thankful for hair

As I was taking care of household tasks, I wondered what I might draw in ink today. Then I spied the bottle of shampoo sitting on the shelf and I thought “why not?”

My hair’s post-chemo weirdness is gone now; it’s growing out at odd lengths but I’m thankful to have hair. A minor thing compared to being healthy again but it makes me happy. Still very dark though. At 71, I expected to be more gray but I take after my grandmother and her sister Lucille, who both also had dark hair until very old.

a little Thanksgiving sketching

We had a low-key, relaxing Thanksgiving day at our daughter’s . . . where I did a little surreptitious pencil sketching. Then added ink and watercolor later at home.

I’m still here . . .

This coming Tuesday is my brother’s birthday. With everything that’s been going lately, I lacked inspiration for sketching his card this year — until I happened to see another sketcher’s Instagram post of a silo with his friend’s initials, age, and birth year on it. (I regret not remembering that artist’s name so I could give him credit.) 

I had snapped a photo of a grain silo in the Kansas Flint Hills 1 1/2 years ago so I used that to paint a similar card for my brother, finishing it a couple of weeks ago.

On Monday I underwent the final surgery reversing the ostomy I’ve lived with for 14 months. A simple, short surgery this time but now a long time of healing follows as my body relearns how to function normally. No hospital sketches were done due to a IV once again placed in my right hand. Returning home the next day, I gave no thought to sketching at all. But today I think I will maybe get back to drawing something. Moving forward, with much thankfulness, is a good thing.

happy birthday, Dave!

Tomorrow is my big brother’s birthday (I really can’t wrap my head around the fact that he will be 70!). Since 2010 I have sent him cards I specially sketched for him, but this year I wasn’t sure I’d get one done because I have zero energy and zero inspiration. This was taken from an image I saw in a Google search so I take no credit for it. But I’m sure Dave won’t mind.

In my mind, Dave is a saint. Early in 2014 Bill and I retired to Texas where our kids and grandkids lived, but both of my parents still live in Kansas so it falls on my brother to see to their needs: dealing with our dad’s nursing home and financial matters, and providing transportation for Mom as she no longer drives. All of this while Dave has health challenges of his own. I owe him a lot.

waiting continues . . .

Bill’s surgery is finished, all went well, and now I’m waiting till they let me see him in recovery. 4 hours of sketching, reading, doodling, more reading — but I am so thankful they let me wait here where they come out in person to give me updates. I’ve heard some hospitals make you drop the patient off at the door and tell you to leave!

in search of entertainment

For today’s random sketch, I drew our very dead blu-ray DVD player.

Upon coming home from the hospital, we found that our satellite receiver had died. It had been making static noises on a very few stations once in a while but now it was dead. After a very long, drawn out phone conversation, walking me through steps I could not do because the receiver is in fact dead, the company said “no problem, we can get someone out to take care of that!” . . . in another week and a half!

Bill doesn’t have energy for doing much more than an occasional walk around our property and to watch TV. So we decided to watch movies, using our blu-ray player. We watched Medicine Man, yet again (we both love it), and started an old western . . . and the player stopped. No amount of button-pushing or unplugging / replugging would convince it to come back to life.

So apparently our entertainment was going to be watching two very silly cats and listen to the rain fall. I read a lot of books but Bill just doesn’t have the patience to read much at the moment.

I texted our son Jason to let him know it was too wet to mow — he had planned on mowing our weed jungle for us and bringing us movies to watch. No answer.

Next thing we knew, he and grandson Josiah showed up to run a weed eater over the worst of the overgrowth . . . and not only movies but a new player as well! And set it up to play Netflix using my phone’s hotspot as a wireless network.

Our daughter Kristen had brought us some groceries and a wonderful grain-free, low-salt casserole she had just made up (it was fabulous!). A friend from church treated us to our favorite brisket, ribs, and 2 slices of coconut cream pie. A neighbor and his wife brought us a flavorful salt-free chicken dinner. They also came back with a cousin who checked out a shed on our property that we have been trying for 3 years to give away to anyone who can move it. Finally someone who knows a guy who moves small buildings professionally! It will be gone by the end of the week.

We are feeling blessed . . . and rather spoiled!

home but distracted 🤪

We are home! (Hurray!)
But I’ve been a tad bit busy and didn’t get around to posting this sketch celebrating Bill being released from the hospital. As paperwork was processed, I went to the hospital pharmacy to pick up Bill’s medications — and saw that it was raining in buckets and sheets! So a quick visit to the gift shop for a cheap umbrella, having parked at the far side of the lot.

A Very Large, friendly Native American dude in a security uniform was behind me in line. Seeing me grab this chocolate, he warned me they can be addictive . . . as he grabs one himself and a root beer. Then as the clerk rang my items up, he insisted on paying for mine! I said it wasn’t necessary; he just grinned and said “pay it forward!”

The drive from Scott & White hospital in College Station to home takes about 40 minutes. It took us about 1 hour 45 minutes! There had been a huge wreck on Wellborn, one of the main highways we take, closing all lanes in our direction; they deterred us off the highway into a residential area . . . past three schools as they were just letting out! Being unfamiliar with the area, it took me a bit of time to find my way out and back to highways I knew, through Very Busy traffic.

Since then, I’ve taken Scottie to the vet for his third series of kitten shots and rabies shot, and have been busy cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc. The cats seem to have tracked wee bits of litter everywhere in the week we’ve been gone. Also, the girl who was supposed to take care of them didn’t touch the litter boxes. I normally scoop them daily; a full week without made such an odor I had to completely dump them out, sanitize, and start with fresh.

Meanwhile, Bill is healing very well. Sleeps so much better at home, with a better appetite. We are both so thankful that, though this bypass was longer and more complicated than the first, his pain and discomfort is actually much less! And what is truly strange: the chronic pain in his right arm from a damaged nerve seems to be gone! They took a graft from his right forearm and there’s some discomfort from the way they manipulate the arm out of the way during surgery, but no nerve pain at all! We know it’s not the pain killers he’s on because he’s tried the same before and it does not help nerve pain at all. No explanation we can see other than God at work.

revenge

Today I went to my eye doctor's for a regular 6-month checkup and a laser treatment on my eyes. The waiting room was "standing room only", yet this lady took the last remaining seat in the room for her bag. So I stood right across from her . . . and drew her! She was so absorbed in her electronic reader that she never noticed me.

By the time I had finished adding watercolor, she had left, leaving two chairs available. Dr. Horton's office is in a log cabin __very small waiting room__ and she spends LOTS of time with each patient so there is usually a wait . . . and she is worth it!

I have glaucoma, requiring regular monitoring and daily eye drops, and I had cataracts removed three years ago. The doctor told me at the time that I was young to have cataracts and that there would be some cloudiness later on that would require the laser treatment (removing the back section of the "capsule" holding my implant lens in place). I walked in today with cloudy vision . . . and after about 5 minutes per eye, I'm back to 20/20 vision!

bowl of blessings

Every November our church has what is called Bowl of Blessings where everyone brings a dish that is eaten from a bowl such as soups or chili. But before we are allowed to eat, every person present must tell the others something they are thankful for. Even the tiniest child (who usually mumbles a short word or two). One of the things we are constantly thankful for is finding such a wonderful church family to share with.

I sketched these table decorations at this year's celebration this past Sunday.

waiting for Bill to be shot . . .

 
. . . a steroid shot in the spine, that is --- similar to what I had in December and January, though his condition is a bit more complicated than mine was.

Once again, we found that the local hospital's MRI department had misread an MRI. In my case, they missed a small tear-shaped facet cyst pressing against a nerve. In Bill's case, an MRI taken nearly 2 years ago supposedly showed nothing, and he was given pain pills --- which he can't take at work or on-call, so he's had to live with the pain. But when a Wichita spinal surgeon looked at the same MRI, he could easily see a very large facet mass practically cutting off Bill's nerves entirely. There is also some arthritis and more involved medical stuff I don't quite understand, but with several there are several treatment options, none involving surgery.

While praying and expecting Bill to have full relief from back & leg pain, I am also thanking the Lord that I went through my own trouble and pain. If I hadn't had this experience, along with a friend's recommendation to seek a second opinion, I would not have questioned Bill's experience. But I did begin to wonder, and asked our primary care doctor to get him an appointment with my spinal doctor. We had confirmation that the Lord was in this when we got an appointment in less than 2 weeks; normally it takes 2 months to get in.

This woman was patiently waiting to see the doctor also and held still for a long time, making it easy for me to sketch her. Plenty of time, too. This anesthesiologist's practice is not run as efficiently as the spine center where I had my shots. Our spinal surgeon gave me the shots, but Bill's required an anesthesiologist instead, due to the more extensive involvement. In fact, the doctor was amazed that he was still walking at all.