June 2014 in Downtown Foopville

Yes my whole family loves my having the pool
KENT IS getting stronger, but this last episode is taking a lot more time, but he is getting better,

ARK/Diane...Thanks for asking. At the risk of repeating / boring others, I'll review/repeat what has happened. (HEY...I'm a certified OLD FOOP and becoming MORE forgetful each day  and I can repeat myself!! )

Let me preface my comments with a bit of background. Don was a polio victim when he was a young teenager...it struck him diagonally left arm / right leg. I can remember going with him when he went back to the hospital for therapy. He recovered enough to march in band in high school ... had to use a special leg brace to keep him from "limping out of line" when marching and playing trombone. His arm was OK..but just diminished some in strength.

In simple layman's language (Graymare can correct me)...as I understand it...there are two basic kinds of strokes. One is the blood clot that hits the brain....WHAM-BOOM-BANG-BOOM ... and the damage is basically over and done with. Some of the classic symptoms are paralysis of one side of the body and often including severely diminished ability to talk because your mouth doesn't work right.

The other kind of stroke is a sneaky (**&&^&^&* in that there is a "slow bleed/bleeding" in the brain and things often do NOT appear all that severe. This is what Brother Don is dealing with. He had his stroke early OCT 2013. I saw him first time about a week or so after stroke and he appeared to be as "normal" as ever. He was able to stand...dress himself...walk a little with assistance...and his speech was 99 44/100% normal...and he had almost normal strength in both hands/arms. This stroke got him on his right side and therefore "affected" left side of his body. See above...his right leg was his "polio leg" ... and the stroke got his left leg.

His condition has gradually deteriorated and has begun to affect his "mental" condition also. He is unable to do much of anything for himself anymore and...seems to have recurring UTI's. I did NOT know, but UTI's in elderly folk often show as symptomatic conditions like dementia. "Off the wall" comments and not truly being aware of your surroundings, etc. Thus...when visiting with him, he may be carrying on a lucid convers. and drift off in mid sentence to something totally off-the-wall. I try to see him every two weeks or so and sometimes he is "here" and sometimes he is off "somewhere else" in his convers. He continues to recognize me when I see him, but I'm pretty sure he does not remember.

Oldest brother...Dean...came down from Petersburg, Va. on Saturday morning and we went to Asheville, NC in the afternoon to see Don. Dean had last seen Don 4 weeks or so ago when passing through Asheville on his way home from Florida vacation.

Don "knew" both of us...and was able to "visit" with us and participate some in our joking and humor...but he was very much "there" in his convers. with very little making real sense. Also, his speech has gradually worsened and it is very difficult now to understand what he is trying to say. Dean and I are glad we were there together and had a 2hr. visit with Don. I'll go back in a couple weeks or so to check on him.

At this point, it is exceedingly hard for Dean / me to visualize Don ever going back home although Don's wife is still in the fight for that to happen. She'll have to come to that realization on her own as God so leads her to that point. My daily prayer is just for Don's "comfort and peace" and for "strength and guidance" for Robbie in her ongoing daily struggle to deal with his healthcare issues.

Thanks for "listening" ... my friends here are the best!!

Love to ALL...

Rick and Snoop!

Rick I understandd and will hummmm.......after harry had his stroke its been difficult. his long term memory is great but not short term and I honestly go grrrrrrrrrrr a lot but thank goodness his physical ability came back....so I know how it is with these strokes

Rick, your brother and family definitely have my prayers for peace and comfort. My uncle had a stroke and suffered the effects of it for several years, being aphasic and mostly paralyzed. There was nothing happy about that.

RICK:
Thanks for letting us know.....I am truly sorry for Don' s problems. He is very fortunate to have his wife and two brothers at his side. It is great you can get to see him so often. I hope his medical outlook improves, they do so much more for stroke patients than was possible a few years ago. (((((((((Don and family))))))))

  


I rode Ivan bareback a few minutes this evening. Donnie was working on Zippy' s feet. Ivan was very nice. It would be so easy to dump me if he wanted with no saddle to cling to! I got a call from a vet at Virginia Tech this morning about Ivan. Last year when they did Coggins tests, they took extra blood samples from horses around the region to test for Lymes disease. They are doing research on the percentage of horses who test positive for the blood markers. They ran tests on a random sampling of those blood samples. Of the 200 tests run, 80 tested positive for Lymes. Ivan is one of them. They are coming Wednesday to take another blood sample from him. As far as I know, he shows no active symptoms. We had a bumper crop of ticks two summer's ago and Ivan had the most on him.

RICK: It is so difficult watching a loved one suffer with a horrific illness. God bless your brother and give strength to his wife to cope. Prayers for your entire family being sent up to our Lord.

ARK: Do they give shots to horses to prevent Lyme? I always get Ace the shot, even though the vets are split on if it truly works or not. Lucky died from complications of Lyme. We are loaded with ticks here in PA, I just picked one off of Ace last night. I'm on high alert for ticks on Ace and on me. Last year we ran into a nest of the little buggers and I picked 47 ticks of him and me. EEWWWW They were everywhere, even in my hair. They were crawling up my legs like something out of a horror show, I couldn't get back to the house fast enough, I was ripping my clothes off as I ran thru the yard. Good thing I live out here in the sticks or the neighbors would have had a strip tease show.

Grand daughter Bobbie's party was a good one. I can't believe she if off to college next month. Those grand kids are getting old..LOL

George's MOPH convention was a blast for him and the guys. He cam home with a new title. Jr. Vice Commander of the state of PA. He says he didn't want to be elected, but I know secretly he really did. That should keep him busy and out of my hair. LOL He also won a door prize. This is the man who NEVER wins anything. Too bad it wasn't the big PA lottery. LOL

TRUDY
Congrats to George!!  

I asked Virginia Tech Vet school vets about whether it was a good idea to give horses the Lymes vaccine last year. They said the only vaccine available now is intended for dogs and there is no studies that show it is effective on horses. They didn't recommend it for horses even though some local private vets are giving it. I didn't have it given to my horses. The study that Ivan is part of will tell the percentage of horses in this region who have been exposed to Lymes, and the follow-up will tell how many of those actually have symptoms. I suspect they are trying to see if a horse vaccine is even needed. I know of a few local horses who have been treated for Lymes with antibiotics by private vets. It was an expensive treatment.

I am a happy camper this evening. My neighbors built a new patio including a new built-in grill. They gave me their old Weber grill, along with some really nice stainless steel grill tools. Today, I got a new propane tank and got it filled. Tomorrow, I'll be ready to get it all hooked up and give it a trial run.   

RICK, suffering family members are so difficult for all involved.  Prayers for comfort and answers as your brother's wife tries to manage his care……..prayers for you as you visit each time.  You're his hero, I'm sure!

Update:

Graymare, he is going to be one beautiful boy! LOVE that pretty head.

ELLEN:
Congrats on the new grill! You are set up for some tasty BBC!

GRAYMARE:
What a muscular guy Eli is! He is silvery blond looking in this photo.....very pretty!


We are having a big storm as I type this at 10:30 p.m.

Dental appointment tomorrow afternoon. Yippee....

We had some pretty strong storms last night, and it ie supposed to be the same today, we are in our normal pattern puts a crimp in outings, I wish that they could make a scooter that the electronics were better protected from water, I am still looking for another state to live in there are a lot of beautiful states, but some of them are to expensive to live at least rent wise, I am hoping to have a travel trailer to live in so that I don't have to ever be stuck somewhere that I am not happy time will tell
Grey mare, are you sure that Eli isint turning chocolate either way he is so well put together and handsome

Graymare ... what a cute/handsome colt Eli is. Madam Faith does a bang up job doesn't she? I really like him a lot.

Good deed for the day. Older neighbor who has a kayak had loaned it to a nearby friend yesterday. He had it tied to his dock, but it floated away. She was out looking for it this morning. The guy who borrowed it had looked, as had her nephew. I got one of my neighbors to go out and search along the shorelines. Took us about 3 minutes to find it and return it. Lady is happy to have her kayak back. Guy who borrowed it is happy to not have to buy her a new one. We are happy we could make everybody else happy.   

Well see whaat happens when I'm away. san angelo hd a tornado possibly 3 were on the ground. wecouldn't get hold of jessi last. night but heard from her at 6 this morning. we lost a horse shelter, a heavy tarp hubby had covering stuff, just tore it up but left the stuff! and I will have to search the neighborhood for my patio table! but horses goats and dogs r all fine. on college campus in parking lot a whole building was set down...don't know where it came from....trailers and buildings torn up and flipped a half mile from our place....wheweeee....luck smiled on us for sure.

Ellen, glad everyone was happy!

If that colt comes up missing don't look in my cactus patch! he is good lookin lil sh!t.

Hope ya`ll have good weekend. we will head home saturday evening.

Have a safe trip home, CB.

Ark, I know it can sometimes be hard to talk after a trip to the dentist, but did that affect your fingers too?    We haven't heard from you since then.

ELLEN:
It would take more than a dentist to keep me quiet,   . I was busy all day yesterday and didn't get around to posting. Having two horses to take lessons on sort of wears me out the rest of the day, too.

I rode Areion first for a lesson. Lori likes me to ride her first before Ivan has a chance to exhaust me. Truthfully, my poor ol' body is worn out more on Areion right now. I am using different muscles with her. She moves so different from Ivan. Areion decided there was a monster in the back corner of the arena, so we spent most of our riding time getting her over that. She nearly jumped out from under me the first time around. We finally got back to walking and trotting without the theatrics and all went well.

Riding Ivan was easy compared to Areion. He didn't have any monster issues and was a pure pleasure. We practiced spirals and serpentines. It seems to help his headset doing those. He was very good yesterday.

I finally got around to washing Areion's filthy mane and tail. It is amazing how nice she looks with an almost white tail without its usual load of dirt!

Today Annie and I had lunch out and did a bit of unnecessary shopping. She feels better with some retail therapy!  

ELLEN
Great that you found the kayak!!  I bet everyone was very happy.

CB
Safe trip home! I am glad those storms didn't do more damage.....too scary.

GRAYMARE
How long until weaning day? Boy, I dreaded that for Areion. She was a weanling for all of two weeks before turning into a yearling. It all worked out, though. I was more stressed than she was.  

CAROL
Are you and Ice hitting the trails this summer?

SUNNY
So which states are you interested in?

TRUDY
Got your garden in yet? My one and only dahlia is coming up nicely.

ARK, I am planning weaning in Sept when I am out of the mountains. Eli eats well independently and Faith may wean him sooner.  He is a real cool hand Luke……..today was irrigation so I thought I'd send him out for some fun.  He was just "ho hum, this is nice", no splashing no running, etc.  He just walked in. 


No other horse news………….today was show off day and Eli just walked all over in the water.  My friends just knew he was going to explode……………….LOL, I was quite sure he wouldn't and won $1
on a bet!  I'M RICH!!!

LOL, he has a halter ordered………..should be here tomorrow…………my friends bought one but it is too big………..he's moving into red rather than baby blue………………..

Graymare, you are horse rich. He is one really great colt. I love his pretty head.

Ark, it's neat that you can finally start riding Areion. It's what you've dreamed of for years. Enjoy her a lot. And Ivan too.

  Graymare, is your horse gonna race  

Yes ol man he is gonna race right to my house....well one can dream big....

Went to a goat auction where hubby got a boer doe tonight. I got an english beebee hen with one peep....and after closer inspection we suspect the goat is pregnant and all I can say is please let her wait until we get home...we r a traveling zoo as it is....one mama doxie and her 4 pups, five sebright chickens, one goat, one hen and chick, and otto the bulldog, and shortstuff, my blind doxie....we shouldn't laff at her but she runs into things being in strange area....and its oops move a few inches and whoops...move a few more inches and now she knows it should be clear but oopsydaisy its not...I have to go rescue her...my brother cracked up when she did her whistle pig imitation sitting up on her hiney with feet paddling in the air, but we were at table eating and she was begging in front of the tv! he says, what is she doing? she makes me smile! i'll say, "over here" and she swivels around with a look of indignation.

Good Saturday morning everyone. After an entire week filled with rain every dang day, today is supposed to be a nice, dry day. Of course, we won't be able to be here to try to gey into the soggy garden. Figures. The garden is coming along slowly this year. AHHHHHH the best laid plans of mice and men...thought we would have an early harvest, but God laughed and said "I don't think that is going to happen."

We are off to the VA hospital this morning so they can finally run a some tests on George, to see if he really has the things they said he didn't have, even though they NEVER ran any tests. The good old VA, hard at work. It's only been a year and half since someone decided he wasn't wounded in Nam. They didn't even bother to read his medical records, but wanted him to sign off on their findings. Like that was ever going to happen. If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny, the stuff they are doing to the vets. No wonder the vets all have PTSD & are killing themselves.

GRAYMARE: That colt is one beautiful baby. He is going to make someone a super horse. His momma does a great job with her babies.

CB: Hope you make it home without any mishaps or births along the way. Only you girlfriend would travel with a traveling farm.

Have a great day everyone, we are off and running.

Trudy, I feel just awful for all the veterans who need care and aren't getting it because of lazy bureaucrats. I hope that, for once, the politicians can put their own careers aside long enough to clean up the mess. It just makes me furious.

CB, a friend of mine has taught her blind dog the words right and left. When he starts to get in trouble she can tell him "right" or "left" and he knows to go that direction. As soon as she noticed that he was going blind she started teaching him the words. Now that he is totally blind he can still get along pretty well.

Travel safely TRUDY & CB…………..

Nothing to say on military health care………our Congress, seriously, is beyond shameful.  They sit around flapping their lips, on welfare for life, and will straighten this right out……………
REALLY?  

I've been looking at new refrigerators lately and bought one yesterday…..I best get going getting ready for it's delivery in a bit.  It's the style that has double doors up and freezer drawer on the bottom and an ice maker.  Simple but very utilitarian.  We get a fridge every 18 yrs or so.  This one might be the last………….LOL      

See you guys later……..everyone have a super day.  God bless.  Prayers for ALL.