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    14/05/2009

    Going down Memory Lane 1

    There for a while, I thought I would just eliminate my blog site. I had no new material, no inspiration and no motive. However I’ve found that when I get bored, I go back and reread some of my entries. Aside from the fact that some of it was entertaining, I’ve restored some small memories that I lost over the past 3 years. So I decided that I should keep it up and running.
     
    I don’t know if Alzheimer’s is genetic, but I’ve had a few people in my family suffer from some sort of dementia, so I’m going to need all the help I can get.
     
    Do you find that the further computers come, the more problems they have? Maybe it’s just me.
     
    I’ve put up new pictures of Jack and Kate. I don’t have new pictures of The Princess or Annah to show you. Their mother uses shutterfly.com, and for me to copy the pictures to transfer to spaces costs money. I just hate signing up for another app just to show you pics of my granddaughters. So my daughter has taken pity on me, she’s going to set me up herself. Just you wait.
     
    Annah is still my day job. I watch her 3 days a week. I love it most of the time. I leave to go to my daughter’s house (I live outside of town and am way out of the way) at 6:45AM. That’s the part I don’t like. I am so not a morning person. Maybe not even a midday person!
     
    I’ve been having a swallowing problem and so I went and got barium x-rays on Tuesday. I wound up spending
    almost the whole day in the radiology dept. Somebody, whether it was my doctor or the radiology dept. or whoever, wanted to be present when they were being taken. And she took FOREVER to show up!!
    If you’ve never had this particular x-ray before (or lately), just know that barium tastes like chalk, OLD chalk. And it’s nasty.
     
    This procedure is cool in someways and horrible in others.
     
    The x-ray is in real time. So it’s sort of like science fiction. You can see yourself on the fluoroscope ( is that word still relevant?) and can see all kind of movements. When you talk, your jaw moves. And when you move your head…well, it’s cool.
     
    However….for them to watch how you swallow, you have to eat various foods bathed in the thick, evil barium.
     
    It began with lemon pudding mixed with the barium mixture. Ok, yeah, I can do this.
     
    Then swallow some sort of thick, evil barium liquid cr@p.
     
    Eat some powdered, scrambled eggs mixed with a white sauce. Yep, barium cream cr@p.  Gettin' tough.
     
    Swallow some more liquid cr@p.Not bad.
     
    Now some link sausages coated in a consistency of horrendous, thick, evil, white, major CR@P.
    I've cooked worse.
     
    -The ultimate…½ sandwich (no crust thank you, Lord) filled with a concoction so vile that I begged for the barium liquid cr@p just to clear my throat!
     
    "No more", I cried!
     
    As it turns out, I have a unique swallowing pattern. The food and liquids go into my airway then bounce back out and go down the esophagus. Don’t know if there’s a cure. The radiologist told me that in her 36 year history of doing x-rays, she’d never seen this before.
    I knew I was special!
     
    I told you that one of my inside kitties had babies, right? And she’s so young! I never saw her go into heat. What a mess.
     
    Now, one of my wild outside cats is looking pretty fat. If I could just catch them! In order to do that, I have to go outside, sit on the grass and wait. Sooner or later, the kittens will come and investigate and I can start petting them and get them tame. Eventually, I will be able to cart them off to the Humane Society.
     
    I seem to have a “Welcome All Strays” sign on my house. My fault. I leave food out for my own cats and the wild ones show up and move into the shop. I feed them and water them, but they just don’t listen to me.
     
    I refer to my (actually Hubby’s) garage/shed as a shop. There is all kind of stuff in there. He welds, builds things and generally putters around. I know it's the alternative to me. It's got many tools, antique furniture, various collections, family keepsakes; you name it.
     
    During bad weather, we park the pick-up in there. It’s a tight fit.
     
    We built it ourselves.
     
    I do mean 'we'. It took about 2 weeks and of course he had to work for 10 of those 14 days. It's metal and wood. I got to learn how to weld when we were building it. And we poured the concrete floor.
     
    I think the worst part was laying down the dirt to level out the floor. I hated that part. It’s hard work. You buy fill dirt by the yard. I was in charge of ordering dirt. I had no idea as to how much I needed. You buy fill dirt by the yard. Just how much is a 'yard'? I think I wound up calling them at least 6 times and bought around 6 yards. I just know that every day I was callin' them back telling them to bring more. 
     
    Of course the dirt was piled up in the middle of it all and we had to level it with shovels. I even rigged up our riding lawn mower with a railroad tie to help flatten it out. My sister and her son (who wants to be in the construction business) came out and helped. He loved it. He was about 10.
     
    Next time, I’m gonna pay someone to do that.
     
    Didn’t mean for this entry to be so long. And mundane. Guess I just needed to get those memories out there.
     
    On a side note, first of all, let me say that I LOVE comedy. My Sirius radio is set to the Blue Collar Comedy Tour (I do have to overlook the language) and Comedy USA setting. I can’t listen to RAWDOG, it’s too graphic. And Jamie Foxx is way out of bounds. ‘Specially after the Miley thing.
     
    Anyway…I love comedy. old timers like Jerry Clower, motivational speakers like Jeanne Roberson and Pat Hurley, and the rough ones like Ron White and Larry the Cable guy (overlooking it!). Just love Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall….
     
    But I just don’t get Dane Cook. The hottest rising stand up comedian in Hollywood.
     
    He just seems silly to me. Very goodlooking, too. Maybe he’s too much all over the place for me, but that’s so me. I’m all over the place, too. What am I missing? Am I just old?
     
    FYI…some baby swings allow the baby to flip over and hang upside down. If you use one, please keep an eye on it and make sure that the babies are tightly secured. That happened to Annah yesterday and took 2 years off of my life. Don’t let this happen to you or your babies!

    Ok, my insomnia period may have passed. It’ nearly 3:00AM and I need to get up at 6:00AM, so I will sign off for now.
    Till next…
    Xoxo
    Dana
     
     

     

    Comments (6)

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    Bethwrote:
    I have had many a barium test back in the days when I had ulcers. That stuff is really awful and you know they would always tell me that I probably would need a laxative to get rid of it all. Not me, just the exact opposite for the next day or two until I got rid of all of that stuff. LOL
    I think your blog is very interesting. I use my blog as an online diary. Many days it is downright boring but I keep plugging away and try to write something everyday.
    Thank you very much for stopping by my space and leaving a comment.
    23 May
    kïrstin ☼wrote:
    my mother was an x-ray tech for 35 yrs, so im more than familiar with barium. just not as personally as you are now.
    i like dane cook, i think he's funny. i also like jeff durham, one of the few ventrilloquists i will watch. i mostly think dummys are creepy. his arent.
    i find your 'ramblings' most engaging, myself. i actually read all of it. maybe its because you write like i think.
    cinamon alsays lays on her bed like that. silly dog.
    kïrstin☼
    16 May
    BPwrote:
    They try to go through that test with me, but it was too difficult for them to see how our swallowing. The one technician kept holding me in position and whispering in my ear that I must be really lucky to get all the attention from the chief radiological technician. After I explained that I had known her for more than 13 years and she was there for many of the seminal moments during my rehabilitation (removal of my Halo, all of the chest x-rays, and just x-rays in general).

    Don't delete your site. I still have one that I haven't posted on in more than a year. Like you I have been suffering from a lack of ideas to write about. I have them late at night when I'm not at my computer, but when I sit in front of my computer they do seem to evaporate. It's like someone stuck a straw in my brain sucked them out.
    15 May
    The G Man -wrote:
    Well Dana,
    I'm Glad you're still here...
    Sometimes it's good to move around and visit new Spaces, it can help to inpsire and motivate.

    Have a great weekend.
    15 May
    gwrote:
    I love your updates, Dana! I always leave her with a smile....hugs, g
    14 May
    Teriwrote:
    Hi Dana! My husband has that swallowing problem - it is treated with behavior modifications when drinking and eating - over the top modifications - he does some and leaves the rest to chance. That is one of the reasons he aspirates, combined with EXTREME reflux...life is tough!!

    As for the wildlife??? There is a sign posted in the land of critters that has our address as a refuge center. I KNOW this!!!

    God bless!
    Teri
    14 May

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