Long Time No Blog

Yes I know. It's been a busy week. Plus I just haven't felt like blogging. Tragedy, I know. I'll try to remedy that with some incessant rambling. Brace yourselves.

Thanks again for the prayers for my Aunt Norma. Several of you have asked for an update on her status. They finally closed her but were unable to reattach the things they were hoping to. She now has the drains which will be permanent. There's a possibility that months from now when she's all healed, the doc could go back in and try again. But my aunt may not want that after all she's been through. She had 12 surgeries in 18 days. That's a lot for anyone to get through.

Right now she has a hole in her belly about 6 inches in diameter. It's covered with mesh and has some sort of vacuum attached to remove the moisture and draw the wound together to heal. The dressing has to be changed 3 times a week. And it's very painful. So right now they're just waiting for that to get better. She still has the trach and is breathing on the ventilator.

But she's had a couple of moments of recognition when she turned her head in response to my uncle's voice and then another time when a nurse asked if she could hear her and my aunt nodded yes. The nurse told her to squeeze her hand and she did. But my cousin says these moments are few and far between. Mostly she's just out.

They think she'll be in ICU another week or more and then recuperating in the hospital for awhile after that. Her family will be very happy when she can be weaned off the meds and become communicative again. She's been out since Halloween. But they're dreading the task of explaining all that's happened and the major life changes it's caused. So please continue to pray for healing, for comfort from the pain, and strength for her family.

My cousin appreciates it and left this comment on the Prayer Request post in case you missed it.
"I am Debbie, Krista's cousin and Norma's daughter. I can't tell you how moved I am that all you wonderful people are praying for my mom. You will never know how much it means to me and how much it helps. I cried when I read what Krista put on the blog and I cried even harder as I read your comments and how ready you all were to pray and send positive, healing thoughts to my mom. Thank you all so much. Your concern, good wishes, thoughts and prayers are truly, truly appreciated. You are all very good people."

As I type this I'm staring out the window at an albino squirrel. He's upside down on the tree outside my window staring into a hole in the tree. And he's been there for like five minutes. Seriously. I'm going to take a pic so you'll know what I'm talking about.See? What is he doing? Or she? I guess to be fair I don't know if this is a mister or a missus. There are at least 2 albino squirrels that hang around my backyard. They like to torment Griffey. Anybody else have white squirrels? Is that common? I'm fascinated by this guy. He's still just hanging there. I'll let you know if I figure out what the hell he's doing.

My friend, Kris, is having a fundraiser to help pay the orphanage fee for her adoption of baby E. She started out in the NSN China line like me but opened herself up to SN about 9 months ago. Her agency thinks she should be getting a referral soon. She's raffling off a Wii game system. Go over and check it out.

It's cold here. We fast forwarded through fall and jumped straight into winter. I'm not happy about that. And I hate that it gets dark at about 5pm now. The days seem so short.

The nurse practitioner who is treating my knee injury has referred me to an orthopedist. But their first available appointment isn't until Dec 17th. Fabulous. Meanwhile, I have good days and bad days with it. Earlier this week the knee seemed completely back to normal. I thought it'd healed. Then Thursday I helped carry a couch (long story and probably not the smartest thing). By Friday afternoon, I could barely walk on it.

Something is slipping around in there. It's the weirdest thing. Like a knot that moves or something. I can't explain it. But it has me perplexed as to how it can feel fine one minute and then not. Cuz once it slips (and there's no way to predict what'll make it slip... sometimes even doing nothing causes it) it's shot for the rest of the day. Then it requires wrapping, rest, ice, elevation and lots of Mo-trin to get it right again. Pretty much sucks. And is totally gonna screw up my plan to climb the Great Wall if it doesn't get fixed. Luckily, I have plenty of time to rehab the knee cuz China won't be calling anytime soon. LOL!

Speaking of which, I totally forgot to even notice my 29th LID-versary which passed on the 14th of this month. Blah blah blah is all I have to say about that.

Back to the nurse practitioner..... the subject of my adoption came up in our conversation. She has a very close friend logged in November '06. Small world, huh? Since I've had 3 visits with her now we've had some time to chat about it and life in general. We've got a lot in common and I really like her. We exchanged numbers. We're planning a dinner out so I can meet her friend. So my injured knee isn't a total waste. I might make some new friends cuz of it. :)

Oh wait.... now the squirrel is halfway in the hole. What's he doing? I can't believe I'm actually photographing this. But it's hysterical.
See his little tail? He's all the way in now. Sorry it's so dark. I was snapping away as fast as I could through the window glass. There's another squirrel in there!! The brown one just chased the white one down the tree. Hmmmm... are they married and having a lover's quarrel? Or maybe the white one was trying to sneak in and steal some nuts? Maybe it's a turf war. I can just imagine this squirrel yelling out "Yeah you better run!" as he watches the white one take off across the yard. The things that amuse me....
Alright it's time for me to go do some housework. Talk amongst yourselves until I get back. :P