September 13, 2015

Getting Over the Allergic Reaction

September 13, 2015

Tufted Titmouse on the birdbath

 

Sunday mornings are for going to Sunday School and worship service.  Today, I decided I needed to be at home instead.  I have been taking Benadryl for the reaction and it makes me sleepy.  I woke up early and put a ham in the oven, started Ron's coffee and returned to the recliner.  Ron came in a little later and I told him I was not going to try to go. 

 Buff-bellied Hummingbird

 

The arm that has had the serious hives is very sensitive to touch and I didn't know what I could wear that would not rub that very tender area.  I went back to sleep and slept until 10:00.  I woke feeling a little better but lightheaded.  I worked on fixing a good lunch.  It seems it is really rare that I have time to cook a full meal anymore. 

Bewick's Wren 

 

When Ron came home he took care of things in the yard since I didn't feel up to it. We had our good lunch and he shared what had gone on in the Sunday school class and what he covered in the lesson.  He is a good teacher.  The class members all seem to enjoy the class and his teaching.  I spent a while watching the birds and later went out and brought in the hummingbird feeders, cleaned them and refilled them. 

g

 Goldfinch

 

The orioles are migrating.  By one of my past set of notes, they are three weeks earlier than that year.  It makes me wonder what they know that I don't.  The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are also migrating.  A few are here, but not large numbers at my house.  The yard is very active with sparrows, woodpeckers, wrens, and the migrating visitors.  

Hooded Oriole

The headache I had battled the last couple of days let up some for a while but came back in the early evening.  I am getting tired of dealing with one health issue after another.  The allergies have been a lifetime problem and I was glad to finally get a way to work on them.  The allergist said I could possibly  continue them by taking Benadryl 2 hours before each injection, but that makes it hard schedule wise.  Just hope I can work out something to continue the shots. 

Juvenile female Golden-fronted Woodpecker

September 12, 2015

Allergic Reaction Continues

September 12, 2015

Happy Birthday to our 7 year old grandson!

Ron had plans for Saturday morning and I had asked him to let me sleep.  I woke up at 6:30 and he was still sleeping.  I woke him to ask if he was going.  He just grunted.  I left him sleeping.  In the kitchen I found he had left me a note that in the middle of the night he had gone to the office to put out the sandbags as a heavy rain had started.  I guess he was there a long time and came home exhausted; plus his plans for Saturday morning were rained out. 

The new flower bed I put in Thursday evening; well watered by Friday night rains.

I spent time cleaning the kitchen that I was too tired to do the night before.  About 7:30 the rain had stopped and I went to do birthday and grocery shopping at a new Wal-mart near our house. My allergic reaction reached from my arm pit to my elbow and was still very hot to the touch as well as itchy.  It went about 2/3 of the way around my upper arm and later in the day extended past the elbow.

The hanging basket I did Thursday night

 

During the late morning and early afternoon, I sewed for a while, getting 12 blocks made for my current quilt project.  I need at least 84 and maybe 96 and now have 54 made.  Progress continues, but slower than I had hoped. 

One of the new chrysanthemums blooming

 

Ron and I ate leftovers for lunch and later I got my shower and washed my hair.  We were going to McAllen to celebrate our youngest grandson's birthday. 

 Discussing the S'more birthday cake with his little friend.

 

My arm continued to swell and itch although the red was fading.  I took Benadryl and decided I needed to contact the allergist before I did shots on Sunday as scheduled.  I sent her the same photo of my arm that I posted yesterday and told her what was going on.  We exchanged a few text messages and she told me to stop the shots until I could see my doctor about a decision on continuing the shots. 

Lots of new growth on the tree at our son's that was struck by lightening recently!

 

We picked up Mom and Carmen for the birthday celebration in McAllen.  I napped briefly on the way up.  The party was small, just us, a cousin of the kids, and another family from our church.  We had a good time visiting. 

 Our gift was a big hit!  I ran into a great sale at Wal-Mart early in the morning

 

The birthday boy loves snacks and sweets.  His mom does a good job of controlling them at home, but for his birthday she had set up a Snack Shack with all sorts of snacks and all the children and adults enjoyed snacking before and after supper.  The supper was favorites of the birthday boy who turned 7.

 Our gift to our grandson

Jeff's middle daughter had gotten a camera recently for her birthday and I have been telling her that she will get great sunset views at her house.  That was true last night.  She and I went out and shot some beautiful pictures of the sunset and she kept remarking it was the most beautiful one she had ever seen.  She has much more in store at this house, because of a good viewing spot.  This one will pale compared to some she will see.

  A lovely sunset from our son's front yard.

 

We had a good time, but I was not feeling really "up to par" so we left around 9:00 to come home and take Mom and Carmen home.  I was asleep before too long, again in the recliner in the sewing room.  It had been a day of a lot of activity and a lot of questions about the future of my allergy shots.  

 

The end of a wonderful day

September 11, 2015

"Are You Allergic to Your Allergy Shots?"

September 11, 2015

Interesting clouds as I was going to pick up Mom for supper. 

 It was the leading edge of our first cool front of the fall season.

I had been off the allergy shots for a week due to a problem at the doctor's office.  The allergy clinic has pulled out of the doctor's office and will only continue to serve existing patients.  Since they closed one site, they cut back on staff and the allergist I had been seeing is no longer with them.  It took a week to get an appointment set up with the new allergist (old company). 

Ron had gotten me an appointment with the new allergist at the same location where I had been going but all equipment will be moved up the valley to Donna or McAllen, next month, so future appointments may be in a different location.  The staff at the doctor's office may continue the treatments for me - that is not clear yet.  The last shot had been on Friday the 4th and now I had an appointment on Friday the 11th with the new allergist.  I like her.  She is a very nice, friendly lady who is expecting a baby about the time of my next appointment.  We will have to see what happens. 

This was the reaction to my shot 5 hours after the shot.  It got worse.

We started on the next strength of serum and she administered the shots this time.  I am glad she did.  I had a large hive in just a few minutes and so I was glad she was the one who had administered the shot.  She had me stay a while as she monitored the reaction.  She cleaned the shot site and then put Cortizone cream on it.  When I returned to the office with the two vials for the next two months, I showed Ron the growing hive.  "Are you allergic to your allergy shots?" my husband asked.

The edge of this cloud fascinated me.  Our first cool front of the year.

 

Good question.  Yes, is the answer.  The shots are made from extract from things I am allergic to so, yes, I am allergic to them.  This is the worst reaction I have had.  As the day and evening wore on, the area spread until it went from my arm pit to my elbow.  It burned more than itched.  We had gone to supper with Mom and I grew more and more uncomfortable as we ate.  After we had finished, except for Ron who was almost finished, I said I needed to go home.  I had developed an upset stomach to add to the discomfort.  The arm was very hot to the touch.  There was only a small reaction on the other arm. (One shot in each arm.)

When we eat at Jason's Deli, Ron usually gets my ice cream for me.  

He does an excellent, artistic job of it.

Ron offered to take Mom to her house so I could go right home and take some more Benadryl.  I gladly accepted and by 10:00 I was curled up in the recliner where I spent the night hardly moving, sleeping soundly.  That is why the blog is late.

Mom delights in how Ron fixes hers with chocolate syrup

 in the center of the column of ice cream.

The rest of my day was fairly normal.  I worked on paper work in my office, helped with customers, and gathered trash.  Exciting?  Not really.  But, it was a good day.  There were a lot of customers and that makes for a good day.

It was September 11.  It had been 14 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon, with a 4th airplane crashing into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit of the plane after it had been taken over by terrorists.  I said that these were attacks on buildings, but they were attacks on America.  America is forever changed because of those attacks.

September 11 holds memories for everyone who was old enough in 2001 to understand what was happening.  I recall that morning, I was going to the office late and sat at my sewing machine watching Fox & Friends on television as the story unfolded.  It was so hard to believe what was happening.  Many phone calls were made that day.  One I got was from our son who was in the Corps at Texas A&M University.  Many of the friends in the Corps had dads who were serving in the military and many of them were getting calls from their dads saying not to worry if they didn't hear from them for a while since they were sure they were going to fighting a battle.  They wanted their sons to know they loved them.  It was a tough time for everyone.

I recall that it became hard to find a flag to buy in the next few days and weeks.  Companies that made flags were working around the clock as everyone wanted to show that they were proud Americans.  The newspaper printed one that could be put in the window.  Everyone was patriotic for a time.  A week or two later I had written an email to an author who was living in Hawaii, to compliment her on a story she had written.  She wrote back and thanked me for my letter and talked about her feelings about Sept. 11.  She said it was impossible to find enough flags there for all who wanted them and people had taken to gathering red, white and blue plastic shopping bags and stuffing them in their chain link fences to resemble an American flag.

Memories.  We all have them of that time in our history.  How have we come so far from the strong patriotic feelings of those days?  I am praying for America.  I hope you are, too.

September 10, 2015

A Cool Front on the Way?  

September 10, 2015

Oriole - not sure which kind

Before going to the office, I did some laundry, some dishes, fixed and ate breakfast, worked in the yard filling bird feeders, ponds, and bird baths.  I got a few bird photos.  An oriole came for breakfast at the hummingbird feeder.  There were at least two ruby-throated hummingbirds at another feeder.  

I always think of the line "four and twenty black birds baked 

in a pie" when the White-winged doves fill the feeder.

Today was a good, productive day at the office.  I continued to work on my desk.  In order to do that, I needed to work on my files.  I have several file cabinets in my office.  Each is a different type of cabinet and each serves a different purpose.  I needed to move some things from my desk file drawer to make more room in it. 

White-winged dove

 

With a lot of effort, I was able to transfer some things to one of the other cabinets and now that  drawer in my desk holds files I use often.  There is still a lot to be done on that project, but I made a lot of progress today.

 White-winged Dove

I prepared a bank deposit and took it to the bank.  I helped several customers.  Ron was in the office but he was working on a large order for a customer.  He worked until late tonight to finish it.  I had hoped to sew, but still no time at the office and then I left the fabric there for the project I would like to finish soon and could not work on it this evening at home.

 When I got back from the bank, dark clouds were 

moving in but didn't bring any rain.  

We did have a shower at the office this morning.

When I got home, I just had a snack and went to work in the yard.  I spent 1 1/2 hours working out there.  It was hot!  There is suppose to be a cool front on the way, but it sure isn't here.  I had sweat dripping off me as I worked.  I planted 5 of the chrysanthemums in the ground, one in a hanging basked, and one in a pot.  I will try to remember to take photos tomorrow.  It was too dark by the time I finished this evening to take any photos.

 Same Oriole as above

By the time I finished, I was soaking wet from sweat.  It was still and hot.  Even though it was almost dark when I finished bringing in my tools and picking up the debris, it was still very warm.  I spent time in the kitchen, did some laundry, and relaxed for a while.  It was a good day!

September 9, 2015

An Uneventful Day

This Year

September 9, 2015

(written on the 10th)

Young sparrow waiting for a spot at the feeder

 

This year, September 9, was a rather uneventful day.  Not a lot happened at the office.  I worked on the mess on my desk.  I helped with a few customers, but Ron was in all day so he took care of most of them. 

One of the customers I helped was VERY difficult to understand.  He spoke rapidly and not clearly.  I was eager for Ron to finish with the customer on the phone and help me with the man.  While I waited, I told the man that I was hard-of-hearing and could not understand him.  He said he was almost deaf and also had trouble understanding.  So we talked about hearing issues until Ron was available. 

Broccoli Soup with grated cheddar cheese on top

 

After work I came home and made broccoli soup for supper.  It had been a while since I had done that; it was very tasty and we both enjoyed it.  I had just finished eating when Ron got home.  He had stayed to do some work on some locks.

The reason I mentioned that THIS year, September 9 was an uneventful day, is that two years ago on September 9, I had my second elbow surgery within about 3 months.  The first one had not solved my problems from the broken elbow, and an artificial radial cap had to be put in to replace the top portion of one of the bones.  Now, two years later, I have few limitations from the surgeries.

Golden-Fronted Woodpecker young female

 

The surgery was on the left arm.  There is still a scar (but I can only see it in the mirror).  I rarely think about it except when I try lifting something heavy with that arm.  I can do it, but it does cause some discomfort.  I try not to stress it - I want it to last the rest of my life.  I notice it when getting a stack of bowls or heavy plates off an upper shelf in the kitchen.  Getting heavy things from the counter top or a lower shelf is not a problem. 

The extension is not perfect on that arm, but I can wash my back easier with that arm than the other arm for some reason.  The rotation is good, but lifting heavy items with the arm rotated, can cause me to rethink that idea.  Bumping it doesn't hurt.  I do bump it often, I think it sticks out a little further than the other one.  It does seem to react a little to weather changes, but not too badly. 

Green Jay

 

Compared to two years ago, it was a great day!  There were lots of birds in the yard, but the only time I had when I could take photos of them was late in the day and they did not turn out too well.  I am sharing a couple.

September 8, 2015

A Tuesday That Seemed 

Like a Monday

September 8, 2015

 Dark clouds over the old high school

 

Even though I went to bed early last night, Ron did not wake me when he left for work this morning and I did not wake up until 8:30.  It sure is nice being married to the boss.  I took care of things in the yard, filling bird feeders, ponds, and bird baths.

Thoughtful looking sparrow

 

After getting my shower and my breakfast, I gathered my things for the office and did a little picking up in the sewing room for quilting group tonight.  It was 10:30 before I got to the office.  I spent the morning on financial things for the office: preparing a bank deposit, checking the bills, and things like that.

New visitor to the birdbath - a Starling

 

After lunch I took the deposit to the bank and coming back is when I took the photo at the top of the blog today.  The buildings were our high school when I was in school.  The black clouds were rolling across, but that is about all they did - roll across town.  I got sprinkled on off and on for the next 30 minutes as I ran some errands.

Chrysanthemums that I re-potted

 

When I finished at the bank I went by my mom's house to see how she was doing in.  She had planned to go to McAllen with us yesterday, but decided she wasn't feeling well enough for that.  I left there and picked up a prescription for her and returned it to her house.  From there I went to the office and the mail had come with checks that I could have deposited if I had waited, but I guess I will do it tomorrow.  I paid bills and checked the list of regular bills to be paid to be sure I was on top of things.  Sometimes we doing receive a bill that we should.  I don't know where they end up, but not in our stack of mail.  I sent off the reports to the accountant.

 Chrysanthemums - the three I re-potted tonight

At a couple of minutes to 5:00 I stated home but one thing after another kept changing my route.  There was an accident at one corner, at another there was some sort of delay, so in the end I found myself by Chick-fil-A so I picked up some supper and came home.

 White, yellow, and bronze Chrysanthemums 

waiting to be re-potted

 Last Friday night I had bought some bedding plants and had not had time to do anything with them.  I re-potted three of the ten tonight and need to get the others done soon.  They are very root bound.  I hope they make it.  

 * This white bougainvillea at Jeff's yesterday was so lovely.  It is HUGE!

 

The quilt group was to meet, but there were a variety of problems there, too, so we cancelled.  One lady was sick and she picks up some others.  Mom wasn't feeling up to coming but Carmen was going to come but when the lady got sick she didn't have a ride.  Another had car trouble and so I had her call the last one and tell her we were cancelling.

* The clusters of flowers were thick and pure white.

 

Ron had been to his mom's for supper and said she was doing well.  They had a good visit.  I still had time for a little sewing with or without the quilt group.

*God's detail is awesome!

 

*Yesterday at Jeff's house the white bougainvillea was so beautiful, I decided to share a few more photos of it in this blog.  There was not room for more photos in  yesterday's blog.

September 7, 2015

The Best Labor Day I Can Remember!

September 7, 2015

White Bougainvillea at Jeff's house 

 

What a great day, Monday, Labor Day was for us.  Ron and David left early in the morning for an outing.  I got up about the time they left at 6:30.  I got my shower and dressed.  Then it was time to fill ponds, birdbaths, and bird feeders; the sparrows have been emptying them rapidly. 

 Bath time at two of the birdbaths.  It was a hot day.

No one else was stirring, so I spent time on the computer catching up on my blog. I spent time bird watching and they kept me entertained.  Next I started sewing on my current quilt project.  I was able to get about 6 squares made before anyone else was up.

As I have said before, the birds are always watching me.

 

Cinnamon rolls and blueberry muffins were the breakfast choices when the others got up about 10:00.  We had a leisurely breakfast and about the time I cleaned things up, the guys got back from their outing.  They showered and David got his car loaded with the luggage for his family.  It was about noon when we left to head to Jeff's house for lunch and a visit.

 Pizza!!!

When we got to Jeff's house, David's family got a tour since they had not yet seen the house.  The kids all found things to do and cousins to play with as the adults visited and pizzas were put in the oven for lunch.  Lunch was a relaxing time of visiting and laughing and catching up on one each others lives.

 The youngest three

 

Everyone spent the afternoon sharing news, ideas, hopes, plans, and opinions.  It was just a good time of visiting with folks who don't see each other often enough.  Late afternoon, Dave's family headed home and the only downer to the day was that they got caught in a 2 hour traffic jam caused by a major accident on their route home.

 Ron and me with two of our sons

 

We stayed for a couple more hours and talked about decorating ideas for the house, the kids activities, and the pressures of busy schedules.  Ron and I headed home about sunset time and arrived home happy but exhausted.  It was not long before I curled up with my pillows and quilt and I slept well through the night.  That is why I am writing this Monday morning!

 The youngest of the cousins

 

Hearing issues were the same as usual - it is hard to hear in Jeff's dining area between the kitchen and family room.  Jeff is working on ideas to help since it bothers him as well.  The youngest children ate in the formal dining room at a little table in the bay window area, so their noise was not a factor at our tables.  I sat at a table in the family room and did OK with those at my table.

 The cousins

What more could one want for a holiday than a house filled with family?