DOCTORS FIND ARTERY DAMAGE TODAY

Woke up this morning by cars coming in and out,didn't get up to see who they were for fear of waking g-son. Finally just as I dozed back off, I felt g-son stirring around and then he yelled wake up Nena it's morning,the sun is shining.
So up we got ,we had breakfast,he had cinnamon waffles and I had cereal with fresh raspberries on it. Yesterday hubbie picked blueberries and I picked some fresh raspberries.
We don't have a lot of either and try to get them before the birds do.I bought some netting for the blueberries but we haven't gotten it on them yet. The birds for some reason don't seem to be zeroing in on them as they did last year.
I sent an Avon order off and then g-son and I got ready to go see his dad in the hospital. He has been to the bathroom 3 times this morning ,but so have I and my stomach doesn't feel good at all right now. I think both he and I are letting our nerves get the upper hand. Maybe a trip to see him will make things better.At first ge didn't know what to think and kept asking "are you okay da-da?"But after climbing up and getting a big bear hug from da-da he was back to his old investigative self again.Do you think I could swing on that triangle up there? What's that for da-da? Can you pull on that and pick yourself up? etc., etc,.
Sorry about the blurr but the lighting was not the best and I didn't get time to change camera settings.
We stayed for a while,the physical therapist came and he worked on getting son's foot to straighten. It wasn't too bad painful. When they brought him lunch g-son and I said our good-byes and left hubbie there for the rest of the afternoon. G-son seemed to have a happier disposition on the way out,I know he has been wondering where his da-da is and all the hospital talk he was hearing didn't mean anything to him,now maybe he can better understand,I hope so.
We came home and had lunch of yesterday's leftovers. While he played with his turtle power turtles I made some peach freezer jam. I bought these peaches in SC last week and have had them spread out ripening in the sunroom. Only a couple have had to be thrown away and after I made a large peach cobbler yesterday there are still plenty left that are ripe now. I had fruit certo left from last year and decided now would be a great jam making time. Last winter a friend gave me a couple jars of freezer jam and g-son loved it so I said then I would make some,but I didn't think peach would be the first I made. These are an early cling stone peach but they have a wonderful flavor and when the lady said they were $6 for a 1/2 bushel,well you know me and a bargain.
So we now have 10 jars of peach freezer jam and I still had enough peaches for another batch but not enough certo.
G-son and I went outside to play for a short while but with the 90 degree day we didn't stay long.He had left his sand box open last night and everything he touched to play with was pretty hot.
I don't care what the calender says ,it is already summer!!

More bad news from the hospital, the CT scan they ran this afternoon on his leg showed a blood clot behind his knee and they took him in to immediately try to dislodge that. It is almost 4:30 ,I'm thanking God for doctors who are ever searching to make sure these things get resolved. The clot is in the artery going to his foot so hopefully there is no danger of it getting to his heart. Hubbie called after talking to the doctor and said they would try under a local anesthesia to dislodge the clot and repair any damage with a stint. If that didn't work they would have to put him all the way under again even though he has drank and eaten today to repair the artery. I have never prayed so hard in my lifetime. I'm no longer concerned with just his foot, at this point I pray that he just makes it through this surgery and lives.
The bad news is really stacking up. This procedure showed the doctor it wasn't a blood clot,but rather a damaged main artery,actually damaged in the original break when the leg came forward. He decided not to do anymore today or hopefully until they can close the fasciotomy cuts. He will monitor the pulse closely and make decisions day by day.
Son was not happy at all with this news and they wound up knocking him out to calm him down. D-in-love is with him and that's good as he told me this morning he feels better with her there,so tonight is crucial and I'm glad she's able to be there.
G-son konked out early after a very active afternoon so she's not missing anything here.
Daughter and hubbie are back over there now with some things she needed to spend the night.
Hopefully things have calmed down a bit. I've spent the time since they have been gone talking to the Greatest Physician of all on son's behalf. I know personally what miracles God can do in times like these and I hope it's in His plans for son to get through this and be a better man for it. Hubbie said that our minister was there as he went into this surgery and prayed with son and ask the Lord to give son a different perspective in his life. Maybe that is what this is all about, I have to believe God is definitely trying to get son's attention.
Please pray for all our family as we are all looking at very trying times ahead and the only way we are going to get through this is with the almighty God's help.
Will post tomorrow what news comes back with daughter and hubbie tonight. It is 11:15 and they are not back.
Good Night and God Bless.

BACK FOR A SECOND SURGERY

Slept in this morning as I am just about worn out and hubbie went to the hospital early this morning to relieve d-in-love. I feel guilty about not going to church but I feel I need some extra rest and prayerfully ask for God's understanding.

The news is not good from the hospital this morning, they are taking son back into surgery to do the fasiotomy (splitting of his calf) they talked about yesterday. He is still in a lot of pain and the swelling is not going down. If they don' t relieve the swelling it will damage the muscles going to his foot.
I fixed lunch for #2 son and daughter after she taught her Sunday School class she went and picked up a rotisserie chicken from Ingles. I made a peach cobbler for dessert with some of my fresh peaches.
After lunch I went to the hospital to relieve hubbie,son was just getting back from surgery and he didn't look so good. He was groggy and still had a lot of pain in his foot.The doctor said this surgery was just in time to prevent muscle damage. He said there were no blood clots and this should take care of the swelling and since it wasn't under intense pressure they should be able to stitch it up at the end of the week.I pray that this will be the case.There was already a pool of blood seeping through the ace bandage,so it is definitely draining.Here is a web photo of the procedure, only his cuts are more toward the back of his leg.
He had a rough afternoon but is doing much better tonight and is almost completely out of pain.While there this evening it came a terrible rain,thunder storm, but word from home was that it just came a short rain shower.
D-in-love came in and I left because the nurses were saying his pain level tended to drop with a dark quite room.
G-son was here when I got home and was having a good time playing with his pawpaw.
He is staying here tonight since mommy has to be at work at 7 am. Hubbie is taking the day off work tomorrow to stay with son during the day while everyone else works and I watch g-son.G-son and I began our bird watching again this evening and the little wrens are almost ready to leave the nest. This is one of the babies peeking out of the house waiting for the next bit of food from mama wren.
This is a beautiful bouquet that a neighbor gave me yesterday at market after hearing about my son who went to school with his son. It is a bright spot in the last 3 pretty dark days. I know there are a lot of things to be thankful for during this time and I'm trying to keep a positive outlook and leave the care of my son up to the quite capable doctors and nurses. But I find myself continually pleading to the Greatest Physician of all for His miraculous touch which would make my son whole again without any further problems.I pray that my son's wish that he could" just catch a break" with this whole thing would be in God's will for him and healing will begin and continue in the days ahead.
Good Night and God Bless.

MEDICAL WONDERS

Off to market this morning with the help of #2 son. Hubbie left for the hospital before 7, he called to say #1 son had a rough night and the doctor was talking about doing more surgery. Because of all the intense swelling he may need to go in and cut both sides of his lower leg. Leaving it open and that will open him up to more infection chances and require an extended hospital stay. Doc said the amount of pain meds in #1 son's body would kill most people. We are praying that these cuts won't be necessary.#2 son followed me to market and helped me get set up before he went to Lowes to get the finishing things for his fence.

I had a good market day and have an order for almost everything I have left for Monday.Daughter came in and brought lunch and helped the rest of the day.
I gave her my list of supplies for next week,her and d-in-love are going shopping this afternoon.
After unloading the van at home I headed to the hospital while hubbie mowed grass. It is another very warm day but not quite as humid as yesterday.

I had an electric grill advertised on Craigslist and the people that called about it met me at the hospital and bought it. It was a good deal for them ,we only used it once and then it was just taking up space so I decided to sell it.
I also got in touch with the realty company that we rented our vacation house from and told them what had happened to see what my options are,because there is no way we are going to get to go to the beach next week. Son will need our help when he gets home and he won't be able to go for a 5+ hour car ride. The guy there was very understanding and immediately put the house back up for rent,saying if it rents they will send me a full refund. And if it doesn't for me to call back Thursday afternoon to discuss some other options. Maybe we can switch for a week later in the season.

I think #1 son's foot and leg look better tonight than they did last night,the swelling looks to be subsiding to me. He has kept ice packs on it all day today.When he got hungry,the nurse,who is another sweetie pie, called the doctor and he said go ahead and let him eat. That is very good news ,that means no more surgery,at least for 12 hours and hopefully forever. He has an x-ray of the screws and plate in his leg, this is his new bionic leg !!No wonder he has had so much pain and seeing these pictures of what actually is in there would make it hurt even worse if it were mine.
Modern medicine is totally amazing to me,how they can actually screw your bones back together and your body accepts all this foreign material and acts as if nothing has happened,hopefully !!!
I spent a lot of my 6 hour plus visit rubbing his foot, he said that made it feel a lot better and I'm sure it helped the circulation.By the time I left I could even feel the pulse in that foot.Day 2 watching the sunset over the hospital.Skies are clearer this evening than yesterday. And the clouds are leaving from inside his hospital room also as his mood and pain seem to be improving with every hour. Thank you Jesus !!
D-in-love brought him a chicken sandwich dinner tonight and is going to spend the night.Hopefully this will be the last night he will need someone there and will be able to sleep through the night.
I know I'll be able to sleep better tonight after seeing him as he was this evening.
Back home I'm headed for an early bedtime to make up for the sleeplessness of the last couple nights.
Very thankful tonight for the answered prayers for son's improvement. God is so good !!!
Good Night and God bless.

SURGERY GOES WELL

My duty today in this family crisis was to look after g-son. He spent the night here last night. He was sound asleep early this morning when I came home,so as soon as he woke up this morning around 9 he had to fill me in on his dada,as he calls his dad. Saying he "boke his leg and went to the hospital to have a surowy" ,took me awhile to make out that last word. Hubbie who took today off work left before 7 am to relieve papa T (father-in-law) who spent the night with #1 son.
I baked cakes this morning while g-son watched his cartoons.
They took #1 son to prep him for surgery at 9:30, hubbie said he was ready for something to be done as the pain meds were no longer working. D-in-love and hubbie had a while to wait because they were told it would be 12:30-1:00 before he would be back in his room.D-in-love came home and spent a few minutes with g-son before heading back.
#2 son came by and fixed he and g-son some pizza for lunch and played with him outside for a while before heading back to his house to mow his lawn.
At 1:00 #1 son got back to the room but was in a lot of pain. They upped his meds and took the brace off his leg and he felt better. The surgeon said he was pleased with how everything went perfectly back together, he put in some extra bone material,a plate and 7 screws to hold things in place, a 6-12 week recovery period will be needed. He won't be able to leave the hospital until he can walk, with a walker, to the bathroom and get himself from bed to chair on his own,the doctor predicted Monday or Tuesday.
Hubbie came home for while so I could ice my cakes and get everything done. Daughter came by to pick up g-son and took him to #2 son's house while hubbie and I went back to the hospital so d-in-love could come home and spend the night with g-son so both of them would sleep better tonight.So far we all have been very pleased with the care at this hospital. #1 son got a very good knee specialist surgeon from Asheville and the nurses so far have been very attentive.It is a smaller privately run hospital started by Seventh Day Adventist but no longer adheres only to that religion. Our Baptist minister was there today with hubbie and d-in-love and he said they welcome other pastors such as he now. I had all 3 of my children at the early version of the hospital when it was called Fletcher Hospital,before that it was known as The Mountain Sanitarium. When I was in there giving birth they only served meat substitutes but they brought #1 son real meatballs for his supper tonight.This is the view from son's 3rd story room.A walk across the hall just in time to catch this after a stormy afternoon sunset.Strange flooring patterns in all the halls.Son was in and out all evening with all the pain medicine they are pumping in him.At times he was kinda spacey other's he made perfect sense.X marks the spot where a pulse can be found in his foot. Tonight the swelling was so bad he didn't have a lot of feeling in his toes,only a burning sensation when they were touched. Tomorrow the Doctors will start bending his knee. As swelled as it is that's going to be tough.
Papa T came to relieve us and we left to go get our work done at church then we loaded the van for market in the morning. Hubbie is going back at 7 am to relieve meemaw(mother-in-law), I will head over there right after market.
Continually praying tonight for a much improved day tomorrow and thankful for the prayers that were answered today through the surgery.
Good Night and God Bless.

BROKEN LEG

Well, I've been blogging for almost a year and hardly ever miss a day. But yesterday, well,hmmm,how to describe yesterday? Here goes.
Started out a regular market day ,had pretty good sales and all the orders got picked up. Ran errands afterward in a downpour of rain in town,but by the time I arrived home it was just sprinkling. Hubbie came in right behind me and we unloaded and put everything away.
Daughter called and said she would fix supper when she got home from her errands.
So I took a rest on the couch until she got supper ready. She always fixes healthy foods and tonight we had a tomato/mozzarella/basil salad which was delicious.
After we ate daughter headed over to #1 son's to jump on G-son's new trampoline with him.
Hubbie and I were getting ready to head up to work at church when the phone rang, it was d-in-love saying to come over there #1 son had hurt his knee and couldn't move.
When we arrived the first thing I saw was #2 son laying on the ground,trying to keep from passing out,because we found out later he heard the pop and being an athlete knew what happened. Daughter was white as a sheet and #1 son was laying on the trampoline,obviously in severe pain. I wanted to call an ambulance but he didn't want that. He was holding G-son while he and daughter jumped on the trampoline when he came down his left leg popped loudly and his foot came forward instead of backward.
I came home got my van and backed it up to the trampoline,he slid out into the back and layed there all the way to the hospital.We went to a local hospital called Park Ridge Hospital.
He made the trip okay but when he had to sit in a wheel chair, he passed out from the pain.
They quickly got him into a room and in bed,took him to x-ray and came back to tell us his leg was broken with his knee cap fractured in several places. He would need surgery but because he had eaten only 3 hours before they decided to immobilize the leg,pack it in ice because of the swelling and wait until morning.
They tried giving him morphine for the pain but had to switch to a stronger Dilaudid,then he had to be hooked to a heart and blood pressure monitor.This made me nervous,I saw #2 son have a drug reaction when he was young and it was one of the scariest things I ever saw.
#1 son has never been in the hospital before,never had any surgeries,and really never had been sick that much, so this is all trial and error stuff tonight.
Luckily he had a very good nurse,who administered slowly and watched him very closely.
The orthopedic doctor told him it was not a typical break and he was afraid there was more damage than was showing up on the x-ray. He ordered a CT-scan but left before they got it done.
D-in-love's dad came in about 1 am and relieved us to come home and get some sleep.He doesn't sleep well at night anyway ans said he didn't mind staying the night with him. Thank goodness for night owls !!! I've prayed til I fell God is tired of hearing my voice ,although I know in my heart He never gets tired of hearing us. The pulse in the foot on the injured leg is slower than the other foot and has to be checked regularly all night,if he loses the pulse they will have to do emergency surgery to relieve the swelling to prevent loss of use.
There is some very unfortunate circumstances surrounding the timing of this injury also,I"ll talk about that in a later post. Right now we are just looking forward to that humorous,smiling face being painfree and on the road to recover!I would appreciate prayers for all our family as we carry on and move forward.
God Bless everyone.

LAYED BACK WEDNESDAY

This has been a really sweet day,kinda layed back,well as layed back as any day gets for me !
Started out with weight lifting for the first time this week. After a leisurely breakfast while watching the birds at the feeders I decided to do some work so I iced 6 caramel cakes and wrapped the other cakes I baked last night.
After lunch I caught up on some business phone calls and did some paperwork.
I went outside to sit in the sun but after I was out there about 20 minutes it started to sprinkle rain so that was the end of that !
I went through a few more photos to organize before hubbie got home.
When he came in we worked outside in the garden during a break in the rain. It hasn't really rained,just lightly sprinkled so I watered some plants while he cleared a bed for some more tomato plants.
We had fresh steamed cabbage and potatoes for supper,yum yum.
While reading the paper I discovered an old friend and her article.This is Laurie Greene Bakke she used to have a little cafe downtown called Cafe Laurie's,
It was a very nice place to eat and the food was delicious. Most of the menu consisted of Laurie's tried and true recipes and of course we became friends when she started buying my caramel cakes to serve. After several years and a set of twins that were about to go away to college she decided to sell her cafe. Now she has put some of her most sought after recipes in a cook book. Along with being a wonderful cook,Laurie is one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. If you would like to read her story click the link below. Good Luck Laurie !! Sorry I couldn't get the link to download but you can read her story at www.blueridgenow.com. Here is one of her recipes for that fresh cabbage from your garden. Click on it so the print will be larger or get a magnifying glass,I always keep one handy,haha.
I finished icing cakes tonight and got the boxes made for all the orders for tomorrow.
Thankful today for a forgiving God who loves us always.
Good Night and God Bless.

REFLECTIONS

Housework Tuesday is here again?? Oh well getting started early with the laundry so I can dry several loads on the line today,it is a sunny,breezy day, perfect for drying laundry.I always get a special nostalgic feeling everytime I see my clothes line full with things drying in mother natures dryer.
Hubbie left about mid morning going back down to the livestock market to watch our cattle sell. We did petty good except for one so that is normal I guess they never bring what I think they should !!
I had 2 cake deliveries to make this morning along with an Avon delivery.My deliveries took me past this waterfall and old mill ,I always stop to admire this site.
After lunch I hung out more laundry and when hubbie got home he helped me finish cleaning the floors.
We went over to the in-laws old house and made pictures to advertise it for sale. We are going to try to sell it ourselves first before we list it with a realtor.It's a nice little house ,close enough to walk to town but far enough out of town to be out of the traffic and taxes. Puttin it in God's hands at this point.As I walked this evening this little lady who escaped market yesterday started following me around the pasture as if asking where her friends were?On this beautiful sunny warm 79 degree day the reflection of these bushes in our pond caught my eye this evening. Another kind of reflection came to mind when I saw this picture on a local news network. This is what Tunnel Road looked like when I was in my late teens and early twenties when we used to drive through the tunnel to get to the part where all the eating places were and we would drag them every Saturday night.
In the late 70's and early 80's they made a huge cut in this mountain for a road instead of a tunnel. In this picture they have already removed all the trees getting ready for the cut.
I baked cakes tonight.
Thank God for the blessing of a wonderful day today.
Good Night and God bless.