Our day started at five a.m. 

James' surgery was scheduled for nine, but we were supposed to be there by 7:30; we were there way earlier.

They have a nifty system: you get one of those "your table is ready" things that vibrates and blinks when you check in. It notifies you to admissions, then to pre-op, and then it's given to whomever accompanied the person having outpatient surgery, to call you back to see the person before they go into surgery. Following that, they have a board with color-coded stages of the surgery (admittance, pre-op, waiting, etc. all the way to "all done"), and you also get texts on the patient's progress in surgery and then in post-op.

So James did paperwork, then we waited, then he went back to pre-op, then I went back to pre-op, where he was all kitted up for surgery. The nurses, as always, were super-nice, and we met the anesthetist and then Dr. Austin came in to go over the surgery with us. And then I went back out into the foyer to wait. I got some milk and Doritos from the cafeteria and had brought fruit with me. (I tried to get a seat next to an electrical plug; there was only one, and when I did get that seat, the plug wasn't powered. So I depended on the laptop battery, wrote what I wanted to write, then went on to reading.) The text came that he was in surgery. The doctor said surgery would be 25 minutes to an hour, depending on what they found and also how long it took them to stop the bleeding (he didn't have to go off his blood thinners). Pretty much an hour later I got a text that he was out of surgery.

Post-op was hard to get through. They said about an hour, but could be up to three hours. James' was closest to three because his blood pressure was very low when they woke him up and also because the post-op nurse wanted him to be able to blow a certain amount on the spirometer before he got to go home. It wouldn't have been so bad, but his number disappeared from the status board; I never did get the grey "all done!" message that was supposed to follow post-op! So, yeah, I was "making buttons" until they called me back, and then we had to get the discharge papers and he had to get dressed and we had to use the bathroom, and then we had to stop by Kaiser for pain pills (which he never used, but we took them anyway) and only then could we go home. They didn't even put a bandage on it; the post-op person said they didn't want to impede the circulation in any way. All they put on it was surgical glue and it was fine for him to shower with; he just couldn't immerse. The surgical cut was less than three inches long. Got the usual warnings: look for excess redness or swelling or pus.

The surprise of the day was when James came home and took his blood sugar; even after not eating, it was almost 300. So he figured they might have given him some steroids, because he also discovered that even though he was bushed from the surgery, he was standing straighter and his knee wasn't creaking like it does all the time because he had no pain in his knees, back or hips at all.

Labels: health, sickness, surgery

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:18:00 PM

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Another week of chores. The big event was eating at the new buffet on Austell Road, the Atlantic Buffet, which bills itself as a Chinese/American/Mexican buffet. It was pretty good. We went on a Friday so there was a lot of seafood (I ate lots of shrimp and paid for it the next day). They had sushi, a hibachi grill, and then various Chinese dishes. The "Mexican" was a little rectangle of space with taco shells and various fillings. The "American" appears to be cheese pizza and lasagna and mac'n'cheese. Most of what we ate was okay and not all that salty, and I enjoyed it because they had steamers as part of the seafood and also coffee ice cream in the ice cream freezer (with the desserts they also had grasshopper pie).

But this place took over the old Golden Corral which has been closed for ages, and they announced the Atlantic Buffet "coming soon" for so long that we figured they were doing a thorough cleaning out. What a surprise to pretty much find out that it looks like the old Golden Corral setup, with minor modifications, and the old ripped up vinyl sofa that was there when GC closed was still there! I did like some of the food but the "remodel" was thoroughly disappointing. However, lots of working class folks in there for a big hearty meal.

Watching the Futurama revival on Hulu. Some funny stuff, but it seems to have lost its edge.

I've also been watching Law & Order: SVU from the beginning because of how people rave about it, and also curious about the fervent Benson/Stabler shipping. It's a completely different show from what it is now, which basically seems to revolve around Olivia Benson, more of an ensemble drama the first two seasons, and then as seasons three and four go on, more stories revolve around Benson and Stabler. Everyone's always on about John Munch (Richard Beltzer's character), and yet he has less and less to do each season, and seems to hang around just to make a pithy remark or offer some kind of conspiracy theory. Once in a while he gets a chance to shine. Same thing with Fin...they sort of toss him in every so often. I guess I still haven't reached the point where you start seeing this "thing" between Benson and Stabler. They don't even seem to have the rapport Goren and Eames had reached by second season.

I'll tell you though, after four or five of these in a row, the show is very depressing! Probably why we never watched the first time around!

Labels: food, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:18:00 PM

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It's been a mixed-bag week.

The most fun thing this week was Ron Butler's birthday party at O'Charley's. There was a big crowd including a bunch of people from the other side of town who we don't usually see that often.

James got a new office chair this week. His old one had a cracked base and made the most dreadful squeaks and creaks when he sat in it. It's a nice chair, but it was hell and a half to put together. The holes that the screws went into to fasten the armrests to the seat and the back (which hold the seat and the back together) did not have screw grooves all the way through. So the screws kept getting cross-threaded. It took us a half hour to get eight screws into the holes, one of them never went in properly but is holding anyway, and James had to hold the chair back and seat in place while I pushed the screws in—one person could not have assembled this chair.

However, it's so nice now not to hear that chair screaming!

James had a good checkup with Dr. Shash (cardiologist) on Tuesday, and then we went to Trader Joe's. Pumpkin spice is already appearing on the shelves!

I also picked up my 2024 calendar for next year. Alas, no more lighthouse calendars from Jot.

Labels: chores, food, friends, health, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:51:00 PM

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The heat has been relentless, in the mid- to high 90s. We have not even been going out to do the shopping regularly, but stopping at Lidl on the way home from James' physiotherapy and then stopping at Publix erratically. It means staying inside, but it's better than not being able to breathe properly and having burning skin.

Our only respite was Saturday, when James went to his club meeting. I followed him there to make sure he made it in okay—he told me he leaves when the other guys leave, so if he does fall, there is someone there to help him and call for help if needed, and he won't be out there lying in the heat—and then I went to Book Nook, but it was closed, so I went on to Walmart and then to Sam's Club next door. Got the most delicious-looking steaks and pork chops at the latter, both under $3/pound.

For supper we went to The Tomatoes Buffet (formerly Fried Tomato Buffet) and then went to Barnes & Noble. We stayed a lot longer than usual because as soon as we got into the store the skies opened. For several minutes the rain was coming down horizontally! Talk about Georgia Monsoon Season.

Labels: books, food, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:34:00 PM

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Several good things happened this week.

The big primary was that the chair lift got installed. They removed the railings on the stairs and then set it up. I don't know why, but I didn't realize it was going to be installed on the stairs; for some reason I thought it would hang from the studs in the wall. Now that I look at it, it being in the studs in the wall wouldn't make sense.

We also closed out the HOA post office box. There's no HOA anymore, so there's no use in having a post office box any longer. Thank goodness, no more trips to the post office for all that crap. Now to get the water turned off out front; in seventeen years we've never watered the lawn out there.

We also finished watching all of season one of Dark Winds. Outstanding! Waiting for season two to finish so we can watch that.

Did a bunch of chores this week, and worked on a piece of fanfiction.

Yippee. Exciting!

Labels: chores, health, television, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:06:00 PM

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