Snow?

There was snow and freezing rain in San Diego and Imperial Valley that closed down I8 Thursday. Which means that our new fridge, which comes from San Diego, won't be here until Monday. Home Depot called to tell me it would be delivered Monday instead of Friday. Then I read the news and found out why. There will be a lot of orders that won't come in as scheduled and some people won't be very happy. Later in the day the Highway Patrol escorted some traffic through but it was a very slow go. Watching the news last night there were a lot of smart people that just waited the storm out in a motel.

No snow here, just rain and more rain. I'm sure the "birds" aren't very happy with the weather again this year. It's so damp that the mid 50's feels much colder than that. Yesterday we had to fill a propane tank so Mark could keep filling the little jugs for the propane heater. I go through about 4 a day. That keeps the furnace from running, which costs more than the propane. And I can keep it nice and toasty in here.

Fridge

I wondered how long the noisy old fridge that was here would last. The defrost cycle was lasting too long. So long that the ice cubes were so melted that they tasted funny and were not useable. Each week it makes another strange noise too. Yesterday we were in Home Depot and found a fridge that will fit in our dedicated spot. And to top it off it's an 18.3 cu ft. The one that was here is only 14 cu. ft fridge. We had so much trouble with the small size and the dilapidated state of the shelves on the door and lack of a shelf on the inside. The new fridge will be delivered on Friday and bye bye to the old one. It will be nice to have room for fruits AND veggies, not to mention room for more than one gallon of milk. Thank you mommy. 😘

Hopefully by next winter I will have enough money saved to replace the stove. It's hard to work with just one large burner and three small ones. I've never seen a range like this before. And I don't think there is much if any insulation in it because the whole unit gets so very hot to the touch when the oven is on. I know a unit can get warm but not to the point of you don't dare touch it at all when the oven is in use. One other reason I won't use the oven in the summer.

ENT doctor visit

I’m not sure what to do next. I have a very large stone in one, the bottom, of the glands on the left side of my neck and the upper gland on the left has a small stone. There is also a tiny stone on the right side in the lower gland. He wants me to work on massaging and putting warm packs on the smaller glands to move the stone up and out. But the large stone on the left bottom gland will need to be surgically removed because it is so large.

Now the surgery is not what I want. The gland has to be taken out, and the stone removed and the gland put back in. The risks are minor, bleeding, infection which to me is normal with any surgery. But the one risk that is a possibility, not too likely, would be a nerve damaged and that side of my mouth (bottom lip) would be in a permanent smile. NOT what I want to have. So I’m not sure what to do. Maybe put up with the off and on swelling and  pain or have the surgery. He recommended the surgery, of course. He didn’t seem too pleased when I asked about scope surgery, which is what I would prefer. He doesn’t want to do surgery on the upper gland because of the risks involved. He has done both surgeries. Surgery on the bottom larger gland is pretty common and he has done many of them. He just did an upper gland surgery and didn’t look to pleased. I still have a good chance of the little stones passing through my saliva if I increase sour foods and warm packs. But the big stone will not pass due to its size.

For right now I’m thinking of putting up with the issue for as long as I can take it. After all I’ve had the problem for the last three years. Sometimes it quite painful and sometimes just a nuisance pain or discomfort. Sometimes it lasts a very short time and sometimes it can last for days, even a week.

He is not a spine guy, he said, but thought the degenerative area in my neck was arthritis. I’ll see my primary after the holidays and see what he says about it all. I will also get the pneumonia shot and check on the shingles shot as well.

That’s it in a nutshell. At least I know that it’s not cancer.  I'll pray for guidance on making a decision of what to do.

Not sure but thinking positive.

Today I got an email from MyCare that I had the results of my CTscan. So I went there to review it. After looking up every other word so I knew what it was talking about, I came to the uneducated assumption that my glands have calcium stones, similar to kidney stones. They are blocking the flow of saliva causing the swelling and as time goes it gets more painful and more stones if left untreated. Which has been three years of just antibiotics that don’t work on this. So for now I am going to say my prayers have been answered.

 My heart was racing when I saw that the report was in and that I didn’t know what the words meant. But after looking up the “big” words I think I just have stones in my glands. Or like I prefer to call it “rocks in my head”. I’ll laugh now and hope to remain laughing after I see the specialist tomorrow. I know that prayer works and sometimes the answer is not what we hope, but God is still beside us all the way. I’ll continue to pray for positive answers.

I’ll know more tomorrow after I see the ENT as to what he says and what he will do about it and when. Right now I’ve had no swelling for about a week. But that is just the way it rolls, I never know when or how bad the swelling will be at any given time.

Done

The home health nurse that came yesterday and put my mind at ease about the lumps in my glands. But until I hear from the doctor that it is not serious I'll just remain cautiously optimistic.

 Now that the Christmas baking is done I can't find my Christmas tray to set out the cookies. I may need to make a quick trip to the dollar store for a Christmas tray. I have misplaced the two that I had. I hope the store still has a couple left.

Mark has some of the floor on the back porch. He is waiting for the braces to come from Home Depot before he can finish the floor. Even half done it looks better than what was there before. And it will be a lot safer as well.

CT Scan

Today I was called in for the CT  Scan of glands just under my ears. So we hustled to get showered and out the door by noon. Ok I was already dressed hours before but Mark had to take care of his business. He seldom is dressed before brunch. LOL After all he is retired again. 😎

We got to the hospital in plenty of time and as usual were met with very friendly staff.  Everyone was so nice and really puts you at ease.  The CT technician was a younger gentleman and very nice. He was kind enough to put a pillow under my knees since laying on my back is painful. I never even felt him put in the IV for the dye. Amazing, hehehe.

After the test, my legs were like rubber so we slowly walked to the car. It was well after 2 and we were both very hungry. We ate at AppleBees and used my birthday coupon and got my meal for free. I like free. 😀 They had one dollar pomegranate  margaritas so we each had two of those with our meal. Very good food as always and the service is fabulous as well at the foothills AppleBee's.

After lunch we had to have nitro put in the low tires of the car and then off shopping. Mark picked an angel off of the Christmas tree at church and got a 5 year old boy who wanted Spiderman pajamas for Christmas. The gift will be sent as a gift from his dad who is incarcerated over Christmas.The kids shouldn't have to pay for the parents bad choices. So we feel great that we could help out a child.

Now the waiting game for my test results of the CT. I have a lot of people praying for me, as well as Mark and I, for cancer free results. I see the ENT doctor on the 20th. I imagine if there is a problem he will want to see me sooner. But prayers are strong so I hope to not see him any sooner and the test results will be good. There has to be a reason for the swelling the last three years. I know stress is causing some of the problem but there also must be an underlying issue as well.

Obviously no baking got done today. Hopefully I can get the spritz done tomorrow and frost some cookies tonight. It is a very busy week so I'll keep my mind busy for at least this week. I see

Doctor

Today I went to see my doctor for my test results from the Ultra Sound of my glands. There are three spots, two look to be fatty tissue and one is undetermined. A CTscan will be my next route. The hospital will call with that appointment. Then to an ENT doctor to go over those results. I'm praying hard that it is NOT cancer. With my white blood cell count being high, I'm scared. But I'm trying to think positive that it's an easy fix and NOT cancer. I'm not a very positive person so I'll be doing a LOT of praying.

Mark started working on the back steps. The tile is all loose. So he is taking all the tile off and putting down something from Kilz that should last as long as we are here. And we had another surprise today too....... A few weeks ago we noticed a water stain on the ceiling in the AZ room. Thinking that it was a leak that Mark will need to check out and figure out how to fix. Today I noticed another spot close to the first one. Once Mark pulled off the ceiling tile and lifted the styrofoam insulation water was dripping fast. Taking off some of the styrofoam he saw that the metal roof was all wet from condensation. Wiping up the mess and turning a fan on to dry the moisture took the rest of the day. Our nearest conclusion was that we heated this room and it had never been heated with anything but a small electric fireplace thing. And we were using a Big Daddy propane heater that we had. Well that is too much heat for in here with the type of "roof" that is on this addition. No more Big Daddy heat in here anymore. We do have a little fireplace thing that we can use if we really feel a need. But a robe and slippers should do just fine. hehehe We just aren't used to being cold anymore. Lots to learn in Yuma weather.

I need some good stiff drinks tonight!!!!!