The MacKinnon

DD just texted me. They are now removing excess tubes and will remove ventilator here shortly. His lungs and kidneys are now in massive failure. She is with him, holding his hand. Thank you all for your prayers and support. She knows you are holding her and her dad up to the Lord in prayer. It means the world to all of us.

Hey girl. How've you been? I'll get DH to see if he can spot their outside entry into the kitchen. Hadn't thought about that angle, but it makes sense. 2 years ago we had an infestation of gopher rats despite a very mild winter (more like Austin than what I've gotten used to here in TN). I sure don't want a repeat of that mess!!

And on a lighter note, our little furry rodent 'friends' are back in the house after a year's hiatus. I had 3 nice cayenne peppers drying from my plant and the little darlins ate 2 of them last night. So the third will go in the trap tonight. Olé?

It's too long a story to recount, but my DD is flying to Baltimore this afternoon to say 'goodbye' to her dad. He suffered a massive stroke after surgery to repair an earlier colostomy procedure. This catastrophic turn of events was not expected but turns out he had an undetected congenital hole in his heart that developed an infection. He is at Johns Hopkins now. His sister is making things more difficult for DD so prayers for wisdom, grace and patience would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Mt Rider! I'm here again. There's been so much going on it's crazy. I posted on Sunporch. Thank you all for the BD wishes. Turning 60 was a little weird. I had a margarita and pondered the meaning of life! And Happy Birthday to LaBella Vita and indy girl preps! Woot!

Good grief it's been awhile since I was here! For those of you who remember me, my mom fell in Jan of '12 and broke her hip. She's recovered and lives with us. We gave up our bedroom for her and have been camping out in our dining room for 19 months! Do I have the best husband ever or what?! I had spinal surgery last Thanksgiving, then another operation on my neck in June. It's been a long recovery; on the first day of school in August, I fell and hit my head against the wall. Had to get a stitch in my head and had a fractured skull. Sigh. It's always something. By the way - Oxyclean works! Had blood all over my pink LL Bean polo and it all came out! My DD had her second child in August; a boy so now she has one of each. I'm still teaching high school world history and hoping maybe I can retire after next year; I turned 60 last week. Argh. Anyway, I was missing the good folks around here and some of you met my mom a few years ago at Darlene's. She asks about y'all and really loved that visit. Mt Rider! Hi! Stephanie! Annarchy! Darlene! and every one howdy! Mac

It gets a little discouraging sometimes; my left leg is still numb & tingly at times. My left foot still feels heavy, too. Th doctor tells me that nerves repair at one (1) silly millimeter a month. The fact that my foot gets heavy means the damage is pretty extensive and will take months to heal. I tell myself it's only been a month, but I want to be back up to speed NOW! Lol.

The Brits were dealing with this 42 years ago when I was a student over there one summer! The last time I was there was 1988 (!) and they were the same . I should visit more often - I lose weight.

Howdy ho neighbors! I'm trying to be good and wear my brace when I get up (it's felt & velcro - bustier in front and tortoise shell in back!) and remember to wear my "othofix" spinal stimulator force field, whatever the heck it is for 4 hours a day. And not bend, stoop, lift more than 10 lbs or twist. Sheesh. Got the stitches out a week ago (all 37 of 'em) and all say I'm mending nicely. I'll be glad to get out of this brace but I've still got about 8-9 weeks in it. Don't know about the force field. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts!

Ambergris, I was just glad I wasn't any the worse for the wear - Mt Rider, Mom is feeling a little better but this wasn't the best day for any of us. May be time to pack it all in for the night and get a better start tomorrow. Right now I'm wearing my brace and the ortho fit device (some sort of electric field contraption spose to make your bones heal faster and better). It's 4 hours a day, however you want to configure - 4 in one go, 2 here 2 there etc.

:happyBD: :balloons:

Hey y'all. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts. I got to come home Thanksgiving afternoon. As most of you know, DH and I have been taking care of my mom. She's been doing alright, although she tries to do way more than she should. This morning, about 6:30, I heard her call to me. She sounded as if she were in trouble, so I pulled myself out of bed and in order to get to her, I didn't put on my brace - did take my walker though. Well I got to her room and she was disoriented and wasn't sure where she was or why she hadn't been fed (mini-stroke?) Anyway, I felt lightheaded so I got myself to the bathroom and on the toilet. I thought I'd begun to recover when I keeled over and landed squarely on my left cheek. I twisted my neck some, too. Mom got hysterical and DH got there fast and got me up. Called my home health nurse and put frozen peas on my neck and my icepack on my face. When I felt better, I bathed my face in warm water, applied Arnica gel to my cheek and neck. There is barely a red mark now on my cheek and my neck is loosening up as well. Back seems none the worse for the adventure, but I've taken a hydrocodone (first pain med I"ve taken in all this; there's really been no pain). The home health nurse came last night to change the dressing on my incision. She counted 34 stitches and she took a picture for me. Well that's my adventure. Whatcha y'all up to?

Well it seems to have gone well. DH brought DM down as I was waking up. Had a nice visit. They put me in a paper gown at first which could be ( and was!) inflated with warm air. Ahhhhh !!!!!! So all in all successful. Just wanted to drop by and say "hiya!!"

Wow! I'm 2 hours or less south of Nashville; would love to go to the expo. Maybe we could all meet up???

Thanks y'all. I have to be careful with Mom on car trips (and they don't much help my back either ) . I took her for a short outing the Saturday of the gathering; we went over to Lynchburg so I could get some Diamond Gusset jeans there, and we had lunch at a neat little bistro. She did fine, ate well and puttered a little with her walker. It really isn't a walker friendly place, though! She went with me to Tullahoma to see the surgeon Friday; DH advised against it since she had a 'fade out' episode with me earlier that morning when I took her to the beauty shop. She recovered though, ate a good lunch (for her anyway) and so on we went. It's about a 40 minute trip there and although the doctor saw me right away, I was still there for almost 2 hours and had to run back to my classroom another 10 miles away to collect the papers I had my sub give my students, then we came home. She was tired and very sore. So we know she can tolerate car rides of about 40 minutes then needs to walk around some, but she's losing weight (down to 85) and doesn't have much of an appetite (never really did, unlike moi, lol ). We were both sorry to miss the gathering because we enjoyed it so much last time and everyone was so sweet to her - and it did her a world of good, but that 2 hour trip there and back I fear would have been too much. I am so blessed that DH will step up and take care of both of us for the 2 or so weeks I'm recuperating from this latest adventure. I'm so NOT looking forward to that - not one bit!