Thursday, October 26, 2017

Update.....

It doesn't feel like I stopped running since September 20th............. But that's nothing new :-) although the fact that I know the date is!

Mike had shoulder surgery last Friday, and I spent 3 days in the hospital with him. As bad as my German is, it's still better than his, and better than the English a lot of the hospital staff spoke, so it was kind of helpful as well as nice. Turned out he had a tear in a shoulder tendon, and a tear in a bicep muscle,  and because of where the muscle runs, they couldn't put it back where it had to be, so they had to cut the bicep muscle, screw it into the bone. He'll be tied up for a couple of weeks before they attempt physical therapy and I'm fulltime chauffeur, cleaner, caretaker of hubby and cat, administrator and a couple of things I can't remember LOL.  Odd thing is, I hadn't slept much before his surgery, being that he doesn't like to wake up from the anesthetic and has a heavy reaction to almost all pain meds, except Tylenol, but I've been sleeping pretty good, starting Friday-night. We had to be at the hospital by 7, and being who we are, we were there at 6.30 and I got home around 8.15, was sound asleep at 8.30 woke up at a little before 6, went tot he hospital, got home around 7.30, watched one episode of the "the black tower" mystery, went to bed by about 8.30, got up at 6.30, went to the hospital and waited for Mike to be released, and the pattern has been holding, an average of 7 hours per night..... I got more sleep in the last week than I have the month before. LOL.

The hospital is odd. Visiting hours are "whenever you want to be there, between the hours of 7AM and 9PM, so that was AWESOME!! The rest was kinda weird. His surgery was scheduled for between 10 and 11, and around 9, 3 nurses fly into the room, and while one is taping up his arm and one is putting in an IV, the third one takes the brakes off the bed, and starts running with it..... I watched her flying down the hallway with it, and the way she had to hit the brakes, literally by digging her heals in, was a little disconcerting.... My sister came up and we sat together, cutting the waitstress to almost nothing, until I realised how long it had been, and than I just paced. The half hour surgery turned into almost 4 hours, without a word from anybody. I saw him be rolled by the visitors area and followed him into the room, otherwise I have no idea if they would have thought to come find me. The surgeon never came by, we were never briefed whether the surgery went according to plan, what the next step was, what to look out for or anything. A very far cry from what we were used to in the US, but nobody seemed bothered by the proceedings, but me.... (Take the hint and let it go, maybe?)  What really bothered me, was that they measured his blood-sugar when he came in, and it was high. (He was taken off his meds on Wednesday, so it wasn't a total surprise) They gave him a shot of insuline, and it came down. After surgery, they kept checking it, and it kept going up. All the way to 418, and they didn't do anything. He started to look bad, before he started to feel bad, and I finally went off on the chick that did the blood-checks, that he was not feeling good, he was dizzy, sweating and shaking, what was the sense in taking down vitals, if you didn't do anything with it because they should have seen that it was getting higher and given him insuline, and to get a goddamn nurse in there!? The nurse never came (They pretty much stayed in hiding), but the orderly, did give him a shot of insuline, which made it almost instantly better. They also added an EKG to the treatment. Gotta love it. Not doing anything, and than pulling out all the stops to figure out what happened.....
The cafeteria was cool. Only about 20 tables, but the food was super good, with portions that would stump a woodsman! While we were there for pre-op, we had coffee there, and I saw a plate of spaghetti go by that would have fed me for a week, but it smelled SOOOOO GOOD! :-)  Odd thing was, they stopped serving food at 2.30, and closed all together at 6... Weekdays they opened at 7, Saturday and Sunday at 10.30, so that was a little bit of a bummer, since both days I flew out of the house without breakfast :-) It almost felt like it was a staff cafeteria, and if the public wanted some, they would accommodate. (Prices were good too, having a full dinner, including coffee and desert, for about 6€) It reminded me of the cafeteria when I worked at Saint Mary's in Reno. Good memories :-)

The brace they gave him is a trip. It came with a pictogram on how to put it on, but there are way more options to put it together than pictograms! We've been fighting it ever since the physical therapy lady came in on Saturday and took it off. I thought we had it figured yesterday, after he showered, but this morning it was a total mess, which should not happen, so we're going by the physical therapy office at the end of the street here, and ask for a demo. I'm so lucky I "do" DumbBlond really good! LOL

While he's off for this, which we still don't know if the company accepts the claim as Workman's Comp, he also needs surgery on his right eye. They're going to have to replace his own lens with an artificial one. Not sure why the guy here only hinted at the procedure, and never said it might be cataracts, because that would have leveled out the stress considerably.... Thing is, we are having problems with his insurance, in that we can't get into the "secure member website" to see what we need to do, and what we will have to pay before we make the appointment. Our account has been "disabled" and they want us to call. I really don't want to pay 3€ per minute to make a call that they could, if they were so inclined, take care of by email. So we're still working on that. Once life comes down to a dull roar, and I have time to think, I will work on that.  I'm still waiting on the pre-cert for his shoulder, that I put in for on the 13th.

Castle is closing for the season after Sunday, except for appointments, and will open at Christmas, Falconer ok'd some of the dates for workshops, and I'm waiting on the others.
Drumroll.....  I have a whole afternoon with the regional archeologist on November 28th! I couldn't believe it. I had contacted her to see if I could drop off a list of questions, to pick them up later, so I could get clarification on some things I've read in different reports, and she emailed me back to tell me she had cleared her afternoon for me, so we had some time! SOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!  What's funny (in a super cool way) to me, is that she, as well as our archeologist, knew me by name the last time they were at the castle for a presentation a year ago, and I had only talked to them once before that. They either have a steeltrap mind for names and faces, or somehow, I stood out. Don't know, don't care, as long as I can pick their brain. LOL.

well, I think you're all caught up on my shenanigans......  I'll swing by every once in a while and keep up the intel, until we have some sort of "normal" :-) Don't forget to hug a loved one, twice if they're fuzzy and count your blessings     :-)

Love and hugs,
Pauli

PS: Did I mention that Mike is the color of HellBoy for most of his right side?  It's awesome! I think they used a mop to put it on him. It's all over! LOL.





  

Friday, October 13, 2017

There's still some ......

undiscovered animals out there. Oddly enough, they seem to be illusive most of the year, and more out in the open around October........
I stole these from a YouTube feed by Marco, by the way.










I realize there are people that do not like Halloween the way we do, but I hope you will take these as they are intended. I am amazed at the creativity, and the painting skills on these!

Don't forget to love a hugged one? :-)

Love and Hugs!
Pauli

PS: I wish I would have thought about this when I was trying to teach 9 year olds what was happening inside their horse. LOL.