(Undeserving) Birthday Treats ...

I am playing catch up today ...

I don't believe I ever got around to posting the beautiful "Floating Table" Gary made for me out of mahogany to match the two entry tables flanking the front door ... this is still part of the entry so it pulls everything together wonderfully!

Below is the close up of the open joint design he used.  This was the method described in the plans that he was using, but he had decided that he would be more comfortable using another joint that he had used in the past ...

One of the things I rather enjoy about Gary's wonderful hobby is that he lets me be a part of it by coming in at times and asking my advice on things.  I know he does not need to do this - his sense of style is marvelous and he knows much more about all this 'woody' stuff than I will ever hope to - yet, still - he comes in and asks my opinion.

I am generally very careful with my opinion, since if there is the TINIEST thing about one of his 'masterpieces' that bothers him - he finds a way of getting rid of it - or banishing it to some out of the way place where he will never have to see it.

Why?

If there is something about an item he made that bothers him ... just one teeny tiny little thing ... he finds a way of never having to look at it again!

He basically likes what he has made or despises it - there is no middle ground - no in between. I managed to salvage the beautiful Mission Desk he dislikes - he thinks it looks like an organ when it is shut ... what he has against organs is beyond me - so I have it set up OPENED! Got by with just the skin of my teeth on that one - he was ready to set it on the curb for the garbage truck!

Thus my need to make sure that I am not the reason an absolutely stunning, heirloom quality "Gary Masterpiece" is scrapped or banished to outer darkness.

But I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the open joint design and suggested he try it on a scrap piece, look at it and then make his decision.  He did, and as you can see here - he decided that he liked it!

I think the extended pieces of wood of the joints add to the overall beauty of the piece - and also love that the top seems to be 'floating' above the rest ... thus its name ...

A super wonderful treat this week was the visit from my parents!  Since I was a wee bit over enthusiastic the evening they got here - I sort of paid for it by being in bed most of the time they were here - which I regret enormously ...

Unlike myself ... Gary and Ryan were wonderful hosts!  In the photo below Gary had rounded up the troops for an assembly line effort to make his fabulous "Sweet and Sour Chicken" on Sunday after Church. Ale, Ryan's girlfriend, is always up for helping and loves to cook and my mother was interested in this new recipe. Fun was had by all and a wonderful meal made it especially nice!

Gary also took off Tuesday and after I begged off, played host to a sunrise visit to Brazo's Bend State Park.  

My mother, when this park is brought, up is rather bitter about the fact that after multiple visits throughout the years had NEVER seen one of their famed alligators, whereas every other family member that has visited the park has spotted quite a few!

This all changed Tuesday morning when about a dozen total were spotted with two things rather rare in all of our 'gator stalking' for photos: One) there were some gators very, very close - so WONDERFUL close up shots of some nasty looking dudes!  And Two) another rarity - some swimming around!  I have never seen them do anything but sit there in the water pretending to be floating pieces of wood!

Yes, I am rather jealous of the photos they got ...

Ryan played host and tour guide when I was too ill to 'play' with my parents on Wednesday and took them to Galveston for the day.  I heard that Moody Gardens, the Strand and other Galveston favorites were visited.

I am rather thankful to my two guys for filling in for me. Lately this has been the norm ... I will never be able to make it up to them. I truly am a lucky gal - my two guys are top notch - the best of the best - I could not ask any more from them - they give me everything and ask for nothing in return ...

And before they left this morning - they gave me the most beautiful flowers!  They know this is a favorite gift of mine and they made a marvelous choice! Aren't they fabulous?

I liked them sitting here in the nook in the bitty hall that leads into our bedroom:

But that meant moving one of my most favorite pieces I own:

Thus off to the kitchen table they went:

And then I received the most super, duper, wonderful, marvelous, fabulous birthday treat that I could have ever asked for!

If you have read my earlier post on my psychotic shopping spree for Nativities whilst in the throes of massive amounts of pain (that's my story and I am sticking to it ... especially, sadly, since it is very true) I showed some photos of a Nambé Nativity - but even in my 'altered state' decided it was too pricey to purchase ... but had the presence of mind to put it in the Amazon Wish List and brazenly hint to Gary in my post that it would make a FABULOUS Birthday gift!

I noticed a few days later - since I receive an e-mail from Amazon whenever anything is ordered - that somehow, someone had mysteriously ordered it!  Except for the angel since Amazon was not selling it.

Of course, I got right on the web and fixed that "No Angel" problem by finding and ordering it elsewhere - but noticed that it was sold out in many, many stores.  I did not realize that this Nativity was new this year and very popular.

Thus it did not surprise me that Amazon's status for my Nativity - all three sets - the Main set: Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus and the Wooden Creche, the Three Wise Men and the Shepherd with Animals were all delayed in being shipped. 

It was being sold via Amazon, but through a third party vendor. When sold this way - sometimes the tracking of the items is not available ... but seemed to be in this instance - stating that it would be shipped some time between May 24th and the 30th and arriving some time in the first week of June.  

Sadly, when purchasing through Amazon via a third party vendor, that two day free shipping is not available.  Really messes with that spoiled "I want it RIGHT NOW" part of my make up ...

So when the doorbell rang today, I was confused.

When I opened the door and saw a rather large box, I became more than a bit curious.

When I tried to pick it up and it weighed much, much more than that size of a box should have, I  was rather surprised, thinking "What the heck is in here?  Lead?"

When I spotted the return label all that confusion, curiosity and surprise spontaneously morphed into unmitigated joy!

It said:  Nambé!  

Nambé!  The stuff that ONLY THAT MORNING when I checked - it still said it was just in the process of being prepared for shipping ... what a wonderful, marvelous, fabulous surprise!

And ON MY BIRTHDAY too!  The timing could not have been better!

I joyously opened all three of the VERY heavy boxes.  If there had been any doubt of whether these pieces were solid, just lifting them from their boxes confirmed that they were.

I would say that I could not have been more thrilled since this Nativity was actually more beautiful in real life than in the photos ... but sadly, there was a hitch.  In the box labeled: "Nativity - with Wooden Creche" the Wooden Creche was nowhere to be found.

*sigh*

Oh, well!  I will enjoy my pieces as the mystery of the missing Wooden Creche is currently being solved. Soon the angel along with the missing Wooden Creche will show up and I will have the complete set!

Here is what I received today ... a fine start if I may say so myself:

Here is a web photo showing the missing Creche:

And here (albeit the crappiest photo ever) is a wooden storage box for the entire set that I stumbled upon while looking for a photo to share with y'all of the Creche ... 

Oh, yeah ... of course one of these puppies is now on its way to our house too (don't tell Gary) would you have expected anything less from me?

And while I was sleeping / vegging in bed this evening - having skipped going to the movies with Gary, Ryan and Ale EVEN THOUGH the ticket was bought and paid for (yes, I was feeling that crappy ... apparently my body and all its stupid illnesses does not take off for holidays and birthdays ...) with ear plugs in my ears - I missed several phone calls from my wonderful friend Bonne.  I also missed her opening the front door and setting the wonderful, cute little gift in the photo below on the floor.

I THEN missed the frantic phone call ... again from Bonne worried that Charlie would get into it ...

No, Bonne - Charlie was kind enough to leave it alone!

When I woke up and listened to the messages - I was a bit apprehensive ... but all is well!  And thank you!  

Since I was sequestered in bed with ear plugs in I rudely ignored all calls - my label of "Horrible Friend" is still securely intact!

All in all - even though I was in bed the entire day - it was a wonderful day - filled with breaks of intermittent surprises!  

I am indeed one lucky girl ... 

and as I lay here looking at the two informational DVDs I received at my Doctors appointment yesterday about Pain Pumps ... and although they are a surgically implanted device - and quite a commitment - if I ignore that creepy factor - everything that the doctors are saying about the quality of my life
improving by leaps and bounds with it make complete sense.

I just may be embarking on a new phase of my life where maybe things will start looking up!

Maybe this year will be MY YEAR ...

One can always hope ...

Distractions ...

What do you do when you are going mad with pain, can't seem to get any relief and no one is willing to shoot you?

Why, go shopping - of course!

Thing is - when you are in massive amounts of pain ... There seems to be some drawbacks:

1) You are not at all rational.

2) Your normal "where you draw the line" limitations ... oh, say, for instance - you know - just for clarification - your spending limit for a particular item ... seems to have completely abandoned your conscience.

3) Pretty much you don't care about anything - but stopping the pain - so your wise decision-making abilities are nowhere in sight.

4) Since all mental effort during this time is just screaming at the top of its lungs "STOP! STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY PLEASE OH PLEASE STOP THE PAIN! In a repeating loop - your memory - sketchy at best - is completely gone.

Thus - on the surface - shopping does not seem to be the best choice you can make at a time like this - but, hey - we are talking about ME and I make stupid decisions ALL THE TIME so why not now?

Thus on to the web - pick a totally random item to shop for and go for it!

My choice?

Nativities!

Very fun, very cool, tons to choose from and the best part?

One can NEVER have too many nativity sets.

Am I right or am I right?

Gary walked in while I was gleefully (well as gleeful as you can be in this situation) and asked what I was doing?

He didn't fool me - he had REALLY come in just to see if I was still alive and was trying to cover for it - thus I could have told him that I thought that I needed an addition to my 'Shrunken Head Collection' and he would have distractedly nodded his head and said something wise while walking back out of the room.

He surprised me though by sitting down (after peeking at what I was shopping for) and began to surf on his iPad. Soon he told me that he had sent me a link via e-mail and wanted me to look at it.

I jumped to the link, only to find a wooden Nativity set.

So I asked him what he was doing? He told me if I was shopping for nativities he wanted me to get ones he liked ... which was basically solid wood ones. In fact - the one he showed me was actually IDENTICAL to the solid olive wood one we bought at Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand minus a few pieces so I am not entirely convinced he actually looks at the ones we have.

I shut my iPad, closed my eyes and just listened to the screaming in my head.

A bit later Gary asked me why I had stopped shopping? I told him he ruined my "Fantasy Shopping Spree" thus stopped.
Eventually he got bored of watching me breathe and left.

I decided to give it another shot and began shopping. Because I am such a good wifey I shopped for a bit for wooden ones - but all the ones I found looked quite a bit like the ones we already have.

Feeling all noble and whatnot - I than moved on to what I had been doing before.

I am always on the lookout for unusual nativities and did find a few. During my shopping, I realized that I did not have a generic, colored porcelain one. I have porcelain ones, but they are all white - so I thought that one of those would be a very good idea even though it is the exact opposite of 'unusual'.

Found a LOVELY one ... In fact it was fabulous, spectacular, fantastic ... just ... Heavenly. Alas, it listed for a twee bit over $6,000 and even in my altered state I realized that maybe a full set of Lladró needed to wait until I have robbed a bank or won the lottery ... which ever comes first ...

Then I found another! It was stunning! It was unusual! It had some wood in it! I LOVED it LOVED it LOVED it! And while I wouldn't have to rob a bank (MUCH more likely then that lotto thing since I have never purchased a lotto ticket) it was a wee bit pricey. So ... I put it in my "Wish List" at Amazon (yes, the cheapest that I found it) and have mentioned to Gary that it would be a LOVELY Birthday gift!

See:









I think it is absolutely lovely ... it would make a WONDERFUL Birthday gift (Gary ... Hint, Hint)


So I sallied forth ... determined to find some fun Nativities that would't break my bank ... too much and gleefully started saving book marked pages.

Apparently at some point during some of my more intense bouts of pain - I decided to purchase a few. I really, really don't remember doing this ... sort of. But that's my story and I'm sticking with it ...


Fast forward a bit and here I am ... surprise!


Still in bed ...

Still in massive amounts of pain ...

Still going nuts and begging people to shoot me ...

The fun just NEVER stops around here!

A non-stop party ...


This morning I limped out to my computer to do ... something - of course I cannot remember now - that would be just to hard for my neurons right now. I noticed three boxes piled in the entry and realized that these were my mythical Nativities come to life!

Seriously ... how cool is that? You shop for them, bookmark them, click you heels together three times and voilà!

Magic!


Here's my lovely "Ivy Nativity"

And this cutie is a new cloth Nativity (duh) to replace the one I have had for years. The old one has always been sort of floppy and the Creche was always smooshed and looking like it had been through a horrific earthquake.

And what sort of responsible parent would lay Baby Jesus in a building that could fall down at any minute? I always sort of felt guilty about that ... and the fact that I was contributing to the delinquency of minors by leaving it out and letting all the children think it was perfectly fine to house babies in run down, decrepit buildings ...

But this NEW one is in tip-top shape! Brand spanking new, up to code on many things and above code on the rest!

Parents can breathe easy and let their baby and themselves get a good night's rest!

An adorable little set! Some are most definitely having Very Bad Hair days ... but that just seems to add to their charm!

OK - except for this Wise Man ... He sorta just looks like he has been imbibing on some of the stronger liquid 'gifts' ...


But don' they just look so sweet and comfy? Simply adorable!

And here is my choice for an inexpensive porcelain Nativity. Part of the choice had to do with the wonderful Creche - sadly a very cute part - a door that is partially open - I am assuming to a darling wee bitty shed is totally blocked in this photo by the angel ... Dang! And of course I am just too lazy to go take another photo ... and my foot is killing me ... and my side is on fire - and double that with each step I take. yeah, yeah, yeah - I know: excuses, excuses, excuses I be just full of em ...

Alas, our first casualty was discovered as I extricated Joseph from his styrofoam house and then took him out of his bag. He came out ... then his hand followed.

I am not really sure how this could have happened with him having his own room and all ... we may never know.

I would LIKE to think it was horrible accident during an incident of sparring with the shepherd using what many consider the most lethal of the Martial Arts the Bujinkan Taijutsu (also known to many as Ninjutsu) but since Joseph is a carpenter by trade ... it is probably something rather mundane like whacking it off (accidentally, of course) with a hatchet or sawing it off on a dare ...

We may never know ...

Not to worry, though! A brand spanking new Joseph is already in route to me (and if a spare Joseph cannot be found - an entire new Nativity will arrive instead - might come in handy if any more sparring is to take place ...).

I was also very lazy and didn't place the 'straw' on the ground making it look way better - but I just was not up to that. I am thrilled that it is supplied since I usually have to go out to Gary in his shop and beg him to plane something to make me some cool fake straw (AKA sawdust) ... Don' tell Gary but this stuff kicks butt.

Here is how it is supposed to look:

Much more authentic with the straw - yes?



And!


I have saved the best for last!

It kicks butt in the unusual department, is very cool,versatile and the pieces are so heavy, if needed they can come in very handy as a quick weapon ...

Whats not to LOVE about this puppy?

This is called Enesco Pillars Nativity - this is the front - and one of the many permutations it can be arranged in:

Here is the back and the beautiful writing - all depicting the story of Christs birth:

Here is another arrangement:

And yet another:

Since the other two Nativities I ordered ...


WHAT??


Are on back-order and might take their own sweet time getting here - I stole photos off the web just to share. The first one has an odd name "Real Live Nativity" Google THAT and see what you get!

But it is beautiful and I ordered the largest size - it says that Balthazar is 14" tall ...

That helps if you are buddies with Balthazar and know him on sight ...

Or you can just guess he is the tallest and move on ...


Here is another photo sans the Creche (we will be getting to it in a bit ...) and shows the main reason I purchased this particular Nativity ... Well ... the difference between the two photos is the reason.

There is a BIG difference between this photo and the previous one - and I am not talking about the missing Creche ... can you see it?





Huh?





Huh?





OH COME ON! play along - what is the difference?


















I would HOPE that you at least tried ... let me know in the comments if you spotted it - it just might be the most exciting thing in my day ... you never know!



This is Mary - HOLDING BABY JESUS! In the first photo he is in the Manger.

I really, really LOVE that she can hold him (and when he gets all fussy, or wet, or whatnot she can put him in the Manger ... how versitile!)



Back to the Creche - LOVELY in its own right and is the second reason I picked this Nativity. No, I am not going to make you guess ...




It is lit!

Seriously ... how cool is that?

It makes everything look so beautiful ...

At least it WOULD had this not been a crappy photo .... seriously the only one I could find on the web showing it lit ...



AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!

This is one called "Legacy of Love" and stunningly beautiful!

Don't you think so?


And one more shot of it:



Well folks ... that's it!

My distracting 'mythical' shopping spree ...


I have a feeling it just might not be the last ...

The Emergency That Apparently Wasn't ...

As some of you might have noticed, I was in the Emergency Room - YET AGAIN - last night annoying Facebook readers by wondering out loud why it was that I always end up in the ER on a weekend and whining about the two botched lab draws and other things y'all neither cared about or wanted to hear.

I thought an update was probably in order - if for nothing else - to let you all know that I am no longer there. But as it is moi, yours truly, "The Girl Who Cannot Write a One Paragraph Blog Post To Save Her Life" there is still more to come!

I know, I know - PLEASE try and contain your excitement ...

Gary and I left my "Home Away From Home" at about 4:00am this morning. We were tired and frustrated and I was HURTING! We had quite a bit of a wait, but I eventually had a CT Scan and an Ultrasound. Then more waiting.

When the doctor came in and said that they were unable to find anything wrong I was completely dumbfounded - not to mention feeling like a loser spazoid crazy jerk ...

Now - I am sure there are all kinds of pains that are "All In Your Head" - so let me just say right here:


MY PAIN WAS NOT ONE OF THESE ....


Gary and I agree (using our VAST collective medical knowledge to come up with this diagnosis ...) that I most likely HAD a kidney stone - but it had passed BEFORE the tests were done. One strong argument for this (regardless of our lack of Medical Degrees) is that once you actually pass a kidney stone?


YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FORGET HOW IT FELT.


Like as in : Never


Ever


You just wait and see ... in a million years I will still be whining about "The Great Kidney Stone Passing of 2013" and I will still be as freaked out over how painful it was then as I am now.

Kidney Stones are funny that way - and I am not talking about belly laughs and giggles. They are "Funny" in the way that some teensy tiny crystals wandering down your ureter can be so painful it trumps pushing a bowling ball out of your vagina and can easily lead one to start begging random strangers to kill them ....

THAT kind of Funny Ha-Ha ...

And funny thing - after the Doctor tells me that they cannot find a single thing that could be causing my pain ...


IT DID NOT GO AWAY!


Huh ...



Weird ...


It did however morph a bit and become a titch more severe if that was even possible. It had started on the right hand side in my lower back. It progressed as the other "Kidney Stone Passing Parties" had - from its infancy where it feels like - for no reason whatsoever - you seem to have a 'stitch in your side' and progresses from there following a specific schedule of low levels of pain alternating with debilitating waves of horrific pain. Sort of feels like someone is repeatedly stabbing you in your lower back with a red hot, very dull, blunt knife (we wouldn't want it to slide in easily, now would we?).


Fun times people .... FUN TIMES ...


So - after we leave the hospital and the pain is still just as bad as if it had been a 'real' kidney stone - I noticed that the pain was a little different than before. I remembered back to my wimpy 'Trying To Get Through The Pain' and remembered that I had been contracting every muscle in my body so severely that my back would hyperextend and I would end up with my body clenched so tight that half of it was not even touching the bed. I would have to force myself to relax and try to lower myself back into a prone position where all my body parts were in contact with the bed.

Why was I being a "Clenching Fool?" Hell, I DON'T KNOW! It is not like there is a users manual for this - OK, I am sure there are plenty of Books out there on the subject, but 'Proper Form and Posture' are probably not listed in any of them. It just seemed to happen and I noticed that I moaned much less with "Lock-Jaw". And, let's face it - moaning is just wimpy, annoying and in bad form all round so anything that helps to keep these annoying little noises from passing my lips - I say USE IT!

Also - nurses RARELY buy my "I'm sorry, but I have 'Situational Tourette's' and can't help myself." excuse anymore when something passes my lips that is a wee bit louder, a wee bit longer and a wee bit nastier than a moan ...


Hmmmmm, but I digress ....


After flashing on my problem with clenching all my muscles - I started wondering if all this pain was stiff muscles? Thing is ... it didn't / doesn't feel like stiff muscles. What it DOES feel like - a lot - is my arm the day it got so bad that I couldn't sleep and the Doctors finally did a CT Scan to see what was going on.

The really crappy thing about this is that they DID find something: torn ligaments, torn muscles and a torn rotator cuff - all requiring a surgical repair once I am off blood thinners and won't tend to bleed to death when someone cuts into me.

And for my abdomen and back to feel LIKE THIS? OK, it either feels like torn muscles ... or my appendix is on the verge of exploding ...

Currently I am running on fumes - no food, no sleep for two days, and well over 24 hours of severe debilitating pain that seems to wear you down, suck the life right out of you, same goes for joy, happiness, peace, energy, appetite ... etc, etc, etc and makes you crazy stupid ...

But even in this (somewhat) altered state I am in, I can see that my scenarios above for the cause of this pain are not exactly ideal situations to plonk my decrepit body into right now - thus I am going to ignore it and go about my days as if everything is going swimmingly - because if you act that way - surely - by some sort of wizardry or witchcraft (Dang! I am always getting my "W" words mixed up ...) it really, really will happen! Really! I read it on Wikipedia so IT MUST BE TRUE!


There has been one (real) bright spot today! After realizing that the pain seemed to have become a bit worse - rather than better (Odd, really, since there seems to be nothing causing this) I started to feel rather desperate. Unable to stand the pain and not knowing what to do - I reached for the disgusting Goo I was supposed to be smearing on my foot. It didn't seem to work and it was so gross, I had basically forgotten all about it.

I discovered that if I had Gary smeared me up with a boatload of the Goo for my foot - covering all of my back, side and abdomen in the area of the pain then lay in bed, not moving a muscle with ice packs on both my back and abdomen - with piles of pillows holding things in place - things were almost tolerable!

I wish the Goo was a bit more like a substance that did not remind me of snot ... It takes its sweet time drying, so you must cover it with something. When it does finally dry - what ever was covering it is pretty much petrified to the skin and feels ever so wonderful when you start trying to peel it off. But I gotta admit - as disgusting as it is to peel off my undies from my torso - that Goo is filled with pain relievers, muscle relaxants and anesthetics. And for at least ten wonderfully beautiful peaceful minutes - I don't feel hardly any pain at all!


I will take it!


It's just too bad I don't have enough to fill my bathtub ...

Rat Poison ...

A month ago, had someone suggested to me that I would soon be voluntarily ingesting Rat Poison I would not have believed them - I would have vehemently denied it as something I just wouldn't do and WHAT were they thinking? I probably would have also said something derogatory about their Mother ...

But then again - had the same person - while smarting over the comments about their Mother - burst out saying that I was going to have multiple seizures and a stroke - I would have just laughed at them or punched them out - which ever I felt like ...

I would have thought:


Nonsense!



Absurd!



Not Me!



NOT ME!!




Yeah,



*sigh*,



Not fun,



Not good,



Not nice ...



Not me ...



Oh please, oh please, oh please



Please not me ...


But I apparently got the short straw - or more along the lines of the truth: I was sent home on WAY too much blood pressure lowering medications after my seizures (Five different prescriptions: FIVE!) and the cause of the stroke is listed as low blood pressure.


So, every day I dutifully ingest my dose of Rat poison ...


It DOES actually have another name - one that doctors prefer using and simply insist on using that name when discussing it with you. In fact, using the term "Rat Poison" in there presence referring to your medication is a sure fire way of flustering most doctors since this is sort of an industry secret ...


It's kinda fun too ...


Coumadin - innocuous sounding, no? My vote for its name would be: "Pain In The Butt" but no one seems to be asking me ...

I find it both disturbing and sad that my DNA and that of a Rat is so similar that the active ingredient in both Coumadin and Rat Poison is something that works equally as well whether you are a rat and purchasing the cheap stuff at Wal-Mart (not the rat - the rat murderer) or someone who is trying to dissolve a pesky blood clot and using the über expensive prescription at Walgreens.

In the hospital - after the doctors finished scratching their heads about why my hematocrit dropped so low one evening (basically giving up and shrugging their collective shoulders - don't know why - can't go exploring (yeah!) since I was on heparin and you just don't start poking about a person when - if they start bleeding - tend not to stop ...) I was started on Coumadin.

I sat around the hospital for my Coumadin level to get into the "Therapeutic Range": with the "IPL" falling between 2 and 3.

If the IPL is under 2 it is too low and that pesky blood clot in my brain would not dissolve.

If the IPL is above 3 the blood gets too thin - clotting becomes something that just does not happen - and one tends to bleed to death - thus above a 3 is basically a big no no.

Right off the bat it jumped to 0.5, then about 1.0 then 1.5 it was looking like the next day would be my day! The next day it was 1.7 ...

Bummer - no going home.

I was not pleased.

But when the day after that and it had progressed to a whopping 1.97 with the doctors saying: "Sorry, you cannot go home - it is not above 2.0" my displeasure was transformed into something much more intense than the day before.

That day the doctor decided to up my dose of Coumadin - WHAT A CONCEPT! The next day it was - surprise, surprise - above 2.0 and I went home. This , of course, involved a new pile of new prescriptions. THIS time I was feeling much better than the last time I had been discharge - a whole week before - so I checked and double checked my prescriptions to make sure of what I was tossing in my system.

I also purchased a top of the line blood pressure cuff and take my blood pressure twice daily to make sure it is neither too high or too low. Hopefully all this will ensure that there will not be a third ride to the hospital in an ambulance ...

After going home - the Coumadin level must be monitored thus multiple visits to the blood doctor for finger sticks to check the levels accordingly. Did I mention that diet will change your amounts? Basically Vitamin K is used to make what ever it is that makes your blood clot. Coumadin inhibits that thus the clotting no longer works and voilà! Thin blood. So ... if you tend to eat foods with large amounts of Vitamin K - you kinda screw everything up. Green, leafy vegetables are PACKED with Vitamin K - lets just say avoiding kale and spinach is not going to be a hardship on my part ...

Today was my first visit to my hematologist to check my IPL level.

My lovely friend Linda took me.


It was a casual visit - my Doctor was not there and it was supposed to just be a quick finger stick - get the level and head home until next time.

Things were going swimmingly - I was filling out the 'New Patient' forms when they called me back. I was please that we were progressing so rapidly since Linda and I were meeting Bonne for one of our Power Lunches and I didn't want to make both of us late.

The Nurse sticks my finger, puts the blood on a gizmo and waited about 30 seconds and then I heard the very sharp intake of breath. "This cannot be!" she exclaimed - we need to do it again.

Before I could get out a question or a word in at all she had grabbed the next finger and punched a hole in it. Placed a drop of blood on the gizmo again shaking her head. When it was done - she looked up at me and told me that "I couldn't leave the building."


What!?!


It's not like her gizmo tested for the Ebola Virus ...


WHAT IS GOING ON?


She explained to me that my IPL was 6.5 and she actually didn't want me to move at all - like if I played 'Frozen Statue' I wouldn't bump into anything and die of internal bleeding. What she DID DO was totally scare the shit out of me.

I told her my friend would wonder where I was - could I go get her? She said no - that some people - when they got out to the lobby - bolted.

Well - YEAH - that WAS TOTALLY MY PLAN ...

She went and got her and then went off to call my Doctor to see what to do.


It all went rather quickly and we made it to our lunch just a few minutes late!


And can you guess where we went?




I know it is a very sad, desperate time for me when I start taking photos of random crap. I just goes to show how desperate I am for a real photo junket. That being said - this is actually a very cool building and had beautiful flowers everywhere!













See my sweet friend peeking?



The two most wonderful women I know:

















Now tell me that was not a pretty cool building ...


So - for two days I am off the Rat Poison - then I go back and check my levels again.

Here's hoping I don't fall down or bump into anything in my booted, hobbling state!