The Dackel Princess

1. What do you like best about summer weekends?

Hearing children’s voices as they play at the beach below our house

Continue reading “The Friday Questions”

This was my first trip out since surgery last week. I thought I would be fine. I felt strong, and after all, it has been a week. We stopped at the Post Office first and my new winter ski parka arrived from LL Bean. It fits like it was made for me and I love the mulberry color. But Hubby noticed that as I went from the car to the Post Office and back, that I was weaving a bit.
I started feeling a little light headed then. My, what an odd feeling. We hit Market Basket and I got a carriage and used that to keep from falling over. I seemed to do okay during the first half of the store, but then I start to feel as though I hadn’t slept in years. That’s when I started sort of sliding the carriage through the store.
I don’t think anyone noticed. No one except Hubby, of course. He could see I was getting tired and once he got me to the car he took me off for lunch at a nice little Chinese/Japanese Restaurant where I had the most delicious Crispy Sesame Shrimp!

We need food. It’s as simple as that. I would send Hubby out alone, but I know if I do, I won’t be happy with his selections. It’s time to take a shower, get dressed and put on dark sunglasses and go out!
I expect I’ll be a bit tired after, but I think it’ll do me good to leave these four walls for a few hours. I also enjoy grocery shopping. (am I the only one?) So this will also be a pleasure trip.
As we live in the wilds of New Hampshire, grocery shopping means driving about 25 miles to the nearest grocery store. Nothing is close here, and since we are going to be in the area we might as well stop in at Walmart too.
Time to hit the shower…

Today is my favorite cousin’s birthday. Happy Birthday Janet and many, many more!!!

I had three very ripe banana’s that I needed to either do something with or throw away soon, so yesterday I decided to make a banana bread. I found a “splenda” recipe and made it up. This cuts the sugar/carbs in half. I expected it to be pretty yucky, but it actually was good. Now I know I can’t eat a ton of this, but it was a nice change.

Last night we’d thawed the Chili that I had made a few weeks ago. Hubby *loved* this batch and he ate like there was no tomorrow. But after two bites, my stomach rebelled and I couldn’t eat it. All I could think was that I am still not back to normal since the surgery. So, it was lucky I had the fresh banana bread, as that was what I had for dinner.

My neighbor’s granddaughter is visiting from South Carolina. She is a sophomore in college. In order to get to the beach easily we let our neighbor’s cut through the yard. So we brought the dogs up to meet and get used to the granddaughter last night. She came out of the house, said, “I hate dogs.” and went back inside. Her grandmother loves our dogs as does her Aunt. We sat on their porch talking for a while, and I’d hoped she might venture out again, but she never did. It’s sort of weird because I have to say, my three dogs are the sweetest dogs I have ever owned. Even people who don’t like dogs like my three. I found her behavior sort of rude.

Hubby has gone off fishing today. So the house is quiet, the dogs are quiet and I am Queen of the remote control! Life is good!

Yes, it is summer, and we are finally having bright skies and hot temperatures. Of course this is pretty funny because my eye is so sensitive to light that I would prefer the cloudy dark days we had earlier in the month. Ha! You see there is no pleasing a New Englander!! So I walk around from dawn until dusk in dark sunglasses. Yes, even when I am in the house!
Shubi has been sticking to me like we’re conjoined twins. While Fritz and Greta will go out with Hubby when he is doing his yard work, Shubi won’t leave my side. Yesterday about 4 o’clock I decided this dog needed to get out a little, so I got out my darkest sunglasses, my big hat and went for a walk in the back yard. Shubi ran around as though she had just been freed from prison. I stayed out as long as my eye could stand it, and then came in, and of course, Shubi was hot on my heals. She is one heck of a dog. Quite a nurse.
Now for those of you with weak stomachs, don’t click on the extended entry. But for those who want to see the eye update click below.

Continue reading “Summer Sizzle”

As I sat around all weekend “healing”, I watched a lot of TV. What to watch? Most of it was terribly boring stuff, but BBC America had some great shows on and I watched those.
“Trading Spaces” Two couples trade homes and redo one room in the others house.
“Home Invaders” A design team shows up at dawn and helps you redecorate three rooms in your home with leftover materials in your house.
And of course my favorite show, which has nothing to do with home design, but has everything to do with fun, “What Not To Wear”.

Continue reading “Planning”

I think the swelling is down a little, but the redness is worse. I slept better last night, until Greta got me up at 5. I still have that wiped out feeling. So trust me, it is easy to just sit and not do nothing.
For those who have asked, go to the extendeed entry to see pictures of the eye. For those with weak stomachs, trust me, I understand. That’s why they’re not posted on the home page.

Continue reading “Post-Op Day 3”

I am so tired. I keep saying that over and over again. I’m not doing anything. I just sit here in my recliner with my feet up and my head back, closing my eyes and sort of drifting in and out.
I didn’t expect to feel so totally exhausted. Usually, in the past, with the other eye surgeries, I have felt pain, but not so wrecked. In many ways this is a good thing. It keeps me down and keeps me quiet.
I’m still having double vision. That’s a real trip. When I really want to watch something on the TV I will use the patch to cover my eye so I can see just one image. When I have had to do stairs I have Hubby help me, and walking around I tend to hold onto him too.
My eye is sort of swollen now, and I imagine it will start to turn black and blue soon. The white of the eye is no longer white as it is full of stitches. Talk about bloodshot! I could be a great “before” picture for a Visine ad!.
Well, back to R & R

I went in for my post-op check this morning. You know how you tell your doctor things and they sort of believe you, but sort of think maybe you are being a little dramatic or something?
Well, this debris has been a real pain. It’s been driving me crazy and I have tried to tell my doctor how bad it is, and what it is like. There have been times I have thought that maybe my doctor felt I was a Drama Queen. However, yesterday, he finally saw what I have been living with.
Two days flat on my back caused all the debris to float out and into the back of the eye. When the doctor got in there yesterday He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He says he has never seen anything like this before.
He tried a new procedure to remove it. First he went after the large pieces of debris. Then let things settle for a few minutes. Then he went back and removed more debris. Then he waited again. After the third removal, he did the flushing of the internal part of the eye.
He hopes that this is going to take care of the problem. It’s too soon to tell, but he says that if it doesn’t solve the problem there could be another surgery. He says he has never seen anything like this before. He went to his journals and couldn’t find anything written about this. I felt pretty good because he finally realized what I have been trying to tell him. I teased him that he could write a paper about all of this for a medical journal and we could be famous!
So now I have to lie around and take it easy and let my eye heal. Because I’ve had a detached retina in that eye, I must be very careful over the next 10-14 days that I’m not bouncing around or doing anything that might cause the retina to detach once again. I have a little double vision as well, but I am not too worried about that. I also had that after the last surgery. I go back in a week for another post-op exam..
The biggest bummer right now is that I can’t see well enough to read. All I really want to do is lie here in the recliner with Shubi and Greta, and close my eyes.