NOVEMBER 30, 2008 - ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS EVEN ONE TOOTH TO GNAW ON!!!

Hello All Dearest Ones,

Yes, you are looking at those bad boys and girls!! I truly wish I had left even just one of these left behind so I could possibly even gnaw!! Thanksgiving was great, and I did all right, but I sure wish I could have done a bit better.

I finally went into the hospital on November 20. It was very unclear about every thing, other than the teeth were coming out and that the doctors greatly preferred that I spend the night in the hospital, but then on was pretty well left up to me!!

My Surgeon was a complete dream doctor!! I only would ask why he did not choose to become a medical General Practitioner!! This Surgeon conferred with my regular doctors and determined travel was not good for me in any way, shape or form!! Thus, he volunteered to make the trip of 50 miles up to the local hospital here!! I would have gotten far better care going to Davenport, but the trip home could have been extraordinarily hard if I had a bad go of this!! The Surgeon telephoned me the night previous to my surgery to reassure me every thing would go fine!! Upon arriving at the hospital the following day this doctor was there before me and was first to greet me and show me to the "kennel" they had assigned me. The Anesthesiologist even had issues with these extra small cubicles!! He talked at length with my mother attempting to explain every thing to her. Eunice had brought her to the hospital with us. Mother does not stand too much any more, but she truly does not hear much any more and refuses to even discuss a hearing aid or any thing!! The Surgeon then exchanged pleasantries with Eunice as she really had no questions and then he pretty much sat and tried to calm my raw nerves. He rolled the bed into the Operating Room and held my hand all the way through until I was out!! He was also the first person I saw in the Recovery Room. He accompanied me up to the Medical Floor and told Eunice he would sit with us until he knew I was comfortable.

Comfort would not come in those first few moments upon them transferring me. The Surgeon decided he would do some thing, but get a nurse any too quick, simply does not happen in that hospital!! He then asked me if I was in discomfort and I said, "OH, YEAH!!!" He then went out to Nurse's Station himself and got the bolus of Morphine and put it in my Port. I got instant relief and that was it, as the nurses suddenly rushed in with the Morphine Pump and got it working and pumping regularly into me. The Surgeon did leave. My Mother was absolutely having a "melt down" and said she had "never seen me look worse after any of my other surgeries"!! Eunice finally took her home as Granny Lou had arrived and said she would stay for awhile until Eunice could return. Eunice was not gone long and returned set to stay as long as she felt she was needed!! I was told I immediately went into deep sleep and Eunice vowed to the staff she wanted me kept that way and unhooked the telephone even!! Eunice later told me she stayed till about 11:00 p.m.

I had a fairly good night!! The next morning my regular doctor arrived, at his usual rounds time just before 8:00 a.m. and actually woke me up. He asked how I was feeling and what did I want to do. I told him I probably would have been open to staying, but since I had been placed on the Medical Floor instead of the Surgical Floor I really thought I would be better off at home!! The Medical Floor at our local hospital is one of the very worse!! Thus, he explained my increased morphine amounts over my usual daily dosages and told me if this did not hold me that I could call him at any time and he would do some thing else!!

Thus, I called for Eunice. Eunice answered her phone barely!! I wondered if she was even awake, but it turned out she was quite ill again!! I told her I would just have to call upon some of my other friends, but she said "absolutely not"!! She told me to just get as ready to go home as I could and that some one would be there very soon to take me home!! In a very short time, Wanda appeared and said she was taking me home and that she intended to call in to her regular job that afternoon and say she was not coming back to her office, and that she would stay with me!! However, as soon as we got pulled into my driveway, Eunice came running across the street in her night gown and robe!! She insisted on helping me transfer and assisted me getting into the house. I thought it was way too cold for her to be even out. After we got in the house, Eunice insisted Wanda go back to work and she then resettled me in to my bed and she made a bed on my couch!! And, of course, my dearest little one was right there all hyper and stressed out wanting to see me immediately!! Thus, Eunice put little Miprezious up into my bed also. Mi and I talked and talked while cuddling a whole lot as she had quite a story to tell me!! I knew better and that she had been spoiled as much as possible by Marion and Granny Lou!!

And, YES, I came home with all the teeth I went in with!! I have yet to see any evidence of the TOOTH FAIRY arriving!! What is the secret of this one? LOL!! LOL!!

Well, I always vowed I would go to my grave with all my natural teeth!! Albeit they may now have to be in my pocket or perhaps even purse, but they will go with me!!

I had so wanted to get my "12 Days of Christmas" Exchange finished and shipped prior to going in to the hospital, but it just was not to be!! I had the most wonderful pattern made by our own "Vee". She is a good friend who is also a Designer and owns her own Design Company. I love her things!! And, she is the very best and most wonderful friend!! She designed a chart just for my Exchange Partner for me the very night Colin gave me the name of my Exchange Partner!! And, in my mail box the following morning was this wonderful chart!! I do not know if I have a decent picture to show of it or not!! I took pictures, but they were not very good!! The important thing was my stitched piece was phenominal!! It is so lovely, on the perfect fabric and included many beaded areas. Perhaps, my Exchange Partner can send me a much better picture. BUT, I had worked on this piece daily beginning like the Sunday after my surgery on Thursday!! I was not going to be late on this one!! Well, I worked all of Tuesday on trying to finish this piece as my second Flatfold!! The fabric for this was a perfect match to the piece. And, I worked non-stop on trying to make that flatfold. Kathy K. told me I had a step by step illustration of what I had done the first time right on my own Webshots!! I had not remembered this and I am sure she knew this!! Kathy is always so diplomatic in trying to tell me I messed something up!! I had a complete success going until the very end and WALLA - I put the stitched piece on upside down!! Now, Cynthia tells me just say it is the first and original of my own designed upside down flatfold. And, of course, Kathy tells me she would give any thing to have such a stitched piece from me as she is aware of how long it takes me with all my disabilities now to complete any piece!! Well, this is surely overdue to her!! But, unfortunately, I did not have Kathy K. or Cynthia for my exchange partner. I am not sure, at all, if my Exhange Partner is going to feel so "special"!! But, I simply had to send it on as I had no choice at that late date!!

Presently, I am working on getting out all the spoken for "STASH TO GO"!! I am also stitching like crazy on an Erica Michaels piece called "A Good Neighbor Is Found Treasure"!! I need to make two of these for Granny Lou and Eunice for Christmas, I HOPE!! I truly would like to make duplicates, minus the original new upside down-ness, for Eunice, Marion and Granny Lou, but I think I am WAY out of my present realm for right now!! However, after working only last night and today and tonight, I am very well on my way of nearly finishing my first one!!

Unfortunately, tomorrow is my day for another re-check of my melonoma status. And, as usual, this requires yet another trip to Davenport, which is 50 miles away!!

But, going to Davenport, also means getting access to all the GOOD food!! Eunice and I had to go back to Davenport this past Friday to have my surgery rechecked. The Surgeon said he thought I could begin to increase my food intake a bit!! I just sat and truly prayed for Eunice's mouth not to move in any way other that verbalizing only "Goodbye and Thank You"!! I truly can not complain I went hungry. Eunice was quite ill, but her only worry was passing a nasty bronchial cold/sore throat thing on to me. Thus, upon bringing me home she had made a great pot of home made chicken noodle soup and cherry jello!! We had also gotten cottage cheese on the advice of Kathy K. That is pretty much what I existed on through Sunday. I was getting quite hungry by Monday morning.

Eunice and I got drafted into the Benevolent Society's 622 Thanksgiving FoodBasket distribution on Monday morning. I really did not know if I could do it or not!! But, I did!! After we had put in our shift there, Eunice wanted to know if I could try to eat scrambled eggs or some thing quite soft at the Village Inn. We were to meet Marion there. I said, "why not"!! And, so away we went. She ordered scrambled eggs for me and they came with wonderful crisp hash browns and pancakes!! I ate the whole thing!!

Oh, and I must mention, I was not overly excited about the holidays at all. Thanksgiving really kind of sneaked up on me with my surgery and all. On Wednesday evening, Eunice called over and asked me what I was doing. Well, I was waiting on one of the gals from the salon to come and comb my hair was it for the evening!! So, Eunice then asked if I would like to come over and keep her company as she had hours and hours of cooking to put in that night!! Well, I still can not see skin color, but I must admit to experiencing many black cultural things, all of which have been very good things for me, since becoming such close friends to Eunice and her husband, Marion and having such good relationships with my Caregivers, most of whom just happen to be black!! And, Eunice's Thanksgiving plans were quite much of a black cultural thing in the way she was preparing many things, so I knew I could learn a lot. I just wondered how in the world she thought her and I could get me up her 25 steps that comprise her entry up her home front very much on the hill of hills in this neighborhood!! As it turned out, the gal who came to comb my hair volunteered to help!! Thus, they wheeled me over to the base of the steps and took my wheelchair to the first of three landings on the way UP!! Then, they each took a side and I went for it. It truly went very easily and very well!! I truly feel I am going to be walking on my own by this coming Spring. I think I will set Easter as my true "coming out or coming back or whatever"!! I was thoroughly exhausted as were my "helpers", but we did it so I had to rest a bit initially!! However, soon I was diving right into doing whatever Eunice assigned me from my sitting position on her island bar in her kitchen. It was wonderful, as I finally got to actually see Eunice's home and how wonderful the new dining room set I gave her last year looked in her dining room also!! And, I baked my first sweet potato pies. Learned there is real macaroni and cheese and it is not all Kraft!! Had the most awesome, kick butt, deviled eggs made with several things I never heard of before that included Maraschino Cherry Juice!! I made four pans of corn bread the previous evening in my own home for her. Marion had picked them up and they were all such perfect and golden brown squares!! And, this night, I got to pick them up and totally smash them so they could be made into Eunice's famous cornbread stuffing. Well, the cornbread did not really bother me, but when Eunice suddenly dumped a bunch of black slimmy looking things into it when she thought I was not looking it was the deal breaker!! Oysters!! I changed the name from cornbread stuffing to rotted gut stuffing immediately and decided from that moment on I would make my own sage and onion dressing and bring it along the next day. And, I helped and saw the special way of cooking sweet potatoes was done and how it was specially seasoned that no one is supposed to know!! Again, I thought, going to try out those Ore'Ida Microwave Steamed Mashed Potatoes that have been staring at me from my freezer. Eunice took those potatoes home when she and Marion returned me home about midnight!! We also backed banana pudding and several other things that I just can not think of now besides a big turkey and ham!!

I had pretty much decided that this Thanksgiving was meant to be just another day for me although I had so much to be thankful for this past year!! However, Eunice and Marion would not hear of this and ordered that I get ready to go to their home all of Thanksgiving. Eunice has four Schnassuers ( I know I slaughtered spelling) DOGS!! I turned out to be very allergic of these dogs that caused extreme stuffiness for me. However, Eunice's oldest daughter is very allergic and suffers to point of complete asthma attack!! Eunice's grown children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were all very much encouraged to come home for Thanksgiving together this year. This was the very first time Eunice had accepted, and decided she could, have them all together since the death of her thirty-seven year old son a little over two years ago. And, amazingly all of them did show up. They just kept coming and coming and coming!!

I thought the odds there were not real good considering Eunice had only one extra bedroom, sofa and den had one sofa and additionally considering only ONE toilet and shower!! I really thought this was a special time for them to have gotten all together again, but Eunice ordered her "boys" to come for me and not to let me walk as I had exhausted myself the night before. Well, I finally said "Yes", but only if we did the steps again the same as night before. We kind of did, except the boys just kind of picked me up each step!! I was delighted in finally meeting all her family and they were all so very, very nice!! In fact, the oldest daughter that suffered so from the dogs (which guests had brought two or three additional ones along also) quickly accepted my offer of my "That Room" as Wanda had prepared it for occupancy when I went into the hospital as she thought it would surely be used!! It was such a delight to have someone here in the home again!!

Another cute thing!! I did make up a sage and onion dressing as a side dish as I did not have a bird to use. I simply made it up in an 8" dish. It turned out a bit too crispy for my "gumming", but was put out on buffet. I heard one of the kids answer someone's "what is this" with "Bread Pudding"!! I thought "oh, good answer"!! And, as each person went through the buffet line the message was carried back of "Bread Pudding"!! After every one had ate all they had planned to for that round, I asked "Okay, whose dressing got ate the most"? My "Sage and Onion Dressing" was gone!! Naturally, Eunice's Cornbread Dressing started out with more, but the dish was not nearly empty!! And, then some one said, "No, that was Bread Pudding"!!

Eunice laughed and laughed and laughed!! I just told her that "I was a quick learner"!!

I truly am NOT looking forward to the Christmas holidays whatsoever!! I do imagine my mother will put in a brief appearance, but willl have to be home before dark. Eunice and Marion always go into Chicago for the Christmas holidays!! Granny Lou has a standing room only crowd sometimes or else no one. I have no idea what it will be this year. But, I simply am not decorating or planning too much this year. Too many changes!! If, I can just finally finish my main "Stitching Sanctuary" I will be absolutely thrilled to simply camp out in it for the holiday and just hope it passes quickly, which always happens when I can stitch!!

And, I was quite thankful this Thanksgiving!! I am so very, very happy that I finally had the determination and follow-through to tell Max he had to leave MY HOME!! It was a long time coming!! We will have thirty years in December 21 and it seems like they were all in vain!! But, if I had not gotten the strength to just finally tell him to leave, I can only take a wild guess as to the condition I would be in by now. Max simply wanted me to be a bedridden invalid so he could finally control me!! I thank the good Lord daily that I did get that strength to tell him to leave and I truly thank him for giving me the strength to try and be an independent adult again. I have come so far since July 16!! I pretty much was completely bedridden the past six or seven years simply so Max could control me. I can see so very much now in hindsight which is of little value except to point out things I will never let happen to me again!! I am doing so very well after a very rough and rocky year and I am ever so grateful!!

It is clear that Miprezious and I are going to be absolutely okay!!

Love and Hugs!!

Deborah

and

Miprezious, too!!