darling....

One of my Favorite Things

A favorite thing: Ice hockey

 Nashville Predators sweatshirt at 

Knoxville Ice Bears game. LOL

Jessie's Birthday

Today is my beautiful niece Jessie's birthday.   What a wonderful woman she has become.  Jessie has built a wonderful career as a pharmacist,  is raising two amazing kids and is a loving wife.  Jessie is much loved by so very many.  What a blessing God granted me to be called Jessie's aunt.

Today's Fortune Cookie

Hopefully this good news will consist of the words: you'll not have to have the necrosis cut out of your breasts at the surgery sites......

UFC 168 Fight Night

Was feeling up to having some friends and family over to rent the pay per view of UFC 168.  Well, actually I'd had a very rough day in my recovering.  But I put on a good face and had a GREAT time.  Just being around people helped lift my spirits since I've been alone so much since the surgery.

Niece Amber, Peanut, me and Kelley

Kelley's step girls

Futures nephew Bryce sharing music

Chris helping Amber and Amber helping Chris on his Christmas gift Ripstix.

(I have no idea how to spell that.)

Bryce didn't need help. He picked up how it's done super fast.  I didn't attempt.  I've had enough trips to the doctor the past couple weeks.

Me and Christopher

Ouch!!!! UFC 168

Silva broke his leg during a kick to Weidman. Wow.

We're Weidman fans and wanted a good long fight for his win.  His detractors will probably say Silva would've won but......  Even though Weidman was handling him impressively to the broke leg.  

(Course it's not the kinda loss you want for a fighter.   That was awful. )

Rummy 3

Wow.  Three nights this week.
Tonight: Five hands played.
Ended: Three hands to two.  

Wonder who had the three.....

Horrible hand but ended in six or seven spreads.

UT Vols Ice Hockey

Team taking orders.  How do I hint to Chris I want......hmmmmm....

Rummy 2

Two hands played:

Marnie 2

Chris 0

Horrible hand but ended in six spreads.

UFC 168

Yes. I think so!

Today's Visit

Today's doctor visit was very productive in that my drain tubes and all stitches were removed.  Tonight that's an improvement in my caring for myself.  The soreness and pain is still there a bit with a different feeling.  I guess a result of the drain removal.  I still fell better than this morning. With those nasty drains gone I feel like I'm better already.  Now to stretch and get some flexibility back with doctor's admonishment in the back of my mind about not doing anything.  

How do I do my assignment of stretching while doing "nothing"?

Tanner and Candy Crush

On our way to Nashville and Tanner has already used 72 of my 

Candy Crush lives.  Glad I built up extra just for him.

Rummy

Chris gets aggravated that he generally cannot beat me at Rummy. We've not played in months and Chris was aching to play. We played ten hands tonight and Chris won one hand.

Chris won

He has an obsession with picking up a lot of cards and holding trying to make big hands.

Lost

My win

I have to lay one down...

Concentration

Christmas 2013

Was sick Sunday and missed my family Christmas day but my sis dropped my gifts off and some dinner. Was feeling good enough last night to go to Chris' s family Christmas though go to was about it.  Not much participation.   Much love though and thoughtful gifts from both sides of the family.

Some of my gifts:

Cup, Duck Dynasty beef jerky I stole from Chris, gloves for barn work and dish towels. 

Softest throw blanket ever from my niece Jessie.  So warm too. This will be perfect for spring boating!

Watch from my sister. Love! I've always wanted one like this.

Bra from sister I think? My first post surgery.

Dish towels, smelly good stuff and pj pants from niece.  Dish towels seem to be popular gifts I get each year. I wonder if it's a hint?

Prana turtleneck sweatshirt and Patagonia shirt from Chris from The Outdoor Store. Love!

Bullets from Chris from Benton's.

"Do more of what 

makes you happy" notepad.

Umbrella from sister in law.  She knows me so

well. I hope I can keep up with it...

Socks!  I have an obsession. 

One of favs: new change purse.

Niece: fun shoes like my other niece's.

The ones Chelsea wore when we went looking

for supper Thanksgiving night. She had these cool ones while I wore old ugly Crocs.

Chelsea and Bella came and fixed my hair Christmas Eve since I still can't lift my arms over my head.

Wearing my beautiful watch.

Scabs

When I was a kid I remember lots of skin't up knees and elbows and hands and even chins from bike wrecks, falling off the many things I thought I was monkey enough to climb and countless other mishaps.  Back then we'd air out our scratches and cuts.  Momma wouldn't let us cover them up.  I guess the feeling was, at least in our neck of the woods, that scraps needed to scab up to heal.  Putting a bandaid on the boo-boo wouldn't let it scab over.  The place stayed too moist.  And in moisture germs would root and take hold.

Luckily as an adult I never have accidents like I did when I was a kid.  Haven't had to worry about things on my body healing like in the 70's.  But the past three years I've had wounds.  The doctor made kind.  Seems the way to healing these days is put creams on a wound and cover it up.  It's strange to me.  When I change bandages I look down at a gross, moist cut and think, "How is this going to heal if it doesn't scab over??" 

Maybe it's just the types of wounds I have that require covering.  Or maybe the medical field has discovered germs are best kept out with creams and bandages?  I don't know.  My impression is what I learned as a kid, scabbing over keeps out the germs. Though I do remember how angry a lot of those scabbed over areas became with ugly red outlining the place on my skin.  (Note: I do follow doctor's orders.)

Gross though it were, I remember loving picking the scabs off a bad place I had caused by a bike wreck or such.  Once it was really dried out it was fun to pick the edges off, a little each day.  Cuts seemed to heal outside to in.  The outside picking the scab off didn't hurt, till I got toward the middle.  So that days operation would end a little more dried out.  The outer edge always outlined in the angry red.  I can remember becoming impatient and the scabbed over area would eventually begin to itch.  So through being impatient and the itching I'd finally just rip that last little piece of scab off.  It hurt a little.  But it was over in a flash.  Often that tiny little unhealed area would have a tiny little scab.  But it was never as fun to doctor.  

Wounds aren't always physical.  Sometimes, and most people, have the emotional kind too from all type of reasons.  And most of the time different people, from professional to non (like me as a kid) have all kinds of opinions on healing those.  Scab over or keep moist....... 

Mom always told me that picking off scabs on my skin instead of leaving them alone to fall off would leave a scar.  I remember momma fussing at me, telling me to "not pick at it".  I wonder if that was true. If mom was right.  Kid's skin scars tend to heal and disappear much easier than adults.  I guess because the skin of youth heals better?  I also wonder if scabs of a new emotional trauma in life, if picked at, turn into scars.  Is it better to leave a emotional scab on to visit from time to time for years to come, slowly examining it until it falls off on it's own will leave less of a scar?  Or is it better to pick at the scab a little each day and then rip off the hurt middle for healing?   Perhaps one way leaves a person suffering in a sense from an emotional injury for years.  The other ends the suffering fast-although with a scar which is always seen.  Which is better?..........   

Everybody is different and each situation is as well.  I'd venture to say that a person deals with things that pop up in their lives in different ways.  Maybe something happens and they want to rip that scab off right away without regard to long term scar while something happens to them at a different point in their life and they want to ponder on it for a while.

My view, although hard to hold true to in some things, is that it's best to deal with things today than spend so much time in the future pondering.  Dealing with whatever is happening today is much better than revisiting and trying to heal a little at a time in the future.  Although I believe scarring can be a problem in most situations a scar is not always a bad thing. Looking down at a scar reminds us of a past event, healed.  But we can also look at that scar to remember and appreciate lessons learned and to not allow the same mistakes to re-occur in the future.  

It's not good to live in the past which we cannot change nor live in the future wasting time dreaming of what might be, good or bad, neither of which may ever happen.  We must live today.  In what is really going on.  Dealing with, enjoying life, learning lessons as each come.

This rambling post is enough for today. Meant it to be short and sweet but I'm getting a little long winded on a silly subject and must stop.  I think it's time to get back to the ole timey Christmas cartoons as well as the Christmas Hallmark Channel movies. They make every wound better.

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Chris made his Chicken Pesto Pasta tonight. Its sooooo good and makes everything better....

Hockey Players

Hockey player's bodies go through so much. For 80 games a season.  Regular season that is. That's not including playoff games.

Barely rest during the game. The only sport where player lines and individual players go into play from the bench.  NO stoppage of play other than penalties or icing. This makes for an exciting game to watch!

(Some do not like hockey because hockey is a low scoring game to win.  I prefer the extreme hard work it takes to earn one than up and down a court scoring over and over and over or the up and go and stand for what seems like minutes.  (I do like basketball and football though!)  And do love baseball.  Partly because playing in our yard as kids and rolly bat and Daddy could have been a professional in the 40s. ( I think the decade?))

Back to the wonderful world of the hockey player and how hard the sport is to play.

Their feet standing and skating for hours a day on a thin blade of metal.  Their thighs. My, how they must burn.  I've skated, I know how it feels.  Well...like four times. Mostly my bum hurt. Not my thighs.  I couldn't stand long enough for my thighs to burn!

Hips, back, shoulders, arms aching and bruised and hurting from checking people on and off the boards. Not to mention the many times their bums hit the ice, eh? Headaches and neck pain from all the above.  Bruises from getting slashed by sticks. (Their pads aren't quite the same sa football lol)  And the occasional blackened eye from the occasional scrum, eh?

And poor goalies.  They have to play the full 60. Constantly posed to pounce on the puck like a cat on a mouse after trying to be brave enough not to duck at a piece of rock solid, hard, frozen solid rubber coming slapped shotted at you 105 mph.  (Think Shea Weber.)

All this body abuse playing 3 to 5 games per week all over the US and Canada.   The travel has to add to the physical and mental toughness of players.

Ah, ice hockey.  That's why it's the greatest sport in the world.  Players love the game, are dedicated to their teammates.  If it's their shift on the ice they keep playing no matter what (flashback last year's Stanley Cup playoffs and Boston Bruin playing through the pain of a broken leg till his shift was up).  There's no running to the bench with a bloody cut to the face or nose.  No. Players stay with their line until their shift is done. Then they come off  the ice after no stop in play.  They'll be needed again in, oh, about three minutes?

Hmmmm...why did I start this blog post....oh yeah. I was fixing to get on a pity party tangent about my surgery complications from last week while watching the Predators play Boston thinking I now know what it feels like to be a hockey player.  Well.....I don’t quite have the dedication to pain and hardship to reach a glorious finish like they do.

A Favorite

A boy was dying and asked why God was taking him? The response:

"God is not taking you. He is receiving you."

Ten Pounds

I gained ten pounds in one day....fluid after surgery I guess.  Hope it comes off as easily and quickly as it went on.

Remains to be seen....

It remains to be seen if this surgery turns out to be a good idea or bad.  Last night proved to be very bad.  I was up all night sleeping on the recliner. Or trying to rest. I had been up several times with extreme nausea.  At 3 am the extreme nausea was all over our bathroom.   Chris was up in a quick minute holding my hair and sweetly talking to me.  Then this morning around 6 when I was sick again Chris wanted to take me to the ER.

So while it remains to be seen at each new chapter in breast cancer healing journey what are the good ideas and what are not, the one tried and true test is that Chris is a very good nurse to me.  Especially hitting home as he cleaned that nasty mess of a bathroom I made in the middle of the night.

Wondering

It was 2 in the morning and then 4  but  5
off and gone and now it's 6.  Maybe I will nod off...

Well, I did some better resting after 6 . At least until 7

Not

It's not popcorn and Propel but it feels good on my scratchy,  dry throat.