October 24, 2007
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Cataract Surgery, California Wildfires and a New Squeaky Toy for Baron
First of all, you should know about the squeaky toy I bought for Baron a couple months ago. It became his favorite. Sometime after Patches came to live with us, it got badly chewed up and the squeak was gone. He stopped playing with it even to chew on.
He’s been losing his baby teeth this past month and he’s scared the heck out of us a time or two. He had a knuckle bone he was chewing on but, I swear, he was knocking out some of those baby teeth and his gums would look like they were bleeding badly. On closer examination, we discovered it wasn’t but I had to clean up bloody slobber off our rug and tile.
The Beast finally took Baron to Petsmart and selected a couple squeaky toys from their variety offered and let Baron *choose* the one that interested him the most. He also bought some veggie dog biscuits and a couple chewable rawhide things that resemble a horses hoof and some other monstrosity. He’s got stuff to chew for a while that I hope lasts until he loses the last of his puppy teeth. He had started to hide and chew both the Beast’s and my sneakers. I didn’t let him get away with it but he kept trying. He didn’t even attempt any such thing while he had his squeaky toy before so I am keeping my fingers crossed I know he will eventually grow out of this chewing thing but I don’t want to have to replace perfectly good sneakers because I wasn’t paying attention one day.
My first cataract surgery is tomorrow. The hospital called yesterday to tell me that I was to come in a half hour earlier than originally scheduled due to a patient having to reschedule. They try not to have any *dead* time in-between surgeries I guess. It’s a 40 mile trip one way for us but I don’t mind. This surgeon came highly recommended and I find I am not nervous at all. BUT…..these drops that I have to put in my eyes in preparation DO make me nuts. I have one I have to use four times a day, another twice a day and now I have an antibiotic eye drop that I have to add to the queue. Keeping those straight isn’t a problem since I wrote it right on their boxes. NOW I find out that this will continue for another five days AFTER the surgery. *sigh* A few days rest and then I will have to start the routine all over again for my left eye.
The southern California wildfires had my siblings and I worried because we have a much loved aunt and uncle that live in it’s path in the San Diego area. I finally got ahold of my aunt (we call her AJ for Aunt Janet) and got all the details. They have not been officially evacuated in her neighborhood as of the conversation we had yesterday but the air quality was so bad that they actually took their travel trailer (5th wheel type) and parked it in the Walmart shopping center parking lot. That’s where they were spending their nights. Their granddaughter has lived with them since she was about 1.5 or 2 years old so she was with them too. Since her high school was the emergency shelter at first, there is no school. The Santa Ana winds finally drove one of the fires into the area where the high school is located and those people were moved to the Santee High School which is further south. AJ, my uncle and Vanessa had packed important papers, extra prescription refills and all their albums and photos into the trailer as a precaution. Everything else is replaceable they felt. They have been going back to the house to shower and eat and check messages that might have been left. They also took whatever additional personal items they could when they returned to the trailer because, unless the Santa Ana winds die down soon, their home is definitely at risk. They have lived in that house for about 50 years, raised their three kids in it and now their granddaughter so there is a lot of history there. My uncle just laughed and said it would be the first time they collected on insurance if the house does burn and it would be nice to have a new one again.
You really can’t tell the house is that old because they have remodeled and kept things in really good shape. They own everything they have and make a good income because both of them have pensions besides their Social Security. It makes life a little more secure from that perspective. We did a lot of catching up since it had been almost a year since I last spoke to them on the phone. I think it was around last Christmas when I called last. It seems AJ will have to have cataract surgery soon so she was interested in how things go for me. I promised I would let her know how everything went with my surgeries. I would keep it positive even if I had complications because I sure wouldn’t discourage anyone to have their cataracts removed to improve their vision and quality of life.
Another interesting thing is that I saw my *old* doctor on Tuesday. I found out where he had moved accidentally and decided I wanted to stay with him rather than a 25 year old doctor barely out of med school. Experience shows. But….I discussed my pain problems with Dr. Holder and he had me try to touch my toes. He didn’t want me to force myself, just do it naturally. From his observation, he felt I needed a muscle relaxer since my back muscles had probably started to atrophy from being ill and sedentary for such a long time. And I am happy to report that most of my pain has disappeared! I am STILL amazed that something so simple could have such a profound affect. I got a lot done today and actually had a great nights sleep last night. The first time in a long time. Although he also gave me pain pills so I would have them if needed, I haven’t had to use any so far. I feel like I finally have my life back. Well, almost. I still need to get this brace off my wrist but I won’t know about that until next week. At least I can take a bath or shower if I want and get that hand and wrist clean. Took me a while to get rid of the dead skin that a couple of weeks in a cast can cause. It was NOT a pretty sight.
Well, I have clothes to fold waiting for me and one more load to wash so I will leave you all for now. Depending on how quickly my vision responds after surgery (I was warned my vision could be blurred for 1-5 days), I will let everyone know my reaction to the surgery.
Have a wonderful evening and a great week. Live life to the fullest and be sure to tell the people you love that you DO. You just never know what lies ahead (like the wild fires). Niters all. Love ya.
