Where Have I Been?

My Mother had another bit of a crisis this past week.  No, nothing physical happened to her, her anxiety caused her some issues.  BTW, she would never agree she has any anxiety and I never say it around her, but it's pretty obvious to 'K' and I.  So 'K' once again volunteered with no prompting to go stay with her again.  'K' had no mother or father any more, along with a step-mother they have all passed.  So now she says that my mother is her mother.  They have always had a well above average relationship.  I am blessed more than I deserve with this woman.  

Mom doesn't think she is getting any better, but I see otherwise.  She also thinks it has been much longer than it has.  So she got an appointment to see an orthopedist.  He confirmed everything she had already been told.  That made her feel much better already.  He wrapped it and she said it felt better already.  Same thing I have been saying since it started.  But like I said abut this previously, what do I know?  Hopefully now she will calm down some and not call 'K' or my Brother crying like she did this last time.  There is much more to that than I'll put here, but IMO it is all due to her anxiety. 

We plan to have supper with Son#2 and his family tonight.  His in-laws are in town and we will get a chance to visit with them.  His Father in Law wants to go shoot while he is here.  I took him last time and so we will go again.  That will give me a chance that I haven't had to get familiar with my new M&P.  But I really look forward to shooting my 1911 the most.  I shoot better with it than any of my others.  I need the practice since I don't do it near enough.

Happy Trails

Busy Times-and Merry Christmas

We are having our usual Christmas eve get together with the kids again this year.  We are having a tamale supper.  Tamales are the thing this time of year down here in this part of Texas.  If you have never had a great homemade tamal, you really don't know what your missing.  We have 4 dozen plus all the fixings.  I will make my world famous (my world) chili.  Although it will be the milder version.  The wife won't eat my regular, too hot.  It would also be too hot for the Grandkids maybe their mothers too.  Oldest son has some pretty bad reflux issues so he will probably even avoid the milder version also.  Only I and Son#2 can tolerate the regular version.  My Mother may not come and there is no way she could even eat the mild version.  So I have been trying to figure out the correct measurements of all the spices I need to try and get it right.  When I do that it never really turns out right.  My recipe of for 6 lbs of beef, chili grind chuck.  Cutting it back to 4 lbs plus making it less spicy.  Hopefully it will be somewhat edible. 

We never used to eat tamales with chili on top.  Just a straight tamal with what ever sides but mostly by themselves.  The chili on top is something 'K' introduced me to.  Although it was usually canned chili.  I have to say that it's pretty good too.  Oh in case you were wondering, tamal is the proper word for one.  The tamales is plural.  The 'e' was never there before us non Spanish speakers discovered tamales.  Even some of the local speakers call one a tamale now due to almost everyone else calling them a tamale.  The local dialect is known locally as Texmex (just like the Mexican food is locally) and not a purer Spanish like what is spoken ins Mexico.

At this moment I have the grill going waiting on the wings I will cook for lunch.  I am trying my version of the Mexican BBQ chicken  (pollos asados) that I talked about a while back.  I don't have the recipe I needed so I am just 'winging' it.  See what I did there?

There is more, much more but those are sad things, so I will leave those be.  We have been invited for supper tonite and then we have our thing tomorrow.  I am already tired.

Happy Trails

Oh, and Merry Christmas

Progress

My Mother's ankle is not broken.  She is making slow progress but it is progress.  She still is reluctant to do things to help it out much, like wearing the boot we brought over and especially using ice.  She hates the ice.  That is until yesterday.  'K' got her to use it again and she was amazed her ankle felt better as soon as it was on....again.  LOL.  'K' has been over there since Sunday afternoon and will be back today.  Yea!  She has been making her do things she probably would not have without her insistent prodding.  I went over yesterday and when she had the boot on she was using the walker to get around.  I went and got them some lunch and brought the baby with me.  The baby brings her much joy and that is the point.  However she tires very quickly.  I assume that is due to her being less active and the stress of the pain.  It all adds to her anxiety.  She has also been confused about things.  We won't leave her alone to fend for herself until the confusion clears up.  But that still concerns me.  She will not under any circumstances move in, even temporarily with my Brother or I.  It would have made it easier to care for her and we could sleep in our own bed etc.  But it would be very hard on her, maybe worse considering everything and how she is such a creature of habit.  Not sure if tonight is the night we leave her alone or not.  I will leave that in 'K's' hands since it will fall to her to stay most likely.  Not sure what our family would do without her, 'K' I mean.  I hope the others realize it as much as I do, but I doubt it.

One good thing is we have most of the Christmas shopping done.  Doing it online gives us more time to deal with Mom and her needs.  So there is less rush there.  My oldest Granddaughter had requested I make her a leather book cover for a journal.  After 2 attempts, after two screw ups, I had one mostly finished.  It was a little smaller than I needed it to be to fit easily.  So I have been making adjustments to make it fit better.  I may have messed the entire thing up.  I messed up the finish.  If I can't fix that, I will have to start over TODAY in order to get it done in time.  I can't explain what my problem is with all the errors I have made on this thing.  I assume that leather work has been to far out of my mind for too long and have lost some of my mojo.  Use it or lose it.  Disgusted with myself.

Happy Trails

SMH

My Mother lives alone in the house she shared with my Father that passed away last August.  She has adjusted very well and that has relieved a lot of worry for us.  Until this week.  She has a mild form of insomnia so the doctor gave her some pills to help her sleep.  She takes them occasionally, not a lot but will use them when she has had a rough day which usually leads to a sleepless night.  One of those nights happened early this week.  She usually had taken just one pill of the three she is allowed to take.  One had no effect so she took two.  That certainly had an effect.  It made her dizzy.  I'll skip all the other details but she was dizzy enough she fell.  She didn't break anything but she did sprain both ankles.  She is virtually immobile.  We have been running back and forth over there and 'K' has spent a couple nights and my sister-in-law will spend a couple.  She is supposed to see her doctor Monday.  The ER didn't really do anything for her other than tell her they didn't think anything was broken, but see your doctor Monday and let him deal with it.  Hopefully the swelling will be down enough that x-rays will see if there is anything broken.  Of course she just knows something is broken.  One ankle is worse than the other and looks pretty bad, all swollen and discolored.  It may be broken, I don't know.  

She had been refusing to take the Tramadol she was prescribed for pain and didn't want any supporting wrap to stabilize her ankle since the ER doc didn't want to do it.  I assume due to swelling.  I keep urging the wrap even if lightly to help with the pain by stabilizing it and keep it from moving more than it should.  But what do I know?  She also didn't want to use ice but we prevailed.  I had 'K' take her boot she got for her surgery over to see if that would help, if she would at least agree to try it.  Lo and behold it worked great.  But what do I know?  LOL.

Hopefully she will get a little more mobile after the doctor works his magic and things can get back to normal.  Normal?  Who am I kidding?  

Happy Trails

Aggravation

Took 'K' to her podiatrist for a follow up visit from her surgery mid June.  Nothing to report other than he didn't like how she walked and asked about her shoes.  He had only told her to get 'sturdy' shoes during her recovery.  The Physical Therapist sent her to a specialty store they use to get the shoes.  It is a running shoe store but they said the people there knew their stuff and would get her fixed up.  Yeah, they did, to the tune of 200+$ for the shoes plus inserts they said she had to have.  Over the next few months she did get better but could tell her foot was rolling to one side and hurt often during and after walking.  

The doctor, after seeing her walk and talk about her complaint of her foot rolling, said he could fix that with some tweaks to her shoe.  It didn't work and he then decided she had a 'running shoe' and she needed to have a 'walking shoe.'  Yes, exactly.  He sent her to Academy at least and not some high dollar shoe store like the last one.  49$ for another pair of shoes.  So we have spent right at 300$ on shoes with the expensive probably never to be worn again.  This is not a hit we need at Christmas time.  She was a good sport and said 'merry Christmas to me.'  She meant this would be her Christmas gift.  I admire that, but she will still get some Christmas gifts.  She deserves them.  I just hope these work out and she will be back to normal soon.  No idea how long that will be, the doc reiterated that this was a knarly surgery and requires a long recovery.   He wouldn't put a time frame on it.  So we will be as patient as we can.

We had all 3 Grandkids at the house Friday night.  It was surprisingly easier than I would have thought.  The two older ones kept the Nugget (our 10 month old Granddaughter) busy nearly the entire time.  They had her attention entirely.  It was as if Poppy and Nani were only there just in case.  We were ignored by her almost completely.  She is totally enraptured with the older cousins so it was less work for us keeping her entertained.  It was fun to watch her.

Happy Trails

5 Years

Tomorrow marks 5 years when I had surgery to remove my prostate due to cancer.  I don't really know for sure but I think at 5 years I am considered cancer free.  I will have a follow up check in January and I will certainly ask that question.  My memory tells me that some of the material they gave me to read about the before and after surgery that they would continue to check for cancer (PSA test) for 10 years.  But they have deviated from some of that material so I don't know how hard those numbers are.  It would be good to be able to drop a couple doctor visits and labs per year from my schedule.  Although he does treat me for low T also, so that would most likely continue anyway.

Reflecting back on my decision to proceed with surgery as opposed to radiation (those were my only two options at that time) I have no regrets.  the surgery revealed that my cancer was more aggressive than the biopsy said it was.  The surgeon told me I made the right decision due to the aggressive nature.  I know there are a lot of new approaches to treating or not treating prostate cancer lately and I haven't really kept up with it, but it seems there are opposing views.  It's still something that is being debated and refined.  Consequently I am less inclined to offer advice.  Well I don't think I ever offered advice, just what my experience was.  I don't ever want to tell someone that I think they should do one treatment over another.  Everyone has to make their own choice.  Just get informed as much as you can.  I have offered to talk to friends that I have lost touch with that I became aware of their having this cancer.  I have yet to have anyone follow up with that.  The one in particular that I offered really didn't want anyone to know he had it.  I am not real sure of that mind set, but it's his choice.  I mention this today instead of tomorrow as I may forget by then.  I have had others ask me to relate my experiences and I have done so.  One expected to get prostate cancer since his father had gone through it so he wanted to know as much about it as he could.  It was no holds barred and let him know the bad things especially.

Today starts a slack week as far as any planned activities.  I am not real sure how we will handle that since we have been pretty busy for months now.  I'm sure that 'K' will continue her Christmas decorations.  Also I hope we get to keep the Nugget again as I am spoiled about getting her to ourselves for an overnight stay.   I am going to really try hard to get a good start on a leather project for the oldest Granddaughter.  I have tried a couple times over the last few months and have messed those starts up so today I start it again with a new determination.  I'm hoping I don't screw this one up too LOL, since it is a Christmas gift she requested.  

Happy Trails