Scorching the World

I look forward to Tuesdays because I get to chat with my sisters. Today, also, our renter asked if he could “meet” with us at 6:30 to show us something. That’s always suspicious. Tom also had the doctor appointment that we’ve been waiting for to get his bandage off and that was at 10;30am. it's been exactly 2 weeks since his surgery. Anne texted that she was stuck with a car in the shop and didn’t know if she’d be home in time to chat, so I decided to go with Tom to Kaiser. He is sure he can drive, and he drove to the gas station this morning, but other than that, I feel better not putting that stress or possible stress on his knee. He got right in to see the doctor, and he gave back the walker they had given us. They were happy to have it back. Tom didn’t use it hardly at all and it still had the label on it. A man came into Tom’s room to check him in then left, then a minute later another man came in and sat down and carefully peeled off the bandage. It didn’t hurt at all...

Tom is having a terrible time sleeping lately. I could be that he is now off of Oxycodone, or just the progress of healing. He can’t get comfortable, his back hurts (because now his right leg is longer and throwing off his alignment), he leg hurts, etc., etc. So when he can’t sleep, I can’t sleep, he tosses and turns and gets up ever so quietly and sneaks out of the room, but I still now he’s not there so it wakes me up and I can’t go back to sleep. So we are both quite sleep deprived. That said, life goes on and we’re glad we both have jobs where we can grab naps now and then through the day. He usually feels way worse in the mornings, then gradually feels better as he gets moving again. I tried to get him to stay home from the temple, but there was no way. We had a huge group today – maybe because it is their wards’ last time this year. I think we had 13. Every job got done and I had a couple of jobs divided up with 2 people. It was great! Tom did what he could, then rested his...

I had to go to the leadership session of stake conference at 7:30am, so I was up by 6:30. Tom didn’t sleep well at all. I think he was up most of the night and barely got back to bed and was sleeping deeply when I left.  The meeting was SO GOOD. I got so much out of it and was so glad I went! I love having a calling where I get to go to such great, inspiring meetings! I found out that the general session at 10am would be on zoom. I was really hoping Tom wouldn’t be all dressed and ready to go when I got home. Gladly, he was in bed again, almost exactly as I had left him and was very sound asleep. I could tell he had been up, so I was glad he had gone back to sleep. He slept until time for stake conference to begin. It was also a really good meeting, and I was glad that I didn’t have to convince Tom to stay home and watch it on Zoom. He was pretty dizzy this morning, so he kept going back to lie down, ice the leg, etc. Healing takes time. After the rough morning, he felt much ...

I had a bunch of Clean Queen all week, and today was for getting the pay for each of the ladies figured out. It took several hours, then I messed up the payroll calculator, and had to almost completely start over. Dumb mistake that really cost me! I think I worked nearly 6 hours on the computer today. The other thing I was doing was cleaning up and arranging the guest room and the office-turned-guest room. I put the single bed into the office and rearranged my sewing/painting desk. Now both rooms are nice and clean and ready for company. Sad we aren’t actually expecting anyone but for some reason I felt it needed done soon. Tom felt good enough that he decided to go to the evening session of Stake Conference. We sat in the back so he could prop his leg up. About half way through, he was aching but wanted to stay for pie after the meeting ended. All the talks were really good so we were glad we had gone, but by the time we got home after having pie and socializing, we had been gone ...

One would think that if Tom was doing super well the first 2 days after surgery and progressing beyond expectations, he would continue from there and be nearly all healed by now. But such is not the case. Healing is a long, slow process that you can’t rush. Bones and flesh have to knit back together and it takes time. He has been having rough nights, getting up every hour, so he needs more rest in the mornings. He always wakes up feeling terrible – tired, in pain, groggy, and yucky. But he gets over that pretty fast and is upbeat the rest of the day. He has been more careful to elevate his leg more often and rest more, so he has recuperated from the setback of being way too swollen on Wednesday after over-doing it. When Reed Lewis, the PT came today, he saw some improvement. He tried to advise Tom to continue to take it easy, but Tom would not be persuaded or convinced to not help in the temple. I try to make him rest, but it’s not easy. Reed said, “We teach them correct principles...

 I love that we don't have to go anywhere on Thursdays, Today was much like all the other days except that we didn't have to go anywhere, No appointments, no shopping, no need to leave the house. Tom continued faithfully with his exercises, elevating and icing his leg, taking his pills, and everything else on his schedule over and over throughout the day. He hates that he is tired and takes several short naps and would much rather be outside working in the yard. But he is doing his best to help the knee heal quickly. I did a TON of Clean Queen today - so much that my hind side hurt from sitting so long. I would take a break then go back to it. The project I was working on took about 6 hours, I think, but it is done. I hope it's done right! We started watching Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. I liked the book, and we are enjoying the series. We watched several episodes. Each one ends with a major cliff-hanger, so it's hard to ever stop. But there are only 2 seasons, so it can...

Today was normal in that Tom woke up all through the night, then went back to bed in the morning and needed to sleep quite a while. He is realizing that the pain medications he is taking are probably making him never feel really good – just kind of blah all the time. I did a bunch of Clean Queen in the morning. Tom went out to water all his plants. I tried to not let him, but ………….. He came in all sweaty, so he wrapped his leg in saran wrap and took a shower. Another thing is isn’t supposed to do. His Physical Therapist came at 11am. I was already ready to go to the temple. He (Reed Lewis) was not happy about how much Tom had lost some mobility/couldn’t bend or straighten his leg as far, and had considerably more swelling than before. He told Tom in no uncertain terms that he cannot go serve in the temple today and probably not on Friday. He needs to rest more, and be super careful about going outside. (I told him Tom had been outside this morning and yesterday, all around the ya...

It has been a whole week since Tom’s surgery. It seems like forever and he is progressing so nicely that we have to consciously remind ourselves that it only has been a matter of days since major surgery and healing will take much longer. Throughout every day he has hours where he feels very well and exercises, prepares his own food, eats, and walks all over the house. He even sets up the ice machine all by himself to ice his knee. But then also throughout the day there are times where he feels dizzy or super tired and just has to lie down and rest. I’m not having to remind or push him at all, which is so nice. He is listening to how he feels and does what he can. The nurse came in the afternoon to take down all his information about how he is doing, feeling, and progressing, take his vitals and officially discharged him from her care, but told us if he had any questions or concerns, to call her right away. She was really nice – a German lady who had the most beautiful way of sayin...

Tom wanted to go to the temple today, and told me so as soon as he got up. I thought it was not a good idea 6 days after surgery, but that didn’t matter. Next time I saw him, he had gone back to bed and was sleeping soundly. At about 8am, I woke him up and asked him if he still wanted to go and he said yes. He had felt dizzy and weak again. It seems to be a morning thing. But after a short rest he felt good enough to go. He did the garbage job so he could hold on to the garbage can to walk and replace all the paper products. It was more walking that I thought he should have done, but he was fine. Then he went to get supplies and used his walker to carry the box of stuff into the custodial closet. We had enough helpers that most of the jobs got done. When Tom finished those 2 jobs he went to the front area to sit down where he could chat with people before they went home. The people on the Monday shift are very good friends and love to talk. When it was time to go, I kicked them...

Tom was adamant that he wanted to go to Church this morning. He did not want to watch on Zoom – he wanted to go and partake of the Sacrament. I got ready so I could help him get his sponge bath. He was also adamant that he wanted to wrap his leg in saran wrap and take a shower. I was dead-set against that, but not sure I could keep him from doing it. When I went to check on him a little later, he had fallen asleep on our bed. He said he felt dizzy and not well, so I let him sleep. He slept until I woke him up at 9:30 to see if he still wanted to go to Church. I was greatly relieved when he said it was too late and he didn’t feel good enough. We got to watch Sacrament meeting on zoom and they even zoomed the Sunday School class. Both meetings were excellent. We are so grateful for technology so we can at least watch the meetings! We got a surprise package from Amazon! I opened it and knew I hadn't ordered it, so I asked Tom if he did. He said he didn't so I finally went back...

There has been a lot of Clean Queen work the last couple of days and will continue for a few more so I was glad it was Saturday and I didn’t have to go anywhere. Except I finally got an appointment to get my nails done. Caring for Tom is easy, but yet is not easy. He thinks he knows what is right for himself and won’t listen to me, even though every doctor and nurse and therapist so far has told him to do what I say. Lol Anyway, my appointment was at noon, so I got him set up with the pills he needed to take, the ice machine to put on, etc., right before I left. I wasn’t worried about him being alone at all. It was a nice break from being in the house so long. Except for the temple, I haven’t gone anywhere since picking Tom up from the hospital on Wednesday. He needed me to buy some potatoes on the way home and I got a couple of other things but the last time I went to the store I forgot to put my shopping bags in the car, so I had to juggle/carry them all into the house. I was...

Tom had another rough night. He can sleep, but not for very long because either his knee hurts or his back hurts or his thigh hurts or something else. So sad. But he gets up and goes to the couch and manages to get through the night and is able to take naps as needed through the day. I had to go to the temple to supervise the cleaning by myself. For some reason I felt like crying on the way there alone and in the temple without him. So silly. But Caeli came and took care of him. She made sure he got his pills, exercised, did the breathing, and got ice on his knee. I'm sure they both enjoyed the time together! I had 6 helpers and a couple of them did 2 jobs so we got done by 2pm and were out of there. I had to do all the things Tom usually does, so I was super tired when I left. I met Tanya at Walmart so we could buy supplies for our next week's smoothies. It's way more fun to do it together and we can help each other. When we finally got home, it was time for our physical t...

Tom was up some in the night but for the most part slept pretty good and woke up without much pain. He was able to use the walker without problems so I didn’t feel like I needed to stay right with him all day in case he fell. He became more and more independent through the day. I had a lot of Clean Queen, but took time to go outside and water Tom’s plants that he was worried about. I wish he would only grow things where his installed automated watering is set up, but for today I took care of those for him. I’m sure I didn’t do it as thoroughly as he would, but hopefully good enough. He woke up in good spirits and back to his normal happy, joking self.  I set up alarms for throughout the day to remind me to make him take medications, exercise, and put ice on his knee. It’s a lot to do and remember. Every time an alarm went off I’d have to look at my schedule to see what it was time for. But he was up and around so well that I asked him to fix his own breakfast. He wasn’t hungr...

There was a lot to do before leaving for the hospital this morning. He was told to that last night he had to take a shower, not to shave (but he did anyway), but then an hour later to wipe his whole body down with these special wipes, (I had to help him with that), then he had to put on freshly washed pajamas and sleep in freshly washed sheets. This morning he had to drink some kind of healthy drink 2 hours before our check-in time, which was 9:15am. It was impossible to keep him from going outside to get some yard work done, or doing anything else that would mess up his clean, sanitized body. But we got to the hospital, got him checked in, and 15 minutes later they took him back. I wasn’t allowed to be there when they took off his clothes and put on the hospital gown. That’s funny to me! More than half hour later they finally let me go back to be with him. Nurses and the doctor and the anesthetist all came by and eventually they kicked me out while they gave him a shot in his knee...

Tom didn’t need to go to work this morning for his part-time job. He got a substitute while he recuperates from surgery, and that person started today. It was nice to have him home. He spent the day trying to get all the things done that he won’t be able to attend to after the surgery. I had a whole lot of Clean Queen that kept me busy all morning. I set up an appointment to get my nails done before Tom’s surgery so I don’t have to leave him, but then I got busy and completely forgot about it! Ug. Now I don’t know when I will go. We decided after the last time we had company that we would take our desks out of the office and make it a 2 nd guest room. That way we might not have quite so many sleeping in the living room and family room. We also decided not to do it until the next time we expect company, but it is warmer in that room than our room, so I decided to go ahead and do it. I got all my desks and file cabinets moved while Tom took a nap. It makes it easier that all the f...

I had quite a bit of urgent Clean Queen before heading to the temple, but managed to get enough done that it was mostly quiet while we were there. It is always a miracle when that happens!!! A major miracle! We had so many people show up today that we fairly speeded/sped/flew/breezed through the cleaning.   Anyway, it was really nice and we got a LOT done this morning. It is always wonderful being there. As soon as we left, I need us to get home as fast as possible so I could change clothes, do some urgent CQ things, and head out again. My Relief Society presidency had planned a meeting at 11am at a restaurant. I love that we go out to lunch for our presidency meetings. The trick is finding a restaurant where it isn’t too noisy to hear each other and where they don’t care if we linger a while after eating. This was a good one. It was Italian food and delicious and we got a lot of planning and decisions done. Saturday night I couldn’t stand the back of my hair and did some cut...

I was scheduled to visit the Spanish ward Relief Society this morning, so Tom and I decided to go to their Sacrament meeting and stay for both hours. Those people are so loving and wonderful. People greet us like long-lost best friends. They are so good! We were sad that the attendance was so low. When we were in the ward, it was one of the biggest wards in the stake for attendance in Sacrament Meeting. Today there were fewer than 50 in the chapel and about 1/4 th of them came after the Sacrament.   They had the 4 missionaries speak. Each of them gave a really good talk and all for of them have excellent Spanish. It was a nice meeting! The Relief Society has a new presidency and they seem to be very on the ball. Two of them speak English very well, so it was nice talking to them. The one who taught the lesson gave a really good lesson with personal stories, discussion, and did not read the whole thing like most of the teachers in the Spanish ward do. We were very impressed. ...

Tom left early to get my car’s oil changed and run other errands, then help clean the church building. He was glad he went because only 2 other people showed up. I did a little laundry but mostly took it easy and finished another painting. I worked on it all day and have been working on it most of the week. I really enjoy painting. I find it very relaxing and fulfilling. Tom worked some outside and my day continued peaceful. At night we watched/listened to Talking Scripture. So good!

Tom went to work but had a guy with him that he is training to take his place after his surgery. He thought he would be home early, but he wasn’t. I’m not sure why, but he had me drive him down to his work at 6:30am so he wouldn’t have a car there, then he had the guy he’s training drop him off at home afterwards. We had enough wonderful people show up to help clean that we got all the jobs done plus a few we don’t hardly ever get to. Such nice people! This stake only has 2 weeks left to their rotation so they are well trained and go quickly to the jobs they are familiar with. In September we’ll start training a whole new stake. After the temple we went to mail a package, then Tom needed to stop at a store to get what he needs before his surgery, then we went to my radiology appointment. It was in Clovis, which isn’t really all that far but seems really far. It much, much longer to get there and home from there than the actual appointment took. I was in and out in a matter of minut...

I woke up feeling good after the headache last night but slowly it came back. Tom rubbed my head while we watched some tv, and gradually it went away again! Hooray for headaches going away! I did a whole lot of Clean Queen today. We are getting jobs from a company who rents to BYU students and this is move out time. The part that takes the longest is translating all the instructions to Spanish for the teams who don’t speak English. There are going to be a lot more of these clean ups. Sounds like fun! Tanya came back over at about 7pm so we could finish putting together the rest of our smoothies for the week. This time it went much faster and was easier and more fun together. You aren’t actually supposed to freeze the smoothies for the week. They are more nutritious if made fresh in the moment, but neither of us wants to have to do that twice a day every day. So much easier to grab a bag and throw it in the blender. We have found the smoothies delicious and they certainly feel more nutr...

We did our regular things in the morning – computers, yard work, stuff and more stuff. We had a total of 2 helpers come to help clean the temple today.   So sad. But we’ve learned how to prioritize and Tom and I each do multiple jobs and we got all the essential cleaning done. I told them to remind their wards that they only have 3 more weeks to clean! We made 2 stops on the way home. One was to return the giant flamingo floatie toy for the pool which only held water 2 days. But we had to hurry home because our dinner group was getting together tonight at 4pm! We had to change clothes and I had to do a bunch of CQ, then turn around and run back to Fresno. We made it to the restaurant early for a change, which we were excited about until we found out that Texas Roadhouse won’t seat anyone until the whole group is there. We were a group of 12, but when I realized that, I changed it to 2 groups of 6 so the first 6 who arrived could go ahead and get a table and not have to wait f...