Saturday, February 7, 2009

Another bird story



I know, I know, I know. Enough with the birds already. I would agree with you, but my birds ARE cuter than everybody else's birds.

So ANYway...the other day I was looking out my bedroom window, and I noticed a small gray striped bird hopping around in the flower bed. I probably wouldn't have given him another thought, since he looked like one of the common sparrows that hang around our feeders all day. But then I noticed that it looked like he had gotten into some bright yellow paint. It sounds silly now, but at the time, that's what I thought. I grabbed my camera, took some pictures of him, and then called my husband.

Of course, eagle eye (no pun intended) that he is, he realized that big yellow spot was yellow feathers. So without further ado...

The pictures were taken through the window since it was quite chilly out, but you get the idea. I almost forgot...Our new visitor is a Yellow Rumped Warbler. He, like the Ruby Crested Kinglet is a migrator also. They make me hope Punxsutawney Phil is right, and there'll be six more weeks of winter.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Third Opinion

Tuesday the girls and I went for the third opinion. I won't mention the dr's name, but suffice it to say...He was full of himself. He's one of those men who pretend to be controlled by the women in his life.

His wife "makes" him take a week off every 6 to 8 weeks to watch Sesame Street with his three year old daughter (he said he was an old dad - 52). He said he didn't schedule anything. His assistant told him when he was going to do what. Now I'm sure that it took a lot of training to get the women in his life to tell him what to do, and I'm also sure that he has gone through several women before he found the ones that told him what he wanted them to tell him. If you know what I mean. Having said all of that, I guess that's the kind of "god-like" quality you want in a surgeon.

Seriously, he said "Here's the problem, and here's what you do about it". He also said that he had preformed the same surgery on one of his partner's dad who is 94 a year ago, and now he's back gardening. He also said he and his partners do over 300 of these surgeries a year. He also said that this was one of the routine surgeries that he does. He also said that I would be able to play the piano after the operation. Just kidding!

I'm going for a test Monday for him, and a stress test for my regular doctor. Then I guess his assistant schedules the surgery. Hopefully we'll know something in a week or so.

Thanks for listening, y'all!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Cross your fingers

Well, tomorrow Tam, HJ, and I go to get the third opinion from another spine guy. In case one of my MANY, MANY readers doesn't know the story...Sometime during my long and happy life (while I was apparently not paying attention) the little bones that interlock to keep my spine in place took a long vacation and allowed one of my unruly vertebrae to escape to a place where it can come and go as it pleases. The nerves (jealous of that freedom, I suppose) throw big fits when the vertebra barely touches them. I know this because every time they touch, I feel it. One of the "fun" parts is that there is different pain and different locations depending on the nerve that is aggravated. The truly frustrating part is that the pain is unpredictable.

Take tonight, for example. I was in bed for a couple of hours earlier in the evening, and now I can get up with very little pain. That means I can finish my washing and fix my dinner (what Jimmy and I eat at night is a VERY lose interpretation of the word "dinner", but at our ages...). Last night Jimmy had to bring me something to the bed. Sometime we can go to lunch, and sometime we have to turn around and go back home.

The reason for the third opinion is that one surgeon told me that my bones were too soft to hold the screws, and a second surgeon said he could do it. The man I'm going to see tomorrow is Dr. Kurt Von Rueden. He sounds important and smart, right?

I'll let my MANY, MANY readers what he says tomorrow.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Sixth folder / sixth picture



This is a picture of Jimmy, as Danny, in Grease. He's dancing with some girl that someone else took to the dance. Of course, his MawMaw thought he was better than John Travolta.