Saturday 9: Minute by Minute

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) It's easier to keep track of the minutes if your timepiece has a second hand. As you answer these questions, are you wearing a watch or can you see a clock that has a second hand?  No and no. I think I have a watch or two around here somewhere, but I haven't worn a watch since I stopped driving a school bus. Like so many, I use my phone for that, too. We don't have any clocks in the house with hands at all. Do they even teach kids how to tell time with an analog clock these days?

2) In this song, Michael McDonald admits he knows his girl has lied to him. Do you suspect any one of your friends/family has fibbed to you recently?  Mmm...maybe Tim in telling us what the doctors have said or what they allow him to do. He is a terrible patient.

3) McDonald's big break came in 1973 when he joined Steely Dan's touring band. What do you consider your first professional success?  I don't really think I have one. Until now I've never really had what I considered a profession...just a series of jobs. I am looking at the possibility of being named the supervisor of my department in the next week or two. I guess that would be a success if it happens.

4) In 1975 he joined The Doobie Brothers. He was originally supposed to be a temporary replacement for Tom Johnston, but he ended up working with the band uninterrupted for seven years. Tell us about something that's happened to you that turned out better than you anticipated.  That would be years ago when I volunteered in youth ministry. I got involved in that very reluctantly, but my years doing that were some of the best times of my life.

5) In 1986 he guest starred on an episode of The Young and The Restless. Have you ever been hooked on a daytime drama?  Back in the day I never missed an episode of Days of Our Lives. Bo and Hope, Patch and Kayla...swoon!

6) Michael and wife Amy raised their family near Nashville, where they had their own pond and a garden they lovingly tended. Do you enjoy yard work?  I used to. I haven't really been able to do much of it the last few years thanks to arthritis pain.

7) In 1979, when "Minute by Minute" was popular, movie star John Wayne died. In 2004, the US Postal Service honored him with a stamp. What was in the last envelope you stamped and dropped in a mailbox?  I have no idea. We get lots of mail, but I rarely send anything out.

8) In 1979, the most popular new car was the Oldsmobile Cutlass. Ads promised drivers the Cutlass could make it easy to get in and out of tight parking spots. Are you good at parallel parking?  You'd think I would be after driving a school bus all those years, but you'd be wrong. I could parallel park a bus with ease, but I'm not so good with my personal vehicle.

9) Random question: Did you know your great-grandparents?  I knew two of my great-grandmothers on my mom's side. Not well, though, as one passed when I was 5 and the other when I was 7.

Thanks to Crazy Sam for the music and questions!

Play along here.

It's Been a Week

So...Tim is home. He didn't get here until dinner time yesterday. If you are a friend on Facebook you've probably seen my post about what a rough day Monday was. Tim's heart catheterization went well and one stent was placed in the "widow maker," the artery on the back side of the heart. However, everything went downhill once he was back in his room. A headache began and rapidly increased until he was in very bad shape. His nurse "coded" him and medical staff poured into his room and Megan and I were taken to the waiting room.

After an hour or so someone came for us and took us back to the room. They'd run all manner of tests and did CT scans of his head and chest (he was having trouble breathing, too). All the tests came back clear. Everyone's best guess is that he had a bad reaction to the fentanyl they gave him during the procedure. Still, it resulted in him having to stay overnight because the headache lingered. They did finally get him some relief and he got some sleep and felt better on Tuesday. It took all day for him to be released because someone from every team that had dealt with him had to talk to him and sign off. He also had to see a neurologist about the headaches (just in case) and a nutritionist.

Tim felt great when he got home, but after a couple of hours the headache returned. It was a bad headache, but not as bad as the one on Monday. He decided around 8:00 that I should text his boss and tell him he was not going to work today. Good choice. No headache today and he allowed himself the day to just rest and nap on the sofa. He is going to work tomorrow barring anything unforeseen happening in the night.

On the way home from the hospital Tim got a call from the dermatologist about the biopsy they did on a spot on his nose a month ago. It's cancer. It goes all the way through the tissue to the inside of his nose. He goes Nov. 7 for a 4-hour operation to cut out all the cancer. They will, hopefully, do the skin graft at the same time.

Tim's sister, the one who was in the accident a month or so ago, has been doing well since the surgery to reconstruct her pelvis with plates and screws. We heard yesterday that her incision had split open and she'd been taken to the ER. They finally did surgery on her today. The doctor cleaned the wound...no infection that he could tell, but he did send it off to lab. He said there were a lot of blood clots, though. Anyway, they closed up the would and she has a wound vac. She feels a lot better the pressure and pain she'd complained of is gone.

 Our daughter found out our grandson's A1C number is high. The doctor moved his next appointment up to Friday. His bloodwork also said in the liver function session that there was high alkalinity. The report said the high end of normal is 104 and his number was 190. Our daughter, of course, Googled it and panicked. There are a LOT of not so great things that can cause that. The doctor told her that a lot of times when kids get blood work and they give you the normal range, they give the adult numbers. He said it might be as simple as that or that he's going through a growth spurt. 

Through it all I've had to be the voice of calm and reason, of sanity. I've had to be the strong one for everyone else. It's a good thing my strength and my peace do not come from anything or anyone on this earth. I give the Lord all the credit and all the prayers of all the people I had praying. I felt those prayers. Thank you.

But still... it's been a week. And it's only Wednesday.

Currently

I am...

Reading: Arkangel by James Rollins. Thrills and fast-paced action at it's finest. Rollins' tales never give you a moment to slow down.

Listening to: I found a live YouTube station that plays classic rock.

Watching: There's been a Psych marathon on Hallmark Mystery today.

Loving: the cooler weather that's moved in.

Thinking: about Tim's heart catheterization next Monday. It's kind of hard to think of much else. He has to be there at 6:00 a.m. so I decided today to rent a hotel room for us and our daughter. We'll go down to Pittsburgh Sunday evening and won't have to get up in the middle of the night to get there on time.

Feeling: pretty good. I found a turmeric capsule at Sam's on Saturday that I'm taking twice a day. One capsule in the morning and one at night is putting nearly 4x the turmeric in my system as the chews I had been taking. I can definitely feel the arthritis now, but the inflammation is not there.

Celebrating: our grandchildren having a great first week of school.

Grateful for: our daughter and son-in-law's help closing the pool and our daughter coming over this morning and helping me start organizing the kitchen storage.

Enjoying: pumpkin spice EVERYTHING!

Weather: clear and 58 degrees this evening.

A quote I want to share: