Julie had her surgery yesterday. Ryan phoned at supper time to say she was doing well and glaring at him. They hadn't seen the surgeon yet but the anesthetist said they were pleased.
Julie had a nerve block rather than a full general anesthetic. She was told that it should last for 24+ hours but apparently after about 10 or so hours, it was wearing off. This made for a rather unpleasant evening for her.
She phoned last night about 8:30 to say they were back at the hospital because her dressings were soaked through. This morning she said that she was going back to the hospital today to get them changed again. Apparently the bones in the graft were bleeding - I didn't know that bones could bleed.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Birthday to Me
I don't know where the years go. I don't feel as old realizing I am 55 today as I do realizing that David will be 30 on Christmas Day! How did I get old enough to have a 30year old?
I remember the day I turned 30. I had to go to a local hardware store and I have David (who was almost 5), John (who as almost 3) and Melissa (who was about 7 months old) with me. This particular store was a family run business. The staff were mostly ladies in their 50s and 60s.
David, in a VERY loud voice (as only a child can do), exclaimed to one of them, "Guess what, my mom is 30 today - isn't that OLD!" The ladies all laughed - I think it made their day.
Gee, now I can get a Humpty's Senior's Club discount card - there have to be some advantages to getting older. Double Nickles, here I come.
I remember the day I turned 30. I had to go to a local hardware store and I have David (who was almost 5), John (who as almost 3) and Melissa (who was about 7 months old) with me. This particular store was a family run business. The staff were mostly ladies in their 50s and 60s.
David, in a VERY loud voice (as only a child can do), exclaimed to one of them, "Guess what, my mom is 30 today - isn't that OLD!" The ladies all laughed - I think it made their day.
Gee, now I can get a Humpty's Senior's Club discount card - there have to be some advantages to getting older. Double Nickles, here I come.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Julie
Julie is scheduled for surgery on her wrist on Thursday. When she was the doctor in late September, they decided that her wrist had not healed so she was supposed to have the surgery in October but it didn't happen. She heard last week that she is finally booked in on the 26th.
She will be off work for probably 2 weeks. Not a great time of year to be off work but at least this will be out of the way before the wedding.
We went out last Thursday evening and she ordered her wedding dress. It is quite pretty and will suit her well for a Tuesday morning wedding.
Julie got me to try on a dress and jacket combo but I while I sort of liked it, it didn't jump off the hangar and demand that I take it home. I think I will have to continue searching. Besides the like factor, the price was a turn-off - $599 on sale plus alterations - it's a bit hard to swallow when I am used to buying at Costco!
She will be off work for probably 2 weeks. Not a great time of year to be off work but at least this will be out of the way before the wedding.
We went out last Thursday evening and she ordered her wedding dress. It is quite pretty and will suit her well for a Tuesday morning wedding.
Julie got me to try on a dress and jacket combo but I while I sort of liked it, it didn't jump off the hangar and demand that I take it home. I think I will have to continue searching. Besides the like factor, the price was a turn-off - $599 on sale plus alterations - it's a bit hard to swallow when I am used to buying at Costco!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Lessons Learned
When James was 16, seven years ago, I took him to Toronto with me to visit my Mom. After our visit, he spent a week with my friend Ellie and her three kids. The idea was that the kids would show James around Toronto and they would all have a good time.
James had met Ellie’s daughter, Jay, a year earlier and had fallen madly and passionately in love! Every time he talked about her over the next year, his voice would soften and change!
After a day in Toronto, Jay told James that she had a boyfriend and while he was very nice, he lived far away and she wasn’t interested.
James was devastated! He told Jay’s older brother, Norm, about Jay turning him down and said he would like to get drunk. Norm was more than willing to help. He told James that they had a well supplied supply of liquor so they both headed there.
Ellie was upstairs doing whatever so the first she knew about their plan was when they crawled up the stairs to Norm’s room. They were incapable of walking up the stairs and she knew they would feel very sorry in the morning so she sent them off to bed to sleep it off.
She went downstairs to get dinner ready. A short time later, she heard a terrible bang, crash, smash sound so she rushed outside to see what had happened. What she found was Norm lying on the concrete patio. He had fallen out of his window, landed on the roof of the porch, hit the fence then landed on the patio. She called Emergency and they arrived shortly thereafter. They checked out Norm and decided to take him to the hospital.
They asked Ellie if she thought that it was possible that James might have pushed Norm out of the window. When the EMS checked James, they realized he was so drunk that he wasn’t able to push a finger on the floor, let alone a 180 lb friend out a window. Both of them had blood alcohol levels far higher than they ever should be – they were more than just legally drunk but somewhere below dead.
Norm ended up in the hospital for a few days and had his stomach pumped. James ended up being a very sick puppy for a few days. After seeing Norm and suffering a really bad hangover, James vowed to never get that drunk ever again.
Anyway, to make a very long story shorter, at Halloween, James went to a friend’s party/get together. It was a BYOB party so he had taken something with him. When I asked how the party was, he said he felt old – I laughed because he is only 23 but he said most of the people there were only 18 or 19.
He says that some of the 17 year olds wanted to get some liquor from him. Unless they could prove that they were over 18, he refused - basically he was carding them! He said he was not willing to contribute to the delinquency of minors.
I had brought some cigarillos back from Cuba in April. James took some of those with him as well. He refused to give any cigarillos to the underagers. He said he has learned that smoking is a bad habit and he didn’t want to contribute to that either. Apparently he gave them lectures about not getting into bad habits at their age!
It has taken a long time for the lessons of 7 years ago to sink in but apparently there is hope.
James had met Ellie’s daughter, Jay, a year earlier and had fallen madly and passionately in love! Every time he talked about her over the next year, his voice would soften and change!
After a day in Toronto, Jay told James that she had a boyfriend and while he was very nice, he lived far away and she wasn’t interested.
James was devastated! He told Jay’s older brother, Norm, about Jay turning him down and said he would like to get drunk. Norm was more than willing to help. He told James that they had a well supplied supply of liquor so they both headed there.
Ellie was upstairs doing whatever so the first she knew about their plan was when they crawled up the stairs to Norm’s room. They were incapable of walking up the stairs and she knew they would feel very sorry in the morning so she sent them off to bed to sleep it off.
She went downstairs to get dinner ready. A short time later, she heard a terrible bang, crash, smash sound so she rushed outside to see what had happened. What she found was Norm lying on the concrete patio. He had fallen out of his window, landed on the roof of the porch, hit the fence then landed on the patio. She called Emergency and they arrived shortly thereafter. They checked out Norm and decided to take him to the hospital.
They asked Ellie if she thought that it was possible that James might have pushed Norm out of the window. When the EMS checked James, they realized he was so drunk that he wasn’t able to push a finger on the floor, let alone a 180 lb friend out a window. Both of them had blood alcohol levels far higher than they ever should be – they were more than just legally drunk but somewhere below dead.
Norm ended up in the hospital for a few days and had his stomach pumped. James ended up being a very sick puppy for a few days. After seeing Norm and suffering a really bad hangover, James vowed to never get that drunk ever again.
Anyway, to make a very long story shorter, at Halloween, James went to a friend’s party/get together. It was a BYOB party so he had taken something with him. When I asked how the party was, he said he felt old – I laughed because he is only 23 but he said most of the people there were only 18 or 19.
He says that some of the 17 year olds wanted to get some liquor from him. Unless they could prove that they were over 18, he refused - basically he was carding them! He said he was not willing to contribute to the delinquency of minors.
I had brought some cigarillos back from Cuba in April. James took some of those with him as well. He refused to give any cigarillos to the underagers. He said he has learned that smoking is a bad habit and he didn’t want to contribute to that either. Apparently he gave them lectures about not getting into bad habits at their age!
It has taken a long time for the lessons of 7 years ago to sink in but apparently there is hope.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The World According to Americans
I found this on a friend's post on Facebook. While it is somewhat anti-American, (although the poster is an American), I think it reflects what a lot of us think we know about the rest of the world.
A funny thing happened on the way...
Last night, Steve said he would meet me downtown and we would go for supper rather than me driving home then us driving downtown. It seemed like a really good idea so I stayed at work a bit longer then he came to get me.
We went for dinner at a nice little Hungarian restaurant then discussed getting milk on the way home. We decided if we were going to be going out on Saturday morning, as we usually do, we would get milk in the morning.
After 5 minutes from home, I said “I know what we did forget to get”. Steve asked what. My reply “My car”. Sure enough, we had left it downtown in the parkade!
This morning, after breakfast, we headed downtown and got the car – otherwise I would be challenged getting to work next week!
This “part-timers” disease is getting to me.
We went for dinner at a nice little Hungarian restaurant then discussed getting milk on the way home. We decided if we were going to be going out on Saturday morning, as we usually do, we would get milk in the morning.
After 5 minutes from home, I said “I know what we did forget to get”. Steve asked what. My reply “My car”. Sure enough, we had left it downtown in the parkade!
This morning, after breakfast, we headed downtown and got the car – otherwise I would be challenged getting to work next week!
This “part-timers” disease is getting to me.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Early Morning Exercise
Just after I got into work last Friday morning, the fire alarm went off about 7:00 and it announced an immediate evacuation was required.
Daniel, my next-door office mate and I swept the floor because we are both fire wardens, and about 7:05 proceeded to walk down the 21 flights.
The stairwell was fairly quiet but we assumed there simply weren’t many people in the building yet who needed to evacuate at that early hour. The lights on several floors weren’t even on yet which furthered our belief it was a building wide evacuation.
When we exited the building, there was no one to greet us and check that our floor had been cleared so we walked over to our gathering place.
We arrived there about 7:15-7:20 and we announced where we were from and they asked what we wanted. We explained we were part of a fire evacuation but they knew nothing about it. The security guard requested another guard for crown control.
Daniel and I sat alone, except for the crowd control security guard, for about 10 minutes then we headed back to our building where everything was business as usual.
The crowd control guard was funny. He said that he thinks that people only “really” live from ages 5 to 50 – either side of that they are just surviving. I asked how old he was and he said 23 – I have no problem believing that.
As soon as we got back, I immediately went to talk to building security manager and advised what had happened. We were told it was a false alarm (The fire alarm was set off by accident by a contractor who was working in the building. He was drilling into metal that created enough heat to set off the sensor above him) and we could have exited on the 18th floor. I said there was no one to tell us that so we simply followed the protocol for dealing with a fire evacuation.
Daniel and I got back to the building and up to our desks about 7:40 after having our aerobic exercise for the day!!
Daniel, my next-door office mate and I swept the floor because we are both fire wardens, and about 7:05 proceeded to walk down the 21 flights.
The stairwell was fairly quiet but we assumed there simply weren’t many people in the building yet who needed to evacuate at that early hour. The lights on several floors weren’t even on yet which furthered our belief it was a building wide evacuation.
When we exited the building, there was no one to greet us and check that our floor had been cleared so we walked over to our gathering place.
We arrived there about 7:15-7:20 and we announced where we were from and they asked what we wanted. We explained we were part of a fire evacuation but they knew nothing about it. The security guard requested another guard for crown control.
Daniel and I sat alone, except for the crowd control security guard, for about 10 minutes then we headed back to our building where everything was business as usual.
The crowd control guard was funny. He said that he thinks that people only “really” live from ages 5 to 50 – either side of that they are just surviving. I asked how old he was and he said 23 – I have no problem believing that.
As soon as we got back, I immediately went to talk to building security manager and advised what had happened. We were told it was a false alarm (The fire alarm was set off by accident by a contractor who was working in the building. He was drilling into metal that created enough heat to set off the sensor above him) and we could have exited on the 18th floor. I said there was no one to tell us that so we simply followed the protocol for dealing with a fire evacuation.
Daniel and I got back to the building and up to our desks about 7:40 after having our aerobic exercise for the day!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)