It's Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature....

Do you remember the old TV commercial with the line, "It's not nice to fool mother nature" ? I'm not sure, but I think it was a Parkay margarine commercial. As I watched the weather forecast before going to bed last night, I was thrilled to see that the over view for the next week showed a lot of days in the 50's. JD told me that it was 5 degrees out when he got up this morning. Now that is just plain cold and no where near springtime temperatures like 50. As I sit here at the computer I can look out the window and see our thermometer and it is pointing at 22 degrees. I see a beautiful snow covered yard that is about 3 inches of ice underneath the snow. We had about an inch of ice to start with, but we have probably added another 2 inches from snow melting and freezing again over the past week. There is enough snow on top of the ice to give your feet traction for walking and what a self esteem booster to think you are so light you can walk on top of the snow without sinking down into it. Like I said, it was exciting seeing all of those 50 degree temperatures across the weather man's forecast chart. We have only just entered the month of February and there is very little hope of the temperatures staying so warm. I am hoping that it won't warm up enough to fool the plants into thinking it is time to wake up and start blooming and then get hit with another ice storm. I have seen it before and I am thinking Mother Nature is teasing us and setting us up for a big let down. Which brings me back to that line from the retro TV commercial.......


"If it's not nice to fool Mother Nature, it isn't real nice to fool us either, Mother Nature!"

I think I mentioned that I received my last Synvisc injection in my knee Monday. That was my third and last one for this treatment. The injections are rather painless. The doctor injects a numbing agent first and then just unscrews the plunger and replaces it with the plunger containing the Synvisc gel and then injects that. I experienced more soreness with the third injection than with the first two. Also, the following day I experienced a sharp stabbing pain occasionally when I put any weight on that knee. It felt a lot like someone stabbing me in the knee with a knife. I didn't have this with the first two injections. As of yesterday though that pain was gone. I can already feel some improvement from the injections in that knee. According to what I have read about Synvisc I should experience improvement into the eighth week after the injections. It would be great if these injections were approved for the hips as well. If they were I would be feeling like a "spring chicken" (to borrow a phrase from my mom) and you couldn't hold me back.

Hope your day is filled with blessings, sunshine and love.

Not so bad....

Before I get back to telling you about our trip to the southland I thought I would share my trip to the doctor with you. My appointment to receive my first Synvisc injection in my knee was Monday. I admit that I was pretty nervous about it. I remembered how the cortisone shot had hurt and I just knew that to shoot gel into my knee would require a much larger needle and would no doubt hurt even worse. That was just an example of how the mind can take unknown facts about something as simple as an injection and blow it way out of proportion. So out of proportion that you can almost imagine that it is going to take four nurses to hold you down long enough for the doctor to give you that inection. I had myself wondering if I would have the courage to go back for the other two injections.



Thankfully it was nothing near as painful as I had imagined. The first thing they did was spray my knee with some sort of cool spray. The next thing they did was feel around until they found where they wanted to put the needle in. The first injection was what I am guessing to be Novocaine or some sort of numbing agent. Instead of pulling that needle out they just unscrewed the plunger and replaced it with the plunger containing the Synvisc gel. The whole experience was for the most part pain free.



I spent the rest of the day onthe couch at home with my leg propped up on pillows and ice on it. As the numbness started to wear off I had some soreness, but nothing like the pain I had been having. Yesterday morning my knee felt good enough that I thought I could try doing some grocery shopping. I promised J.D. that should I start having pain, I would go sit down somewhere and let him take the list and finish the shopping. I honestly didn't have any pain, but as the evening wore on the soreness moved in. Still it isn't pain and I am looking forward to completing the remaining injections.


My research tells me that the Synvisc gel is made from rooster combs and it provides that cushion between the bones that has been worn away and has the ability to take away the pain for up to 6 months. Anything I can do to take away the pain and delay surgery is thumbs up with me.




Taking you back to Louisiana with us brings us to a Monday morning with Darlene not feeling well at all. Toliver had to leave in the wee hours of the morning to catch his ride back to the rig. I don't recall if I mentioned it or not, but he works off shore on an oil rig. Darlene had been up most of the night vomiting and by morning she was also having pain. She told J.D. that there was a little hospital close to her house and she agreed to go to the emergency room since the pain was pretty severe. They kept her there for a few hours, gave her a shot for the pain and sent her home. Tuesday, she was feeling OK so we thought we would take that chance to go visit J.D.'s cousin, Roger since he lives pretty close to Darlene. Roger is diabetic and has had a rough time of it. They recently had to amputate his left leg. The visiting nurse came while we were there to change his dressing on his leg and found a blister on the heel of his right foot. That wasn't good news at all. As we were leaving he took my hand and told me he was going to fight this disease with all he has left in him. Please keep Roger and his wife Marita in your prayers.




Later that evening we met with J.D.'s two brothers and his sister and their spouses for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, except for sister-in-law Jackie. She is taking care of her 96 year old father who is very frail right now and unable to do for himself any more. We went by the family music store to visit with her and her son Stacy before going to eat. While we were there we also got to spend a little time with Stacy and Amy's two beautiful children. It was a wonderful time getting together with everyone. I even added our little server to our photo gallery. He kept the beverages flowing and had such a nice smile and pleasant personality.

Angela and Nick

Wednesday morning, Darlene had an appointment with her doctor to have some tests run and it was also the morning that we were to meet Angela and Nick at the cemetery. This year would have been Warren's 16th birthday. Since Britt and Warren's birthdays were only a week apart, I find myself gauging the important milestones in Britt's life with events that we are missing with Warren because of a girl with a cell phone and a lethal weapon, an automobile. Before Angela and Nick arrived we received word that they had admitted Darlene to the hospital.



We went straight from the cemetery to the hospital after meeting with Angela and Nick. J.D. learned that they had admitted Darlene because she was in pain again and it was coming from a kidney stone. They put in stints in the hopes that she would then be able to pass the stone. As it turned out, some time in the night they moved Darlene to ICU because her blood pressure had dropped dangerously low. They kept her in the hospital again Thursday night for observation and she was released sometime on Friday morning. She she still hadn't passed the stone and had to make an appointment to go back to her doctor after they released her so they could use the laser to break up the stone. I was puzzled by that move, I couldn't understand why they just didn't go ahead and do that while they had her in the hospital. Snce we have come home they successfully got rid of the stone. Get ready for this now...... She has to make another appointment to come back to the hospital to have the stints removed!! Again I have to ask, "Why didn't they do that while they had her in the hospital yet again to do the laser routine?" We didn't get to visit much with Darlene while we were there, but we did enjoy what time we did get to spend with her.




J.D.'s brother-in law has a flea market so while we were there we managed to make time to go by the Country Flea Market and see what sort of treasures F.J. had waiting there that might be calling my name. I will have some pictures to share with you tomorrow of the the treasures I brought home. Until then, Wishing you the blessings of good health and happiness.

Bless The Children

We had word this morning that our youngest Great Grand Child, Caden is in the hospital for a respiratory infection. Caden is the one that had the blocked intestine and underwent surgery this past summer. Please remember the little guy in your prayers. He has certainly had his share of going to the hospital for no older than he is.

I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist the other day. Since the cortisone injection to my knee only helped for about a month and in the process reeked havoc on my blood sugar levels, he wants to try a series of injections of Synvisc. He is checking with our insurance company to see if they will cover it. I'm not real hopeful on that happening. For the past three years the premiums continue to climb, as the benefits continually to grow fewer. Even if by some stretch of the imagination the insurance will cover the injections, I need to do some serious research on these injections before I allow that needle to be jabbed into my knee. If you have gone throw these injections or know someone that has I would appreciate hearing what you have to say about them. One thing that I am particularly interested in, is about how long it last and if it helps significantly.

May your blessings be many.