I FEEL AS IF I LIVE IN THE HOSPITAL

 

Hello, friends!  Hope you are all having a wonderful week.  The weekend is right around the corner. 

It has been quite a week for me.  I missed church on Sunday because I had been having severe stomach pains, nausea and running to the bathroom every few minutes.  It was not fun.  Instead of church I went to Urgent Care.  The doctor there said I had the dreaded stomach virus that has been going around here.  It just has to run its course.  She prescribed Pepcid for me just to keep me comfortable.  *sigh*

Monday I tried to get ahold of my gastro doctor.  I was scheduled for a colonoscopy on Wednesday and didn't know if I should go through with it.  His assistant wasn't in and the phone system they have there made it impossible for me to leave him a message.  I finally got ahold of a nurse and talked with her.  She left a message for him and told me to see how I felt the next day.  I was not going to take the cleanse if I wasn't going to have the procedure!

My doctor finally called me back on Tuesday morning and questioned me intently about how I was feeling.  Finally, he said to see how I was feeling in the afternoon before I started taking any medicine.  If I still felt bad, I was to call him back and we would reschedule.  After thinking it over, I decided to just go through with it.  I would only have it hanging over my head for awhile longer.  Let's just get it done.

So Tuesday afternoon I started the cleanse.  It actually went pretty well, all things considered.  Let's face it, no one likes to do this.  But since the last time he found precancerous polyps, this was the right thing to do.

My appointment was for 10:30 a.m.  My friend Carole picked me up and stayed with me.  We got to the hospital around 10:00 and got me signed in.  I was told there was no bed available, so I would need to wait in the waiting room for about 15 minutes.  Fine.  But that 15 minutes turned into 2 hours!  And it was freezing in there.  To make matters worse, I was so hungry.  There was a snack machine in the room and the two ladies sitting in front of us kept getting more and more food from the machine and eating it in front of me.  *sigh*

Finally about noon I was taken back to a bed.  Almost immediately there were nurses there getting me prepared for the procedure.  My doctor showed up at 12:05.  I told him I had been waiting for 2 hours and he was upset.  They had overbooked for the day so there were more patients than beds.  He had everyone move me into the operating room right away and by 12:15 I was in dreamland.  Well, at least that's the last time I remember seeing on the clock in the room.

The good news is there were no more precancer polyps.  Everything looked good.  I don't have to have another one for 5 years.  That will probably be my last one since they tend not to do them after age 75 unless there is a problem.  Since my dad died of colon and liver cancer I am very up on taking care of myself (as are my siblings).

When I got home from the hospital I got something to eat (can't remember what just now) and then took a nap.  And what a nap.  I slept from 4:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.  Wow!  I got up and Joe made me some scrambled eggs.  Then I went back to bed and slept until 6:00 the next morning.

I slept most of yesterday too.  But today I had to get ready for my next hospital visit.  I had my annual mammogram.  So back to the hospital I went.  On my own this time.  And a much shorter time.  My appointment was for 10:00 a.m. and I was on my way home by 10:45.  That included the waiting room, the changing room, the test, and waiting for the valet to get my car for me.

I would hope this is the last of hospitals for me for awhile but I also have a tooth that needs to be extracted sooner rather than later.  I didn't know the dentist was not open on Fridays.  I left a message, but will call on Monday also.  There is always something.  I need a vacation.  Fortunately, there is one coming up in my near future.  Tell you about that later.

I called out for Chinese food tonight.  Just right for a Friday night.  It reminds me of my childhood and the food my mom used to make for me.  I had chicken and broccoli.  Joe had egg foo yung for the first time and he liked it a lot.

Guess I'll end for now.  I still have things to do before I go to bed.  Although I really want to go to bed now.  I'm so tired.

Talk to you all soon.  Know that I do get around and read your posts even if I don't comment on them very often.

Kathy

WHAT I'M READING -- THE GIRL IN THE STRIPED DRESS

 Actually I haven't been reading a lot lately.  I really want to get back into it.  But I haven't been able to get into a book the way I got into this one.  This is one of the best books I've ever read.  I literally could not put it down.  I walked around the house reading it...  kitchen, yard, bathroom, bedroom.  I finished it in three days.  Unheard of for me.

THE GIRL IN THE STRIPED DRESS:  A COMPLETELY HEARTBREAKING AND GRIPPING WORLD WAR 2 PAGE-TURNER BASED ON A TRUE STORY by Ellie Midwood

I had been watching some WW2 videos on YouTube (I watch a lot of history videos) and wanted a book about that time period to read.  This came up on my Kindle recommendations, so I decided to read it.  But once I started, I couldn't stop.  I would say "Just one more chapter" and it would be hours later when I looked up and I had read three or four chapters.  Let me tell you about it.  This is from the Amazon web site.

Auschwitz, 1942: This unforgettable novel, based on a true story, brings to life history’s most powerful tale of forbidden love. Set within the barbed wire of Auschwitz, a man and a woman fall in love against unimaginable odds. What happens next will restore your faith in humanity, and make you believe in hope even where hope should not exist.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered, pressing a note into her hand. Her entire body trembled when she read it: I am in love with you.

Helena steps off the cattle train onto the frozen grounds of Auschwitz. She has twenty-four hours to live. Scheduled to be killed tomorrow, she is not even tattooed with a prison number. As the snow falls around her, she shivers, knowing that she has been sentenced to death for a crime she didn’t commit.

When a gray-clad officer marches towards Helena and pulls her away, she fears the worst. Instead, he tells her that it’s one of the guard’s birthdays and orders her to serenade him.

Inside the SS barracks the air is warm, thick with cigarette smoke and boisterous conversation. After she sings to the guard, Franz, he presses a piece of cake into her hands––the first thing she has eaten in days. On the spot, he orders her life to be saved, forever changing the course of her fate.

What follows is a love story that was forbidden, that should have been impossible, and yet saved both of their lives––and hundreds of others––in more ways than one.

The most confusing part of the book is when it goes back and forth between a current trial and the memories of the past.  Both are interesting though and it doesn't take long to figure out which is which.  This is an amazing story and the fact that it is true makes it even better.  Of course some of it is fictionalized since no one was actually there for parts of it.

I read another person's review of this book and she said this is a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome.  I agree.  Can you really fall in love with your prisoner or with your captor?  Especially under these circumstances.  Or is it great gratitude for saving your life?  You be the judge of that.

It is a book that I highly recommend anyone who is interested in World War Two.

Now I am off to find another book to read.  I certainly have enough of them!  See you all later.

Kathy

PEEPS

 

Hello, friends!  Can you believe it's Wednesday already?  Time just flies by.  Before you know it, it will be Easter.  And what is Easter without Peeps?

I know that lots of people hate Peeps.  My sister-in-law put up a picture of vomit on my facebook page when I said I loved them.  That is your perogative, but I love Peeps.  And it's not like I eat them every day of my life.  If you don't like them, that's all the more for me.

I saw them in Rite Aid a few weeks ago selling for 2 for $3.  I got two.  Yellow and blue bunnies.  I didn't take a picture of the blue ones, but here's the yellow ones.

A week later Joe was in Target and saw these Peeps on sale.  He got me three boxes.  Yellow, purple and pink chicks!

As I always say to Joe, "Peeps, beautiful Peeps!  Oh how I love my Peeps!"

What is your favorite Easter candy?

See you later,

Kathy

DO YOU LIKE TO COLOR?

Hello, friends!  Hope you had a good week.  And here it is the weekend already.  Time just flies by.  And speaking of time, don't forget to change your clocks tonight.  On the news they said this may be the last time if Congress approves to keep the clocks the same time year round.

You may wonder about the title of this post.  I am addicted to coloring apps on my tablet.  It is so relaxing, especially with all the stress I've been under recently.  The other day I was doing one with no pre-drawn lines.  In other words, instead of looking like a coloring book, it looked like a blank piece of paper.  Those are cool because you have no idea what you are coloring.  It could be an old car, a cat, a house in a large clearing, or words that say "You are Stupid."  Yes, it could be anything at all.  But this one looked interesting.  After the first few colors I knew what I was coloring and it made me so happy.  Here's the picture with the first 10 colors on.  Do you know what it is?

No?  Well maybe after 20 colors.

Do you know now?   Well, look at it with 30 colors.

At first I thought it was a bird.  But by this time I knew what it was.  Here is 50 colors.

Did you guess it was a butterfly?  I did.  This was one of the hardest pictures I have ever colored.  Here it is at 100 colors.

As I went on, it became prettier and prettier.  This next picture is at 200 colors.

It ended up having 321 colors and took me two days to color it.  But it was well worth it.  How pretty!

Most pictures that I color I can do in 20 minutes or less.  They are not complicated and do not have hundreds of colors.  But every once in a while I like to challenge myself and do the more complicated ones.

Do you have a hobby that helps you to relax?  By the way I also enjoy reading, crocheting, knitting and photography to help me get rid of that stress.

What's my stress?  Let me just say that doctors and dentists are wonderful people and I'm so glad that we have them.  But when you see two a week for six weeks you do get stressed.

Thanks for reading.  I'll see you all soon.

Kathy

JUST WONDERING -- WHY DO BRIDES CARRY A BOUQUET DURING THE WEDDING CEREMONY?

 

Hello, friends!  Happy Tuesday.  I don't have much time today because I am on my way to Bible study, but I thought I would do another "Just Wondering" post.  I wonder about a lot of things.  Last night I was watching "Spring Baking Championship" on Food Network.  They were making cakes that look like spring bouquets.  Hmm...  I thought about different bouquets and googled the word bouquet.  The topic of wedding bouquets came up and I thought, "Well why did I have to carry a bunch of flowers down the aisle?"  So here is the answer.

In ancient times it was important in a marriage to have children.  People lived shorter lives than we do today and life was much harder.  One of the few highlights of life on this earth was two people joining together to create a family and have children.  People had strong superstitions.  They believed the pagan gods had to be bribed and mollified to be good to them.  One of the gifts they would give to these gods was a handful of wheat sheaves made into a garland or crown with fragrant herbs.

The origin of a bridal bouquet goes back to ancient Rome.  Along with herbs, they would add roses or orange blossoms to these garlands in order to promote fertility and good fortune.  Strands of ivy were also added to symbolize a strong bond between the two people and white blossoms symbolized happiness.

Faithfulness and fertility were the top virtues of the ancient marriages.  These were symbolized throughout the wedding ceremony by this garland or crown the bride was wearing.  By the Middle Ages, these crowns had turned into a bouquet which the bride would carry during the ceremony.  The content of the bouquet had also changed.  They now included herbs like dill (which was considered an aphrodisiac), thistle and rosemary (for protection), ivy (a strong bond) and even garlic.

Why does the bride toss the bouquet? (Which, by the way, I didn't because I personally HATE that tradition.)  This began during the Middle Ages when it was considered good luck to touch the bride's dress (or even cut a piece of it off to keep!).  Brides began throwing their bouquets as a diversion to keep the people from destroying her clothing.  Hmm...  I might have thrown that bouquet if people were coming at me with scissors and cutting part of my dress off while I was still wearing it!

After the 17th century flowers began to replace the herbs and grains.  The bouquets began as small creations slowly getting larger and more elaborate by the 19th century.

When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840, she added a sprig of myrtle to her bouquet.  Since that time every British royal bride has had a sprig of myrtle from that same bush in their bridal bouquets.  And since the early 20th century royal brides have laid their bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey even if their wedding did not take place there.

All this information is from the newsletter Petal Talk published online by 1-800-flowers.  So interesting.  Now I know and so do you.

Hope you liked this fun post.  I will be back soon with more.  See you then.

Kathy