Stress? Never Heard Of It...

I am soooooooo tired.
Lou is starting to get back to her old self... FINALLY! She was moved to the rehabilitation unit which basically is an extended care facility. But for her, it's not permanent. Thank the Lord. In fact, she has been getting real antsy cause she wants to go home. I went and visited her and all she could talk about was that she wanted to get out of there. The problem is that she needs care right now 24/7 and the home visiting nurse is only for part of the daytime. So she needs to strengthen up in physical rehab and that will give Terri a break too as she has to have chemo that she's allergic to and she'll be down for a while. It's been a pretty heavy duty stressful time for our family but life goes on. I have to get my poop in a group cause my car is acting up a bit and needs work and it's just a bunch of little things right now that are making life challenging. But I'm not giving in to the desire to have a pity party. Life can whiz sometimes but I knew that there would be times like this. But like the Good Book says... "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world..."

No Luck Of The Irish...

Appreciate the kind prayers for Lou and Terri. Terri is hanging in there like always. Lou has had a rough road to travel. She was in the ICU and even though she had head trauma, she was doing decent. Then she was transferred out of ICU and when she got nauseous, the doctor ordered a med that we told them NOT to give her as it makes her confused and disoriented. They gave her the med and sure enough, she got all disoriented and didn't know who we were. I was not happy and Terri, even in her condition, about blew a head gasket. We got the med stopped and Lou is very slowly starting to remember things but is still quite out of it. She is miserable and can't focus on anything and is getting very frustrated. So that is where things stand with that situation. But in a moment that told me that maybe she's doing a little bit better, she had a vintage Lou "moment".
She is in a semi-private room (which means NO privacy) and her roommate is a little 96 year old woman who is all of 4 foot 8. Lou (who is a bilateral amputee- just below her knees) is watching as the woman (who is extremely hard of hearing) is helped to the bathroom. She comes back out, and Lou looks at me and says "y'know what? I bet if I could stand on my stumps, I'd still be taller than her..." I buried my head and nearly convulsed with laughter. My big ol' body was shaking like Jello. That's when I knew I had hope for my sister...

Stress? What's Stress?

Sometimes I wonder....

I know that there is a reason for everything. But my family has had better weeks. Terri had to go get chemo (the chemo that she's allergic to. But it's the only one that works on her) and they gave it to her at half strength. She got sick and they wanted to stop but she told them to keep administering it to her. It took them NINE HOURS to get the full dose into her. Her doctor told her "you know what Terri? I wouldn't blame you if you said you wanted stop doing this anymore." Apparently this doctor doesn't know her very well. I got to feeling under the weather with a fever and general state of dizziness. Thought it might be my sugar, but it was fever and after I hit the Tylenol, I felt better once it popped. But it came back twice and it's gone for now but I don't know what the heck is going on. Then to top it off, Lou had an accident. The ambulette came to pick her up and take her to dialysis. Well, they have to put her wheelchair on a metal riser that lifts her up from the ground into the ambulette. I don't know how, but her safety belt that was supposed to be fastened came loose and she and her chair rolled off from the riser and she ended up falling back, hitting her head something fierce, and ending up in the neuro intensive care unit. Her CT came back negative so they think she'll be okay but there's a little blood at the base of her skull so she's going to be out for a while. It really hit me like a sucker punch because of all the things that I figure that could happen to her, this was the LAST thing I would've figured. It's times like this I still wish I drank because boy I could use a stiff belt right about now...

Pickin' and Grinnin' (my apologies to Hee Haw)

Okay, so when last I wrote on these pages... I was whinning about the Olympics and who to root for... I didn't mind Canada winning the hockey gold medal even though I wanted the States to win. Now looking back, it was an odd Olympics marred by tragedy, perseverance, inspiration, and hope. The poor Georgian national who bought it on the luge track before the games officially opened. That really could've brought things to a screeching halt. But they kept going. One of the two biggest stories to touch my heart was watching the story unfold of JoAnnie Rochette. How she endured the loss of her mom and had the skate of her life two days later. That was unbelievable. That, to me, exemplified the Olympic spirit. I just felt so sorry for her and her father. But the way she gutted through that pain with such a great performance, she won everyone's hearts over. That and the gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada... People who weren't hockey fans watched that and marveled how great that game was. I have to agree. They really put on a show that will also leave a huge mark on the games.
Okay so we got the Oscars coming up tomorrow night. Normally, I'm not one to be the least bit concerned about another self-congratulatory awards show. I don't know... I guess I like making picks and since the football season is over, I'm stuck with the Oscars... I'm usually wrong with the picks I make and who the actual winners are, so I'm picking who my personal favorites were and then who I think will actually win... Just the top five awards...

Best Supporting Actor

My Pick: Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Oscar Pick: Matt Damon (Invictus)

Best Supporting Actress

My Pick: Mo'Nique (Precious)
Oscar Pick: Mo'Nique

Best Actor

My Pick: Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Oscar Pick: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heat)

Best Actress

My Pick: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Oscar Pick: Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)

Best Picture

My Pick: The Blind Side
Oscar Pick: Avatar