Movin'

We had a little 'moving away' party for Arthur and SIL (my oldest daughter and her husband) tonight. Just a few of us got together and ate at their favorite Mexican restaurant and then came to my house and told stories, laughed, and cut up. But we all have to get up and go to work tomorrow, so at 9:00 we called it a night and everyone headed home.

Yes, Arthur and SIL are moving...to Pine Mountain (near Callaway Gardens). Some people think I am so sad, but really I am not. It is only a two hour drive away and we have already planned it out so that we will see each other every other month. One month, they will come spend the weekend here, the next month we will go there and spend the weekend. I'll probably actually see them more than I do now! (With the exception of seeing Arthur every morning as we carpool to work).

Please keep in prayer all the folks who are losing their jobs through lay offs...my cubicle mate, Nancy and a whole lot of others who work for Gwinnett County (county wide), a family member who told us tonight they are losing theirs, and everyone everywhere. Pray for these folks to find new jobs and to survive on unemployment, etc.

Your Prayers Needed!

Please pray for Ed today, he gets chemo treatment #5 today. One more chemo treatment after today and then he gets an MRI of the brain to see if it is reducing the cancer tumor.

Please ask God to let his chemo work to reduce or kill his tumor. Ask him to give the nurses and doctors knowledge to treat him and patience and kindness.

Also, my mom fell in the bathtub night before last. She is sore and needs to be more careful! We don't need two down!

Thanks everyone and have a great day!

Not for the squeemish

I got the stitches out of my hand this past Friday. It was 98% painless, and I got a good report from the doc. The assistant took the stitches out and put steri-strips on...which lasted until I got home. He said ok to get the site wet, but don't soak. Ok, it got wet, not soaked, but it still got water logged and split open. It looks really disgusting.

All in all, this experience from beginning to end was not a pleasant one, but not horrible. Dr. T gave me a hug (and a genuine, caring hug) as I was leaving his office, and just knowing the doc has a heart and is caring, well, that made it all ok. He is a good doc. I would recommend him to anyone. Anytime he knew he hurt me (i.e. as when he injected cortisone a year ago and lidocaine for the surgery) he apologized...said he was sorry he hurt me. Honestly, some docs don't seem to care.


Picture 1. Taken the day after stitches were removed. Oops...got the incision wet and the skin got saturated and the incision seperated. The steristrips the doc applied came off and so I put it together with bandaids.











So here is the ugliness of my hand...the day after stitches removed, and then two days after. It is improving slightly. ( :




Picture 2. Two days after stitches came out...the skin on either side of the incision is soft and gooey. I have to keep a band aid on it at all times. I highly recommend Nexcare bandaids. They make a near-water-tight seal all around the affected area and are very flexible. Mostly this isn't painful except when I bump my hand right on the incision area. Ouch!

Thursday's Guilty Pleasures

I had a long and boring day at work today. Things were stressful enough before we received an email from (the commissioner???) announcing more budget cuts for the county. I took it as a sign that I will a) definitely not be hired by Gwinnett County any time in the next three years, b) will probably be laid off within a month to three months.

Therefore, I left the office feeling a bit let down and a bit anxious, and a bit hopeful. Hopeful? Yes, if they are going to lay me off, let 'em do it now so I can enjoy summer, fall and Christmas at home. ( :

Since I left the office this afternoon I have enjoyed several guilty pleasures:

* Dinner at Arby's. I had the toasted Italian Sub and a nice glass of ice water, and dinner was delicious as I read a magazine in the non-crowded dining area.

* Pedicure at NY nails including bright red nail polish, cute little flower on the big toe (I usually don't go that girl-y, but oh well!), and a very strange selection on the massage chair. I've never used this setting before...it felt like I was sitting on Santa's lap and Santa was getting excited, if you know what I mean. This was very strange feeling. I felt like everyone in the place knew I was getting a 'knee in the butt' sensation and were staring at me! LOL! Oh! and all of this was covered by a gift certificate given to me by Arthur and SIL for Mother's Day. I got two pedicures out that gift certificate!

* Came home, fed the cats and put them out on the porch (for peace and quiet - plus they love it). By-passed the kitchen and living room and came straight to the bedroom and turned on my SOAPS!

* Played on the computer waaaaayyy tooo long, considering I was thinking of taking a computer sabbatical. Rrrriiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhttttttttttt.

Now, gotta let the kitties back inside and get ready for bed!

The Deed Has Been Done

(The bandaged up mess!)

The ole' trigger thumb has been repaired. The surgery took only about 15 minutes from the antiseptic wash down to the final wrapping. (The wait for surgery was much longer...three hours). The worst part of the whole thing was the initial injection to numb the area. The needle went in someplace between my thumb and pointer finger. I screamed loud enough to shatter the window in the operating room door. My wonderful nurse, Nicki, held my hand and I squeezed her hand as hard as I squeezed the Hubster's when I was in labor with Courage. The next injection was not near as bad because the lidocaine from the first shot was beginning to kick in.

Oh, the 5mg Valium tablet I took before surgery... did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves or make sleepy or make me 'not care' as the doc promised. I tried to tell him that such things as Novocaine, laughing gas, and small doses of anesthesia do not work on me. I told him I have awakened during surgical procedures twice. He didn't listen and would not give me more Valium. However, after seeing I was not affected by the Valium, he did shoot wonderfully large amounts of numbing agent into my hand so that I would not feel the scalpel as it sliced into the crease where thumb meets fleshy palm pad. I only felt tingling, pulling and pushing after that.

So far I have only resorted to Tylenol one time. I didn't get the pain pill prescription filled...because as I am very fearful of needles, actual pain does not bother me that much. He said I wouldn't feel like working the day after, but I decided the worst of it was over and went to work today anyways. You really don't appreciate your thumb that much until you have limited use of it. But after much exercise today, the thumb is already loosening up and feeling more mobile and useful. I am really looking forward to this cumbersome bandage coming off soon.

(that's the pill bottle my Valium came in...not pain pills!)

Trigger Thumb...it's baaacckkk

Bad thumb.
Good thumb.
bad thumb.
good thumb.


My 'Trigger Thumb' is back. The condition is very painful and worrisome. So in six days I am having surgery. It is very minor surgery and should only take 10 minutes to complete. Supposedly it is quick to heal from. I hope so. I cannot afford to be out of work even one day without pay, but somehow, it will be okay.

This is my two thumbs...you can tell which one is affected. It is the one with the swollen joints and the inability to make a 'hitch-hiker' thumb.

This is my ouchy.

What's been going on this week

(Blacky looks out the back window)


As usual, I have had a busy week and have had a lot going on. Saturday I attended a retirement party for a friend, Sunday spent the day with the 'rents, Monday back to work and holding a secret, Tuesday could talk about the secret because it's no longer a secret (Arthur turned in her notice at work because she and her SIL are moving south to be closer to his job), Wednesday spent most of the day with my dad at the Cancer Center in Athens (see Ed's Journey Blog), and today worked (very slowly since not many people at work and it was very relaxed).

Stuff in between going on...frantic call from former mother-in-law about my ex-husband, Arthur's dad, making me think he was on his death bed. (Wrong). Helping Courage work out problems with summer college courses (actually just serving as a sounding board because she will make her own decisions no matter what input I have), observing, but not participating in a LOT of drama going on in my office, and trying to squeeze in some exercises here and there.

I did see a cute movie last Friday...'The Hangover'. Bradley Cooper nice to look at, thank God, because the other actors are not. Ha ha! But they are funny and it is indeed a cute little movie.

I am off work on Friday with no pay. So is the life of a temp, but not hired through a temp service. (sigh) So that is (almost) two whole days without pay this week. Thank the Good Lord Courage's HOPE scholarship check came in this week so I can pay off her tuition fees for summer classes.

Courage's BF is arriving (late) tonight from his Marine base in NC, and will be visiting friends & family in GA and TX for two weeks. Then he goes back to NC to prepare to ship off to the big AFF. Courage is so excited about him coming she can hardly contain herself and is difficult to live with. Our whole family looks forward to seeing him and spending time with him, especially for 4th of July festivities.

Including some pics of my cats, because they are cute and special.


(Don't play with your food!) (If I get too close to the edge I might fall off!)

I'm a kitty princess! I like Luaus too!