DIALYSIS OR RAINBOWS ?

Hello everyone,

Well Mel's kidney dialysis treatments are going well. He is enjoying it.  I know that sounds weird, but he is.  He likes to visit with and observe people so that is what he does if there is nothing to watch on the TV that is available for him. Below is a picture of a dialysis machine kinda like the one he gets connected to.

He gets two tubes attached to the tube catheter that comes from his chest. One tube takes out his "dirty" blood and sends it through the machine which cleans it. Takes out the waste and excess fluids that are not needed. Then the blood gets put back in clean through the other tube. I have been told that not much blood, only around a tablespoon or so is out of him at any given time. So it is not like he is being drained of alot at once.  He gets to sit comfortably in a recliner while he is doing this.  And he can even take a nice nap if he wants to.

I was going to show a picture of what a fistula is. That is the incision that is made in the arm to put a vein and antery together to use as an access for the tubes instead of the chest cath, but all the pics on google were a bit graphic. Mel will get this done later. The fistula takes at least 3 months to heal before it can be used. Mel's doctor wanted him to get started right away.

Instead of a bunch of graphic pics like that I thought rainbows would be nice. I love rainbows.

They are so awesome, aren't they?  Better in person though.  One of God's  "AWESOME WONDERS"  :)

I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend. And that you have great weather too. We are all doing great here. 

Take care. And God bless.

FLEA POOP

Yes that's what I said...

I'm sorry but it did make you stop to read didn't it?  :)

Apparently fleas do not care who they hitch  a ride on. And royalty is not immune.

Princess Downy has been attacked.  A couple weeks ago I noticed a dark area at the end of her back  near her tail. I thought she had hurt herself but couldn't imagine how.  Then the other day I took a closer look and saw something like this...

Can you see the little black specks?  I thought what in the world is this. (Oh and the picture is not of Downy). This is called flea dirt or in other words FLEA POOP. How dare fleas poop on our Princess!

I looked closer and a slightly larger black speck was scurrying away. :(  We have not had this kind of problem before. We have lived in places where Downy has had her own yard.  No other dogs around. Where we are now everybody and his brother has a dog.

She doesn't get too close to them and I don't let her sit on the lawn too long,  but I guess it only takes a second. I think that the apartment owners should spray the yard and the halls for fleas. The people who live here are older and mostly on fixed incomes I would imagine. And maybe can't afford to take their dogs to the Vet or go to the store to buy something. Also some may not notice that their pet has a problem.  That could cause a huge problem for everyone.

We, tenants in general, are already paying big rent..plus they charge $35 for storage, $35 for cable, $25 for covered parking space.  The least the management can do is pay to get the yard and halls sprayed. I don't think that is too much to ask.

It seems that they have a rule against disrupting the wildlife...don't worry about the thousands of caterpillars that are dropping on your head they will be gone in a couple of months...and the mosquitoes nawww they'll go away.  Can't wait for spider season.  If we get them like we did last year, I may just explode all over the place if they don't do something about them. And that could get a little messy. lol

I didn't move here where I could open my windows finally and get fresh air just to have to shut them to keep the spiders out. Nope, I may need to jump up and down and cause a scene. :)

Anyway I guess that is all I have to say about that.

Mom is doing ok and so is my hubby. Me well...I'm just doin'. :)

Take care all. 

PS. If you would like to read another fun "Poop" post scroll down to the Millie's Mats post on my right side bar. This blogger is a sweet gal and a riot. :)

GOING DIGITAL...

 

 Hi there,

Well I did it...I bought a digital camera. Now..the next step is to figure out how to use it. lol Maybe a year from now you will see pictures on here from it. :)

I am hoping to get it figured out way sooner than that. I would like to show you pictures of the place we live at now. It is beautifully landscaped.  Lots of trees and flowers. 

And I will get pics for my posts that I mentioned the titles of a few posts ago. I have not forgotten them. :)

Ok..mom update...she is doing great. Hubby update...he has had his 2nd dialysis treatment and is doing very well. :)  Princess Downy update...she is not doing very well. I have to take her to the vet to find out if she has fleas... yes fleas. That will be fun to deal with...NOT. We have moved to an apartment complex where lots of people have dogs. So  she must have gotten this problem because of her brief moments of sitting on the lawn, I guess. Anyway, we will find out tomorrow. 

Other news...I have been using a very old and slow computer for a long time. A friend of mine in MN has sent me a laptop that we has put together that works great. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the first month of summer weather. We have about the same weather year round here. It is never extreme one way or the other. Only the humidity changes around here. I know that sounds weird but that is how is seems.  

Well, that's all for now. Take care my friends.

HUBBY UPDATE

Howdy,

I hope all of you are enjoying nice weather. I like cool weather and that is what we have at the moment. It's 8:30pm, getting dark and the wind is blowing. Sighhh,.....

Can't wait to take pictures of where we live now. Almost like we are in the woods. :)

Well, Mel is doing ok. This morning we went to the hospital to get a tunnel catheter inserted in his chest., so he can begin kidney dialysis treatments tomorrow afternoon.

He was in and out of the operating room faster than I expected. We were there a total of 5 hours. Most of that was pre-op and post-op recovery stuff.  Now we have be careful of the ends of the tubes that are sticking out of his chest. They are capped off. He needs to keep them dry and not sleep in a certain way that would put pressure on them and cause bleeding. That part is going to be fun...NOT.

I was surprised at how the doctor did the procedure. Since we were told that the end of the catheter inside him was suppose to rest on the heart, I thought that she would put it in on the left side above the heart and tunnel it under the skin to the heart. WRONG... She made an incision at the bottom of his neck on the right side. Now that I am thinking about it...how can she do it that way?...it goes in there and comes out just a few inches lower on the same side.

Boy am I confused now. I think I will talk to somebody about it tomorrow. Anyway he is doing ok. He had a nap. And is awake now for a while. Hopefully we will have a good night sleep. And tomorrow will go well.

Thank you your thoughts and prayers.  As always I love to hear from you. It makes my day. :)

Guess that's it.  Have a great friday..ohhh friday the 13th. :)

Take care.

TUNNEL CATHETER OH BOY!

Hi all,

Just a quick post. I wanted to say this sooner like yesterday maybe, but better late than never.

Tomorrow, Thursday morning, my hubby goes to the hospital to get a catheter put in his chest. Then Friday he will start kidney dialysis.  He is diabetic and is retaining lots of fluids.

His legs are very swollen and other things are going on. We have to be there at the hospital at 6am.  AHHHH.  Sometimes I can't even get to sleep til then. lol

The surgery will be about 8am PDT. Many of you will be reading this after the fact. Sorry about that. Could you pray for things to go ok? That during and after he will not have any problems? 

Other than that everything else is ok. Mom is doing very well. Eating better and in good spirits. :)

I think that our prayer before I leave her in the evenings is helping her alot. Not that I am so great at praying...it is that she feels the Spirit comfort her and she can sleep well and not have so much anxiety. :)

Anyway gotta run, have to go to bed early too.

Take care ladies...I sure miss being here and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

God bless all.

 

SNEEZING MY HEAD OFF

Hi there,

Ohhhhh my goodness!!

Well, for the last couple of weeks we have been having fun around here.  The cottonwood trees are send their fuzzies a flyin'. 

In Wyoming when it happened it was just an annoying thing. Now it is worse. :) Apparently I am allergic. So lately I have been sneezing my head off. 

Honestly...you know when they say a tornado is an F5? That's bad. Well I think my sneezes are F7 or something. They just come on with no warning...so fast that I, sometimes don't have time to cover my face. And oh boy does it hurt. :( 

Look at this...that is NOT snow. This is how it looks outside sometimes. When I take Princess Downy outside the grass sometimes looks like a dusting of snow has settled.

Anyway, I guess it can't last forever. I will be fine. 

A few posts ago I mentioned some future post topics...I will try to get to those soon. :) Having trouble getting back into the swing of things. I hope to be here posting every few days like before.

Take care everyone...have a great rest of the week and weekend.