I just realized I've been gone a long time!

Well.  The Staph healed up nicely once the necrotic tissue was gone.  It was not MRSA, but probably the same strain that Dad apparently carries.  Yeah, my Dad is a Staph carrier.  Turns out, about 30% of the population is like that.  So if you find out that you or someone you love carries this bug around, you/they should use Lever2000 soap (according to Dad's doctor) to help keep the bacteria in check.  My wrist now has a dark pink curcular spot that feels kind of numb.  Sometimes it aches if I use my wrist too much.  The end.  :-)

So then it was time for Christmas.  I tried desperately to balance resting/healing with preparing for the festivities.  I didn't succeed very well.  Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt's parent's house on my Dad's side.  Gotta love explaning relations.  Anyway, that was pretty fun, except DH had a cold.  He went home and I went to see my aunt and uncle's "new" renovated house.  It was cool.

Christmas morning I awoke to discover that DH had given me an amazing present- his cold!  We went to the inlaws and opened presents while Skyping with BIL and his wife in North Carolina.  FIL had gotten WiFi just for the occasion.  It was a big hit.  MIL and Grandma want iPads now.  :-) 

The gifts we gave weren't very inspired this year.  All the sickness and surgeries kind of sapped our creativity.  MIL got a DVD of M.A.S.H., FIL got a nifty folding saw.  Grandparents and BIL got gift cards.  DH got a cold brew coffee system.  Apparently it makes better coffee than even the french press.  The one taste I had was not better.  I may need to try again.  He got some other techy gadgets that I can't remember.  I got a handmade crochet hook! Size M.  Tuvok ate my other size M hook.  I also got a proportional measurer thing.  Yeah, I'll take pictures...  And I got a new lens for my camera.  It is a Sigma 18-50mm.  Before, the widest lens I had was 24mm, which was plenty for 35mm format cameras, but digital has some sort of distortion thing so all the lenses work like longer ones.  That's wonderful for my telephotos but it made my 24mm into almost what a 50mm was before.  The 18mm takes good indoor shots and I can zoom short distances too.  That really comes in handy.  Changing lenses all the time gets annoying.

My Mom and her sisters (and my cousin and Dad and brother) came over on Monday.  We had a "Stitch and Talk".  Everyone brought their craft projects and some food and we sat around and visited and ate and worked on our projects all day.  That is just about the best kind of day possible.  At least for us.  Later, we went to Michael's to look at crafty things and then we went to look at Christmas lights.  We went to the Chesapeake campus and ooohed and aaaahed over those a while, then drove to my boss's house to look at his lights.  He has 5 acres packed full of lights and inflateables and stuff.  My family was like WWWWOOOOOOAH!!!  I felt pride, even though I had nothing to do with his lights.  Lol!

We went to visit our friends in Norman for New Years Eve.  The boys played their nerdy Star Wars game and my friend and I talked and I worked on my afghan I'm making.  Then her younger daughter woke up and we watched her until midnight happened and then we went home.  I don't know what it is about a baby, but you don't talk or do anything but stare at the kid and watch whatever she does.  Very strange.  Must be something hardwired in so the kid doesn't get hurt or run off or whatever.  Even though she didn't feel very good, she was still a pleasent baby.  Every so often she'd make a miserable face, bury herself in her mom's chest and say, Buahhhh....   That was about the only evidence that she was sick.  Other than the river of snot...  lol.  Poor kid.

Tuesday was the Fiesta Bowl.  OSU won!!!!  Barely.  But still.  We're Number #3!!!!  This is the first time in my life that I've been a fan of a winning team!!! 

So we're just about caught up.  But it is 9:00 so I'm going to cut it off here.  Good night.

Update

I didn't have to go to the hospital.  But she did do minor surgery on me and removed the ball of necrotic tissue.  I hate lidocaine injections.  After I got home and got over the minor shock I felt much better.  I had been feeling weak and shaky for several days and I no longer felt that way.  So that's good.  She instructed me to keep up with debriedment and stuff.  I see her again in the morning.  That is all.

Health Issues Continue

Ok, so things were starting to get back to normal.  I was having trouble recovering from the flu and subsequent respiratory infection.  The actual sickness was gone but my body takes a long time to get back to 100%, or what passes for 100% these days.  DH was being really understanding and I got to do a lot of resting at home.  Work was crazy.  Everyone wants their stuff before Christmas.  So that was draining some of my energy and making my recovery slower.  But I was getting there.

Last Friday I was running the inserter most of the day.  I noticed a little zit-like thing on my wrist.  I scratched it, as I am prone to do, and didn't think anything else about it.  Then Saturday night we were at Dave and Froggi's having DEVINE Shrimp and sun dried tomato Risotto and playing spades. OMG it was soooo good!  But anyway, I noticed the spot on my wrist was inflamed.  Instinctively, I knew it was a staph infection.  It didn't look like a normal wound infection.  On Sunday I rinsed it out with salt water but that didn't help.  Monday at work it really started to hurt.  It hurt to use my hand and to have it at my side while I walked, because of the throbbing.  So after work we went to the urgent care clinic and they gave me antibiotics for a regular staph infection, and told me to see my PCP if it got worse or didn't get better in 3 days. 

One of the side effects of Levaquin is insomnia.  I slept about 2 hours Monday night.  I was doing remarkably well on Tuesday until 3:00 when I hit the wall.  I was weak and feeling faint so I went home.  The work load had calmed down significantly so it wasn't a big deal.  That night, more insomnia.  DH gave me a cocktail of pain meds, a muscle relaxer, and an antihistamine and I did finally sleep but I was in no condition to go to work in the morning.  My wrist was worse too.  So DH got me an appointment at the doctor.

That was Wednesday.  Dr. K was really concerned and switched my meds to a MRSA antibiotic.  Which makes me sick to my stomach and shaky.  She told me to stay home till Monday and come back on Friday.

Yesterday I pretty much laid around.  Watched a lot of TV.  When I redressed the wound last night it was worse.  A much bigger opening and it looked angry.  DH kinda freaked and called the on call doc but he wasn't concerned.  So today at 2:30 I go back to Dr. K.  I think if I really am getting worse I may have to go to the hospital.  We'll see.

This morning I gardened to keep my mind off of things.  I finally got my daffodils and pansies planted.  But now I'm pretty weak and shaky so that might not have been such a good idea!  Oh well.

You probably think I fell of the planet.  Some days I wish I could.  I'm learning how to stand up for myself, how to stop a meltdown when my emotions start overwhelming me.  I'm learning how to convince myself that I'm not bad and the ones who are lying about me are the bad people.

DH keeps saying I should just quit and find another job.  If I do that, they win.  I'm not going to let them win.  If I leave, there's no one to dispute all the lies and rumors. 

Things are eventful on the home front.  Three weeks ago I got the flu.  Well, I'm pretty sure it was the flu.  It was too nasty for a cold and people who got a flu shot didn't get sick.  Came down with it on a Thursday, and that weekend we went to Kansas City to visit DH's grandparents and go to the Chiefs game.  I was miserable but we aren't going to have that kind of opportunity again.  DH really wanted to go to the game.  I had never been to a pro football game.  It was pretty neat.  Would have been neater if the Chiefs had won... 

I went to work on Monday for two reasons: 1. the last time I called in sick, someone told every single coworker and boss he could find that I was faking it. and 2. the last time I called in not-sick (asked permission!) I got yelled at and fined a vacation day.  So now I have a new rule applied to only me.  If I'm not sick, I have to take a vacation day.  So yes, I took a vacation day to go to my doctor appts.

But anyway.  I went in just long enough to show everyone that I really was very sick and I left about 10:00.  So there.  Lie about that one, I dare you.

I didn't really feel better Tuesday morning but I had the same plan; show everyone I was sick and go home.  Well, I started to feel better and made it the whole day.  The sinus and chest congestion was still bad but I was no longer 'sick' sick.  By that time DH got sick.  He stayed home from Tuesday on.  I admit I was pretty jealous.  On Friday I came home and he asked me to get up and get something for him (even though his flu was better) and I kind of unleashed on him.  Told him I only got 3/4 of one day off and I went on a trip while I was sick, plus my mucus wasn't going away and I still felt like crap and I was exhausted and I wasn't taking care of him any more until I got some sleep.  And then I immediately apologized of course!

He was having stomach pain, he thought from eating too much pizza at lunch.  I gave him some alka-seltzer and went to bed.  He woke me up at 1:00am to go to the ER.  Nothing was helping and the pain was up to an 8 out of 10.  He kept apologizing because of my outburst earlier and I had to keep convincing him that I had no idea he was in this much pain when I said that. 

So we sat in the ER until about 4, went back, the doc poked on him a minute and decided on a CAT scan.  During the scan I took a 20 minute nap, bringing my total to 3:20.  But it really helped.  Doc said they were sending the results to Australia to be read since it was daytime there.  Less mistakes from grogginess.  We had a 45 minute wait ahead of us, except this time DH got some IV pain meds.  By 45 minutes, they meant 5 minutes.  We barely got settled and he came back and said DH had appendicitis!  I thought he was joking; DH actually laughed at him!  He was like, no, seriously.  You're having surgery today.

...So DH got admitted and sent up to a room while I went home and fed the pets and me, and packed a bag.  I texted Mom and she was like We're on our way!!!!  and I was like No! Wait!  That's not what I meant!  I was just letting you know.  You don't need to come!  Apparently they can't take no for an answer.  They showed up like an hour later.  I did get about 45 minutes more sleep before they got there though so that was nice.  The nurse brought me a cot and DH didn't even ask for one!  I was curled up in the window seat when he came in.  And of course in my sick/exhausted state I said, Is that for me?!?  Lol!  Duh.  That cot was pretty much my bed and chair and table for the whole weekend.  I scooted it up right next to the bed so I could touch DH's arm when I layed down.

So anyway, the surgeon came to visit and said it looked and smelled and talked exactly like appendicitis so once he got an emergency hand surgery out of the way, DH was up next.  They took him at 11:00 and we went down to the surgery waiting room and watched OSU beat up on Texas Tech.  FIL showed up too.  I worked on Tuvok's wool sweater, but then realized I did it wrong so now I have to rip it all out.  Still haven't done that.  Have to work up to it. :-)

As soon as DH was sewed up, there was a code blue so the surgeon had to take care of that but then he came and said everything went fine.  So we went back up to the room.  FIL and my parents left and I think they were still in the parking lot when I fell asleep.  I woke up in time for dinner and went home to feed the pets and let the dog out.  My aunt was in town chaperoning some teenagers for the anime convention.  I met them at the sushi place and then later my aunt visited us in the hospital.  She told us some medical horror stories that I hadn't heard yet.  I was too young when they happened so I never heard about them.  My youngest aunt almost died even more than I was aware of!

But anyway, that night I slept so hard that I never knew the vitals people showed up every two hours, never knew there was a night nurse, never knew DH had a reaction to the oxycodone, nothing.  By the time I came to, the day nurse was back and DH was on percoset.  One more trip for the pets, another nap, and we got discharged around 3:00 Sunday.  I got DH set up in his recliner with all the ammenities, and I think I went to sleep again.

On Monday I was told that I wasn't expected to be there.  Whatever!  After all the crap they've put me through?!?  I wasn't sick and I didn't want to take another vacation day!  I stayed until I had to go to the Endocrinologist after lunch.  Then DH made me an appt with my GP because my sinuses were still nasty.  Not bleeding anymore, but still not better.  She gave me some antibiotics.  Also, I've gained a lot of weight.  Ugh. 

But anyway, DH got a second week off work and I started feeling better by about Wednesday.  I did nothing each evening except sit on the couch and go to bed early.

So now we're 3 weeks behind in the housework, I don't know how long since a grocery trip, and the MIL is freaking out because I didn't plant her tulips yet.

Yeah, I kinda want to fall off the planet. :-)

Also, Christmas is coming... 

Canada

Here's a post I wrote on the way home from Canada but never published:

We had beautiful weather in Canada. It was a little warm but not awful. I spent a lot of time wading in the lake to cool off. I took lots of video and I'm working on editing it into a production for people to see. I still need to add pictures and maybe try to put some text into it if I can. We caught fish for dinner two days. It is difficult to find fish this time of year. Walleye is so yummy!

I packed enough entertainment for a week of rain but we had a week of sunshine. Consequently I didn't work on my afghan at all. But I did make a catnip stuffed mouse and a stuffed dog bone, I made a sweater for Cyrus the yorkie, I identified lots of the trees around camp, and I hiked around a lot. It was a good week.

FIL taught me about camp maintenance and boat motors and I took video. I'm pretty confident we can do the whole trip on our own next year, provided we have enough money. There are lots of ways to save, but gas is still a killer. It is 2500 miles round trip, not including gas for the boats and generator. It looks like we'll end up taking our car which gets 25mpg but that's still a pretty penny. We can take the train to camp instead of the float plane and that'll be $200 instead of $1200. We can camp or stay with friends on the way up and back instead of hotels. Hotels won't take Tuvok anyway. 80lb limit on pets. So yeah, we're excited about next year.

We're on the way home today. I'm making Tuvok a wool jacket for winter. He barely has any fur underneath and he gets cold if he has to stay outside for very long (and he's not playing). I found fisherman's wool from lion brand yarn on clearance for half price and I found a pattern on ravelry.com for larger dogs. I'm modifying it a little but I think it'll work nicely. I hope he isn't afraid of it. He's such a weenie.

I miss my dog...

Also, Caribou Coffee is a wonderful place. They should replace all the Starbuckses.

I attached a picture of where our camp is. We drive to Sioux Lookout in the bottom left and fly about 20 minutes to the purple dot. Middle of nowhere Canada is the best place in the world!

On the road

I just learned that you need to save the blog draft in Blogger+ before doing anything else. I'm spoiled with the new-fangled computers autosaveing.

Anyway. We're on our way to Canada with the in-laws. We just passed Des Moines. There's water falling out of the sky. I seem to have some vague, distant memory of that happening in Oklahoma. Maybe someday it'll happen there again.

So far I've made Cyrus the yorkie a sweater. He was acting cold last night so this morning I made one from some of the random yarn I brought along. It looks pretty good. I went to ravelry.com and got a bunch of patterns to play with. They're saved on the iPad. This iPad thing is pretty cool.

I have a video app so I can record how to do stuff in Canada like fix boat motors and hook up the propane fridge. I hope that next year we can go on our own. Also, it'll be nice to show people what it's like in camp. When we go by ourselves we can take Tuvok with us. They think he's too big. Oh well. He's having fun with his friend Jersey this week.

The fall flowers are blooming in Iowa. There are lots of coreopsis and rudbeckia still from the summer but the sunflowers and goldenrods are making quite a show on the side of the highway. The cattails are fluffy too. Every so often there's a stand of tall purple asters. Makes me want to stop and pick a bouquet. Back home the only fall flowers are snow-on-the-mountain. It's too dry for the others this year so far. Maybe if it rains they'll show up.

I've always wondered why the dominant flower color changes as the seasons progress. In the spring there are pinks and blues and purples and they give way to more yellows and oranges in the summer and fall. Do the pollinators change? Obviously you can find just about every color in every season, but the yellow is so dominant in fall and practically nonexistent in spring. Hmm.

We'll be in Cloquet, Minnesota by the time I get to post this so I'll just add to it if I feel like talking during the day.

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Ok, we're in Cloquet. They have wild yellow snapdragons here. The goldenrods and asters are really gorgeous. I wonder if those things will be growing at camp too.

It's only 6:20. We could make it several hundred miles further but oh well. That's one of the reasons we want to go on our own next time. We can drive the 26 hours the way we want instead of in such short spurts. At least the hotel has wi-fi.

It is cool here. I was helping FIL re-ice the coolers and I almost needed a long sleeved shirt. Even with my new thyroid pills making me hot and being in desperate need of a shower which, oddly, makes me hot too. The hotel has a shower (yay).

DH is listening to the first OSU game against Louisiana. We're winning by a lot, which is expected. Tomorrow we hit the road at 6:30 and should make it to Sioux Lookout a little after lunch. Then its a 15 minute float plane ride to the camp.

Happy smiley faces will ensue.

Here's a picture of the rain in Iowa.

What we leave behind

One of the Hoya dudes brought up an interesting point. In the event of our death, our plant collections need to go to good homes. And then I realized that our wills or black books or whatever need to contain the login and password information to our online communities so our cyber-friends can be notified. I haven't really thought of that since I got Lilly. She goes to Dave and Froggi. But Bones and Tuvok and Garak? Of course DH can take care of the animals on his own but I know he can't keep up with the plants. And if we both go together... It is a subject that requires more pondering.