Mother in law

I love my Mother In Law. I do. She is odd and difficult, but she is family.

MIL is pretty cheap - she rarely spends any money on anything nice, she would rather pay less for something of lesser quality. And except for Christmas and S's birthday she rarely buys S anything, unless it is a nickel at a yard sale or similar.

We have received many weird items from her over the years. But one thing that really bugs me is that she ALWAYS buys S clothes in sizes at least 4 years larger than she needs! Today she called, and I thanked her for the shirts she had sent S. (I am really grateful, I am. They were cute too!). But I made sure to tell her I had a hard time explaining for S why she couldn't wear the nice shirts. MIL asked "Why?" Well, they are a SIZE 8 YEAR OLD! "Oh", she said. "I though they might shrink... Are you sure they won't fit?"

Sigh... The shirts even had a sticker on them that said: "Improved fabric for MINIMAL SHRINKING". In bold letters on a very colorful sticker on the shirts, not to be missed...

What is up with this? I know my mom (grandmother) used to do similar things, like buying me shoes a few sizes too big, saying I would "grow into them". And than make me wear the too big shoes. Which were too worn out to be worn when they finally actually fit me...

Since MIL ALWAYS buys us weird things as gifts, (and I always feel bad for not liking the gifts or being able to use them for that matter), I gently started to prep her in time for Christmas last year. It worked! We got gift certificates! S got a few odd toys from her as well, but that is fine, since she doesn't have to wear them...

I have an entire drawer full of odd clothing items from MIL to S in sizes that she will grow into. Eventually... Sigh...

Going to the vet

I am too worried about my beloved little Bob, so I talked to the vet's office, and they are going to squeeze him in after 4:30 PM. I am pretty sure it is a dislocated kneecap, since he have had several similar incidents over the year, not just any this serious. I hope they can manipulate it back and then all he needs is rest. Usually serious cases of patella problems like this require surgery (very expensive), so we will hope that is not the case.

I could not make him pee this afternoon, and I had to feed him water forcefully via a dropper since he won't drink. He is resting on a pillow on his dog bed inside the office closet. he doesn't seem to be in pain unless he walks, then the knee gives out. Sure hope there is an easy fix (but that is rarely the case, is it?!)

Keep your paws crossed he will be OK!

New week again

The time seems to have sped up and the days fly away!

We had a nice Saturday starting off with work at K's office. I got a lot of work done, and we also had a nice lunch/dinner. Later in the afternoon we saw "Surfs Up", which was actually really good! I had no expectations going into the movie theater, I thought it was going to be pretty lame. Turned out to be very well made!

Sunday was spent mostly at Busch Gardens. It was so hot tipping over towards 98F degrees (37C). It was also very humid. Hot! Luckily we brought our swimsuits and we rode a bunch of water rides to get wet and cool off. S just passed the 42 inch mark with shoes, so she could finally go on a few rides she wasn't tall enough for last time. She and I rode the roller coaster The Scorpion three times in a row! Lots of fun!

Something is up with Bob and his leg... K had gone in earlier on Saturday morning to the office and brought Bob with him, and S and I came in around 10 AM with Stan. Stan was very excited to see Bob and the both of them were tumbling around for a while when we arrived. Shortly after I noticed Bob was limping, not wanting to put any weight on one of his hind legs.

He has had problems with his kneecaps popping out of place since he was a little puppy, but it has always been easily fixed by holding his leg straight and letting him rest it for a few minutes. This time it seems he has a difficult time to bounce back. Maybe because he is getting old? He is going to be 7 this July, that is 49 in human years.

Anyway, he pretty much refuses to walk. I can touch his leg, stretch it and massage it, no problem. You can tell it is the knee cap since the problem only occur when he bends the leg when walking. He hasn't pooped since Saturday, and I had to sit with him for a very long time last night to finally get him to pee a little bit! He hasn't been that interested in food or water.

I know these things usually fixes itself, but if he his not better soon I will take him to the vet. Poor little Bob!

Today we are thinking about going to the pool. It is better to do it in the morning now, since we usually can count on thunder and lightning in the afternoon. Florida is pretty much like a tropical rain forest during the summer!

CRAZY!

As some of you might now, I grew up with my grandmother as my mom, since my mom died from Melanoma when I was just 1 year old. So when I say mom I really mean grandmother...

Anyway, I talk to her pretty much every day, she still lives on Gotland. I am very glad she is still here; she had a stroke and a heart attack this past winter, and we were all sure she wasn't going to make it. But, she proved us all wrong and is as good as new!

Yesterday she did something, however, that made me question her sanity... She had the brilliant idea to try a self tanner for the first time in her 75 year old life. As most people know, you have to exfoliate pretty good before applying it, or you risk getting a splotchy and streaky result... And the cardinal rule is to carefully wash your hands afterwards, or you will get odd looking hands for sure! Well, she was not informed about this, so when she woke up the next day she was pretty horrified of how she looked. I understand, I would be too. Most normal people would probably jump in the shower and try to scrub it away, or maybe use a make up remover. Usually it is to no avail, since you will be stuck with the tan for a few days. You just have to grin and take it, right???

No, not my mom! She had the great idea to try white spirit, which is know in Sweden as LACKNAFTA. She rubbed it all over her body! Is she insane? And when that didn't work she got the even more insane idea to take a bath with chlorine in it! OH MY GOD! I yelled at her for a good 10 minutes... But she didn't seem to listen, the chlorine worked and she got the tanner off, that was all she cared about...

NUTS! But I still love her, crazy old lady...

List

New list, this one from Annika. Copy at will, but you can only use one word for each description:

1. WHERE IS YOUR CELL PHONE?: bag
2. RELATIONSHIP?: married
3. YOUR HAIR?: blah
4. WORK?: no
5. YOUR SISTER?: Carina
6. YOUR FAVORITE THING?: daughter
7. YOUR DREAM LAST NIGHT?: sex
8. YOUR FAVORITE DRINK?: water!
9. YOUR DREAM CAR?: dunno
10. THE ROOM YOU'RE IN?: office
11. YOUR SHOES?: none
12. YOUR FEARS?: invalid
13. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE IN 10 YEARS?: happy
14. WHO DID YOU HANG OUT WITH THIS WEEKEND?: family
15. WHAT ARE YOU NOT GOOD AT?: money
16. MUFFIN?: dunno
17. ONE OF YOUR WISH LIST ITEMS?: mansion
18. WHERE YOU GREW UP? Gotland
19.LAST THING YOU DID?: drive
20. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?: shorts
21. WHAT AREN'T YOU WEARING?: bra
22. YOUR PET?: dogs
23. YOUR COMPUTER?: dell
24. YOUR LIFE?: ok
25. YOUR MOOD?: good
26. MISSING?: Sweden
27. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?: pool
28. YOUR CAR?: Toyota
29. YOUR KITCHEN?: messy
30. YOUR SUMMER?: lazy
31. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?: blue
32. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED?: car
33. LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: dunno
34. SCHOOL?: done
35. LOVE?: yes

Friday already?

I have no idea where this week went. Poof! And it is only 4 weeks until we leave for Sweden. What? Time flies!

Today S and I are running an errand for K, dropping off payroll to one of his clients. Then we will have a quick lunch and go to the pool. We haven't been to the pool for a long time, but it has been so overcast since last Friday. Hot but no sun. Today I opened the sliders in the living room and it was very sunny and bright! So the pool it is. I love that S is big enough to help me put on sunblock on my back. Another great benefit of having a child ;-)!

Tomorrow the plan is to go to K's office. I have a job I have to finish, and it is easier for me to do that there with K able to help me entertain S. We will have a late lunch at the office (Johnny Carino's Country Italian, haven't had that for a while...) We are planning to see the new cartoon in the late afternoon, "Surfs Up". It is a little confusing since you would think "Happy Feet" with all them penguins, but this one takes place in a tropical place with surfing. But I am sure they are riding on Happy Feet's penguin success...

On Sunday the plans are to visit Busch Gardens. If you ever come to Florida to check out the theme parks, don't miss Busch Gardens in Tampa! It is one of the nicer ones. It is the atmosphere I think. More relaxed. It is a giant amusement park with cool rides (mostly roller coasters), but it is also a zoo based on Africa. very beautiful animal exhibits. You can even take a Rhino Safari, which is an intimate tour on a large Land Rover in the midst of the African savanna.

It has been in the mid 90s here for a while now, so I am sure it will be a hot day on Sunday! We better bring our swim suits for the flume ride, so we can cool off towards the end a bit...

What are you guys up to this weekend?

Infusion over for this time

I got to Dr K's office just before 8:30 AM this morning and had my physical. I had pre-medicated with extra steroids the night before and 100 mg Tylenol and 25 mg Benadryl an hour prior to arriving. this is to prevent allergic reactions, since they are pretty common.

This all takes place at my rheumatologist's office, they do infusions for Dr P, my gastorentereologist. I warned the staff I have very bad veins. First of all, over 20 years of being prodded with needles gives you a lot of scar tissue, so the skin in the bends of my arms is OK, but underneath the surface lurks tough scar tissue. I am always somewhat dehydrated due to diarrhea, so my veins are small. And they roll. So, not a great set up for anyone wanting to open up a vein in one of my arms... They managed to blow two veins before success was achieved, and this is not something you want to see or experience. The vein literally blows up like a little balloon under the skin and bursts... Lots of bruising! They even considered sending me to the hospital for the infusion, but thankfully they persisted, since that probably would have opened up a can of worms in regards to insurance coverage.

Then to my dismay did I realize they don't use a regular IV set up. They just put the needle in your arm and that is it! You are not allowed to move your arm at all, not an inch! For 2.5 hours... I was cramping up a lot when I was finally done... They might want to consider investing in some real IV equipment, so the patients can move their arms! this meant I could not work on the laptop as I was hoping. Luckily I had brought a DVD I hadn't watched yet, so I was able to do that with just one arm.

So far no reaction (except being veeery sleepy from the Benadryl; antihistamines tend to knock most people out). There was a woman about my age in the chair next to me, receiving the same medication for the same thing. She was not a very positive person. I asked how long she had been sick, and she replied for very long, going on three years! I am thinking to myself that three is nothing, I am going on my third decade! I didn't say anything, but I tried to talk positive to her, she didn't seem to have a very positive outlook on life. I tried to tell her that being positive is really key to live a better life when you are dealing with a disease like this. She just kind of looked at me with doubting eyes. But seriously, you really have to stay positive!

So now I am waiting for my next infusion in two weeks. Hopefully it will work this time around!

Here I am waiting for them to inject the medicine. As you can tell I am very puffy and horrible looking due to all the steroids. They call it "moon face" since the face gets all round and big. Not a pretty sight!

What? Great... :-(

Went to my dear old Dr B today to figure out what to do with all this pain... Turns out I am suffering from steroid withdrawal... The very drug I hate, I now have to take more of. Again. When you take steroids for even a short period of time, the body's natural cortisol production can pretty much shut down, and there is no way to kick start the adrenal glands to start producing again, it has to happen slooowly. In my case over several months of tapering off the dose of the medication.

The list of withdrawal symptoms pretty much was all the things I am experiencing, except shock, coma and death... That is something I would like to avoid, thank you very much! Everyone is different, so there is no surefire way of tapering, and I guess we went a little too fast. Oh, and diarrhea is a symptom, so maybe it is not the UC, maybe it is just drug related?!

Tomorrow, Remicade time. i sure hope I won't have a reaction to it. I will let you know how it goes!

Today it is Nationaldagen, or Sweden's National Day. This is the equivalent to the US 4th of July. It is also Svenska Flaggans Dag, the Day of the Swedish Flag.

Time to sing Sweden's National Anthem, "Du gamla, Du fria":

Oj här går det undan!

Med risk för att tangentbordet ska ryka (har skrivet så det går undan som bara den idag) tittar jag in här lite snabbt.

Hade 5 ganska så tunga jobb som låg och väntade i morse. Det var lite stressigt eftersom jag sagt ja till alla och kommer ha ont om tid den här veckan. På torsdag missar jag i princip en hel jobbardag eftersom jag ska på behandling via dropp och kommer att bli sittandes där en halv dag, och sedan är det besök hos huddoktorn på eftermiddagen.

Men jag VET att jag jobbar som bara den om jag har lite så där lagom med stress och press över mig, och vips så hade jag gjort klart, skickat iväg och fakturerat 4 av 5 jobb! Det femte har jag fått förlängd deadline, så jag har tills på måndag att göra klart. Kommer nog att ta med S och hundisarna till K's kontor, eftersom han ska jobba på lördag, och jobab där. Det brukar vara mysigt! Det kommer att bli eett segt projekt dessvärre, det är vanligtvis fallet om det är något som jag tycker är tråkigt, detta är en bruksanvisning för "world's first upright wrinkle removing machine". Registrerar inte direkt jättehögt på intresseskalan, men många fina tusenlappar blir det till att handla på ICA i Sverige med, så...

Nu en liten promenad med vovvsarna, de står här och nyser, fnyser och gnäller... fast jag lyckades trycka in en 45 minuter lång promenad tidigt i morse innan det blev för varmt, så det går nog ingen supernöd på dem... :-)