Thank You

I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and concerns after my post last week. This weather has made staying home and doing nothing pretty easy!  

I have lots of random photos and thoughts.  Here is the flower my housekeeper clipped to the board in my room. She was such a sweetie. 

My daughter the nurse Phd came up to make sure I was receiving top notch care. One of the RNs that I was assigned was a former nursing student of hers. Basically all the nurses on the floor were terrified of my daughter (who is 5' tall) but the doctors loved her questions and spent lots of time talking over me.

Both daughters were bored by day two and went to the grocery store. They went to my house and threw out what was in my refrigerator and made me about 30 meals. These included raw green pepper, raw vegetables, fake eggs with raw green pepper, overnight oatmeal (I detest oatmeal), brown rice etc. All in cute little meal containers. Snacks were apples and nuts. This was incredibly nice of them. 

Unfortunately I have GERD like every fat old lady and also can have bouts of IBS (too much information) and I cannot eat nuts or that many raw vegetables, etc and I was very sick. I did lose almost ten pounds which is worrying to my nurse who is calling me every other day to make sure I don't gain over two pounds which could signal the congestive heart failure.  

So I switched to some of the food, like eating the yogurt and berries on top and leaving the oatmeal on the bottom, and egg whites from my farm eggs for lunch. And lean meat and cooked veggie with no salt for supper.  She keeps sending me goofy recipes though, the last one is soaking chicken in almond milk, then  .  . . well I didn't read the rest. 

Anyway, not sure that I mentioned I wore my oldest, most ratty, ugly, gramma nightgown to the hospital. When I got home, one of the first thing I did was order new pjs, some to wear at home and some to pack in a bag by the door in case this ever happens again. 

I got a couple pairs of these. Black so they don't show fluids, short sleeves for IVs, button front for chest stickers, and crop length so they hit my ankles!  I was so embarrassed to show up like I did. Thank you Walmart. 

Further embarrassing my children were my actions in the hospital. Our 50th wedding anniversary is coming up and I was on several fan sites, etc, that had codes for early bird purchases. I had set alarms in my phone. The original plan was to purchase them on my laptop so I could see what was doing. I was receiving alarms every time they were going to do a medical procedure and having to let them time out.  The first day was a total flop.  I actually was able to purchase the tickets and all the extras, like the big bucks parking so I don't have to walk far and tickets to a special bar/deck area which has a private restroom for those patrons (you see where my mind is) right before I went down for the heart cath. Success! And as silly as this seems, this concert at the end of July is goal one. 

In more disappointing news I had signed up for a Bridge Brigade which is a group of protesters who show up on an overhead bridge over the highway, each holding a letter to spell out a message. I received my first alert and had to contact the coordinator and explain I am out due to health reasons. And today the local party called me and I told them the situation before we got started on the ask. 

I notified the charity that I won't be around for several weeks at the very least, until I get my act together.  They actually wrote a prayer for me.

"Loving Lord, We ask Your healing grace for (Miss Merry). Bless her for her faithful service with the Saint Vincent de Paul ministry. Restore her strength, grant her peace and hold her in Your loving care."  (and this made me cry.)

I think this was the Friday snow? Saturday? Anyway the base layer. I have no idea how much we have at this point. So glad I am stuck indoors. Tomorrow schools are cancelled again for both snow and super super low temperatures. 

I am not in this picture. 

My arms are now black, blue, green and orange from all the needles and whatevers at the hospital. My husband is afraid I am turning into the president. 

The events of the weekend have left me sad and angry and devastated and crushed.  I recently saw the videos of the VA nurse reading at the bedside of a deceased veteran and the honor walk that the VA center performed for Alex.  I was present when these rituals were performed for my own father and it was one of the most meaningful things of my life. Watching them with this young hero left me crying for hours.