Spirited and Lively Older Women Thread

Here I am 3jays..I have been a bit on the busy side lately, and today went for my pre op.

I had a hell of an afternoon...was with then from almost 1pm , until 6.15, and what an awful afternoon. I hate these pre op exams , they seen to go on and on. I am totaly opposite to you...in fact I am a bit of a shrinking violet ! so an afternoon at the hospital is just not my cup of tea.

I was confronted with a very full waiting room when I got there , there were 20ish people waiting for the same old pre op as me, all lumped together in the waiting area, with not enough seats to go round. As I very rarely will sit myself among a load of strangers, I chose to stand in the corridor ! I startedoff  being called into a room to check weight, height, BP, and current medication, and do swabs. Then on to ECG , a long walk down an endless corridor. A male Doc, which I wasn't too pleased about, and even less pleased when half way thru' he asked me to strip of everything on my top half. Usually I've been able to leave on bra and foobs, but ended up with the embarassment of baring all this time! Then it was on to a 'history taker' a nurse, she went right back to childhood diseases, like Scarlet Fever when I was 5! I was in with her for over an hour.

My next port of call was the dreaded Blood Room. I had warned them I would NOT have blood drawn, and had 2 letters with me , 1 from my GP, to say she would do my bloods, and put the results on the hospitals system, and one from a psychologist I have been seeing (  actually not seen her in weeks !) to say I had a severe phobia about taking my bloods. I had to ask for a quiet place. I would not discuss all this infront of a full blood room, there were about 15 people, nurses and patients, all listening in to the fuss I was making !! Then up chirpes a little nurse 'shall we ring the blood transfusion lab. to take their advice.' After a bit of a fuss they agreed to do it my way, and I hot footed it out of that awful place.

Last port of call was a young Dr. again asking health questions, checking my reactions, prodding and poking, and in the end she declared I was 'fine' and said I'd won the most slimmest ankles competition today....the nurses and Drs run a little competition, and she deemed me to be the skinniest ankles today !! Wasn't expecting that !!   I'd had enough by 6pm, I'd been in the departement now over 5 hours, and I was off...right there and then...I'd had all I could take. DH was with me, he'd been driving me, and i asked him to stay with me, I could see trouble coming up, as soon as I saw an over full waiting area...people en masse spook me !

It's 10 to 5 in the morning. I canot sleep. Everything is going round and round in my mind....I was tired out when I got in, and was in bed for 11.30. then laid tossing and turning unable to sleep until I got up at 4 am, and I've made myself a cheese and tomato sandwich, and am changing bedrooms to see if I can get off to sleep there! Trouble is the bedroom I am going to is on the ground floor, and there are calves 5 yards from the window, and they start shouting for their milk around 8 !! ....they won't be getting it until nearer 10am now !! I need some sleep, so am not aiming to get up early to feed them !....i shall just turn up the radio and pretend I can't hear anything !! It is a holiday here tomorrow, so no-one coming to help me today, all over the weekend, and Monday as well. G/son decided to shoot off to Spain at the beginning of this week, and he isn't coming back 'til Tuesday. I could really could do with his help, but won't spoil his holiday. 

Off to bed number 2 now to try and get back to sleep.

Isabella.

this is springtime in the US Southwest..

along with this

I still can't get on with the Internet Explorer browser but can with firefox now...

3jays...I am still pretty well locked out. I am having to get in and register every time before I can get anywhere. If I change 'rooms' then I have to start the registration process all over again !

Can't just hop from one subject to another, without the 45 minute warning, and back to square 1. I am pretty much cheesed off with it all now ! It's taking up most of my pc time now just to keep tabs on half of what I want to. WHY do things have to change ??

Isabella....no time to post now.

I haven't had any problem with logging in or anything. I am always automatically logged in. I see this has been going on for days. I hope it doesn't catch up to me.

   I am able to get on here now, BUT can't do it the old way by simply clicking on my desktop icon the way I used to do....it then goes directly to the message, Closed done for maintenance and that it may take 45 mins.  Also I have to log in on the very top line, the black boxes, canNOT log in by using the other log in boxes the way I used to.   So I am able to get on, but it isn't simple the way it used to be and something still isn't right.   I am going to send the mods a PM and ask them if they can't just get rid of that message since the are not closed down for maintenance.  I know a lot of us are still having problems with this and although I thought it was my computer, it is not.  

  Isabella,    I PMed the moderators and Melissa said they are looking into correcting the problem.  Don't you dare even think of moving that bookcase on your own.....that would really do your back in.  I suppose they don't have Craigslist in the UK, but surely threre is someway you can sell your sewing machines

BarbA....how are you? tolerating the job?....did not go back to see if you have posted for awhile on here, but know you liked the island I did my faux finish on from your FB comment.  

 I just got back from my Dad's.....drove there and back so I could put this bar stool together that I ordered to try out with the island...color is pretty close, not the best looking wood in the world, but what can I expect for $89.  He is going to use it for a few days and IF he likes it, then I will order two more.  I took a friend with me since I hate driving there and back in the same day alone....plus it took two of us to assemble the stool and we both agreed if we had to do that for a living, we would shoot ourselves.  Sounded pretty easy on paper, but it was NOT.  We took my Dad to lunch, I planted some ferns and iris that I took from my garden in his, got the stool assembled and that was it for a day.   I am exhausted.  Am not sure if it is chemo or not, but I sleep more these days than I ever have in my life. 

Tomorrow I am going to see the eye surgeon and will find out just what this procedure involves that he wants to do on my eyelids to get rid of my offending eyelashes since they are now starting to do damage to my cornea.  Even my onco agreed that I can't afford to get an infected cornea so even if it means taking a break from chemo, he said to take care of my eyes. 

Now I think I will go to bed.   Hope everyone is doing well.   I will catch up with all your posts later.   Marybe

Yipee, no eye surgery for me.   I had a frank discussion with the doctor and he said that if having some eyelashes is the biggest problem I have with the stuff I have going on, he feels I should be thankful and not subject myself to a surgery that I really don't HAVE to do since at present none of the lashes are bothering me.   I had told him how every time I go off the warfarin, I get a blood clot...got one after my bunion, after cataracts, this last time after my colonoscopy and endoscopy.  I also told him that even though my eyes were driving me nuts a week ago, the opthalmalogist who has been plucking the lashes said I should let them go so this guy could see them providing I could stand it....and after a few days they bothered me less and he explained that when a lash first starts to grow in, it's this pointed little nub that stabs my eye, but as the lash grows it softens up and will lay down.   Ah ha,......so maybe we should have been leaving them alone all along.   He asked me something I did not have an answer for....How long do I expect to live?   Heck, I don't know how long I expect to live.  He asked 5 years? and I said I would like to think so ,but I honestly have no idea.  He said he knew last time I saw him I said the prognosis was not all that good and the treatments had not been working and I said that was true, but we are hoping this one is working and that at least my numbers are going down.   So to make a long story short, we are not going to do anything and I am happy about this......I was not looking forward to either surgery or another blood clot and he looked at my eyes and said as of now the cornea looks good and if I feel one stabbing me, just to call and he will get me in or I can go to the other eye doctor I see.   I am really fortunate with my doctors as they do get me in and also they will call in a RX for just about anything I ask for without making me go in to be checked.....think this may be one of the perks of having the Big C.

So I then returned a runner I tired at my Dad's and did not like and bought some phlox and mowed the grass when I got home....knew my husband would not have done it and he said I was going to do that....yeh, right.   I actually enjoy cutting the grass, but it pisses me off that he doesn't just go ahead and do it instead of sitting on his ass all day. 

Isabella, it is not heat resistant.   I put about 7 coats of polyurethane on it so it is resistant to most things, doesn't stain, can be washed off, but if you put a really hot pan on it, the stuff will bubble up.   However, they have come up with a technique and they sell it at hardware stores and it puts almost a glass like finish on the countertop.   I did not want to pay $75 or whatever they charge for it so just did it the same old way I did it before and have cautioned my father not to put any really hot pans on it....he can probably put a tea kettle on it, but if a pan came right off the stove, it would melt it.   So my technique is not foolproof, but it worked for me. 

I like painted furniture.....there was this woman who had a shop and she would actually take antiques that were not in very good shape, beyond refinishing and she would paint them....then she would use really beautiful fabrics, sometimes something very modern, for the cushion and it was a very good unique look and people were paying big bucks for her chairs.  She would paint scenes on tables, dresser drawers.   Unfortunately she was doing this in my hometown where no one has any money and her shop did not make it. 

I think it is good to have projects.....they are what keep me going. Oddly enough when I have a project to do, I don't get tired....it sort of fires me up. I imagine once you get your back in order, you will be doing all sorts of things again....not that you have slowed down much now. Another dog......I sometimes think I will lose my mind with just three, but of course that is because husband's dog is never disciplined (unless I do it and then I am being mean and a bully and the poor dog doesn't know what he did.....of course he doesn't because no one every tells him....Just one of the many things we do not see eye to eye on and I of course am the one who always finds the puddle on my rug!!) and the stray we found needs some work and I admit I do not take the time to do it.  I feel a tangent coming on so better get off of here.

The Antique Roadshow is coming so I think I am going to try to find something to take when it is here.   My father and I went before and did not get on the show, but you could see us standing there in line......we were told this lithograph we took that was a whiskey ad from pre-prohibition would go for $7,000 at auction....Ha, that was a joke, but we did end up selling it for about $1,000.  

Yes...I was wondering yesterday where Barbe was . Ban ...what ban ?? What are you on about Marybe ??

I'm so glad they're letting sleeping dogs lie with your eye op. You really do not want anything else on that plate of yours. I think I would have used coats and coats of polyurethane if I'd done some counters. There used to be a coating that really was bomb proof...but it was, wait for it.... 45 years since I used it !!! Probably out of business by now, it was a bit of a process, 3 step as I remember, but it worked. Called Rustins Plastic Coating over here. I am very careful with my counters and just stand and screech if anyone looks as if they are even thinking of putting something hot down !! I don't like those hot pot saver things about, tho' I keep just one near my stove 'just in case'. There's no 'just in case' with me now, haven't cooked in months...if it won't go in the microwave then I won't buy it. I could never afford to kit my kitchen out with marble tops, I have just over 30 yards , plus a big breakfast bar of counters, would have needed to take out a big mortgage to do all that lot, it's wickedly expensive over here.

I am on nurse duties again on Thursday. DH has asked me to drive him again, for an op. on his arm. He is having a nerve moved, its 'pinged' into the wrong position, right on his elbow, and is causing him a lot of pain. They are going to move it , and pin it ( I think ) back into the correct position......the nerve has flattened out now, and they don't think it will make a big difference to him, but he wants to try. I have to get him there for 1pm, and will wait, and drive him back. It'll probably take me all afternoon, and there are mutterings about 'having someone with him for 24hrs after the anaesthetic' so I shall have to offer him ONE nights B & B. He will be in a sling for quite a time I think, so will need a bit of help for a day or two....... just as long as I just don't get asked to take him to the toilet !!!! I am storing all this up for when I eventually get into hospital...as if I need help from DD on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night I can forget it....nothing stands between her and her crazy weekends.

Just managed to get 9 plants( a small tray and a half of campanulas) in my garden this afternoon, before my back won me, and I was stretched out on the floor again, covered in dogs, and waiting for pain meds to kick in. At this rate I will be putting plants in until Christmas ! DH hasn't seen this latest party piece of mine, and will be calling an ambulance on me if he sees me writhing around on the floor !! Hopefully he will be gone as quick as he's got his feet back under my table !!

We are having mad April showers..very good for the garden, but a devil to try and plan anything on the farm. I have some workers here putting a new end on a barn, I caught them sitting out a shower this afternoon, smoking away, and sent them packing. If it's too wet for them to work, and they CAN do this job from INSIDE the barn, then it's too wet for me to pay them.( they're on an hourly rate) Not sure if they will turn up or not tomorrow !! Not sure I am bothered ! I do not pay people to sit and smoke, especially when I stipulated NO smoking on the farm, too much straw and hay about for that game. I had 2 very bad fires some years ago, so will not let anyone smoke here.

Isabella. 

Hey there everyone,  sorry I have been MIA for a while.  My MO finally got the insurance company to agree to pay for all the pain meds I need for each month!  Yeah for him. I am starting to feel better.

I talked to BarbA and she is really stressing about her job and her ulcers are acting up again and she said to tell everyone she has so much going on that she is overwhelmed and just cannot do fb or boc like she wants to.  She is in a dark place now, but is thinking and planning out her options to take care of herself and will be back when she can.

We are surviving.

Barb, thinking of you here too.  Please take care of yourself and come back soon.  No job is worth such a toll on your health, but yeah, I know how it can be.  Seem to remember those same words being said to me.

And BTW, where is Barbe?  

Kathy

Yes, Barbe said she's been trying to get on for a week now.   I don't know it it's that same stupid closed for maintenance thing message that I am still getting if I try to sign on the regular way or not, but something is going on with this site.  She said she has tried re-registering as some others  had to do and even that isn't working.   Please help, Mods.    

{{{{{{ Barb }}}}}}

Barb and Barbe,   Missing both of you....hope the sun is shining in Florida , Barb and your DH has a gig at some nice beach bar today so you can escape.

I did not do the cookie thing, 3jays....just get on there by signing in with the black boxes, but when I click to log out it immediately takes me back to closed for maintenance message.....rather frustrating and I am sure even more frustrating for Barbe since she can't get on at all. 

Are you back on nurse detail, Isabella?  I hope he appreciates this.