This morning is the total opposite of last Saturday. Last week was damp and dark but warm. Today is a beautiful sunny day, but cold! It was only 32 this morning when I got up. It's been in the 70s for most of the week and today the high is supposed to be 49.

We were pretty busy this week. I went shopping with Ryan last Saturday. He's missed so much work with Amanda being so sick that they couldn't afford groceries. So, we went grocery shopping. I would rather do that than just send money. Bill stayed home since there would be a lot of walking and he didn't want to just wait at their house. I don't know about him, but I enjoyed the alone time. He didn't have any problems. I made sure he had lunch before I left.

Monday we went to Jonesboro. We both needed new shoes and I needed to get my anniversary ring inspected to keep the warranty valid. We were successful on both counts and had lunch out. We hadn't done that for quite some time. It seems like we go, do what we have to do, and come home. But, this time I decided we were stopping to eat. There are so many more choices there than here. It was warm and light traffic, at least on the highway, so it was a good day.

Wednesday we both had eye appointments, or I thought we both had appointments. The card we had said we did, but Bill didn't get put into the system. Dr. Jones said he would see him anyway. It's nice that both of the drs. know his condition and know that coming at the same time is just easier. Bill didn't need new glasses again, but I did this time. I wasn't surprised since it had been a couple of years and I could tell a difference when doing things. The new ones should be in next week.

Thursday was Bill's 74th birthday. We went to Applebees in Dyersburg for dinner. It is always good and there wasn't any wait. I didn't like coming home in the dark. I'm finding I don't see as well at night anymore, and I don't think that will change with the new glasses. It's a very dark drive with very little light on the highway, not even at the exits. But, we made it home safely.

We also arranged to have Bill's car picked up to go to the shop. We still can't get it to start so it's supposed to be picked up Monday. I've started the process to get Bill thinking about selling it. He hasn't driven for almost a year and every time he had talked about, before the car conked out, he would not follow through. I think he's beginning to be afraid to drive. I don't think he's considered that he will have to have a little oxygen tank with him now. It won't hinder his driving since the tubing won't droop to get in the way of his feet, but I don't think he's thought of that.

We're going to watch some pre-season baseball this afternoon. I'm so glad it's starting again. We watched a little of a game yesterday, but there is a full line-up of games today. I'll need to get all my chores and shopping done before they come on!

That's it for this week. We have no plans for next week as far as I know now, but who knows what will pop up! Have a good week!
 

It's a dark, rainy morning, although it's fairly warm for February. Hopefully the sun will come out this afternoon. I'm so tired of dark!

This week was a bit frustrating. I checked in with the oxygen supplier Monday morning and found out exactly what they wanted. Then I called the pulmonologist's office and spoke to Dr. Burbeck's tech. She said she would call the supplier. When I checked with the supplier they had received NOTHING! Lauren told me she would call the Dr. herself. Lauren also told me that we wouldn't receive any refills until this was straightened out. If you think that it might not be so bad, there is so much sickness going around that we don't need to go out, picture yourself in this situation. Your entire world is limited to a 50 ft. area. That's the maximum amount of tubing that can be used from the concentrator. Bill can go from the bedroom to the bathroom to the living room and part of the kitchen. He can go to the front door and bring in the mail, but he can't take out the trash or get a fresh trash bag from the pantry. He can't help me carry in groceries, or sit on the patio when it's warm enough. Not only does that make me have extra chores, not that I'm complaining, but it makes him feel useless. Again, they want you to use oxygen to live as full and normal life as possible, then make it extremely hard. But, there is a happy ending to this story. While I don't know if it has been straightened out, our delivery man, Billy, called early Thursday morning to see if we needed anything! I told him what Lauren had said and he said she hadn't told him anything so he would bring what we needed. So, we got a new 6 pack of small tanks.

Tuesday we got a call from Mayo with out tentative dates for Bill's annual check. They try to schedule it as close to the transplant date, which for him is May 3. The dates they gave us were May 8-10. I got online to start checking hotels and...it's the week of the TPC Sawgrass golf tournament and there are no hotel rooms, at least that are affordable. I told Bill that even though this was very important, I was not spending $300/night for a room! The next week is Brianna's graduation so that week is out also. I called them back and left a message with Stephanie. The same person, Kate, called back said that it couldn't be pushed back to April because it was full and June was too far away from his date. I told her that I would not drive for 2 days to then spend 4 nights sleeping in the car! She checked with Stephanie and he's being scheduled no for May 22-24. That means that we will leave the morning after graduation, but at least we will be there. 

There have been little things falling apart, one of our shutters in the laundry/computer room came apart at the top and all of the slats fell out of their holes. So that's sitting on the dining room table to be repaired, computer glitches with having to reinstall hardware, just little things that are frustrating.

Bill's birthday is next week and we're trying to decide what to do. He still wants to go somewhere, whether for just a day or an overnight he hasn't said. We do need to do some shopping, we both need new shoes among other things. We may go tomorrow or Monday to do that. The weather is supposed to be nice, sunny and in the 70s.

We also have eye dr. appointments this coming week. I will probably need new glasses but I don't know about Bill. He seems to be able to without them because he'll come out of the bedroom without them on.

That's been our week. When I think about how boring and normal some of weeks are without nothing interesting happening, I want SOMETHING to happen. But, we when we have a frustrating one like this past one, it makes me appreciate the normal boring ones more! 

I'll let you know what we did for Bill's birthday next week! Have a good one!

The beginning of our week was a little unsettling, but it did settle down into a nice boring week.

Our daughter-in-law Amanda was rushed to the hospital Sunday afternoon having continual seizures. At first it was thought that she had had a stroke and the seizures and numbness was due to that. But, when the dr. saw her having one of them, he said that it was "just" a seizure. She had to be intubated and moved to CCU. She didn't stay on the vent long, was taken off early Monday morning.

Since we had to be in Jonesboro Monday, and the lab is only about 2 blocks from the hospital, we met Ryan after to see how she was doing. We weren't able to see her since it is a closed unit with only certain visiting hours, but we stayed with him until it was time for him to see her. We also bought him some breakfast, and for hospital food, it was pretty good. It turned out that he didn't get to see her because they had just taken her for an MRI. All of the tests came back normal. She was moved to a regular room later in the day, and was discharged Tuesday afternoon. I think it was determined that it was a drug interaction. Ryan said they asked if she was on Tramadol, and her back dr. has her on that. I'm thinking that it interferes with her seizure medication, hence the seizures. Ryan said that she's feeling better, but still very tired and sore.

Bill's lab results were good. His kidney function has actually improved some, which surprised me since it's still a battle to get him to drink. The level of one of his anti-rejection meds was a little high so an adjustment was made. He will need to have the test repeated in another week.

Wednesday night a lens fell out of my glasses. We have a repair kit, but we couldn't get the lens lined up right to keep it in. I have my old pair and could use those, but I could tell that they weren't quite right. So, Thursday morning it was off to the eye dr. to get them fixed. We have appointments in a couple of weeks, and since I haven't needed to get these changed for a couple of years now, we're probably looking at new ones.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Our weather was up and down, 80 one day, 39 the next! It's warm again today and cloudy. We must have had some rain in the night as the patio was wet this morning when I fed the cats.

I woke up aching all over this morning, headache, legs hurting, shoulders hurting, just hurting everywhere. I'm hoping it's because I vacuumed Thursday and then did 5 loads of laundry yesterday, which included stripping and remaking the bed. Getting old is not for the faint of heart!

We have no plans for anything coming up which is good since we are low on portable O2. We have not gotten a delivery for 2 weeks now, and with the change in flow, the tanks don't last long. Our supplier called Thursday and said that Medicare is denying the claims because of something to do with the prior company. Emily tried to call them yesterday to see what they needed but they are playing phone tag now. Hopefully it will get straightened out soon. We still do have 1 1/2 big tanks and most of a small tank so it's not a really dire situation yet.

All I can think of this morning. Will probably take it somewhat easy since moving hurts! We also have no plans for Valentine's Day. Bill realized it was coming and said he hadn't gotten me anything yet, but I told him I didn't want anything. See you next Saturday!
 

We had a very interesting week. Sunday morning, after feeding the cats, I watched to see which cats came to eat. After the gray kitten ate, and a couple of the adult cats, I was just getting ready to sit and enjoy my coffee when I saw another one coming that was a different color than the usual ones. As it came around the wood box, I saw that it was a huge possum! I went out to scare it off and it went under the house! It was probably 18 inches tall and 2-3 feet long, not including the tail. I've never seen one that big! So, added calling animal control to my to-do list for Monday. Sunday evening when I put the cat food out and watched, the little one (Tippy) came out to eat and Muggly (the ugly one) and Lucy (or Louie) came and they were really "talking" to each other. Muggly finally starting walking around the house with Lucy/Louie following and then Tippy ran to catch up. The went down the street to another house. After it got dark the little black one (Inky) came to eat.

Called animal control Monday morning and they came that afternoon with a trap. They baited it with sardines (very smelly) and a small can of cat food. I looked out right before dark and we had caught Tippy. For such a cute little kitten, it sure acted "big" as it hissed and swiped at me while I was opening the cage. Bryan came to reset it and we baited it with some hot dogs since I didn't have any wet cat food, or even a can of tuna. Something tripped it in the night but we didn't catch anything else. Tuesday morning the cats came back, including Boots McGreedy (a gorgeous one who usually gets to eat first). The trap was re-baited in the late afternoon and just after dark I heard dogs barking. We have trouble with some stray pitbulls eating the food, so I went out and we had caught Lucy/Louie. I wasn't going to try to get her/him out of the trap so animal control released it Wednesday morning. Since I hadn't seen the possum again, and since the cats came back, I told them to remove the trap and I would just keep watching for it. So far there's been nothing and we still have at least the 2 kittens and McGreedy.

We had all of the backyard debris cleaned out Tuesday. The last time our lawn service swept the yard they blew all of the leaves up against the house. So a friend who need money came over and did an excellent job. We'll have to find something to plant since we removed the monkey grass. I had to put down a mat from the cat access to the food bowl so they would be in mud.

We both got haircuts Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday my hairdresser announced that she was no longer affiliated with that salon and was just exploring her options! This was the best cut I had gotten from her and since I have "problem" hair, I hate the thought of having to train someone new.

Thursday was Bill's appointment with the pulmonologist in Memphis. The good news is that his lung function has improved some. The bad news is that when he walks his level drops very low again. So, he's to use his oxygen at a continuous 4 liters when he's walking. When he's on his treadmill that isn't a problem because I can change the setting on his concentrator. The problem comes when using the small tanks. Something had told me to take extra tanks with us and it's a good thing we did, because we used all 3 of them. At "cf4" the tanks only last 30 minutes, an hour for "cf2". Since it's an hour each way...well you get the picture.

Monday he has to have his quarterly labs done in Jonesboro, which is also an hour each way, and we only have 3 full tanks left, and none scheduled to be replaced until Thursday. I may just take one of our back-up 4 ft. tanks and use and leave it in the car. That would help. I will need to ask our rep Billy about getting some of the 3 ft. tanks that Bill would just pull, or the battery/rechargeable concentrators. I would prefer the battery ones. Those can be charged in the car and the batteries are easy to change. That would make things so much better!

We've both been stuffy again, changing weather again. I also had my rosacea flair up Thursday night. It's much better today after using the cream, but I wish they would make it smell better. Seems like something that goes on the face, close to the nose, would either smell good, or have no smell at all. But this is terrible!

Our daughter-in-law was hospitalized this week. I don't think they ever figured out the problem, but I suspect it may have been the Norovirus. She's home now and I haven't heard anything as to how she's doing, so I figure she's at least stable. As my mother always says "No news is good news".

 So, that's been our week. I could have done without some of the drama, such as with the possum. Hopefully we'll make it through the trip to Jonesboro without running out of oxygen! I'll let you know next Saturday!