Getting Caught Up

Goodness. I woulda thought I'd have posted something since the 2nd! I guess it was just my imagination. However, in between the 2nd and the 11th, lots of things have happened.

On the 2nd, my just younger sister died peacefully from a 10-year struggle with COPD. We were able to travel to Florence, Alabama, on Sunday the 6th for her funeral. Won't go into details here, but there is an emptiness when we think about her being gone, but at the same time, we are grateful that her pain and suffering are gone.

The next hurdle was preparing for my mastectomy on the 9th. I would be coming home the next day, so there was not a lot of packing to do; in fact, most of the stuff I did take was never touched. The morning of the 9th, we got up about 5 o'clock. I prepared a traditional breakfast for J--bacon, eggs and toast with coffee. It was so tempting to me, but I could only have a sip of water with my meds. We drove to Tupelo and got to the hospital by 7 a.m. I was taken down for injection of dye for a sentinel node biopsy which I had been told would be gruesome but there was really nothing to it. I guess it was due to the skill of the doctor administering the dye. My surgeon had several surgeries scheduled ahead of me, so we had a bit to wait for my surgery, which allowed the dye to do its stuff. The surgery itself took approximately 40 minutes, and before I knew it, I was back in recovery and then to my room. After just a bit of morphine to get me past waking up, I have not required any pain medication except for one percocet for pain caused by lying down and coughing. Since then, the recliner. Altogether, I have felt great. Our daughter came home with us. We picked up some fast food on the way home from the hospital, and that evening we went to our local Mexican restaurant for a quick Speedy Gonzalez. I slept really well in the recliner, didn't require any pain medication, and was ready for a good breakfast, which J prepared, complete with biscuits. I'm being spoiled. Our daughter went home to her family about mid morning. We enjoyed her visit with us. Maybe she trusted us to care for ourselves at this time.

I simply could not wait to see our garden after being away from it for almost two days! There were more ripe tomatoes, and of course beans and okra to be picked. We saved that until this morning. J and I went to the garden fairly early, and with one hand, I picked some Christmas butterbeans, because I didn't have to bend over to do that. I sat in the comfortable yard chair while he picked the Louisiana purple pod beans and the rattlesnake beans, as well as the okra and eggplant. He had already picked the tomatoes. I felt well enough to prepare lunch, which was just as country as could be but without cornbread, his nemesis. We had the butterbeans, okra, eggplant, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with a cola beverage. That filled our plates and was so good. We needed just a bite of something for taste, so J microwaved a few pieces of very good bacon, blotting out the grease with paper towels. Really quite delicious. Not from the South? Don't gag. Don't know what you're missing.

I'm looking back on my calendar for the log I've kept on the number of jars I've canned this spring/summer. So far, I have canned 69 pints of pole beans and 7 pints of cranberry beans. Don't know what I'll do with those beautiful beans picked this morning, but they probably will be a gift to the neighbors. Might even spare a tomato or two.

Time for a nap before we think about our evening meal--supper for us Southerners--dinner for foreigners. Still feel great. We got back to my surgeon for a checkup on Monday and hope to get one of the drains out then. Probably know about my appointment with my oncologist then. My mantra: it's always somethin'.