One Tough Cookie

It ain't braggin' if it's true, is it? Well, my 5 year old, middle Granddaughter is just plain tough in more ways than one. First, she was born with a holey heart, an atrial septal defect. She didn't feel good and was a very grumpy baby. When she was 15 months old she had to have a device implanted in her heart to fill in the largest hole. It is called an AMPLATZER® Septal Occluder, a wire disc shaped device made from an alloy of nickel and titanium. She came through the procedure like the trooper she is.

Next came the dog attack at two and a half years old. She had several puncture wounds on cheek, jaw and around her left eye. Her bottom eye lid had a chunk missing and was split open. She was cool, calm and sang Christmas songs on the long trip to the Hospital. She remained composed for all of the stitches, she was sedated but didn't like being held down. She was very brave for the removal of the stitches as well.

Then there are the splinters that you naturally get on a farm. I have removed two splinters from her fingers so far. She doesn't squirm, whine or cry when I poke, prod and squeeze, she even watches.

So that brings me up to Saturday. Somehow she managed to cut the tip of her little toe nearly off on Thursday. The entire top skin of the tip of her toe was cut loose and was only being held on by a small piece that was still intact. It looked bad and painful.

She had complained about it only after she noticed the blood, her Mom asked what happened and she said that she couldn't remember. I guess it didn't make much of an impression on her. Sometime later the toe started throbbing and she did do some crying.

Friday night the girls spent the night with us and we soaked her foot in Epsom Salts a couple of time. I was afraid that it might get infected because she was running around my house barefooted and we couldn't get a band-aid on it. After one soak on Saturday afternoon my DH looked closely at it and declared that the excess skin needed to be removed. Her Mother had talked about doing this herself. So I called her Mom for approval after our Granddaughter gave her approval.

I stuck a Banana Popsicle in her mouth, read her a funny story holding the book so that it blocked her view of what Papaw was doing and he did surgery. She never flinched, jerked or made a sound accept for laughing at the story.

My DH held out his open palm with the thick cap of skin in it and she said: "I didn't even feel it!". She did have a hard time putting it back in the Epsom Salt water because it burned but after about five attempts she finally got the nerve and stuck it in without pulling it back out.

Now bandaging it was another story, she griped, moaned and argued about having to wear a stupid band-aid on it. My DH applied ointment and wrapped it with gauze and tape, she was not happy about this but her arguments and non-stop griping was so funny that we just kept chuckling. She can be quite dramatic. She didn't want a big old ugly bandage on it and thought she could talk her way out of it.

She is tough in other ways too, like arguing. It is hard to win an argument with her and she can be pretty tough in protecting her sisters and brother. She is also quite the scrapper, her Dad has taught her to fight and she plays a little too rough sometimes.

She is the comedian of the family, is outgoing, friendly and never shuts up. Even when she is trying to be tough and serious she cracks us all up. She can also make you very nervous because you never know what she might say to strangers or even to friends and family.

Ugh!

I first noticed the sore throat last Thursday, by Saturday I was very uncomfortable but was still able to function. On Sunday, I took to my bed with a low grade fever and the worst of all coughs. By Sunday night I was convinced that I was dying. My DH wouldn't let me have any extra blankets or shut the air conditioner off.

I awoke at 3:30am on Monday morning coughing so hard that I nearly turned wrong-side-out. During the day on Monday with the help of DayQuil I managed to milk the goats and walk around a little bit outside. As the day progressed my fever shot up again and I was down and out with the help of NyQuil.

I woke up this morning at around 5:00am in terrible respiratory distress. I could hardly breathe. I can no longer cough because of the pain that it causes me. I have never had anything that comes close to whatever this is, I am thinking that it is the Swine Flu. My wonderful Husband got out of bed so that he could be by my side when I drew my last breath.

Since I didn't die right away, he ended up running to Wal-Mart to get some more DayQuil, Mucinex, Sprite, Chicken Soup and Popsicles. I haven't felt like eating but the popsicles have been a blessing.

I think that my Husband might have enjoyed making me drink a full 8 oz. glass of water this morning a little too much. He wouldn't give me a Mucinex tablet until all of the water was gone.

He stood there like a stonewall with the glass in his hand, pushing the straw toward my lips. I hate drinking water and I think that iced tea or Sprite would have worked but he said that he was just following the directions.

As this day draws to a close, my fever is starting to climb again, nothing seems to stop it in the evenings and through the night. My Mother-In-Law called to check on me today and she told me that she goes to Church with a lady and her husband who have had the same symptoms. They say it took them both a good three weeks to fully recover and that was while being under a Doctor's care.

The man even busted his eardrum while coughing, I can believe that because my ears and eyes have both felt like they couldn't take anymore pressure. I really hate to pop an eyeball out while coughing. My ears and eye sockets are very sore but my chest and back muscles and my ribcage are just flat refusing to help me anymore.

Well, I will close for now, to get ready for the nightly battle with my DH over how many blankets I should have or the temperature setting on the air conditioner, he is really being a bully.

Feeling Thankful

I am in severe pain today but feeling very thankful for God's blessings. This past week was terrifying for our family but I am happy to report that we are nearly back to normal. I plan to post about it but it will be a long post and I am not currently able to sit in a chair for more than a few minutes at a time. I have to stand or get on all fours to relieve the pain in my back. I will post as soon as I am physically able.

Back in the Saddle

The end of the trail and I was still smiling!

I am so proud of myself and so happy. My DH even congratulated me yesterday evening on our good ride. We started out at 3:00 yesterday afternoon, we would have started out earlier but we ran into the usual sequences. We had mud to scrape off of horses and saddles to scrub, then of course we had to find a headstall that would fit my gelding.

My goal with my new gelding is to ride him with just one of my rope halters with side pulls, so I wanted to start him out with a kind and gentle hackamore. He has only been ridden with my former horse Dan's sweet iron split bit but that is the same bridle and bit that my DH uses on everything. So locating something else was not easy. We have tack located in several different boxes, in several different locations.

I haven't ridden a horse but three short times (less than 15 minutes) since the wreck that messed up my back four and a half years ago. I was determined that I was going to ride again. My Doctor told me that I could try it but only without any medication, so that I would know when to quit.

Since the one bridle was all my DH needed to ride with, my bridle was used for all of the horses. We finally located one of our good aluminum hackamores and then had to find a leather curb strap because I didn't want to use a chain curb on him. My poor DH was getting quite annoyed at the time that it was taking us to get ready. But it was a good lesson in patience for him.

After my heavy Tex Tan saddle was placed on my horse, I had to listen to my wonderful Husband gripe again about having to tighten my saddle. It has one of those square metal girth riggings built into the skirt. I hate them too, we both prefer a round rigging ring that isn't built in and I usually like to tighten my own saddle but I was trying to conserve my energy yesterday.

When Ranger, my new horse (Dan has been semi-retired at 22 yrs. old) was saddled and bridled my DH got on him to take the buck out of him. Ranger has only been ridden a few times at 7 yrs. old and still bucks a little when starting out. He humped up once, then they spun around several times, I got a little dizzy watching them. When they finally started walking out in a nearly straight line, he bucked and got his hind feet a good 6 inches off of the ground. Six inches doesn't bother me because Dan always bucks that high when a fly lands on his rump, even higher if it is a horse fly.

My DH on Ranger after the buck was taken out of him.

Now it was my turn to ride Ranger for the very first time, the problem was that I couldn't get on him. He wasn't suppose to get as big as he is. His Sire is only 14.3 and his Dam is maybe 14.1. Ranger does have a full brother who is over 16 hands and thankfully Ranger only grew to around 15.2. On a side note here, to those who now own Feather, Shadow, Thorn and Shay, Ranger is their full brother.

My first time on Ranger. Had on my back brace.

I decided to keep Ranger when he was first born because he is an Indian Shuffler and I love that gait. He also has a lateral canter that is smooth, if you can hold him at the right speed. My DH isn't good with gaits, so I hope to be able to teach Ranger the speed and gaits that I want now that I can ride him. That will take some time but that is another of my goals for him.

Ranger and Leroy stood pretty still for me before the ride.

I had a horse fall with me several years ago and he stepped on the outside of my left knee when he got up and totally messed it up. After that I always had to mount Dan on the right side, Dan has always been a hot horse but he did always stand perfectly unflinching when I mounted, no matter how long it took me. This is something else Ranger will have to learn.

Tying rope halters has given me good upper body strength and even after our accident and my being overweight, I could easily pull myself up on a tall horse. However, now I am having some problems with my left shoulder and that made mounting difficult for me yesterday.

Once onboard, I couldn't reach the left stirrup, this was strange, maybe I am shrinking on one side. My DH adjusted the left stirrup but not the right, they felt balanced but I didn't feel balanced, after we took off I completely abandoned that left stirrup. We rode off down the road and I was having to fight Ranger all of the way, he doesn't neck rein at all and he didn't respond to plow reining very well either. I was also having to kick him hard to get a turn out of him. This just wasn't working for me.

I felt thrown forward in the saddle, I did have a back brace on and I thought that it might be causing the problem. After riding my boy for 15 minutes I was done. My back was killing me and I was very upset. The combination of kicking hard, pulling hard on the rein for every turn and feeling thrown forward, I told my poor DH who had worked so hard to get me going in the first place for only a 15 minute ride that I was done and wanted to go home.

When we got home, he asked me if I wanted to try changing horses. I took my back brace off and got on Leroy, another of our young horses in training. The difference in saddles shocked me and I realized that I have a saddle problem. My DH said that my saddle throws you forward because he could feel it too. This saddle had always been comfortable for me before, but with the back injury that I have, it just won't work. So now I am on a saddle hunt.

We ended up riding for three hours and it was great, Leroy is a perfect horse and his price is going up. We had a inquiry on him the other day and they wanted to know if he had ever been trail ridden, I had to say, no. He had only been ridden in an arena and on the road in traffic.

Well, Leroy has been trail ridden now and it was a new experience for him. But I was able to negotiate trees and brush on him without one skinned knee and we accidentally got off the trail once and it was rough going but he and Ranger both did great. We did a little mountain climbing and they were exhausted when we reached the peak. Then we did some mud hole wading that neither of them liked but with encouragement they learned that deep mud holes aren't always quicksand.

Here is a list of things that Ranger and Leroy learned yesterday, some of which they had experience before so it was just a refresher course.

• The hollow sounds of hoofbeats on a long and tall bridge can be soothing.
• Stepping on solid ground again at the end of the bridge is startling but not life threatening.
• Muddy waterways will not suck you in deeper than knee height.
• You can trust your rider to guide you through the woods and brush even without a clear pathway.
• Ranger learned that you can't stop and eat just because you are hungry or there is something new on the menu that you have never tried before.
• Large hay bales wrapped in tarps are not meat eating dinosaurs.
• Stumps are not hungry wolves.
• Large camping trailers in the middle of nowhere do not contain vampires
• Abandoned tires and brightly colored plastic jugs in roadside ditches are harmless.
• Walking through junkyards on a windy day is very interesting, there is so much to see and do.
• Cadillac Eldorado's look very different when standing up on one side, the bottom is just not as pretty as the top, it in no way resembles a rogue elephant even if it does have a trunk.
  
• Junkyard dogs can be ignored, their bark is much worse than their bite even in packs. Though these Pit Bull and Pit Bull mixes look much more intimidating than the neighbor's little Jack Russell Terriers, they aren't nearly as dangerous.
• Diesel trucks make a lot of noise when coming up behind you but not as much noise as a big well drilling rig coming up from behind.
• Discarded tires, roofing shingles and other unwanted household items in a quarry hole are not environmentally friendly but are not an immediate danger to a passing horse and rider.
  
• When riding South to North in the evening hours your shadow will not give you much trouble, but when turning eastward you will suddenly have the setting sun behind you, you must not be alarmed at your own shadow.

This list is just to let you know what we and our two horses experienced on our three hour ride yesterday. They didn't, however, have a problem with most of this stuff. The only slight problems that we did have were with the knee deep muddy waterway, Leroy had a slight problem with stepping on the solid ground again after being on the bridge for awhile. Ranger did spook at his own shadow. For the most part these boys did excellent with all of the scary things we exposed them to.

The end of the ride, I was flexing Leroy to the left.

Then to the right. Who is that fat Granny?

I did great too. It took me a little while to get my land legs back after the ride was over and I did take some pain medicine to get me through the rest of the evening but I surprisingly felt really well this morning and am looking forward to our next ride and getting a new saddle for Ranger.

I reached some personal goals yesterday and I look forward to reaching some more this summer. We have several young horses that need some wet saddle blankets, this is something that I used to be able to help out with and these horses deserve a chance to become the excellent horses that they were bred to be.

Wet saddle blankets are good for white horses,

But look better on Leopards.

More On Amber

Since I have been asked some questions about Baltic Amber, I will tell what I know. I got started with Amber after my DIL (Daughter-in-law) asked me to buy an Amber necklace for the baby, they were suppose to relieve teething pain and slobbers. I ordered one that she picked out on eBay. I was amazed by how my Granddaughter stopped slobbering. So I did some research and discovered that adults with arthritis were reporting pain relief with the necklaces and bracelets.

I have had neck pain for many years and found total relief with a necklace. I then bought bracelets and more necklaces for other parts of my body. I have put necklaces on my shoulders and elbows secured with ace bandages. My Son has secured a necklace on his aching knee with an ace bandage.

I have even bought elastic braces and sewed the Amber beads on the inside for quick and easy help. The Amber does have to be applied directly on the pain source. So it has to come in contact with the skin at the sight of your pain. I have found that it starts to work within 10 minutes of application.

My other Son and Daughter-in-law were babysitting an infant who was teething, she was a mess with slobbers. I took my necklace off when they had her at our house and slipped it on her neck, within ten minutes her slobbers had dried up and she went to sleep and slept for a long time. They told me that she hardly ever napped and if she did it was just for short periods.

Amber is hardened sap from trees. It comes in many different colors and can even have leaves, debris or insects inside it. The very best color to get for pain is yellow that is not clear, it has more of the properties that you need to relieve your pain.

I have Bracelets that are made with elastic and they are really pretty tough. They also come on strings with clasps. I have not had any problems with any of my necklaces or bracelets except for the time that one of my goats grabbed a bracelet to eat it. She did break the elastic and ate several of the beads before I could get them away from her. Goats love the smell and taste of real Baltic Amber.

Amber Back Relief

I am participating in a test of a new product, if you follow my blog you know that I love Baltic Amber for pain relief. I wear an amber necklace for my disk problems and arthritis in my neck. I also wear amber bracelets on my wrists when tying horse and goat rope halters.

I was recently contacted by the lady at www.forfinn.com, who I purchase my amber from about testing a new product, an amber belt for lower back pain. Since I have four herniated disks, degenerate disk disease, spinal stenosis and arthritis in my lumbar spine, I was thrilled to help out.

These amber pieces are about the size of a dime and are slightly flattened. So far so good, I am finding it hard to deal with the string but within 20 minutes of putting this on, I noticed a reduction of my back pain. Amber is anti-inflammatory and since I am allergic to NSAIDs like Ibuprofen or Alieve, this is a blessing for me.

The Day After

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday evening. I made the Turkey, Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and 5 Pies. It was the pies that done me in. By the time I got all of the dough rolled out and apples peeled, my lower back was screaming, Enough already!

So, today my DH had to go to his family's Thanksgiving Dinner alone and I am barely walking with a cane. As I type this, I am enjoying a heated, message cushion. I still don't have all of the dishes cleaned up from last night and that will have to be done today.

I regret having to miss seeing my Husband's family and all of the wonderful desserts. What I will miss the most is my Sister-in-law's Oyster Dressing. I asked my DH to bring me a plate or at least some of the dressing.

Ouch!

I had to go to the Doctor on Monday and that is like one of my least favorite things to do in the world. It ranks right up there with shopping or having to leave the farm for any reason.

I must have had some kind of mental lapse while I was there because I asked for a Tetanus shot. We give our horses tetanus shots every time they injure themselves and since I am always working on rusty barbwire and poking myself with the barbs, I thought that it might be a good idea. I think that I may have made a mistake.

While I am typing this, pain is shooting down my left arm in spasms. The nurse started to give me the shot in my right arm because I am left-handed and she said my arm would be sore for a few days. But being the deep thinker that I am, I told her that I wanted it in my left arm because my right arm is my mouse arm. I only do a few things with my left arm anyway and they are mostly unimportant things like writing and eating.

The shot itself didn't hurt but my arm keeps hurting worse each day. Now I did not ask for a Diphtheria vaccination but they slipped that one in on me. It wasn't until I read the little direction sheet that they gave me that I learned that I had been given both shots in one. I have had the symptoms of Diphtheria ever since because I am very impressionable. I have been having a hard time breathing, I am coughing and clearing my throat constantly.

Today is Wednesday and the muscle in my upper arm is hot, hard and swollen. It isn't red but that will probably happen tomorrow. She told me at the time that she gave me the shot that I should rub it vigorously all day and I did, so imagine how bad this would be if I hadn't.

Another thing that I have done that might have been foolish is stop taking all of my pain medicine. I really didn't think that it was helping my back that much and I was tired of the expense. I haven't taken any for a couple of weeks and I have been having trouble coping with the pain. I guess that it was helping me more than I thought. I don't feel like doing all of the things that I have been doing and I have to sit down and rest my back more often. If I am sitting a lot I have to get up and move around more often also.

I asked the Doctor about getting one of those tables that hang you upside down and he didn't actually recommend it but he told me that he has one himself. He also told me that if I do get one, to limit the time that I spend on it but since I do have perfect blood pressure he wouldn't say that I shouldn't use one. My problem is that I don't have room for one, but if there is a chance that it might help my pain, I will make room for it.

Dropping In

All of the hay is now in the loft, the loft is full and the hay elevator has been put away until next summer. We still have hay to put up but not in this barn/house.

Our main loft is located in the center of the barn with a lower tier on each side. One side is open, it doesn't have a floor in it and the other side is actually the roof of our little house inside the barn.

My young cousin was helping with the hay on Monday morning, along with a friend of his and our oldest son. After the second wagon had been unloaded and my DH was pulling it away to get ready for the next wagon. My cousin was following my son down out of the loft on a small ladder onto the roof of the house, my cousin skipped the last two rungs of the ladder, jumping onto the roof. At which point my son said later that he just disappeared.

I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I heard a loud crash and I thought to myself that they were being too rough and knocking stuff off of my walls. Then I heard my son very clearly say that my cousin had fallen into the house and someone had better go inside to check on him. I turned around and there he was in the doorway of the bedroom on his hands and knees, just looking at the rug. I am sure that he was wondering if he had landed yet.

He slowly pulled himself up to his full height and brushed himself off, I helped him out the door, where he declared that all was well. After he sat down outside in a lawn chair, we all questioned him about his well-being, then the jokes began.

My son is a quick-wit as opposed to a smart-aleck and there was just too much good material here for him. I know that I won't be able to remember every snide remark that he made throughout the rest of the day. But here are a few; He told him that when we said that he could drop in anytime, we didn't mean literally. He told us that my cousin enjoyed this job so much that it sent him through the roof. He also told him that he should apply for a job with the City because now he had experience dropping down through man-holes. He accused him of hitting rock bottom (our floor is concrete) and told him that the next time he needed a fall guy, he knew who to get. He also advised him that he would probably not make a good roofer. I am probably missing the best ones, but I'm sure that my cousin will remember them all.

He did end up unloading another hay wagon after his great fall because he didn't really want to get back in the loft, but when I called his mother the next day she said he was pretty sore and pretty bruised up. The hole was too tiny for him to fit through and when I finally got around to cleaning up the mess, I found his half opened pocket knife in the debris. It was one of those knives that clip in your pocket, so the squeeze was tight enough to scrape his knife out of his pocket and even open it. Which reminds me of another comment that my cruel son made, he told him that he might be able to get a job with a circus as a contortionist.

Thanks, Cuz, we really appreciate all of your help, even though sometimes you do fall down on the job, you are always willing to work and falling all over yourself to be a help.

Swimming

One thing that I never learned to do when I was a kid was swim. I always regretted that, I wanted my Grandchildren to learn, so I bought a swimming pool a few years ago. Our oldest Grandson, has spent a lot of time in the pool and learned to swim underwater very quickly. He could just not figure out how to swim on top of the water or even dog paddle. Finally this summer he has learned to swim like a fish, he can swim on top of the water, dog paddle and float.

We spent a couple of hours in the pool yesterday, we raced from one side to the other many times, using every form of swimming that we could think of. He can't beat me but it won't be long before he will be able to.

I am jealous of the fact that he can swim on the bottom of the pool, I have not mastered that yet and may never be able to. I am a natural floater, no matter how hard I try to swim completely submerged, something is always surfacing.

I love my pool, it is the one place that I can be very active and not have back pain. I also love taking care of a pool, I got that from my Dad. He took care of the swimming pools for the Monroe County Community Schools before he died of cancer. It was at a time when they first started putting pools in schools. He had worked in maintenance for the school system for many years and they sent him to training when the first pool was built.

I used to go with him to the big filtration room at Bloomington North High School in the evenings and watch him test the water and add chemicals. That huge new pool was always sparkling clean and clear.

I don't use any chemicals in my pool except for bleach. I have a large sand filter and it seems to do it's job. My pool water was clear enough yesterday that I threw 10 mostly clear marbles into it and my Grandson dove for them.

My goal is that all of my Grandchildren learn to swim. I think that just having plenty of access to a pool at a young age is the key to learning.

My Big Toe

My big toe on my right foot feels as if it has a needle stuck under the it's nail. Now that is just irritating. I keep looking at my toe nail and there is nothing wrong with it. I guess I shouldn't complain at least I am back in a sitting position.

I was hardly able to walk on Sunday evening but on Monday I was flat in the bed not able to even sit up. I couldn't get on the computer or walk or even read a book. The last time that I had an MRI it showed four bulging discs with impingement, spinal stenosis and a lot of arthritis in both my cervical and lumbar spine. As a side note they tell me that I also have arthritis in my tail bone. Which makes it very difficult to sit for very long.

I haven't had much pain in my legs but now my right leg is starting to bother me and this thing with my toe. At first I thought that I had been stung by a bee or something. This was all brought about by an automobile accident several years ago. I thought that I was getting better but then this hit me and I have been a little down in more ways than one for the last few days. That is my excuse for not blogging much recently. But I shall pick myself up and soldier on.