Category Archives: Daily Life

Day to day happenings, the usual stuff, about me and life

Fall

Fall is always a busy time of year for us. This one is no different. I am pleased to have web work lining up! Russel is feeling a bit better, and is at least back to work teaching Aikido to kids at the schools.

On the blogging front, yet another of my favorite reads (Between the Lines) has quit the blogging world. I wish her well in all she does, but will really miss her. I hope she keeps her Slices of Life photolog up, as it too inspires me. I haven’t taken any photos lately, no time.[these were Gaile’s blogs – you can now find her here.

The changing in the weather brings about a certain feeling of ‘hurry up’ & ‘get it done’ attitude. The air has cleared of the smoke from the fires and we are waiting for rain. Heard that our area of the northwest will have a lighter rain season and warmer winter than normal..not really good news.

I am hoping ‘they’ are wrong, and we get a lot of rain. Makes for great ‘working at the computer’ & ‘learning new things’ time. I need it.

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Good News – No News

The short version of the visit with the doctors at the VA:
– the chest xray that originally was read to ‘see a spot on his lung’ was either faulty or an infection that went away before the CT scan got done.
– the CT scan was clear 🙂
– his lungs, heart, and airways are goodM.

They have no clue what the ‘pain behind the sternum is’ or why he has a cough. So they are treating the symptoms with Prednisone and Albuterol (inhaler) — (no he has never had asthma).

Google Prednisone sometime if ya really want to get scared! But it is a heavy anti-inflamentory, and the doctors hope the pain is an inflamation, so we will see if this works. Between the reaction to the prednisone and the vicodins for pain, he is a mess.

Time will tell the tale.
I won’t be near my computer for awhile, lots to do at the land. I will check email every few days is all.
Thanks for all the good thoughts as we work our ways through this healing.

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Packing for trip to VA

We finally have an appointment with the ‘chest clinc’ at Fort Miley VA hospital tomorrow (San Fransisco). We will leave here about 6:30am and go down.

Russel had to make this appointment last week, after tiring of waiting for them to call and make one with us, which is their usual standard of operation.

This whole ordeal has been filled with ‘people mistakes’ which have resulted in our not knowing what is going on, and not getting the treatments or appointments he needs.

Fortunately i have kept a log of all our contacts ..maybe that will help. If they still haven’t found the CT scan he had done on Sept 8!! tomorrow they will just send him up for one then.

I am so nervous. And Angry at the ineffecientness of everyone we have had to deal with so far. My god, its been 6 weeks since we have know something is WRONG. He is taking lots more pain killers as the ‘pressure-pain’ in his chest is increasing and he is coughing more.

I hope tomorrow we get some answers, what it is he has and how to deal with it. I swear to god i am not leaving there without that. No more, well we will do these tests and get back to you in another 2 or 3 weeks!

If I have to turn on really bad bitch mode to get results i will.

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More fires..more waiting is

Well the fires closed down school today.
There was no school on Friday either.
This is because the particulate matter in the air is too great, or so says the Air Quality Control people. Yes it is smokey. Some days worse than others… today wasn’t nearly as bad as yesterday.

They say no school until maybe Thursday. This means no work for Russel, of course.

Just more of waiting is…. 🙁

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Waiting is…

‘Waiting Is…’ a coined phrase by an old friend. He taught me a lot about patience, although I still have a lot to learn.

Waiting for the fires to finally burn themselves out. The smoke fills the sky and it is hard to breathe today, as it was on Thursday. We (here in Garberville) did have less smoke on Friday and Saturday, but that just means some one else had it… it all depends on the wind flow.

Waiting for the phone to ring. Still waiting for the appointment for the chest clinic for Russel, who is hurting lots more and coughing more too. I am most concerned about the ‘pain’. It doesn’t hurt for him to do deep breathing (as in yoga breaths), but the pain pressure is always there and at times much stronger. He has been using Vicodin and that is not good as he is not one to use painkillers willy-nilly.

Stress is hurting me. And not being able to walk, (it’s too smokey to even go outside unless you have too), isn’t helping my body much. Waking up with more aches and pains than I went to bed with.

Our mortality is showing. It becomes apparent that one should embrace each day and each interaction with a friend or acquaintance as if it were the last time you may see them. It is sometimes hard to do, in our busy lives. But it is the most fulfilling way to be.

Russel was commenting on this yesterday as we ran into someone we don’t see often. He is feeling his mortality for sure, and that in a way, scares me because it shows me that he is too really worried and that it’s not just me being a worry-wart.

So, as TR used to tell me, ‘Waiting Is..’

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and more no news

Where’s Patti?

My favorite read has left!!
Help… I miss you already.
Please come back or tell me where you went!

In my life there is still no news 🙁

We are being smoked to death by the Canoe Fires on the north coast of California.

I am not sleeping well.
But my hip pain is almost gone… good thing.

Sorry for such crummy posts, but they are hurried because I need to stay OFF-LINE waiting for the doctor who doesn’t call with any news.
[remember these are the dial-up days]

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Still No News from the VA

We are just staying busy doing all the little things that seem to pile up, and trying to prepare the way in case we have to leave for any length of time.
My hip still hurts, but today I actually left the house for the first time.

Russel starts at another school tomorrow, up the mountain into Casterlin. He taught Aikido to kids there last year as well, so he’s glad to be going back.

I made a ‘My Favorite Movies’ page to keep my mind off things. It will be growing no doubt as I remember ones I left off.

I also put the little search script that is included in the original MT templates back in place, and figured out how to make it look better. I may add a more through search script later, but this should do for now.

I may just find an hour or 2 tomorrow that i can work up some photos for here, or if not that, start the process of figuring out which photo-blogging system i really want to use.

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Stress

Stress is ruling my life at the moment. The kind of not-knowing what is gonna happen kind of stress. I mentioned here that we had to go to SF. That was so my husband could get a CT scan of his chest. We still (one week later) don’t know what the CT scan found. I am not going to go into any more detail until we know what is really going on.

The trip to SF alone was grueling enough. It was a sunny bright day for the 5 hours down, then a motel, and wouldn’t ya know it? the pay-per-view was down!! Then 5 hours back into the light rain. I did get some photos on the way home of the Golden Gate and the bay, but haven’t even had time to upload them yet. I didn’t have the camera with me when we were waiting at Fort Miley – VA hospital, too bad as there is a beautiful view of the bay and Marin Headlands from there. I am sure there will be a next time. 🙁

Then we spent all day Thursday (the 11th- my birthday) in Eureka. We didn’t catch a movie but i did little shopping. We met with friends and had a wonderful Sushi dinner at Tomo’s in Arcata.

Friday i took more photos of the Catching Cactus display at the Farmers Market, again it will be awhile before these photos are uploaded, sorry.

Saturday was a Virgo-potluck at Benbow State Park, a nice gathering of folks. I only knew a handful of people there, but it was a good distraction.

Sunday found us once again at Benbow, this time at the Inn for a brunch with Russel’s Mateel Aikido school. The Benbow Inn is the ritsy-titsy place in these parts, as far as the brunch was concerned, i was not impressed. Again, lots of pics, to be posted later.

I think it was fortunate that there was so much going on last week, it helped to take the mind off all the ‘what ifs’ that are cropping up. Saturday somehow??? i strained the left hip muscle that rides over the top of the hip (I know i should look it up but hey, it hurts to just sit here and type this!). I am still in much pain. Pain killers don’t seem to have much effect, and they give me incredible indigestion which is almost worse than the pain.

I attempted to get in the truck today to go out to the land, but it hurts to sit more than to stand. 🙁
Russel isn’t sleeping well, had ‘pressure like a chest cold’ in his chest and a light cough (that is getting worse as time goes on). His doctor called yesterday to just say that the ‘ct report’ hasn’t been uploaded to the site, and he doesn’t know when it will be. He did say we may need to go down again, this time to see a chest specialist, if the CT scan doesn’t diagnois something.

Any way, I may not be here as much as I would like, for many reasons. There are still so many MT tweaks I want to do. And I want to get either Gallery or Mt photoblog going so there is some where to put all these pictures i am taking.

I find that when i haven’t visited the MT forums in 12 hours that I have pages and pages of threads to wade through! It is so busy over there! I like to keep up, it helps me learn, but I just don’t have the time right now. Just keeping the Cockburn Project caught up is about all I can muster at the moment.

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