Friday Rolled Around Again

And, on this Friday, Fall is definitely in the air...the temperatures are dropping and we have our first frost warning for the year. I covered up our herbs and took some of the pots that weren't too heavy into the garage to stay overnight. I stood out talking to our friends the Hastys this afternoon and the wind was a bit chilling. It was nice to visit for a few minutes. They brought by books to see if we were interested in them and it was good timing as Woody doesn't have any in reserve after he finishes the one he is reading now. And, he had only read two of the five or so that they brought. So once again he has a stack ready to choose from when he finishes his current read. At the moment I have backed off from doing so much reading since I continue to go through things in the school room that I had stored and am looking through/reading before they get tossed. So I am reading...just not books. The timing was right for them to stop by as this time I had a couple of boxes to pass back to them that they had loaned us for the grandchildren to use...a couple of building sets. Graham, especially, had enjoyed trying out a different sort of building set. But it was time to pass them back and take a couple more things out of the school room that I am attempting to reclaim. That is what got me into the sorting out that I am doing because I wanted more room in the closet to put some things and this storage tub, when it is empty, will give me a place to put some of the school things that are no longer being used. Woody continues to sail smoothly through his dialysis treatments. He did get a call this morning from Fresenius Kidney Care checking to make sure that he had gotten his blood transfusion. They wanted him to come in next week for blood work to make sure that his hemoglobin was building back up. I reminded them that we have an appointment next week to see Dr. O and asked if that day would work and they agreed that it would...at least no extra appointment/trip. Next week we also get our third supply delivery...oh, boy! I get one stack of boxes gone and they will almost immediately put a stack back. Today was the first day that we used a bag of solution from the last delivery...way I knew?...the expiration date changed. I have to check the expiration date on the bags of solution every time we do a treatment...so it was strange to read a new number! We have been doing it long enough that we have gone through all the lowest strength of solution that was in the first delivery. Woody is already into the third cycle of tonights four cycles. He definitely likes doing his dialysis treatments during the day and having them finished at a decent time to go to bed. He is sleeping much better. Nathan was going to come today and attempt to connect his dad for today's treatment, but he decided that it would be best to put that off for a couple of weeks. He and Kathy and the kids did a program at a church the other night that was inside with about 100 people and there was no social distancing or masks...so he figures he needs to make sure that he hasn't been exposed. The cases of Covid are climbing once again in Tennessee as in many places so we will continue to be extra careful. Melany texted me today that Wade's brother's father-in-law is in a bad way with Covid. It doesn't sound like they expect him to live. I wonder if and when this disease departs how many families will be left untouched in some way by it. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Thursday Doings

I don't think that there will be much of a blog tonight...I'm falling asleep at the keyboard! Woody is in the third part of his dialysis...he just a little while ago started the third dwelling time *1-1/2 hours). He's either watching news or presidential town meetings on two different stations! That will be a trick...back and forth and back and forth with the remote! Last night I put in a request for a book for Woody at the public library. They called around 9am telling me that they had it ready and that I could either come in (they are back open) or continue doig curbside pickup. I opted for curbside pickup. I dropped off the five books that he had finished and picked up a new one...Lincoln's Last Trial...about the last case Lincoln tried before becoming President. I had started reading it as an e-book, but ended up turning it back in when I got "hit" with a ton of other books that were ready to be read so I decided to wait on that one for a while, but thought that Woody might enjoy reading it. They had it in real-book form at our public library so got that copy for Woody. This evening I made an apple crisp...we are due for colder temperatures to come in over the next couple of days...sounded like apple crisp weather! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Teaching Wednesday

Instead of teaching the grandchildren, we taught our son today...about time! He came over today to get his introduction to how to do the set up of the dialysis cycler and getting Woody connected for dialysis. He just watched me do everything today and took pictures with his iPhone. Next time he will give it a try on his own with me there for guidance, if needed. I like this end of training better than being trained! Donna and I didn't have our church library phone conversation today since it was at the time that we were setting up. Instead we did a little messaging back and forth in the morning. I know that she and her husband voted today. Today was the first day to early vote. We sent in our request for absentee ballots...personally I think that it is a bit late, but Woody thought that there was still time. We'll see! I continue to go through things from a bin in the closet in the guest room...I have gone through a lot but still more to go through. I woke up waaaaay too early (3am) and never went back to sleep...so I have dozed a bit or came close to dozing several times today. I did make Woody some more high protein pancakes this morning. He seems to like them...I didn't eat any so there will be some for a couple more breakfasts. Woody's treatment is once again going along smoothly...so glad that we have gotten over the bump of 100's of alarms in a treatment...we like 0 alarms much better. It has been over a week since he had an alarm during any part of his treatment. He is already in his third cycle of tonight's. He may be done before ten tonight. Last night he was finished 9ish since we started early due to my haircut appointment. Nice that he was finished and free of the machine before it was time to go to bed! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

View from Our Window

This is the view that I see during the day when I am sitting in my recliner. So pretty and bright. Leaf color is still just starting around here. I'm looking forward to more colorful days. Today I continued to reclaim space. This time by reading through some old correspondence, cards, etc. I have been speed reading through the letters...enjoying the information inside. I will say that email is easier to get rid of than snail mail! I had a hair appointment after lunch and Woody decided that he wanted to be connected to his dialysis cycler machine before I left so that if I got delayed that I wouldn't need to hurry back. Since he started around 12:30pm, he should be finished even earlier tonight. And, so far things are going smoothly with tonight's dialysis. He did skip yesterday's which they told me at Fresenius that he could if he got back too late last night and he didn't get home till a little after 10pm last night...was at the hospital for over 12 hours for a blood transfusion. He got there between 9:30 and 10am and the transfusion didn't get underway till after 3pm! Each unit takes 2-1/2 hours and he got two units. He was definitely ready to be home when he got back last night. He did say this morning that perhaps he felt a little better than he had been...didn't get so tired just walking across the room, etc. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Happy 15th Birthday, Joy!

Our sweet Joy turned 15...but I don't have a birthday picture of her or any recent ones as I haven't gotten to see her today or very often lately...I sort of waited hoping that she would come over. I took her and Abigail's birthday cards next door yesterday afternoon and delivered them to Abigail(She was the only one home.). Abigail's 17th birthday is Saturday. Now I'm waiting to hear when Joy gets her driver's permit. Surely it isn't so...she should still be the size she is in the photo above! Tonight's photo of Joy is from the first birthday party that she and Abigail had here after they became "the neighbors." Joy turned two that October. Well, everything with dialysis was smooth sailing after I posted Saturday until...we got a call this morning from Fresenius Kidney Care asking if anyone from Fresenius had contacted us over the weekend. The answer to that was "no." I wasn't surprised as to what came next...Woody needed a blood transfusion since his hemoglobin level was too low...he was told to go to the local hospital as soon as possible to get two units of blood. The reason that I wasn't totally surprised is that when we saw the nurse last week he thought that TN Oncology had ordered a blood transfusion...which, again, the answer was "no." These blood transfusions take forever especially when he has to have two units. One time he went straight to the hospital after his appointment with TN Oncology and didn't return until 2am. Woody headed off around 10am and still isn't back. I did have forethought and called Fresenius and talked to one of Woody's nurses before they left for the day to find out what we do since this has us so far off schedule for his treatment. He said that they aren't supposed to tell us to skip a treatment, but if he gets home quite late that it would be better to skip and let him have his rest tonight and then just go back to doing it at 2pm tomorrow. Beginning to look like that will be the way it will go. I do have his machine all set up and ready to hook him up, but I guess it can wait till tomorrow, too! I vacuumed Woody's room since he was gone. And, I have spent most of the day getting rid of things...trying to reclaim the house as just ours. I've dedicated more than 50 years to our children and grandchildren...so most every room has things from/for one or another of them in it...those are slowly but surely being put away or thrown away. I got under the stairs on my knees today and went through the toy closet. Moved some things out to our trash and put some in a box for a yardsale or whatever our former neighbors want to do with them and the rest can stay there for a while longer...just can't quite give up all the Fisher Price toys! They have been well loved...some from as far back as Melany! After Woody left I swept the front sidewalk and steps to keep the acorns from getting under his walker. I was going to rake what I swept off and other debris out to the road, but I couldn't find any rakes...not leaning up on our chimney like they used to be. I also moved boxes of dialysis solution from one wall in the living room over to where it is more convenient to get to. We're about to start using boxes from the second delivery. We have to keep them separated as the solution is dated so have to use up the old first. I was glad to get rid of one of the stacks of boxes so I can see my corner "what-not shelf and enjoy the things that I have been given or bought that relate to AZ over the years. My AZ heritage corner! Of course, that area will be covered up again when the next delivery arrives next week! 9-1/2 hours and he still isn't home. I'll update tomorrow night...hopefully hs is home then! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Pandemic Invite

Today's mail brought the first of its kind to our household...a virtual wedding invitation! One of my bestest friend's son is getting married in November. The thing about this invitation is that due to the pandemic I will actually be able to attend...virtually. I'm excited to attend my very first ever virtual wedding. God's grace Eric and Erin in the days leading up to your wedding day. I just realized as I was transferring the pictures from my point-and-shoot camera to my laptop that I hadn't transferred any since the very beginning of the pandemic...the photos that came off started with the barn trip that we took back in March just prior to starting to shelter at home. I rarely leave photos on my camera, but because I had been using my iPad, I had left them on the camera because I can transfer them wirelessly. But now I am back to my laptop so have to connect and transfer them from camera to laptop...and momentarily I thought that I had forgotten how since it had been so long. But I managed to get them all onto the MyPassport external drive...over 500 photos! I really don't like working with my photos on the laptop as it no longer is very friendly with my photoshop software. I can work on about one picture and then the program shuts down...frustrating. So you won't see much processing these days when I post photos. I can do a little about exposure with the camera software so that will have to do. We had another good evening with dialysis...time was again shortened just a bit. Woody did get sick though toward the end of the treatment. He has been feeling so much better that it was a surprise...I think to both of us. We got it cleaned up the best we could last night and ran the washer...then this morning I got out my Little Green Machine and did some spot cleaning on his chair and on the floor next to the chair. Tonight's treatment is going right along. He is in the midst of the third cycle...so far each of the cycles have taken just a little over an hour and both times more fluid was taken out than was put in...which is good. Today I made a soup that Woody had requested: Spicy Vegetable Beef. One of the soups that had been off his list of foods because it both has tomatoes and potatoes in it. I think he was happy to have it again. The soup has shredded cabbage in it so I shredded the whole cabbage that I had and put in what was called for in the soup and then used the rest to make Connie's German Slaw...so Woody can finish up the Baked Beans! After I got Woody connected I vacuumed the dining room and the living room. I will have to vacuum the family room another time. I didn't want to do it while his dialysis is taking place. Woody has enjoyed watching football games during the first part of his dialysis...not sure what there is to watch this evening...or if he will read. We both like it much more now that we are finishing before going to sleep. Last night we were completely finished by around 11...and then we can both get a decent night's sleep...and get up and begin all over again. Today I played a memory game with Kathy...she sent photos of some of the girls' clothes that I had made and I had to remember which one I had made them for...not very hard for me...only one wasn't I totally positive about...and that only because I remembered that I had made jumpers for all three at the same time and I just had to remember which one went with which girl...but without seeing the other two. I guessed right...but did check in my "digital sewing photo records" to be sure. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!

Friday

I truthfully am not sure what I have done today...as I sit down to write this...my mind is a bit of a blank! I did have to call the place that I order Woody's dialysis supplies and make a change in the order that the nurse suggested that I make. So that is done...so to wait a week and a half for the next load to come. This change made a difference in the number of boxes that will be arriving...more. I imagine that the delivery man will not be able to bring them in one trip from truck to house now. We have had a fairly quiet day. I did cook a pork roast...part of Woody's protein that he is supposed to be eating. The dietician gave me the number of grams that he is supposed to eat in a day so now we can get that figured out. I believe that we can do it with food rather than supplements. We are almost to the low mark that we aren't supposed to go under...not quite. I'll see if we can up it a bit when I go down to check on him...some protein for a snack this evening. Things, once again, are going well with the dialysis. Last night it "only" took 9 hours and 39 minutes...shortest time yet. It seems like each night a little more time gets shaved off...we're not sure why. Today I have talked with my sister and two friends...so it has been a catching-up-with-folk day. I'm still just looking at the fabric that I got in the mail yesterday...getting inspired? I did finish my 100th book of the year last night...guess that is an accomplishment. Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!