Patty's epic adventure

  8/30/23 This ought to be a very interesting post to read. I had my eye surgery and cannot see squat. So, I will not be able to proofread this post for any spelling errors. I am just going to talk into my iPad and hope for the best. My left eye is my worst eye, and it’s the only eye I can use right now. Surgery only took about 40 minutes, so that was good. She said everything went well. I had an IV with anesthesia, but I think it was more like anesthesia with a colonoscopy. I was asleep at first, but then I woke up in the middle of the procedure. She said that is normal, and I just needed to be relaxed. She told me if I felt any pain, to let her know, and they would increase the dosage. It hurt at one point and I heard her ask the anesthesiologist to increase my dose. I do not remember much, but I saw really weird things. Apparently, I also told jokes during the procedure, but I have no memory of doing that. They were laughing afterwards, and thanking me for my stories. I had a ba...

  8/21/23 Today is Monday. I will have my eye surgery one week from today in Dallas at 8 AM. I can hardly wait! It’s just one eye, because I have to wait one month to do the other eye. I will have to go back Tuesday at noon for my follow up, and then we can drive home from there. We are in a severe drought and I dread when my next water bill arrives. I should’ve taken a picture of my thermometer yesterday. It was 112° with the heat index of 130°. Un-frickin’ believable. I was watering the ivy in the garden beneath the oak trees on the side of the house. Almost half of it is already dead, but I thought I could save the rest. Did you know that red wasps will make their homes at the base of oak trees, behind a curtain of Ivy? Did you also know that they are not very pleased when a spray of water from a hose is directed at their nest? You would think that they would be grateful for the water, since it is so dry. But, no, that is not the case. Do you have any idea how fast overweight, o...

  Later tonight- Well, I had a very busy day. And no nap! I a unpacked everything from my Alaska trip, opened a months worth of mail, got all the laundry done, and moved the sprinkler around the yard about 100 times. It was 108° today with the heat index with 127°. I did chores all day long. After I made myself some dinner, which was late, I decided to get in the pool. I had the big sprinkler going on the front lawn, so I figured I could swim for about 45 minutes, get out of the pool, turn the water off, and go on in the house for the night. Good plan, right? I thought so, too. When I got in to the pool, it was nearly dark. When I got out of the pool, it was pitch black. No one can see in my backyard. So, I used the hose to rinse my hair and myself off. I took my swimsuit off (yes, I was wearing one, because I needed it when I was setting the sprinkler out front), I dried off, and then wrapped my giant beach towel around me. All I have left to do is turn the water off by the garage...

  Later - I was so tired on Thursday, that I kept falling asleep in the MRI machine. If you’ve ever had an MRI, you know that they put earplugs in your ears and headphones over them, also. They usually play music or something through the headphones to help drown out the banging. That never works. So, you can only imagine how tired I was in order to keep falling asleep through all of that racket. I am laying face down with my head in the cradle, so it’s a bit difficult to move. My arms are stretched out above my head and I have an IV in. The only time I woke up during the procedure (which lasted an hour) was when they spoke to me. They kept waking me up to tell me to stop moving so much. After a few times, I finally figured out how I could’ve been moving when I was asleep. It was my sleep apnea. I kept waking up, gasping for air.  After it was over, the tech told me I should get that checked. I laughed. I said I already had a CPAP machine. My two hour MRI appointment turned int...

  8/19/23 It’s Saturday. I haven’t written for a month, but it’s simply because I was on vacation! I was in Alaska for three weeks and had an absolute blast. I saw moose, bears, went fishing, went to a wedding, and saw some old friends I hadn’t seen in over 50 years! I flew home without David because he wanted to stay up there another week. I could not because I had appointments a couple of days at MD Anderson in Houston. I flew all night Tuesday night to get home and did not sleep a wink. I got home in the middle of the day on Wednesday, but was too tired to drive to Houston. I got up early the next morning and drove straight to the hospital. Had an x-ray and an MRI, then drove to Courtney‘s house to spend the night. I got up early Friday morning to drive to West Houston campus to meet the surgeon. I decided not to have a biopsy because my tumor has not grown any in the last six months. We will just keep an ion it. I drove straight home after my last appointment and started wateri...