Where Has The Year Gone?

This year has quickly gone from January first to February and then March without many blog posts. Bill spent more than a month with us and we enjoyed many excursions with him which I mentioned on Facebook. He arrived just before Valentine's Day as he has done in the past. We enjoy having him here and he enjoys going birding with his Dad and Laura as well as taking us on excursions. We had our usual adventures with Bill, going to the mountains and desert as well as our favorite coastal birding spots. One day we went to the Salton Sea for a great day of birding. Another day we went to Valley Center for our traditional visit with Griff. That was a fun day for all of us.

Bill spent a few days with his friend Mark on a birding trip to Arizona. He spent another few days on a birding trip by himself in the desert. Bill, Laura and I enjoyed a two day trip to Los Angeles to spend time with my sister Donna and brother-in-law Fred. That was a photo perfect trip for all of us as we went on several excursions with Donna and Fred. One day we went to a great auto museum which I wrote about on Facebook. Another day we went on a long ride in a beautiful coastal area, near where Marineland used to be. We could see Catalina Island from where we were.

One of the last trips we took with Bill was to Orange county for birding. We found birding spots that were new to us and also several places we have been before. One place we had been before was to the large lagoon in Huntington Beach. Laura and Bill took a long walk there. Paul had a short walk and I should have walked. I had been having problems walking so got lazy and did not do enough walks. I did a little but spent more time than I should have in the car.

Bill headed east towards his home in Florida on Monday, March 26th. I asked him to call me when he gets home or if he was going to be delayed. He planned to take several weeks to get home as he was going to be birding along the way. He has to call us as his phone is not turned on for us to call him. It is now well into April and we have not heard from him. His friend Mark heard from him once but their conversation was cut short. I very much would like to hear from Bill before I really get to worrying. I went through the worrying experience on at least two separate occasions with him in the past. All for naught. He was fine each time. But Mothers do get very concerned, even when their children are well into adulthood.

I was having some problems with pain and spasms in my leg the Monday that Bill left. The next day I began to experience numbness in my leg and arm. A decision was made to go to the ER to rule out a stroke. Our good neighbor Sergio took us to the hospital where we spent a good part of the day. Sergio patiently waited with Paul and Laura while I was being taken care of in the ER. After cat scans and x-rays it was determined it was not a stroke. I went home with the understanding to call my doctor, or go back to the hospital if there was a change. Things went from bad to worse. I had a bad fall Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning it was obvious I should go back to the ER. Madeline came from Lemon Grove to take me to the ER. Madeline also had to go to her mother's that day so she was really being God's vessel in ministering to friends and family.

It was decided that I needed to be admitted to the hospital that Wednesday. I would receive good care and the necessary tests to determine the problem. I appreciated the care given by the nurses and the kindness of each person involved with my well being. The patience of the ones involved in my MRI was very much appreciated. The first time I discovered my extreme claustrophobia and wanted out immediately. I had MRIs before but was not so closed in those times. The next day they tried again with me having a sedative. I got spasms in my leg that I could not control so they could not continue that MRI. The third day they had an anesthesiologist there for me to sedate me even more. That worked. It was a complete MRI of my head and spine so it took an hour and a half. Good thing I was sedated. Not all the way asleep though. I sort of knew what was going on but was calm. No strokes or anything obvious to cause my problem was found. I do have arthritis and some stenosis that we already knew about. I think my problem is a very bad pinched nerve. But what does not make sense is why was my arm involved as well as my leg. My arm did not stay bad though. I can still feel it a little but the real problem is my lower right side, mainly my leg.

At the hospital I did not see my own primary care doctor. Now days they just have doctors that are there for the patients in the hospital. The doctor that I had at the hospital was just as concerned as my own doctor would have been. I also briefly saw a neurologist at the same time I was having my first walk with a walker with the help of a physical therapist. I wore an arm band that said "fall risk" as well as red slippers that indicated I was at risk of falling. I needed help to just use the commode beside the bed.

I enjoyed many visitors and phone calls. You cannot imagine how important that is until you are in such a situation. I appreciate those that came from both of my churches. I so much love my family and friends who showed their love and concern. The beautiful flowers were also appreciated as well as the cards. Paul was not feeling good but came anyway. But then Laura checked the rash he was concerned about and discovered that he has shingles! He did not go to church that Sunday and Laura came with Sheila after church to see me. That is when I was checked out of the hospital and taken for a long wheelchair ride and down a long hall to the rehab hospital next door. Laura and Sheila were with me as I moved into my next room and bed. It was comforting to have them there for me.

I continued to have physical therapy with the kind and efficient therapists. They seemed to have the best grasp of my situation. I also appreciate all the dear nurses that ministered to my needs. I can't say enough kind words about them. I was at Birch-Patrick Convalescent Hospital from Sunday, April 1st until the following Saturday. Six days there and four days at Sharp Chula Vista, totaling ten days. I also had visitors during my days at rehab, as well as phone calls from loved ones. Griff came down from Valley Center to see me one of the days I was in the hospital. He also came to visit the day I got home.

Paul was not able to visit me the last week when I was at Birch-Patrick. He and Laura went to "urgent care" to be sure it was shingles that Paul had. The doctor said it was a full blown case of shingles. Paul got a prescription and instructions to call his own doctor. Paul canceled his regular heart doctor appointment since he was sick. He made the appointment for his primary care doctor. He had not been to that doctor in a long time. He had his visit with his doctor this past week on Thursday, April 12th. Our good neighbor Sergio was so kind to take us to Coronado for this appointment.

Our long time neighbor Jake is the one that brought me home from the hospital on Saturday, April 7th. This is not a first for him. He brought Paul home from the hospital after his long stay at UCSD Medical Center in January of 2001. We love our neighbors. Some of them are family to us. I used to baby sit for Jan and Jake's children, Alison and Colin, and they are my kids. Now they have children.

I'm still struggling with needing to use a walker to get from one room to another. But I do ok and try to keep moving during the day. I see things I wish I could do but can't. I hope to get to go to church next Sunday. Laura went by herself this morning as she did on Easter. My nights are the most difficult. I need pain meds to sleep and do not want to continue to have to use them. When this prescription runs out I may have to go cold turkey. Or maybe Tylenol PM will help me. I usually won't even take that. I have an appointment with a neurologist on Tuesday and maybe he will have answers to what is going on with me. I saw my primary care doctor this past week. My friend Lucia was able to take me to this appointment and then took Laura and me to lunch. We also did some grocery shopping that day. Me hobbling with the walker and Laura and Lucia each with a shopping cart going separate ways to accomplish the task in reasonable time.

This has been a sad week too as we just found out that our dear Rosalie died while I was in the hospital. Lucia found out when it was announced at the church she attends. The memorial service will be on April 21st at Graham Memorial Presbyterian Church in Coronado. Thankfully Lucia met Rosalie so knew that I would want to know about this. I am sad that I did not go to see Rosalie as often as I would have liked to. Donna, Fred, Paul, Laura and I went to see her on my birthday in December. I had visited her a couple other times in the last year. But I don't remember going in recent months. Maybe we should have visited her instead of another good friend we went to see a month or so ago. But that is not necessarily right either. We loved Rosalie as another mother. We called her our other mother. Donna and I adopted her when we were teenagers in the Methodist Youth Fellowship and she was the adult working with us. We loved her and her two children. I may write more about her at a later date. The memorial service will be on what would be her 95th birthday. She lived a long life and shared many many hugs and smiles with those she loved.

My How Things Have Changed

Yesterday I was sharing a memory from when I was a child with my boys. Soon after World War II, after we had come back to California, my parents decided to go to see one of their old friends. I was just nine or ten years old on the day that our family had this adventure.

We would have gone on the old car ferry as pedestrians to get to San Diego from Coronado. I remember many a time walking up the old wooden ramp to get to the top deck where the passengers could sit or walk around and see the sights during the short ride across the bay. There was the horn as the boat pulled out of the dock. We could often hear this sound from our grandparents house on third and F. There were many Navy ships in the harbor. Sometimes we would see porpoise in the bay. So many sights and sounds to recall from those old ferry rides.

When we got to San Diego we would ride on the streetcar to get to our destination. This is not as clear a memory for me, as the streetcars were gone by the fifties. We even had a streetcar that went down the middle of Orange Avenue from the ferry to the Hotel del Coronado. That is why there is the grassy island down the middle of Orange Avenue. Now there are trees and gardens in place of the old electric streetcars.

Back to our excursion to see my parents old friends. I mainly remember getting off the streetcar in the Mission Hills area and walking down a steep path towards the valley below. Our destination was an old adobe house where the friends lived. I remember having a delicious lunch which included rabbit. I think that is the only time I ever ate rabbit. I do not even recall the name of these friends. But I do remember that Mission Valley consisted of farms and a rural atmosphere. You would never have imagined the Mission Valley of today. For years I tried to figure out where the adobe house had been. At first I would try to find it when we traveled through the valley on a rare occasion. I also remembered the farm on the property next to where we visited. I remember a big old barn. We must have visited someone there too as I remember an old farmer that had lost his arm in a farming accident. I remember the pastureal scene in the valley with cows and all.

Later on I remember a highway through the valley before freeways existed. Seems to me this was one road we took to head east. I was mostly in Coronado so I would not have been in this area very many times. Sometimes I see an area of San Diego and try to remember what that area was like before freeways. I remember the first time I went to Mission Valley Shopping Center in the sixties. My mother-in-law took me on the bus to buy me a dress for Easter. She was good about doing things like that for us. She had a favorite cafeteria to go to at the shopping center so I enjoyed a rare treat for those days.

One thing that I remember clearly from my preteen years is going to Girl Scout camp in Cuyamaca. I can tell you exactly what road to take and where to turn. The camp isn't there now but the road is in the same place near Stonewall Peak. We did not have the freeway over the mountains in those days. It was the old highway which is fun to meander on now days. We enjoyed the days when we had a car to get to the mountains. Now we get rides with our son when he is in town. We also have a cousin that takes us on long rides about once a year when he is here.

So many memories from days gone by. Things may change as the years go by but God never changes. We may mess things up where there once was beauty, but there is still plenty for us to enjoy. There is still a river running through the valley with places to find birds. You will be reminded that it is a river valley when the rains come and the river rises. People may complain about not being able to get past certain roads when it rains. That is just a reminder that the river was here first.

It has been fun remembering the good old days. But these are good days too if we remember to appreciate what we have. God is so good. Let us not forget to thank Him for the beauty he has created for us to enjoy.

I Will Never Forget

This year is slipping by without me posting much on my "Hearts and Hugs" sight. I have written "notes" on my Facebook page which are similar to my blog posts. It just depends on how I want to access the computer. Last year at this time I had written a lot of blog posts.

I have written this story before, but was reminded of it the other day so will share it again.

Paul had a good friend at work named Ron. Paul and Ron shared their Christian faith with each other and we have many memories of their friendship. Ron is the one who arranged for us to be baptized in the ocean  in Rosarito Beach, south of the border. He knew people in a little church in Tijuana and had been baptized by the pastor of that little church. Ron had been baptized in the ocean and Paul wanted the same experience, so arrangements were made for this. It was a great experience that I will always remember. I won't go into details of that day in 1960 since I have shared this story before in "A Story To Remember" dated March of 2011.

This was just a little background for the story I want to share again which is also in "A Story To Remember."

Ron went to be with the Lord in 1973 after a long struggle with cancer. Paul was asked to be a pall bearer at the funeral for his long time friend. Of course he was willing to do this. Since Paul was sitting with the other pall bearers I sat by myself during the service. When it came time for everyone to view the body at the end of the service I ended up being first in line to go forward. I had been to services where we went out a side door afterwards. After viewing the body I headed for the first door I saw instead of paying attention to what I should be doing. It became apparent in a very short time that I should not have headed that way. I soon found myself leading the way into a closet with no easy exit outside. We were quickly escorted out the correct direction. Good thing I would never see those people again after that.

We were supposed to follow the other vehicles to the cemetery for Paul to continue his pall bearing duties. That did not go right either. Good thing no one was following us at that point. We did not get to the cemetery until long after everyone was gone. Maybe that was for the better for me.

Milk of Magnesia

As a child I hated Milk of Magnesia more than you can imagine. There were not too many things that I disliked, but that was one thing I could not stand. I suppose it was the texture rather than the flavor. I was reminded of it just now as I was swallowing some Pepto Bismol. I had a tummy ache and thought it might help a little. Pepto Bismol is not much different than the one I used to hate so much, but it does not have the same memory for me.

My mother was convinced that Milk of Magnesia was the cure all so I was faced with having to swallow it on more occasions than I care to remember. One time she thought she could outsmart me and decided to sneak the hated stuff in the biscuits that she was baking. I'm not kidding. She really did this. Problem was that I was the only one that could stand those biscuits. Like I said, I liked most things that resembled food. So I ate the biscuits that no one else wanted. I doubt that they had any of the benefits of the hated Milk of Magnesia after they had been baked. But this made for a humorous memory.

I don't know if I was the cause of any such memories for my children. I would hope not, but I have heard how much certain foods were disliked that they were faced with eating. I guess all parents are faced with these things as they try to do their best. I found out where some of the food went that they chose not to eat. After our old dog was gone I found scraps on the floor that had been a good meal for Henrietta while she was with us. No wonder Henrietta was a fat little Dachsund.