Easter being celebrated today

Easter being celebrated today: Today is Easter Sunday, April 20

Hello everybody, I am wondering how many of you saw the Northern lights last night or this morning? I know they have a proper name but it alludes me right now. Too many people had on their porch light or security lights to see them last night so I got up early this morning and did get off a few shots before it got completely daylight. I hope you all enjoy looking at them. We very seldom get a chance to see them here in Alabama.

Have a blessed afternoon. Helen

This is a set of twin fawns. My daughter is talking to them as they cross her yard. Turn you volume up and you can hear and see one of them answering her back with little squeaks. Neighbor scared it off at the end coming home from work. So beautiful and sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-i2g3Bwjs&feature=youtu.be

Happy Memorial Day

May God bless the families of the Military who paid dearly for our freedom. We thank them all.

May God bless our present Military and their families. May He walk with our men and women every step of the way and protect them from all harm. 

This is the male Eagle at Norfolk Botanical Gardens VA. Screen shots taken 5-27-12. A beautiful Bird that was chosen for our National Bird.

Everybody have a great Memorial Day. May you all be blessed and stay safe.

Helen

We will miss you Dad White

No one could grow tomatoes like Dad of  Dad's Tomato Garden. I have known Dad for many years along with his daughter Mary through our blogs. I believe they were the first to comment when I first started a journal many years ago. Two of the sweetest people you could ever know.

Dad lived his life so that others could see exactly what he was. He loved his Lord, his children (Mary and Jim), and great grandchildren along with his kitties Princess(deceased) and Prince still living. He wrote of them often. He posted many pictures of his loving family as the years went by. His family loved him back just as much. We all lost him to his spiritual world on May 9, 2012. We here in this blog world are going to miss him also. I know his Lord told him "Welcome Home my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased". I can almost see him rejoicing with his Family and beloved Wife LaVerne who have gone on before.

Rest in Peace Dad. We all loved you.

Trying out new blog look.

I haven't tried out the new look on blogger. Thought I would try to figure out how it is supposed to work.
Here are a few pictures I made of my flowers last week.

Happy Easter

Good Morning to everyone. I wish for everyone a very Happy Easter and may it be a blessed one. 

                                      

Feeling better

Just a few words to say I am feeling much better. Went to the neurosurgeon on Wed and he was well pleased. In fact he said for me to call them in a couple of months to let them know how I was doing. My back still hurts some but so far it's not unbearable.  I take an Aleve each morning and a couple of Tylenol a day to cope with the pain I do have. I have been taking some slow shorts walks and it does seem to help. I use my trekking pole to help me with support. I am hoping when the weather gets warmer I will be able by then to do some geocaching with Ken. We both are getting tired of being cooped up in the house so long. It has been a month on the 9th of this month since my surgery.

Ken has been having some problems with some of his blood veins rupturing and causing big lumps which will eventually go down but leaves the places black and blue. This is caused by the Plavix the surgeon has him on. He had to see a different doc but he wouldn't take him off of it because he would be going against what his regular surgeon told him to do. He put him on a surgical support hose.Thing is his doc is out for a few weeks because his wife is having health problems. I am thinking he just needs to be on a different blood thinner.( like I am a doctor LOL)

Thanks for all your emails along with your prayers and good wishes.

Have a blessed weekend everyone.

 Helen

Back home

Well the surgery is finished and I am back home. Still in a lot of pain. The doc said that place was in a mess with the spinal cord leaking fluid. He put a blood block in there to patch it up. Told my daughter that it might take 4 weeks for me to feel any relief. I can't sit but a few minutes at a time. So not getting on the computer but a couple of minutes at a time.

Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts.

Later,

Helen

Surgery set.

The hospital called this morning with the news that someone had cancelled for Monday morning. 6:00  O'clock AM CST. Suits me fine. The quicker the better. Looking forward to getting it done and put behind me. God willing I will feel lots better.

Have a blessed weekend everyone. Helen

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well this Christmas is a rough one for me or us. I ending up having to have another MRI which was rough also. Then this week I got a call from one of the doctors. Result is, I have another ruptured disk. Another surgery will have to be done. This will make the fourth one.
I go to see the orthopedic doctor next Wednesday to get things set up for it. 
I am still using my walker to get around. 


Hopefully in a few days I will be feeling better.
Thanks for all the prayers you all have sent up in my behalf. 
You all are great folks.


Merry Christmas to everyone and if I am not back online by New Year. Have a great New Year. May everyone have a blessed one.
Helen




 

MRI yesterday

 It was really rough . One foot and leg was leaning outward and I wasn't allowed to move a muscle or they would have had to start over, plus it felt like that hip was pushing through the flesh. When they rolled me back far enough to put the contrast stuff in the IV I told him about the foot and leg and he pulled the foot over and buckled it to the other foot.

Then when I finished I couldn't get up. The technician ran and got the other man and they both pulled me up. Around 45 minutes in that thing.  One told the other one that he could feel my body jerking as they were pulling me up. It was hard to start back walking even with my walker. Next Monday is doc day.

 

Today has been a rough day,

Thanks for your prayers, 

Helen

Back troubles again

Good morning everyone. Once again it's been a while since I have made an entry. Seems as if all my entries for a good while have been health related.

Well Ken has been doing great after his last surgery. Been waiting on me a lot.

 I will have an MRI done here next Monday on my back then see a Doc on the 12th here. He will report his findings to the other doc that did my last back surgery 3 years ago. It is just a wait and see thing now. They are neurosurgeons. If they can't fix it then I will ask for a orthopedic doc referral. I would have to go to Birmingham  AL for any kind of surgery.
I have been down in my back and using a walker since the 28th of Sept. 2011, two days after Ken came home from his last surgery. I would certainly appreciate prayers and good thoughts and thank you. 

Have a blessed weekend.

Helen

Ken is coming home today

I talked to Ken this morning and he can come home after awhile. He is still in a good deal of pain and the doc say he will continue to have it for several weeks. Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts. We both appreciate them very much. 

Have a blessed day everyone. Helen

Ken

We have the computerized board here in the waiting room in the hospital telling about a patients progress in surgery, thing was Ken's name was on there to start with then I was watching to see what time they actually started surgery. Well his name didn't show anywhere, one of the nurses called me and said the surgery had been going on about 15 min that she has been really busy and didn't get a chance to call me. His name never showed up on that board anymore. She did call every hour though. The last time she called I told her that board wasn't working right. She said it was working right from where they were. She told me they liked about 30 min being finished and then the doc would call but I looked up in about 30 min and there he was had just come in a door at the back. They have a special room where you go and talk to doctors but some of the Doc's just came on in and talked to the patents where they were sitting. Guess it was quicker that way. But as soon as I looked up and saw him I got up quickly and went where he was.

Ken had a rough night. Fever and chills for a good part of the night. His throat was so sore he could hardly talk to me. Finally they gave him a couple of Tylenol and got the fever down a good bit. He didn't sleep much. His doc will be around early this morning. I doubt he will get to come home today. Things will have to get a lot better today if he does.

Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts and your comments.

Have a blessed day everyone, Helen

Ken and surgery.

Thought I would let everyone know that Ken came through the aneurysm surgery fine today. Took a long time and he only did one, said the other one might hold out for 10 more years but would keep a check on both of them. He was in a good deal of pain when I left a mid afternoon. Thanks again for your prayers and good thoughts.

Getting bloodwork done today.

Ken is getting blood work done today for his Aneurysm surgery next Monday, Sept 26. Guess it will be early enough for us. 5:00 Am is when we are supposed to be at the hospital.

Prayers and good thoughts Please.

Thanks in advance,

Have a blessed day everybody. Helen

Things about Ken

It didn't take long at all at the doc's office today. In and out in less than 30 min. He already had a large graphic on the wall where he drew what he was going to do. A thing where he could draw on it then wipe  it clean.

One aneurysm is larger than the other one. They plan to do one at a time or if conditions are right then they will do both while they are in there. The largest one will be done first. Then if they have to wait the other one will be done about 3 weeks later.
The last couple of weeks they have come out with a new material they are going to use. They are going to get the team together and do it on the 26th of Sept if they can get all four doctors together at the same time. Two surgeons, one heart surgeon, and one anesthetist person plus the nurses.  Some of the doctors will have to come from other cities.
I am going to be optimistic and pray that things will go right.
Prayers will be appreciated.

Thanks for the prayers you all have already sent.

Love to all.
Have a blessed week.
Helen

Things are looking up.

Finally we have a couple of answers. 

Everything went well this morning, No sign of cancer in the colon, thank the good Lord. He also told us the two aneurysms were not very big but when we go back to his office on Aug 30th we could decide if we wanted to go ahead and put stents in or wait until it grows more. I vote for having it done before they get big.

He still has to have the prostrate checked out. The doc. could feel they were enlarged some.So we have to find a good doc and have that checked out. 

Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts. 

Have a blessed afternoon Everyone. 

Helen

Times are not so good.

Good morning everybody. It's been quite a while since I have made an entry. Like everywhere else it has been so hot here in Alabama. We are having a time keeping our grass cut in this hot humid weather. That grass is growing twice as fast as it normally would.
Well I am asking all of you for more prayers our way. Ken had a scan done on his abdomen a couple of weeks ago. Our regular surgeon has left his practice and went on to higher things. So we went to see the surgeon who helped with the surgery when Ken had his ruptured aortic aneurysm. The doc who sent him to get the scan thought he had a aneurysm now. Well it turned out what they were seeing was the repair work that was done before. Only thing is when this surgeon looked at the scan, (he could pull up scans from the hospital) he could see where there was an aneurysm below his groin in both artery's going down toward his knees. He scheduled another scan to be done on the 3rd of August so he could tell more about them. He said they can sometimes put a stent in an aneurysm to help that. I pray that they can do this on Ken.  Also he scheduled something similar to a colonoscopy to be done on the 10th only Ken just has a few inches of his colon left from those two cancer surgeries. He will check that part out to make sure it is still ok. 
In the meantime our regular doc had called for more blood work on his prostrate reading so the nurse called to say he had a 35% chance of having prostrate cancer. He will wait until these two other things are taken care of to see an urologist about that. So you can see why I am asking all you to send up prayers and good thoughts for him.  
Hopefully one day I can make an entry when things are going ok.  Well things have been going pretty well this summer. Ken has been wracking his brains trying to think up interesting things to do on hiding those geocaches. He has been enjoying that and has made quite a few interesting ones to hide. We have hunted a few geocaches which is always a fun thing to do. We haven't hunted as many as we would if gas wasn't so high now and if my back was in better shape.

By the way our den used to be a carport when was enclosed to make a den so just right outside this door is the real carport. Anyway I can hear a cricket making it's noise because it has eased under the door coming in here. Those things are hard to find LOL.


I will update this entry when we have some news on what is going on with Ken.Thanks in advance for your prayers.


I hope everyone has a blessed weekend.
Love to you all,
Helen