I've been gone so long...

I doubt anyone even reads this thing anymore. It's been a wild, wild time since October of '07...well, since September of '07, actually.

Mama had seven cardiac bypasses on 9/11/07, but came through like a trooper. She spent 10 days in the hospital, two weeks in the nursing home, and one week with me.

In October, I began having back/abdomen pains...nothing serious (or so I thought), just a strained muscle. The last week of October the doctor ordered a ct scan and they found gallstones. A trip to the surgeon Halloween night was almost too late...November 1st called for emergency surgery to remove a ruptured gallbladder, a cyst, and to remove gangrene which had set in. Two more days and there would have been no more me.

Seven days on a ventilator in ICU and five more days in regular room followed. I went home to recuperate, and went back to work on January 7th. Thing was, my incisions had not healed...my wonderful husband was still playing nurse and packing wounds. By the middle of February they still had not healed. Another trip to the doctor followed...

It was found that part of the incision went straight into my abdominal cavity (this is called a fistula), and each time I ate or drank it would cause more damage/drainage. The doctor ordered TPN, which is nutrition through a catheter that goes straight into your bloodstream, with nothing to eat or drink--that way, the wounds would heal.

Being a diabetic, the TPN solution sent my sugar level to 600 or higher--this, along with a staph infection and high fever, caused me to go out of my mind with delusions. While in the hospital, I tried to "rescue" people from the television, I was terrified the bed was going to swallow me alive, and I was convinced there was some sort of terrorist conspiracy involving (get this) people emailing me their urine. I kept whispering to my husband, "honey, don't accept any packages." Jeez.

Oh, and on top of the staph infection, I developed pneumonia and a blood clot in my lung. Not a fun two weeks.

To face death twice in one year--no picnic.

But finally the fever broke, the infection dissipated, and I went back to normal (a relative term if there ever was one). Thank God. I still have to take Coumadin for the blood problem, but I'm on my way back.

Things at Our House are finally getting back to normal. I have some upper arm pain that has not stopped yet (muscular in nature), but it is better. I cook, clean, and do a bit of work in the garden.

Speaking of garden, Greg and I are in gardening heaven. We have tilled up a big spot in our yard and have planted bok choy, lettuce, arugula, beets, radishes, strawberry plants, onions, and (eventually) tomatoes and string beans. We have over 60 tomato plants started, as well as some flowers and several herbs. I love to play in the dirt and watch everything grow...it reminds me of when I was a little girl helping Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw with the garden while Mama was at work.

Right now, a big part of the garden is Kitty Puss' personal giant litter box/playground. I'll post a picture of him soon--he's our adopted cat who lived in the neighborhood before he lived with us. He's sweet and so funny. He loves to roll around in the dirt on his back.

Life's pretty good at Our House right now. I couldn't ask for more.