Thought I wouldn’t blog today but…here I am! Woke up oddly early this morning . It’s no wonder. I feed at night. God that sounds like I’m a vampire. But in layman’s terms: I am hooked up to my feeding pump all night. You have to really pee to cart that heavy lug of an IV pole down the hall and back. I had to but…just couldn’t drag myself out of bed. I guess you could say the bladder was willing but the Tubie was weak.

Have I told you I have 2 dogs? Miniature poodles. Adorable! They are from the same litter although, one is much larger than the other. Nibbles is the bigger girl, Chocolate is the tiny one. Don’t judge the names. My sons named them when they were young kids. The dogs don’t help the sleep situation in our house. Tim and I have a full size bed. It’s fine for the two of us but much to Tim’s dismay, it is NEVER just the two of us. I always have to have the dogs in bed with us. It didn’t start out that way. They used to sleep in the crate at night. Until I came home from one of my many hospitalizations and explained to my hubby that it would me feel better faster to have the pups in bed. Nibbles and Chocolate have never spent another night in the crate. Where was I going with this? Oh! Yes. They take up a lot of the bed. They have nightmares and kick their feet. They are scared to death of storms. And they are very skilled at letting us know they have to go out. Not subtle at all…they sit on Tim’s chest and lick his face until he gets up. Works like a charm so I don’t suppose it will change.

Anyway, we went to Longwood Gardens this morning. It is a beautiful place to walk and enjoy the beautiful flowers and plants. During the winter, the conservatory area is warm and toasty and smells like a bouquet. We were (un)lucky enough to be there during an outdoor childrens rock concert. We, of course, didn’t attend but the music (term used loosely) filled the morning air. We had to sneak in and check out what individuals could be emitting these screeching sounds. Expecting to see people in costumes or band made up of girls…they are all Middle Aged men. How in the hell did their voices go so high? We entertained ideas of what could make that happen…all possibilities made us laugh. Best part was when they broke into ACDC’s Back in Black! What the f? But the kids were going wild. Go figure!

Side note, as we were sitting on a bench talking like an old senior couple, I remembered on old toy. Tim never heard of it. It was a “wiggly” worm kind of you that you could never grab. It would always slip out of your hands. Not sure what made me think of that. Did you ever have one? I think I might go on Amazon and order one. Will keep you posted on that.

Came home after that. Honestly, too exhausted to do anything else. When we walked in the door, my mom was grooming the dogs. Now that is a freaking shit show! Poodle hair everywhere! I just wanted to rest but had to jump in and assist in the sheering of the sheep. Should have taken a picture of all of the hair. Could have made two more dogs out of it.

Oh yea…here are a few pics from our morning.

Me & Nibbles

My Mom’s bday cake, beautiful huh?

Just thought I’d share with you…kind of a selfie Saturday. Enjoy your weekend!

Woohoo! My life is a blog!

I wake up in an insane about of pain after sleeping in 87 different positions trying to find relief from pain all night. But the key words were – I wake up! Always a good start to the day.

You know when you wake up in the morning and you really have to go to the bathroom? You are practically walking with your knees together. Yes. That was me this morning. But add to that…THE POLE! No more getting anywhere quickly for me. Not like I was sprinting anywhere anyway but add the IV pole to the mix and it is a circus act. I wish (or not) that someone could video this process. My original pole generously provided to me by my insurance company was so large that I couldn’t fit it down the hallway. Seriously! I live in a 115 year old house, very narrow hallways. So I would have to pick up and walk my pole around like a dog. A big awkward dog with tubes all over.  My incredible mom (Cathy) bought me a very compact based really sturdy pole. Thank God for her! Sadly, it won’t roll down the hall because of the carpet so now I am walking a slimmer dog that has packed on some major pounds. But, I make it there and all is good.

Next, tube care. Tubie life is a much different life and all of the maintenance and care steps are critical. SO you have to flush your tubes. This just simply means flushing water through the tubes via a large syringe to keep the tubes free from clogging. Sounds easy enough right? I thought so too…in the beginning. Until my tubes overflowed on me about eight thousand times. Now, I have the trick. No one tells you the trick. You have to learn on your own. Because I love you all, I will share. Hopefully you never need it. You must hold your breathe and not talk during the whole time your tube is open. You can bet your bottom dollar that this is when someone will ask you a question, your phone will ring, you will cough or worse yet, sneeze. What a shit show that is!

Now on to medications. I lay out my meds on the counter. To the passerby-er, it may appear I am setting up to play a good ole game of mancala. Nope! Just taking my morning meds. Since the addition of my tube, I have the option to grind my pills, mix with water and syringe them into my tube. As much fun as that sounds, I chose to still swallow them. After all, I can’t eat. At least it is something going into my stomach. I am a fat girl at heart!

Are you still with me? Bathroom – check! Tube care – check! Meds – check! Next – shower. I am lucky enough to have had some modifications done to my house to make life easier for me. My favorite of these is my built in shower seat. Makes me life so much easier. Because of my depleted energy level, I still have to decide between showering and washing my hair or showering and shaving. Sadly for Tim (my hubby), my hair always smells wonderful and my legs look like Sasquatch.

Time to make my way down the stairs. Without a doubt, my mom will be at the bottom of the stairs to greet me with the biggest smile and a hug. I love my mom! This is not just an occasional occurrence – this is EVERY morning! And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

With all of that done, I make my way to the sofa to start my day aka take a nap. zzzzz!

Woohoo! My life is a blog!