A Little Garden Update

The garden is growing splendidly! Here are a few pictures for you. I know you have been dying to see some!

From top left: A crazy looking marigold, beans blooming, a perfect looking cucumber, and tomatoes waiting to turn

Sugar snap peas. I love these things. I only wish that more grew on a vine. These are all gone. They don't do well in the heat. I will plant more in the fall.

The first mess of bush beans this year. They are Roma. I always wish that I had planted more!

Juliette tomaotes. The first blush.

Figs starting to swell.

What's growing on your garden?

Messy Musings

I thought it might be time for an update. Two warnings: I just took some pain medicine. I might not make sense once I get a few sentences in. And I am typing on my iPad and for some reason blogger doesn't put paragraph breaks when I type on my iPad. So, it may look messy. Oh, and I am not prrofreadint this one. I am going on day 4 after the laparoscopy, day 3 after the allergic reaction. Other than the added medications, the allergy doesn't seen to have left a lasting affect. It may have hindered my healing a bit. But I keep reminding myself that we are only a few short days out from surgery. I started swelling on Saturday. Holy moly! My butt got big! I thought that my abdomen would swell. It did, but not how I expected. My belly button is unrecognizealbe. It is for sure swollen. This was the main entry site. I have three other small entry sites. I have super innie belly button most of the time and it is almost flat as a pancake. This makes me sadder than I ever expected. I know that it will heal and go back to a somewhat normal state. I have pressure all along my sides from swelling and feel like my belly button is going to fall out. I know that it isn't, but it feels like it. And the swelling is decreasing very day. I have been walking a bit around the house, eating, drinking, peeing, and watching lots of mind numbing tv shows on the iPad. My friends and family have taken great care of me. Food, flowers and time have been given. It is so very appreciated. I seriously can't lift much of anything, but I am not supposed to. It is hard to see something that you do on a regular basis, like put dishes in the dish washer, that is harder than normal and really someone else can do that for you. I am trying to keep good track of my pain meds. That can be hard when you start to get loopy. But, it shouldn't be long until I don't need the heavy hitters. I had pain medication induced emotional diarrhea last night. I figured it would happen sometime, but it wasn't to bad. Actually that is why I thought that I would blog a little. You know, those thoughts that creep out that maybe other people are thinking or have thought and you wonder if you are alone? Lots of my thoughts are questions and will be answered by the doctor on Friday or by time itself. Like, was surgery worth it? I mean I didn't have any symptoms and now I freaking hurt and had a potentiall life threatening allergic reaction. Surely I will forget the pain? Especially if she wants to do another surgery! Does this answer questions? I suppose so. I have something to label. Something to treat. Something to ask for healing from. It has made me ask for help, which I am not great at, but I am getting better at. Food fairies are wonderfult things, especially when they take on the form of dear friends. Flowers dot my bedroom and that really brightens my outlook. Does this get us closer to becoming parents? It does explain some infertility. For sure it does. The doctor said that she is going to get us having bambinos. Pregnancy is a great treatment for endometriosis. It really helps people's symptoms. But then, I didn't have symptoms. And there we start the circle all over again. Today is the funeral for my neighbor who passed away. 97. What a long life. I will miss her. I a not sure if I will make it to the funeral. I haven't been out of the house yet. We had said our goodbyes. The last time I saw her she said, " Kara, if I don't see you again here, I'll see you up yonder. I love you." ok, it makes me teary. My response, " you know you will. I love you." really the funeral would be the formality of saying goodbye. But how do you say goodbye to someone who knew you your entire life? She saw me home from the hospital as a baby, gave me candy as a kid, encouraged me in the Lord as a young woman, saw me as a blushing bride, welcomes my husband as neighbor and prayed for me always. I learned a lot about loving the Lord from her. A true, real, solid relationship with God. She'll be missed. But I will see you up yonder Mrs. Williams!!!! We still have neighbors in their 90's. They came to visit with me yesterday. They are a hoot and a half! The Jackson's. Mr. Jackson has known me from the time I was a baby. He confuses me with my sister, but I forgive him because he is 92, I think. His wife, Hazel, married him about 5 years ago. She is 91. She still drives, cooks, exercises and looks not a day over 75. They laugh and pick on each other. I love them. And I live that they came over to check on me and visit. It brightened my day.i do a lot of checking on them, especially when an ambulance shows up at their house! I guess I gave them a scare by me taking off in one. I am sure at some point hazel will bring over some pound cake which I won't be able to eat. She doesn't get the gluten free thing. I'll just accept it and let Dave eat it. I love southern hospitality. Ok, due to the ament that I have written, I will assume that the pain medicine has taken affect. Maybe I can get a nap in. Sleep has been elusive. Here is to hoping for sleep and healing. More musings are to come, I am sure. Thanks you friends, for your prayers, and for forgiving this mess of a post. Maybe I will clean it up later. Maybe not. Hope it has been readable. Night, I mean, morning y'all.

Never Judge A Book By Its Cover

Here is am update that I sent some friends. Yet another mass email.... Thanks for all of your prayers. The surgery went well. The staff was amazing and I felt quite at ease beforehand and afterward. Turns out that I have severe endometriosis. My doctor was very surprised. She removed a large cyst from my left ovary, took a good look around my abdominal cavity, and possibly removed a little bit from other areas. I woke up well from surgery and had a great day afterwards- except being a bit disturbed by the appearance of my belly button. The doctor wants to treat this aggressively. Not quite sure what that means- medication, more surgery? She was very conservative in what she removed. We have an appointment with her this coming Friday. Yesterday was scary. I started coughing a lot, which isn't unusual after undergoing anesthesia. My throat felt rough though. I even made Dave look at it. Shortly after that my left eye was bothering me. Again, not unusual for me. My eyes bother me all of the time. Dave settled me down for a nap, I hadn't slept much all night. A few minutes later I noticed my eye felt large and I couldn't open it all of the way. I pulled out my phone and examined my eye with the camera. I immediately texted Dave that my eye was swelling- I could only get out a whisper. He called the doctor. As he turned to leave the room I felt my lip swelling. I knocked on the bedside table to get his attention. He went into action calling 911. Not seconds later hives erupted all over my body appearing like blisters, starting on my arms and quickly moving to my legs.I got scared fast. Our friend Sheila arrived around then to drop off some food. She waited for the paramedics. They asked me a million questions, got me to the stretcher, into the ambulance and started working. Epi pen, IV- Benadryl, steroids and oxygen administered. Praise the Lord I could breathe easier. By the time we reached Kennestone the hives were starting to lessen. The pressure around my eye felt better. I got some morphine, anti- nausea Meds and ice chips. I have never been so happy to be at a hospital! The nurse said that I had a really bad reaction. I thought so, but the paramedics were so calm. We think it was the OxyContin. While at the hospital they tried me out on another medicine to make sure I had no reaction. Relief! So, now I have an epi pen at hand, a round of steroids and Pepcid to complete along with a new allergy that needs to be confirmed, due to the severity. Thank you to those who were in touch and praying. Dave's wisdom in quickly calling 911 may have saved my life. I gave him a good scare. I actually have slept some since we got home. Lots of family stopped by. I feel much better! Still sore and bruised from surgery.  A tiny bit itchy, but i probably just need a shower! I will be taking it easy this week!! Not going to push it after what I went through the past 48 hours. This week will be spent watching tv and reading. Poor Dave is exhausted and took an extra day off of work to be home with me. Sorry for the long email. I thought it the easiest way to update all of you. Again, thank you for your prayers friends. You all keep me going. Oh, and my favorite 97 year old passed away yesterday. My old neighbor. She was been waiting a long time to be taken away. So glad that her suffering has ended. We'll miss her. Pray for her family, will you? Her passing leaves a big hole in all of our hearts. Thanks friends. Kara And for the sake of drama, let's try to get a picture of my eye up here..... Sometime soon.

Here We Go!!!!

So, the title of this post may be more interesting than what I am writing about.

Exploratory surgery, anyone? Why, yes please.

That is right. This morning I go into the operating room for exploratory laparoscopy. This is all part of our walking down the path to find answers for our infertility. Cysts were seen on my ovaries during an ultrasound. They appear to be blood filled, which led to the diagnosis of endometriosis. However, I don't have many symptoms of endometriosis. My doctor is perplexed and curious. She seems like she wants to know what is going on in there just as much as I do! The only definitive way to know is to take a look.

So, that is what we are doing. Getting a good look at my ovaries and my abdominal cavity. I get to be blown up with gas. I wonder what that will be like. I hear it can be painful afterwards. The cysts may or may not be removed. I appreciate that my doctor is conservative and if there is a chance that she can not  safely remove them then they will remain. If there is anything else suspicious going on and she can safely do something about it, then she will. I am hopefully that my ovaries just a need a little clean to get the job done and it will be smooth sailing from here on out. Either way, we are praying for answers and direction.

I'll be spending the next few days taking it easy, possibly heavily medicated, watching episodes of something on netflix. Which is fine because I have spent the last few days cleaning like a a crazy person. I have had this desire for everything in the house to be in its place and in order before I take my leave. Whew!!! It wore me out.

I will keep y'all updated when I know more. We will know a bit more after surgery but any lab work can take two weeks.

What are you doing this Thursday?

Backyard Eggs

I thought that I would share with you some photos of our eggs. There are so many shapes, sizes and color variations. I am always amazed!!

This is usually how the eggs look in the nest when I collect them. Except sometimes it is dark out and I have to use a flashlight!

Eggs freshly washed. I only wash eggs when they are really dirty. Once washed they have to be refrigerated.  unwashed, eggs can remain at room temperature for 7-10 days. The amazing egg!!!

All snug in a carton.

My very favorite egg coloration of all time. Some one in the flock is a cartographer! This looks so much like the world lain flat in an egg shape. Chickens are amazing!

Cruisin

We really enjoyed our time on the cruise we took with Dave's aunt, uncle and cousins in January. Dreaming of these days..... we went to Cozumel and Costa Maya. We ate so well on the boat and off. It was such a treat to not worry about food. The ship's staff really looked out for my dietary needs. What a gift. It allowed me to truly relax. We will definitely be cruising again!!!

Here are a couple of photos to drool over and dream about....

Dave and I swimming in the cold underground river.  It was really neat and so pretty!

We were blessed with gorgeous sunsets almost every night.

My favorite day of the cruise. Warm sand. Cold drinks. Fresh Seafood. Water as far as the eye could see.