Here is a little something to amuse yourselves with today, especially if you have Spring Fever.  It won’t be the real thing, but perhaps it will give you a few minutes of Spring wishitude (attitude of wishing it was Spring).

A.   Click on the link below.  You will get a black page.
B.  Click your mouse and hold anywhere (& everywhere) on the page & see what happens!
C.   Better yet, click & drag your mouse over the black page… Enjoy!!

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Every have one of those days that no matter what you do, you just can’t please some one?  For the most part Hubby has been a good patient.  Even when he’s hurting he has been easy to deal with.  BUT, once he goes to sleep, if I have to wake him up for something, he is a crabby old bear.  Tonight I woke him up when it was time to take his 12 hour pain pill and he got a little bit peeved at me because he had taken it an hour early so that he could go to sleep and I woke him up needlessly.  Except that he failed to tell me that he had taken it early so I didn’t know that I was waking him up needlessly and yes, he hurt my feelings because (even though I try to tell my self it’s because he’s sick) he was so gruff about it. 

Then there are days that just as I sit down, he’ll say before you sit down could you (insert all kinds of thing that I can fetch for him here).  Some days I think he waits until he sees that I’ve sat down before he asks for something.  Nah, I don’t really think that, but I do wonder.

Then there is also the fact that he now takes up 3/4th of the bed when he sleeps.  If we had a king size bed that wouldn’t be a problem, but we have a queen size bed and now I have to sleep on my side, on the very edge of the bed.  It’s not very comfortable, but I’m only kind of complaining because I know that Hubby isn’t very comfortable either because it’s almost impossible for him to get really comfortable sleeping on his back like he is now.  It really hurts him when he lays on either side and that is how he used to sleep. 

So I’m thinking that maybe I just need to blow up the twin size air mattress and start sleeping on it in the livingroom.  I’m not sure if I would sleep better but I would definitely have more room than what I have now.  Maybe if I was able to have more room to sleep than what I have now, maybe I would sleep better.  Maybe if I slept better Hubby’s being cranky wouldn’t bother me as much….hmmmm.

It’s been kind of rough around here for the last 10 days or so.  Hubby has been in excruciating pain and he started his third round of chemo Wednesday.  I wasn’t sure if we were going to get him to the office for his treatment Wednesday and Thursday because he was hurting so bad he couldn’t get dressed.  Today was a much better day and he only hurt for a few minutes while getting dressed. 

We are still having trouble getting him medication to control his pain.  I swear he has tried so many medications and the doctor is puzzled that they are making him hurt rather than take away his pain.  In Hubby’s typical sense of humor he says that they have them named right-pain pills, what he needs is some painless pills.  They changed his pain med’s again on Thursday and they seem to be helping.  If these don’t work then they will have to refer him to the pain management clinic.  Cross your fingers that his new med’s continue to work.

Hubby and I were guessing how much weight he had lost this time.  Hubby said he probably weighed 170 pounds and I said 160 pounds.  He weighed a whopping 159.3 pounds.  He weighed 205 pounds on Christmas eve and 177.6 pounds on February 9.  He’s slowly wasting away to nothing.  He 5’11 and at 159 pounds he looks like a bag of bones.  His legs are skinny toothpicks and you can see his ribs.  It’s really heart breaking to see how he’s gone down hill  in two months time. 

Sorry I haven’t been posting as normal.  My med’s are helping me cope with all of this to an extent.  When it’s really bad I just can’t seem to get motivated to post.  I’m really tired of posting so much gloom and doom and would just like for there to be some happiness around here to write about. 

The last week around here has been a bit stressful.  Hubby has been in bed since Feb. 23rd.  He’s been in a lot of pain and it just hurts to go from the bed to the chair and going from the bed to the toilet is sheer torture.  So I’ve spent a lot of time sitting on the bed beside him playing Gin Rummy and otherwise trying to keep him entertained.  Two things we found is that 1) I’m good at accidentally waking him up when he’s sleeping and 2) I can’t play Gin Rummy worth a hoot because I keep losing which doesn’t really bother me to lose.

This last Sunday he was having a bad hurting spell so I laid down next to him, not because I could do anything, but more or less as moral support and I fell asleep.  I slept for four hours.  Hubby asked me to take my blood pressure later that evening and when I did it was 128/80.  That just absolutely tickled him to no end, and it did explain why I was feeling wiped out. 

I’ve had several really good blood pressure reading in the last couple of days.  I’ve also slept a lot because I’ve just felt like I’m drained.  I know that will get better as I adjust to my blood pressure being low.  It’s really weird because when my blood pressure was high I actually felt good and now that it’s going down I don’t feel as well.  It’s good that the doctor cautioned me what to watch for because this being better but not feeling better…it’s the pits. 

I took my blood pressure just a little bit ago and was really surprised.   After months and months (since the 27th or 28th of August to be exact) it has been sky high.  As in the 200′s over the 130′s.  When I took my blood pressure, the reading was 138/82.  That’s almost enough to make me want to throw a party for myself.

While I know that it is still a little bit too high, it’s a wonderful improvement and I still have to get it down, but it is so much better than it was and I’m very happy about the progress that has been made.

Tomorrow we are going to be visited by Hubby’s baby sister and her family.  And by baby sister I mean that Hubby was 24 years old when this half sister was born and if I’m not mistaken, she turns 30 this year, just a few months before his youngest daughter does.

I’m not really sure what to expect.  We haven’t been as close to this sister as we have been to the others.  Hubby’s only comment has been "what didn’t they all come to see me when I was well and could do stuff with them".  I guess though when you’re dying people tend to get a little remorseful and try and make up for lost time. 

To top it all off, after being in the 70′s Thursday and the 60′s today, we are forecasted to get 1"-2" of snow tomorrow.  Just lovely.  If y’all remember, last year the first week of March was when we had that 10" of snow while we were down in Russellville. 

And speaking of Russellville, Hubby is kind of sad that he won’t be getting to work down at the nuke plant this time.

I called my daughter today to wish her happy birthday since today is her 35th birthday.  When she came to the phone she couldn’t hardly talk because she has strep-throat and the flu. 

While we were talking she told me that she had gone to the emergency room because her job (she works at Sonic) required that she have a doctors excuse to miss work.  This didn’t surprise me because about 10 years ago when I worked at McDonalds and had the flu they required that I have a doctors excuse.   I thought it was ridiculous because I never missed work.  I was there every day that they had me scheduled and fought them tooth and nail when they would try to start sending me home after only working for a couple of hours. 

What I want you all to think about is this.  A lot of our society eats fast food.  Even when I worked, I ate fast food for lunch just so that I could have a hot meal.  Not all job locations have a kitchen that allows you to heat up food.  I almost always cooked a homemade meal for supper.  It’s the flu and cold season and a lot of flu’s and cold that are passed around just because food establishments require people to either come in to work or bring in a doctors excuse.  Most people who work in food establishments don’t make very much money nor do they have health insurance available to them.  Most of them can’t afford to miss work much less pay for a visit to the doctor. 

We have health regulations that require an employee to report a fever or diarrhea to management.  That employee should be taken away from all food preparation or serving, in fact the employee should be sent home.   That doesn’t happen more times than it does.  Restaurants don’t have anyone looking over their shoulder for these types of violations.  Sure the health department comes in and does inspections, but if there aren’t any violations the health department usually doesn’t show up but twice a year.

So what is the solution?  We could boycott these establishments but the problem is that you aren’t aware that there is some one in the kitchen that is sick and fixing your food because the kitchen staff is always behind closed doors. 

What I have elected to do is based on personal experience.  I know how McDonalds operates therefore I make a conscious decision to not eat at their restaurants every.  I will no longer be eating at Sonic because now that I know from my daughter that they also require sick people to come to work I won’t be spending my money with them.  And during this time of year when the flu is at it’s peek, I’m making a conscious decision to avoid all restaurants.