibiotic. I don't need any more issues! This did not occur in times past, but I have not done anything I can think of to cause this either. Always something!

LOL I began buying them because I loved Duke, the dog! Test came back negative for white blood cells so they are sending it out now for further testing. Asked when my last pap etc was done. Great. Just what you want to hear, right? Had it done there in Feb. Did some research after she got me concerned and apparently this does happen. Put me on Cipro. Been on it before with no issues other than stomach if I did not eat first. Wow... all kinds of folks with horror stories. Never knew or was told it blows out your tendons. Nice. Well, took it in the past with no issues so going to go with that positive thought! Back to the beans... I wish they would do some more commercials with Duke. Cute pup!

Just a few things... haven't been well in weeks as I may have mentioned on the other board... Spanking in okay in my book as a last resort - beatings are not. Dragging is not. The UTI from July 4th has now become a kidney infection. Was a rough night... dr. appointment today at 3:30 A man I liked and greatly respected from Mountain Men, and Turtle Island, Preston Roberts, died yesterday afternoon of an inoperable liver tumor. Home hard. He was a good man. Will miss him and I am grateful for having even the briefest of conversations with him back in December. I found this conversation out of all the FB posts of his. It was a nice "meant to be moment" God Bless you, Preston.

And sadly, many parents today aren't good social beings either. Some kids don't stand a chance unless an outsider helps them.

Did Ami Brown smoke? According to Hoonah residents who actually saw the Brown family during the filming of Alaskan Bush People, not only Ami Brown smoked but also some of her sons. Apparently, the Browns favorite cigarette brand is Marlboro Reds. Joshua Brown, who is married to the show’s former producer Allison Kagan, has reportedly quit smoking. Sad to hear.

Hello all. Thought I might catch up before I fall asleep. I.AM.EXAUSTED! Not sure where to start, will try to be brief. The surgery was about 5 hrs long, mass larger than they thought. This was on the 13th, I think? Then 2 days after surgery things really got rough. His legs, thighs and man parts swelled horribly from blood clots. The filter in his chest inserted the week before the liver surgery was clogged with them. They kept him in compression bandages with legs up, and on heparin which was at a therapeutic level because if they gave him a stronger dose to break up the clots, it would stop the clotting in his liver where they wanted it from the tumor surgery. Back and forth we went, surgery to remove the stuck clots, stay the path with the heparin. Meanwhile, he was in a lot of pain. Not from the incision, from the edema. If they went through with the vein surgery and a tiny piece broke off, it would go to his lungs and kill him. Up at 5 am every day for me, work till one, leave for the hour and half trip to the hospital. Stay till 6 pm, get home at 9 pm. Rinse, repeat. We had his colon cancer doctor, the liver cancer doctor, the anesthesia team, pain management team, hemoglobin team.... I have lost count. If this doesn't come in at 800,000 or more, I will be shocked. He wouldn't eat, finally this past Wed the swelling they decided was safe enough to release him on Thursday. Now I am wrapping and unwrapping him, meds to disburse.. he has to use a walker to get from the couch to the bathroom.. have I mentioned I am EXHAUSTED and he is cranky? Oh, and we picked up our darling little puppy ON THE WAY HOME THURSDAY so I am potty training in the middle of home health care duties and trying to get something accomplished at work. With all that said, I am grateful he made it through this thus far, but apprehensive of where it may show up next. I know at some point, chemo will start in earnest, just hope while he is not on it, another tumor does not show up.

Thank you Thumper. And thank you, Ladyrain ,LMSJ,and CarpeDiem54 (good name for what we are going through btw!) Did you watch the All Star game? I hung in till the end of the 9th but then I had to shut myself down for the night. Loved the home-run derby

Thank you all so very much for the prayers and well wishes for yesterday. Will post here so not to make a boo boo. We had to be at Albany Med at 11 am for check in. We were there by 10:30 and checked in. Then we waited an HOUR before they brought him back to prep him. My two daughters Michelle and Jenn were there, as well as Michelle's fiance, Rolly. They did an epidural so they could keep future pain in check. At first he was leery because *I* fell into that 2 % that had horrific side affects when I had two of them back with my pregnancy days with Jenn. I told him I took one for the team, so he should be good. And he was. Then we waited and waited... like over 2 hours. Apparently an emergency was holding everything up. I finally asked how many operating rooms they had. They have 30 operating rooms at Albany Med and do 90 - 100 surgeries PER DAY! Wow! So, finally about 3 pm, they take him down. The wait now begins. They took my cell phone # and we went to a nicer sitting room two floors up from the basement, where surgery is performed. We aren't there long when I get a phone call from the O.R. to be sure they can reach me. So odd to get a phone call from the operating room. Sure not like the days before when I was in the hospital with pregnancy issues. Pretty soon I get another call from the surgeon who is telling me that the tumor is much larger than the golf ball size they were led to believe! Something about it pressing on the diaphragm too. He had had some issues breathing which had worried me, but his doctor told him it was due to the chemo. I let everyone know, then did my rosary. It had rained all morning and by the time I finished and looked out the window, there was some light shining at us. The doctor called me right then and told me, they got it out. But because it was larger than expected, and Joe's liver was so high up in the body compared to others, they had to do a lot more tugging to bring it down, and make a much larger incision. Now it was Dr. Valerian's turn to reattach his GI system so he could get rid of the ostomy bag. Went back to clouds outside. About 7 pm Dr Nigam, the liver cancer doctor calls and tells us they finished and he would spend 3 hours in recovery. Dr Nigam came up to see us, by now we were back in the waiting room outside of surgery. He tells us he removed all of it but the liver would not grow back as he took more than he planned on. He also lost a lot of blood, but not enough for a transfusion. (this is way I am an ardent Red Cross blood doner - for all out there who need blood in times like this but I am not a match for Joe). Visiting hours close at 9 pm so everyone was leaving. I told the man at the attendants's desk we had to go as I live almost in Vermont so he allowed us to see Joe for a moment, two at a time. That was great for my kids. Then we made our way home. I was just ready to drift to sleep about midnight when my brain hears a phone ringing. I run, literally down the stairs and grab the phone and it is Joe. He wanted to tell me that it was so packed in there they moved him to another room. The attendant earlier said they usually do 100 surgeries a day and this day there was 136 surgeries. Boggles my mind. I think I will not go into work today as I am emotionally exhausted. (Even tho the boss is chomping at his bit over me doing the 2018 budgets with him) Michelle can go if I give her a ride at 3 pm so think I will do that as I know she wants to go. Maybe play in the dirt outside and praise God for saving him again. I am, of course, very concerned that he doesn't have it hiding somewhere else as with the way it grew in such a short period of time, it seems to me, very aggressive. I am very upset that these medical professionals, at THREE different medical sites, all said the spot on his liver back in Dec was just a fatty tumor and did nothing about it. We only learned of it when blood work came back AFTER the tumor in his colon was removed, that he had cancer somewhere else. The PETScan showed no other places other than something off around the incision site where Dr. Valerian removed the colon tumor and reattached. THEY THINK it is due to scarring in that area. Neither doctor during the operations yesterday could see that area from where they were working, and another colonoscopy will have to be done to look at this area from the inside out. I don't think we can take another hit to be honest. The doctors and nurses at Albany Med are outstanding, but ultimately, for me, I look for a higher power to heal all. Made me sad to see all these people waiting with us all worrying over their own tragedies. I am so glad he no longer will have the ostomy bag. He will be happy to fart naturally again LOL.

I've always been a fan of Jen Calfagno as she is professional and always dresses appropriately. I also like Kelly Cass, she is from Albany NY. I never cared for Stephanie Abrams. Too much like OES to me! Sorry for the duplicate post, took time to post and I thought I lost it,. Maybe I am losing it, snerk

This!!! I like Jen Carfagno. Watched her from her internship days. She is cute, nice voice and on air presentations. She always seems to wear cute but APPROPRIATE clothing. I can't stand Stephanie Abrams. Never did. Can't picture her and Mike Bettis ever being married. I like Kelly Cass a lot too, she is from our local community.

LOL, I would simply roll down the windows and open the roof window in my Camry! Yes, I'm a chicken.

That is funny. they are smart dogs, and they can be conniving! Ha.. they are probably thinking, "Wow, this salad bar has gone to hell!"

Thanks VirgoGirl! Just came inside from edging around a rock wall and planting/moving flowers and mulching. I keep thinking as a member of the past 50 club, I probably shouldn't be doing this LOL! I am just not smart enough to figger that out yet! Oh well, some yogurt, 2 aspirin and a bottle of water and it is off to the couch to rest the muscles and watch the Yanks lose again! Ha!