Catching Some Sun

Like her mom, Misty is a sun worshiper. When fall rolls around you have to take advantage of beautiful October days that are cool and sunny. And you must bring your toys with you.

If Misty could talk, she'd be saying......"oh how I love to sun myself, it feels so nice."

 Time for a nap or perhaps she's meditating.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! So fortunate to have a good life filled with loving family and friends. Thinking of you on this Holiday!

Raking Season

A lot of people think of October as the beginning of fall, kids look forward to Halloween..... I call it raking season. Our yard is HUGE and it takes a lot of work to keep it nice. These pictures just do not do it any justice, there were mounds and mounds of leaves and walnuts.

We have a black walnut tree and this year saw a bumper crop of walnuts. It was dangerous to be under the tree becuase walnuts were literally raining down. Of course, the squirrels love it, but Misty and Pancho go crazy over the squirrels.

 Up close, walnuts in different stages of decay. They are bigger than golf balls, have a wonderful citrus scent, but be careful, they stain your clothes and hands red. If walnuts weren't so difficult, time consuming and labor intensive to harvest, I could be eating my own walnuts instead of buying them at the store.

Halloween Bug

It was mid-October and the local car dealership decorated this VW like a spider. I thought it was pretty creative and went so well with the changing color of the leaves on the tree next to it.

Book Sale

The weekend I started feeling sick coincided with our annual book sale. A lot of individuals put in tons of time and effort into making it a success. The money we raise is offered as a scholarship to non-traditional, women seeking to make their lives better through education.

The children's book area with one of our lovely and talented UWEC students!

On th left, another UWEC student who helped with set-up and the amazing professor, Dr. Applegate. 

The Saga Continues

Wasn't feeling so great after breakfast so I decided to take a shower (hence the messy hair). And the wonderful nurse brought me a sprite because I felt like tossing breakfast. It's the simple things in life, a shower, soda..... oh, and some drugs that make life better. 

Then it was time for lunch - got the chicken special. The chicken was pretty good, but not the rest.

 I still put my game face on and nibled a bit.

 Not to worry, a visitor helped me with lunch.

The Next Day

I had a pretty good night's sleep. Went for some simple and plain stuff for breakfast, English muffin, cream of wheat and hot coffee. Bland but satisfying - just needed some butter, brown sugar and cream to enhance things.

My wonderful colleagues sent me this gorgeous flower arrangement.

Food?

I got to my hospital room just before the dinner hour. I was famished and excited for my first meal, even though I knew it wouldn't be fabulous, I just needed something that was somewhat edible.  Tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwich and a brownie with frosting. Good enough for me, I didn't have to prepare it, it was delivered and I didn't have to clean up. Being appreciative for the small things like a simple meal and the GREAT stuff like drugs to combat wayward bacteria.

What Really Happened

My last post before disappearing for 5 weeks metioned how busy I was but more stupidly it stated I might just reclaim my life that weekend. Well...... as they say, those were famous last words. I did NOT reclaim my life, quite the opposite, I landed in the hospital. Went into urgent care because I hadn't been feeling well. They took a blood draw, a pee sample, and x-ray = no diagnosis but something was wrong because my white blood cell count was up, meaning my body was fighting something. They sent me to the ER - not because it was serious, but because sometimes it's faster (another of those famous last statements).

Here's my final IV. This was after I had already been skewered about 8 times - I'm not exaggerating. In the ER I let a nursing student practice inserting the IV, it didn't go so well. I let her try again - hey, I'm a nice person, I work at the University, all in the name of learning. Well, the second time didn't go so well, tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I didn't scream. Third time, the ER nurse put it on the side of my left arm as shown above. 

I had also gotten needles in the hand. They kept complaining that my veins were small. I hadn't eaten or drank ALL day so I was also dehydrated which did NOT help. I asked for water, but they refused. Okay, work with me people, you can't complain about my veins if you don't hydrate me. They said they couldn't give me food or water because of the tests that needed to be done. 

Here's my right arm, evidence of two more needle pokes.  Of course I didn't bring anything with me, didn't think I'd end up in the hospital.  I had driven myself to urgent care, then drove myself to the ER, who would have thunk?

At least I had a nice view from my hospital window. After 3 docs, they finally concluded I had a pelvic infection, my bacteria decide to go wild for reasons unknown. That's the frustrating part, I didn't do anything and there's nothing I can do to prevent it again. The doc told me she was admitting me to the hospital to pump me with antibiotics and wanted to watch me for 24 hrs because these things can go really bad, really fast. Oh my, really? Hmmmmm, I had been feeling ill for 4 days, guess it's a good thing I went in when I did.

I Think......I'm Back

 Early in the morning, driving east to drop the pups off at doggy day care and a gorgeous sunrise.

This was probably right around 7 am. Love waking up and getting to work early, it's quiet and I can really get some work done. These were taken Oct. 11, before we set our clocks back for daylight savings time.