ROTTED CAROTIDS

About a month ago Pat and I were here in the family room surfing the net, when Pat said to me "I can't see out of my left eye". WHAT??? In a few minutes his vision returned. I told him he should go to an opthamologist NOW. He finally got an appointment not with an opthamologist but an optometrist.

[As a side-item, it is not easy to find medical care here. I have been told that the reason is that doctors choose warmer climes over the north so there is a shortage of doctors here. We are in the military health circle which makes it somewhat easier for Pat - he can visit a VA Clinic and the VA Hospital in Syracuse.]

Back to my story.

The optometrist dilated his eyes and said he most likely had an optical migraine. He was relieved. I was relieved. But then a few days later a friend of ours woke up in the morning and was blind in his left eye. His vision never returned.His diagnosis - a stroke.

So Pat in his infinite wisdom decided to check with an opthamologist at the VA Hospital where that moment of vision loss was diagnosed as Amaurosis Fugax. Cutting to the chase - it meant he had a TIA. A TIA is a warning sign of stroke...in fact some websites call it a "mini-stroke". Thankfully, that doctor recommended he have several other tests - such as an MRI, CAT scan, and Doppler Ultrasound of his carotid arteries. When all these tests were completed everything was fine EXCEPT for his carotid arteries. The Doppler found the left carotid 70+% blocked and the right about 50% blocked. Not the kind of news we wanted!

Pat has met with the chief Vascular Surgeon at the VA Hospital and he is scheduled to have the left one reamed on July 17th. The right one they will keep an eye on. Noone looks forward to surgery - but I think both of us are looking forward to having it in the past tense. Pass the valium,please!

WHO DA THUNK?

A few months ago I needed some potatoes for dinner so I reached into a 5lb bag of Idahos and pulled out....an alien growth! It was shriveled and wrinkled much like me before my nightly beauty treatment. It had these white tentacles reaching out through the net window on the bag. I hoped it was just that one but as luck would have it, the entire bag had turned into aliens. I pulled the bag out and it sat on the kitchen stool 'til I figured out what to use instead of potatoes for our dinner. Later I had a thought. I wonder what would happen if I planted these wrinkled spuds - woudl I get some potato vines similar to my sweet potato vines?
I cut them up into sections, all of which had the tentacles and put them in a baggie with some water to keep them moist. The next morning I took them out to the front of the house. This was back in May so NOTHING was in bloom and the yard looked pretty sad. I dug holes big enough to cover each piece and then basically forgot about them until in early June I saw green leaves popping up. Eureka. I grew something...but what would it look like? I have the answer for you!








The moral of this story is:

If you need a free landscaping plant with pretty pastel flowers, hide your potato sack in the pantry for a month and then plant them in your yard! I may branch out and plant the strange matter that is lurking at the bottom of my refrigerator drawers!

AUNT MARG.......

My sweet gentle Aunt Marg died tonight at 94. She did not go easily but on her own terms, taking her time. She did it her way. I come from a small family and had only two aunts. Aunt Marg was the Aunt we looked forward to seeing the most. A trip from Easton, Pa to Jordan, NY was a REALLY Big Deal. Sandwiches had to be packed. Suitcases stuffed. From the time I was a little girl, sitting in the back seat of the old station wagon, with my younger brother as company, a trip to Aunt Marg & Uncle Pret's was EXCITING! About 30 minutes into the 6+ hour trip I wanted to know (a) if we were almost there (b) could I have my tuna sandwich and fig newton or (c) if they could keep my brother over on his side of the imaginary line we drew on the seat. Equally exciting were the times Uncle Pret, AUnt Marg and my cousins came to stay with us! My recollection of Aunt Marg as I grew up was that she was devoted to Uncle Pret (and he to her) and that she always seemed to have a cardigan on and wore the prettiest pink lipstick. She served meals on her Fiesta Ware which I thought was so cool. She cleaned her Revere Wear religiously so it was always shiny and sparkly. It was always fun to be upstairs giggling with my cousin Bonnie (we still giggle a lot!) and listen to the grownups downstairs laughing and joking around. Aunt Marg was lucky to have Bonnie and my cousin John close-by, not to mention grandkids and great-grandkids. I like to think that Aunt Marg is happily joining Uncle Pret and my Mom and Dad "up there" for a hot canasta game and a few frozen daquiris. Godspeed, Aunt Marg!

CSI SAN DIEGO....AND OTHER ITEMS....

Katie called last week and told me she was sitting in a San Diego PD detective's car.
It seems that she and her roomate Kelly returned home from Target that afternoon and noticed as they got out of their car that a bum (oops,not politically correct) - a Homeless Person was asleep in the parking area in front of their house. After getting inside they heard loud yelling so Kate went out the door and found another Homeless Person beating on the sleeping one. She said he was using a street sign - the kind that folds up to close a street - and just beating the crap out of the sleeper who never knew what hit him. She said she and her roomate called 9-1-1 (took 15 minutes to get through) and also wrote down a description of the perp. Kate said she will never get the image of the brutally beaten man out of her head...or the image of the bloody sign the police office asked her to ID. Her house was surrounded by the standard yellow crime scene tape. The cops asked her and Kelly to drive with them and try to find the suspect. They were able to identify him and he was carted off in handcuffs. She found out the next morning that the victim died.
Luckily later that night a HazMat crew came and washed the parking area off. Most people I suspect are exposed to crime in their lifetime but I sure hated for her to have to witness such an awful thing.

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The sun has finally come out here in New York. I have spent the last few days outside all day - working with the yard, washing windows, pulling weeds...just puttering to my hearts content. LOVE IT!
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Heard from son Ryan that he shot a 68 when he played golf in Palm Springs with his Uncle Royce last Sunday. He is a really good golfer...
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Max The Dog has turned Psycho on us. He hides in our bedroom or if he is brave enough to come into the family room he hides behind our chairs. He refuses to be in the kitchen unless a tuna can or his dogfood is being opened. If I pull the toaster out of the cupboard he can't get out of there fast enough. We don't have a clue why he is so scared of everything. Nothing bad has happened to him. People have suggested that perhaps it is from moving up here. All his familiar things are here so I'm not sure that is the answer. Maybe I should get him some doggie valium?

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RANDOM THOUGHTS......

The weather up here in the tundra has been not so great lately so I have more than my normal time to contemplate my navel and other deep subjects.















#1.

I am giving up underwire bras. Yes - perky will take a back seat to comfy. I made this momentous decision after two of my favorites (you know - the ones you seek out in the undy drawer because you just know they feel good!) suffered split underwires.
You haven't lived until you bend down to pick something up and a piece of an underwire pierces your ribcage. The second time it happened in the last month had me sitting on the bed with a fiendish look in my eyes, cutting into my unders with nail scissors and throwing a pile of wires into the trashcan.

#2.

I have been doing a lot of work with my hands outside - pulling weeds, shoveling, etc. and now find myself with "trigger fingers". It takes me by surprise when I extend my fingers and one of them stays curled up until I force it. A strange noise comes from that joint - a kerpop. I looked it up in the internet and it will either go away on it's own OR I will have to have the bad joints surgically repaired. Not a chance. If I must I will spend the rest of my days straightening those fingers with my other hand!

#3.

Ice cream. It's not just for dessert any more. In our case, once a week or so we have breakfast, nibble something for lunch and have an ice cream cone from LICKETY SPLIT for dinner. Life is short. Why not??

#4.

While I was working outside the other day I was up on a not very tall wall. I had the hose in my hand and needed to get down so without thinking I jumped. OUCH! The shockwaves reverberated from my knees up my spine! I used to jump out of trees, I took three steps at a time down the stairs. I did backbends, cartwheels, and ran the bases in pick up baseball games. I jogged, I ran. I did aerobic dance. And now? I can't even jump off an eighteen inch wall without shaking my brain!

#5.

I must be anal. I notice when I am riding in the car and gazing out the window, I see homes that need painting and some weeding and bush trimming. I feel like if given the chance I would be a one-woman county improvement service. Now THAT'S weird.
Get me to a shrink.

IT'S GEEK TO ME!

I am all a-twitter about TWITTER. I mean what's the big deal with sharing a few sentences several times a day with fellow Twitterers?? Does anyone care that I am doing the laundry or washing Max The Dog? I try my best to keep up with technology but I am afraid that I am being passed by on the Geek Super Highway. For starters I do not have an Iphone or anything similar. I don't download movies or radio on my cell phone. As a matter of fact when I upgraded my cell phone in December after two years with my old familiar phone I was boggled by the 100 page book which came with it to assist me in operating it. So far I can answer it, call from it, send a text message. It has an upgraded camera which is beyond my understanding. Shutter speed adjustments, panoramic views, macro, micro, schmakro! My computer slows down and creeps along while I whap at the mousepad. The TV remotes are evil devices which help to point out to Pat that I can no longer coordinate HDTV, satellite, local channels, DVR, DVD and now thanks to my son JJ - a Wii. I am so excited to have my Wii. I can bowl, play baseball, tennis and do yoga. But when Pat is in Georgia will I be able to set it up? Perhaps the heart-pumping action will be as a result of me trying to get the wires in the right places! I haven't mentioned Iphones, Ipods, dealing with our GPS, or the computer in my sewing machine. Years ago it was a status symbol to have a pool boy. I need a Geek Boy!

I AIN'T WHAT I USED TO BE -

I am not exactly sure when it happened. There is no denying it. I AM A WIMP!
I used to be able to go out the front door and do gardening all day - and then go back inside and hang wallpaper and do some painting. Not any more. I go out the front door, approach clumps of weeds, reach down and get a grip on them only to discover that there is an evil force pulling on the roots from the other direction. They won't budge. My face turns beet-red and I walk away in disgust. I grab my shovel and push on it with my foot and it doesn't even make a dent in the soil. So much for my plans to create exquisite landscaping in my hardscrabble front yard. I refuse to give up so I keep at it until thoughts of cardiac arrest go through my mind, nothing that 15 minutes in the recliner won't prevent. It takes quite a bit longer to finish projects when 5 minutes of digging has to be followed by 15 minutes of lounging...sort of like a twisted landscapers' union break rule. If a job requires me to kneel it is not a pretty sight. There is generally a total-body collapse followed by a panicked feeling. How will I ever get up???

There was a time when I lifted one of those big white detergent pails full of concrete and a tetherball pole into the back seat of my convertible. (Yes, the top WAS down, and YES, I did have three or four appointments with a chiropractor so I could walk upright.)

I can no longer straighten my right arm. I asked the orthopedist if it could be fixed and he said sure. We can do Tommy John surgery on it. Me, John Smoltz and a one year recuperation. Nah. My poor ole thumb joints are swollen with arthritis. That left knee is weak as a geek.

When I am outside working I am always swatting away the black bugs I see out of the corner of my eyes. Then I remember they are just my "floaters"!

Last week when Pat and I were doing errands we saw a man with a T-shirt which read "GETTING OLD IS NOT FOR WIMPS!". AU CONTRARE! I AM A WIMP!