March to October 2005
Well once we got David's heart in shape, my hip started to give me some real grief. I'd known I had no cartilege in the right hip since mid 2000 or so when an MRI showed that, but the bone on bone situation was reall beginning to mess with my lifestyle. In July I went in to see Dr. Ehrhart in Santa Monica. He took X-rays and as we looked at the together, I knew what he was gonna say. There's nothing to be done but a total hip replacement. That's still on hold because I need to get another car... my 87 Honda Prelude is too low to the ground and it's a standard transmission. Much too much bending for the new hip, so we are on hold until David & I can find something else I can drive so I can go back to work as soon as possible.
Just recently I also found out I have developed a hiatal hernia, possibly due to the loss of about 2 inches in height since my back surgery in 1998. Things are getting squished inside, so it looks like we'll do the hernia surgery well before we even think about tackling the hip.
Despite all this stuff, life is going pretty well and we are enjoying our life together. David & I have a lot of involvement at our church, Neighborhood UU. He volunteers for different things and I've been teaching Sunday school (this is my second year and I love it). We are also very involved politically and do phone banking, tabling, letter writing, and all that groovy activist stuff.
Coming up in November we have our visit to the King Tut exhibit on Nov 5th and then taking my Sunday school class to the cathedral in Los Angeles for a field trip. David's 59th birthday is on election day, Nov. 8th, so once we get past that day we will have a whole new agenda.
Stay tuned!
It's been a long long time
Hokey smoke it's been forever since I have posted anything at all here. I'd even forgotten that I had this blog LOL! There's been a lot going on in our lives since June 2004 so I hardly know where to start.
In the fall of 2004 we refinanced the house and got construction started on the addition. The extra 850 sq ft so is wonderful, but we haven't been able to finish it completely in the year since. It's weather tight and all that with the windows and doors in, but no flooring, celing, walls. The new kitchen area will eventually have cabinetry and new stainless stell appliances, but I just don't know when that will actually happen.
About the time actual construction ended in early November, I went in for carpal tunnel release with tenosynovectomy on my right hand. That was followed in January with the same surgery on my left hand. Now that it's been almost a year I can say that my hands are much improved over what they were prior to the curgery, but they are certainly not perfect and I still have pain.
The worst part was when my favourite kitty, Butch, became ill with a kidney infection right after my surgery in January and we lost him on January 30, 2005. He was 16.5 yrs old and he'd been my best buddy since I adopted him as a kitten in November 1988. I have his ashes at home in a nice box that has his picture on it, but I sure miss him.
Along with all that, David went down to Mexico just before my surgery to help build homes with our church group and had a heart attack there. Of course, he didn't realize he was having a heart attack. He just thought he was having some cramping from the hard physical labor. After he got home and I was recouping from my second hand surgery, he started telling me about how he felt in Mexico and how he was still feeling weak, so I insisted he go to City of Hope's diabetes center where he is a patient and get them to do the full cardiac checkup. That's where they found the heart attack and the serious blockages he had in his arteries. That was the end of February and so on March 2nd and 30th he had angioplasties with stent insertions and feels like a new man.
More to come!
Our second day of blogging
I'm thinking that I can use this forum to record my thoughts (such as they are) and the events of the day. So far it's been kinda uneventful because I'm in a three-day workshop on building websites at the college I work at and we are working a 4/10 schedule for the summer. That's a stone drag for me cause I get here at 7 a.m. and don't leave until 5:30 p.m. and get home by about 6:30 p.m. That leaves me just enough time to have a little something to eat, do some housework, and throw myself into bed. Yes I know I get Fridsays off so I get 3 day weekends, but I'm so beat by the time Friday rolls around that all I want to do is sleep. Exciting, yes?
Welcome to the Tomlinson Blog!
This is our first attempt at creating a web log, so I hope you will be patient with us.
