Bopcha, I hope you are continuing to feel great. You are quite a trooper and you have really pulled through with this surgery experience and done very well.
I hope you enjoyed the photos. I though it was nice to see the children marching along the hill. Those are taken from when the Parsons family trailed up to Mary's Peak. My sister keeps commenting about how beautiful she thinks the mountain is. I know they really enjoyed their trip up there.
By the way, those dolls are part of my sister's ongoing project to create nice little pieces of art work from the Alpaca wool. Amazingly enough that wool comes from the alpacas that dwell in Philomath at the alpaca farm (directly across the street from "Gathering Together" farm). She visited that farm this past summer and she somehow managed to develop some type of relationship where they send her the wool from their alpacas. She makes her little pieces of artwork and then sends it back to them to sell. I guess she will get a small piece of the profit. Anyway, it's kind of a neat arrangement and I know my sister feels that their interest in her pieces is a complement.
Well I will write more later, I have some work I need to attend to right now. Hope everyone has a restful weekend. Take good care.
Wow Bopcha, it is pretty amazing that our wishes helped you out. Nice to hear that you will be working on your story telling, and imagine how good you will get at the story telling. Always good to hear how well your back is doing - it obviously was a great decision to go through with this surgery.
Thanks also to you Bopcha for making note of all of our crazy adventures in suasage making. It was quite an "interactive"experience and we leaned on each other the entire weekend. It was labor intensive and work really had to be shared by all of us. Joe's friend Carl joined to help us on Saturday morning and it was quite clear that his presence added valuable experience. He added a much needed touch of expertise in the butcher field. He is also apparently a man of experience - and has many interesting stories to tell. He was actually assigned to the Nazi youth when he was young. He was also hit by a train when he was younger and has that story to tell. However, he is a man who is mostly concentrating on work. He worked really hard and was always thinking about the fastest and best way to get things done. Everyone worked hard in their own way. I've got to say that the day or two long project of working on the same thing as we did with the sausage making is not completely alien to me. In my Italian family, we had plenty of experiences where we would dedicate chuncks of time to making or finishing such a project. I remember many times when my family was the only one on the block to make the wine, canned tomato sauce, hot peppers, etc.. And my sister and I (although really young) were expected to stick around and help. It was hard work and of course as youngsters, it was difficult for us to appreciate these efforts.
Anyway, I just want to also commend Diana and Judy again for all your efforts in helping out. I was impressed to hear about the bathroom painting. That should turn out wonderfully. I admire your energy for doing it. Lots of luck with it.
Bopcha, glad to hear you are getting better and better.
The pictures of your project are terrific. So good to see you again, Joe, and I am so glad to meet you Colleen. Sandra, what a trouper you are, and of course my precious son, Sid, with Dexter. Dexter, you look the same as ever. I loved seeing all these familiar faces. What a project! Congratulations!
I am up and about. I HAVE THE ordinary sore muscles that are nothing compared to the pain I had. Thanks to all of you for your best wishes, and prayers. It all helped tremendously. For one example, I was told an MRI would not be available until the end of the week, and then it was scheduled for the next day. And then, the surgery was the day following!
Now, when I join in on REPAC again, I will not have to just listen to other ladies aches and pains, I can contribute my own e
xperience. I must learn to be a good story teller.
After a three hour drive from Philly to the Pocono mts. we began converting 200 pounds of ground pork into sausage. We started mixing at 9 pm, we had to give Joe a rest at 6 am but he then chose to stay up another hour and jabber with Dexter until 7 am!! We started again at 9 am - when Carl arrived - and worked until 4 PM. How is that for good old - Polish, Italian, African and German work ethic!! And of course Colleen - (Joe's Significant O) added much much needed sanity to the crew, she patiently added peace, serenity and organization to our project!! All kidding aside it was definitely a beastly project!! Joe, as always, was amazing! As were Sandra, Dex and Carl. WOW! What an adventure.
Bopcha had a moderately restless night, but she is snoozing nicely right now. Her back started aching - not like it hurt with the compression fracture, but more post-surgery pain, I think. Anyway, she gets up and walks around quite a bit, went out to get the mail, and sat up at the table for lunch (Judi made lightly sauted sea scallops, chili rellenos, and carrots with sweet potatoes).
I ran a short errand this morning before Judi came in, and Judi and I ran another short errand this afternoon. Bopcha does well without us watching her every move. Probably enjoys the solitude!
It is raining like crazy right now. Judi and I bought paint to redo the upstairs bathroom. We plan to scrub it down with TSP first, and now it is so humid that we may have to bring a heater up there to allow it to dry if we do it today.
I have an oral argument on Friday, so I'm leaving for Seattle on Thursday. I'm confident Bopcha will be sick of me by then and will have her strength back for the most part. Judi's cooking is guaranteed to heal the sick and tempt the healthy!
Later,
Diana
PS Hmmmm.... interesting photos of Sandra and Sid's weekend of fun!
Yesterday, when we received the phone call from Diana on my cell phone announcing that your surgery had gone perfectly, it truly was music to my ears. It was wonderful to hear that it went so well. But best of all you are out of pain, that is really awesome. My mother has asked about you several times and was very happy to hear that you are done with the surgery and it was a success.
Hopefully, your back will be in even better shape than it was even before all of this happened. Is that a possibility? It sounds like it might be.
Also seems like lots of kudos should go to Diana and Judy. Both of you seemed to have dedicated lots of your time and efforts and I am certain that everyone in the family appreciates it. Well Bopcha, I am also impressed that you have already written to us all on the blog just a few hours after returning from the hospital. It is always fun to receive your messages so keep them coming whenever you feel up to it. We all enjoy hearing from you. Of course, it's always a pleasure to hear from everyone else as well. I have fun reading all of your messages.
Well I guess I will close for now and attempt to wind down and go to sleep. It is almost midnight and I have to start preparing for the rather gruling work week ahead.
I will write a little more tomorrow. I will try to report something interesting. Thanks Diana for keeping us all so well informed via e-mail. It was really helpful.
I CAN HARDLY BElieve it, all the pain is GONE. I guess that is the way it is supposed to be, These compression fractures are not to be taken lightly. I thought I could ride this one out but after five days it became worse day by day. By the time I called 911, the affendants had to come in with a gurney and slide me off the bed. Now, I can walk to the bed, get in, get out and walk around the room. Judi (dr. judy!) deserves a medal or a high five at least. Diana drove down from Mercer Island so now I have around the clock care. Yippee.
Thanks to alllllllllll your good wishes, they reallluy helped.
Judi spent the afternoon and evening washing blankets so we can make up Mother's bed nice and fresh. Judi and I also changes all the sheets upstairs for all of Bopcha's visitors, so Judi is washing those too.
I visited Bopcha at dinner time and ate half her meal. The staff is going to think she suddenly developed a huge appetite! I am going back to the hospital at 10 a.m. She should get discharged at some point and we figured that might be a good time.
Staying at the house alone hasn't been too scary. I slept like a log last night. The night before Bopcha's surgery, neither Judi nor I could get a wink of sleep. Too stressful and too fearful we wouldn't wake up in time.
Mother is really pleased with her treatment by all the staff at Good Sam. She gives them an A+. She's enjoyed the food, too. I agree with her re: the food. It lacked salt, of course, but the mashed potatos and gravy were tasty and the cooked carrots were nice and soft.
It is 6:45 a.m. and Judi is on her way here so that we can go to the hospital for Bopcha's surgery. All systems go. We are excited and expect to share good news with you all as soon as we get the word from Dr. Lewis, her orthopedic surgeon, that all went as expected.
