Surgery Report

I don't think you want to have pics of the recent surgery.......but I will give you the details. After several delays on Wednesday, I finally went to surgery about 4:30pm and returned to recovery about 6:30pm. I now have 5 holes in my right shoulder. After some confusion, my pain pump was installed and they said I could go home......well, not true. The pain pump delivers a Novocaine like drug to the affected area of my arm to keep it numb after the nerve block wears off. It works great and it also provides relief from pain instead of using narcotic medication. They installed the wrong pump, so I had to stay overnight until they could install the portable pump.... anyway I made it home Thursday afternoon, and then had to return to the Cleveland Clinic ER Friday night because the pain pump failed.
After 1 1/2 hours in the ER, we went to dinner and then home.
Saturday we went to Nana's Surprise party and then to Ashland for another BDay party. By Saturday night I had had enough of the pain pump and had Micks girlfriend Jen pull the catheter out of my neck. I took some Tylenol and went to bed. I got up in the morning and felt great. I could turn my neck now and that meant I could drive. Everyone left the house and I had peace and quiet, so I took a shower, did my hair and drove to Drug Mart to get band aids and a Blizzard at Dairy Queen. I start rehab on Wednesday....my arm is stiff, and I can't lift anything, but as long as I can type I guess I am OK.
This is just the first week, I know there are many more weeks of rehab to go, but right now I have a positive outlook and so far my shoulder feels greater than I would have expected at this point. I am not taking anything stronger than a few Tylenol or Advil, during the day and tonight we will go to bed without the Percocet. And I will sleep in my bed tonight, not the recliner. Although I love my new recliner, there is no place like your own bed.

Pictures as Promised

Total Surprise, of course I didn't know about the party so I skipped the hair and makeup before coming over.

Blowing out the candles. Thanks to Charlene for letting me borrow her specs. I didn't bring mine and couldn't see a thing.

The Birthday girl with her mom

Birthday tears.... The gift from Mom & Dad, a Pearl necklace

Tiffany, the Master Mind

The birthday girl, and her niece Lexi

The party was fun for all!

Happy Bithday to ME!

What is the best way to spend your 5oth birthday? Well I have a swell DIL Tiffany and a super BFF Gail. And they planned and executed the biggest surprise luncheon for me with all my girlfriends! NO BOYS ALLOWED! It was so great. And I was surprised!!!!!
I have been running crazy, getting everything in order here at the house before I go for the shoulder surgery Wednesday. I didn't even think about the BDay. Then we had the running around to Dr's for Mick and his torn ACL. I haven't had one minute to think. Gail asked me several times, what I was doing for the big day and I said getting my hair colored and going for PreAm testing. Never even thought they would do something like this!
Gail swooped down and picked me up at the house just after 1pm. I had been cleaning all morning and she wanted me to run over to Tiff's and have her proof a paper for Alison and then take Alison for dessert. I cleaned furiously all morning after the guys left for the Steam Tractor Show in Wellington. Then I cleaned myself up and put on some decent clothes and pulled my grey hair back. I didn't even paint my face....why, I thought, I was just going to Tiff's and out to dessert with them...they have seem me at my worst...... NEVER did I think that there would be a SURPRISE party waiting for me.
As Gail flew around the corner on Stone Road, Tiff's house came into sight and I saw cars lined up the drive, It wasn't until I saw a porch full of girlfriends, did I realize what they had planned.
Along with my girlfriends, my mom and my favorite aunts....we enjoyed a luscious lunch of chicken salad croissants, veggies, dips, cheeses and a wonderful assortment of cakes and desserts. Of course there were presents too! The day was blessed with beautiful weather and we sat on the porches and enjoyed each others company.
I am sorry to say that I don't have any pics for this post. Tiff has them on her camera and my friend Annette has them on her camera, so they will follow later.
And when I said no boys allowed, well they showed up after the party to eat the leftovers, and they were even in on all the planning for the party. You know paybacks are .........

Well, that was my excitement for the weekend.
And now I enter that 50 age range...... ahh yes, 50 is the new 40 right ? Tell that to my body and it's aches and pains!

Where have I been.....

I just had a few minutes to sit down and update the blog. With the date of my shoulder surgery just one week away, I have been on a cleaning and remodeling frenzy. Yes, I work better under pressure, but I also have put off a whole lot of things while I was off work this summer. Really not by choice, more like...it was more fun to do things outdoors than indoors. Now we are on crunch time and I need to get things done.

First was the "spare" room. Chris bought his own house last August and got married in October. He has been out of the house for a year and his "stuff" still remained. I asked my DIL Tiffany to help and we packed up 2 trucks worth of "stuff" from Chris' room and moved it to his garage.

He had college books, and unknown treasures from the last 25 years in that room. His collector cars, his models, his school art work.... the list goes on....even his clothes were still there. I managed to throw a few things out, but I felt he had to do it himself, because you never know what he wants to keep or dispose of.

I knew I wanted to paint the room yellow. I had saved a magazine page a few years back of what I wanted to have the room look like when I redecorated. So I painted. After that I got this bright idea to pull up the carpet and refinish the hardwood floors. I figured it wasn't a large room, everything was out of it and I have done floors before. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!. Anyway the new sanders that you rent are much easier than the old ones and I had the floor sanded in 2 hours. I put two coats of varnish on it and it looked Amazing! Dave took the metal bed frame to work to paint it white, and I found some Country French like bedding I could live with without breaking the bank.

Next it was on to our room. We have slept on a water bed for over 22 years. It had many patches on it...and it was time to go. It took me a full day to drain it, dismantle it, carry it out of the house and clean up the floor and set up the new bed frame for the new King Size bed!

Well during all of this I have gone back to work, so what ever project I am doing has to be done or finished to a point where I can leave it so I can go to work at 5pm.

Then on Monday I get the call from Mick, that he was hurt and on his way to Medina Hospital. I left work immediately because I wanted to be there in case there were any medical decisions to be made. Medina Hospital and I do not get along very well, in fact they scare me! After a few

x-rays, we were sent home with drugs and a sprained knee....so we thought. On Tuesday we made a few calls, pulled a few strings and got him into an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. We scheduled a MRI for Thursday and a followup on Friday. The preliminary exam is leaning toward a torn meniscus and an ACL tear. We will know more Friday.

And on top of all this excitement, there was the storm on Sunday. One of our old trees went down and through the roof of the barn. It missed the cars that are stored in there, but it will need to be fixed. Thank goodness it missed the chicken coops and the chickens! The call went into the isurance company, but there is a 10 day wait for claims adjusters. We were in no hurry. Others have greater damage than we do. I have a friend on the next road over and she still does not have power!

So if you were missing me, I was missing you too! I love to blog here and hear all your stories. As soon as I finish the "spare" room I will include photos of it. Until then, I will keep working on the house things until I can do no more. Next week will be very different around the house with me down for the count, until I can get back up and running again. Hopefully I can still type and get to the computer after the surgery.

Nana & Poppy's Humor

My mom and dad have always supported everything I do. Dad has always been the biggest help with my chicken coops. Mom spotted this cartoon the other day and sent it to me. I am always trying to explain to people the difference between store bought eggs and my Organic Free Range Cage Free chicken eggs.

Well mom thought this was funny! Just another joke about chickens!

Shoe Shopping

I have boys. Grown boys. They are not into shopping for shoes or anything else for that matter. The closest thing I get to a girl is my nieces and my DIL Tiffany.

Each year I have the exciting opportunity to take my niece shopping for her birthday present. Yes, I take her brother too! One stop shopping.

Lexi loves Cowgirl boots. I can't remember how old she was when she got her first pair, but I can tell you, the girl sleeps in her boots. Thats how much she loves them. One of the other things you have to know about Lexi is that she lives in Strongsville. Not your run of the mill country location. More of a yuppie kind of town, full of townies and fashion aficionados, not really into the cowboy scene.

We always visit Valley Tack in Valley City for our boots. The staff is quite helpful and patient, and they have a great selection of children's and adult boots.

This year we made our annual trip, first stopping at Cozumel's for a Mexican lunch then off to Valley Tack.

We looked at several options in boots and also perused the SALE rack. Frankie was pretty easy. He is 10 now and his choices are different and lean towards grown up boys Cowboy boots. After finding his style and size, he made his choice.

But Lexi was having trouble.....there were too many choices for a 7 years old girl to make. Which ones were pink, and which ones would go with her outfits and which ones were the most glittery.

She narrowed it down to 2 pairs of Fat Babies. Fat Babies are the modern style of Cowgirl boots, a little more chunky in style with a crepe sole vs. the traditional pointed toe and the slingback heel. And the COLORS!!! Blue, pink, red, teal...... We asked her to make a choice for the two boots she selected and she just turned to me and said BOTH! Well, she is my niece and I am the over indulging aunt and of course women understand shoes.......no matter what, shoes always fit and of course we need one in every color to match our outfits.

Imelda Marcos has nothing on me.
I said yes she could have both. Her mother dropped her teeth! What she didn't know is that I looked at the price tags and I saw the SALE price and we couldn't pass up a SALE!

So Miss Lexi walked out with 2 pairs of Cowgirl boots! And not to leave Frankie out, he got his boots and a very neat book on Space.