Let’s Be Serious For a Bit My Friends

Friends, I need to be a serious for a bit.  You see, there have been some things going on here at the Hotel Thompson that I’ve kept a secret.  Imagine that.  *Moi* keeping a secret.  I know!  I’m more surprised than you are – really I am.  We have all kept it kind of low key waiting to see the results and today we got some.  Mom/dad said it was okay to share now so I am.

Mom went for her yearly mammogram last Wednesday.  Yes, this is where you can say OUCH!  Mommy says they take her breasts and put them between two pieces of glass. Then they squish them to take pictures.  For some women, there is no pain while others say it is very painful… like mom.  It is definitely NOT a happy time.  She kind of compares it to throwing yourself chest first up against a wall like a squishing a fly.  Can you say it now?  OUCH.

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So this past Friday, she receives the following phone call at 4:50 PM.  On a Friday – remember that okay.

“This is Dora with the Doctor’s Office.  Is this June?”

“Yes, this is June.”

“Can you verify your date of birth and medical record number?”

“Yes…blah-blah-blah”

“The radiologist has reviewed your images from your mammogram this week.  There is some concern over the images on your right breast.  He sees a cluster of calcification and wants you to come back in for more testing.”

With a worried sound in her voice, “Okay.  What does that mean?  When?”

“Calcification can mean a lot of different things.  We need you to come in 8:30 AM next Wednesday, 09/02/2015.  After some more testing, the radiologist will meet with you and go over everything.”

“Okay.  I’ll be there.”  Looks down at clock and it’s now 5:00 PM… on a Friday.  Great.  Now I will need to break this news to my husband so we can both sweat about it ALL weekend.  Terrific.

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So you see friends.  Mom and dad have been worried for a couple of weeks now.  They didn’t tell us anipals about anything until yesterday.  Can you imagine getting this phone call on a Friday afternoon before the weekend?  No wonder mom/dad would just look at each other over the weekend and say to each other, “Really?”  or “What if?”  Unbelievable is what I say.

Yesterday, mom went for her re-test.  Afterwards, the nurse said, “The radiologist wants to speak to you.”  Mom would like to say she was shocked at that but after everything she had been through, can you be more shocked?  Her and dad went to the radiologist’s office to meet with him and go over the results.

So they meet with the doctor and he shows mom/dad all of the images from the Mammogram – the current ones compared to the past ones and talks all of these long words.  That’s when mom speaks up, “Cut to the chase.  What’s going on in my terms?”  Leave it to my mommy huh?  They have found some spots on mom’s right breast. They want to watch them and retake some tests in six months.  He doesn’t think they are anything to worry about but if they are still there and look ‘worse’ in six months, they will probably do a biopsy.  But, he thinks they are okay.  He then went into the different phases, sizes and shapes of different calcification’s.

Bottom line is mom is okay but she has been put through the ringer in the past week with this scare.  Have your moms been through this?  We pray in March 2016 that everything is smooth sailing easy peasy with no worries.  If you can send her healing vibes and prayers, we would so much appreciate it my friends.

 

Dear Winter

 

Poor Mommy

Such a simple little word – BOO.  Three letters that hold a lot of power and oomph behind it.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself snorts.  Let me start from the beginning.

Mommy has had a terrible time the past couple of weeks.  She went left and her back went right and it ‘popped’ out.  As she told daddy, her giddy up had a catch and I mean a BAD catch.  It happened on a Saturday about three weeks ago.  Mom and dad went to the market for their six month shopping trip which is an all day ordeal, store after store stocking up for half of the year to fill up the pantry and freezer.  It’s a blessing to do this but the day is LONG.  But secretly, I think mom and dad enjoy it to the max and have a great time.  That’s my personal belief and I’m not hating the six month trip because this is the time they stock up on my treats to from the club house 🙂

At the end of the day though, mom was pooped.  Walking on all of that concrete all day long caused a nitch in her back.  It started off with a mild limp on her right leg.  Then it moved to her back side.  Mommy stayed on the heating pad on the sofa for a long time that weekend.

Come Monday,  it was still ouchie.  She went to her chiropractor for an adjustment several times that week but to no avail.  The pain was excruciating.  So much so, that daddy and me had to help her off of the couch.  Mommy said she felt like she was 102!  OMP (oh my pig!)

So finally she went to the regular doctor.  They gave her some medicine that she took starting the third week.  Finally – some relief!  She still had a hitch in her giddy up but now it was a small limp instead of walking like t-rex throughout the house.  All was getting better.  This past weekend, she was even able to get off of the sofa without assistance from me and dad.  I was going to get my mommy back – squeal!

So Sunday night mom tucked me into bed, told me my bedtime story and went into their room to get ready for bed.  There she was standing near her dresser and taking her night time medicine.  Daddy was in the bedroom with her and mom saw him – no biggie.  Then out of the blue – daddy said :

It wasn’t loud.  It wasn’t harsh.  It was just a matter a factly.  He does it all of the time – not a huge thing.  Usually mom would just say, “Is that all you got?” and they would just laugh about it.  But not this night.  I learned a couple of things this night.

1 – Mom can jump really HIGH for a girl.  I was amazed.  There’s no way I could jump that high – darn my pot belly – snorts.

2 –   Mom can take a joke and she laughed it off.  Daddy though – I have to admit that he was laughing so hard that he almost had water running down his leg.

3 – This is the most important.  Guess who is back to square one with their back hurting again?

I told you – my parents are ridiculous and that is saying it mildly.

 

Daddy Took a Tumble

Bless little daddy’s heart. He was out working in the yard with our next door neighbor, Big Daddy. Big Daddy was so nice to cut down a tree and a bush in our front yard of the Hotel Thompson. Mommy has always hated these two trees. They kind of cover the front door area and you know for safety reasons, she wanted them gone like yesterday. So, Big Daddy cut them down and my daddy was helping to drag/carry them to the back of Big Daddy’s house where he would later burn them. In this picture to the left, Big Daddy’s house is on the right and our Hotel Thompson is on the left.

There’s a storm drainage that runs to the left side of the picture where you see all of those trees/bushes. . Now remember, daddy has limited vision. But, of course he could take the limbs and such to the back of the white shed in this picture, right?

Well, apparently not. Daddy was taking limbs down and miscalculated where he was. Before Big Daddy could scream or say anything, daddy went boom and walked right off in the storm drainage. It’s probably about 4-5 feet down. I’m not sure who was more scared – daddy or Big Daddy.

Daddy took a bad tumble. He didn’t get hurt bad. He got a lot of scrapes and bruises. It could have been a lot worse. But my daddy, he’s a toughie. He told Big Daddy that he had been hit worse during his football days. But still, that was a good tumble. I know that Big Daddy got scared.

And you know what, neither of them called mommy at the worky place right off… which was probably a good thing. Daddy went inside of the Hotel Thompson, took off all of his wet clothes and took a hot shower. Let’s just say he had more leaves on him than in a cup of hot tea.

He finally broke down and called mommy before she got off work just to give her a heads up. He acted like it wasn’t a big deal and everything was fine. But on the way home, Big Daddy called mommy and told her what happened as well. And it’s funny how men try to hide things. Daddy has let it out a little here and there about how when he fell, there were some sharp rocks that fell right between his legs but didn’t hit him. I think someone was watching out for my daddy this day.

Do ya’lls humans ever do anything like this that has scared the bejeesus out of you? I was so concerned this day with daddy that I kept going up to him and bunting him with my snout checking on him. I even whined a couple of times to let him know I was there for him.

 

The Great Pig Escape – Midnight Adventure

I got my first ouchie tonight.  I guess that’s not bad considering I’ve been ouchie free for the past year of my life.  But darn it – it hurts.  It was my fault.  Let me admit that first.  This is what happened.

Last night, mom put me to bed.  At night, I sleep in this huge crate.  The door of the crate actually ‘use’ to shut on its own.  Shakes piggy head – yeah I might have done that.  Mom and dad use a bungy cord to shut it now.  I have to have it shut at night.  First of all, it’s my safety zone and second of all – do you really want a pig loose in the house while you sleep at night?  Take it first hand from me, it’s not a good idea. 

So last night, mom kisses me goodnight and puts me to bed as usual.  Well, I’m a pig…curious by nature if you will.  I decided to see if I could get out of my crate to go play throughout the house. Insert James Bond music now.  Sounded like an awesome idea to me, right?  So, I kept pushing against my door until I saw a little opening it.  I’ve seen the cats do this so I know it works.  What they didn’t explain to me was that they’re mostly fur and squeeze through small openings.  I on the other hand don’t have so much fur.  I’m all belly.  I held my breath in and squeeze through.  Well, I by pushing through I scraped the top part of my back – ouchie!  But on the other hand, I was FREE! 

The first place I went was the front room.  Of course I brought blankie with me…. you know there’s nothing like seeing a miniature pot bellied pig dragging a king size blankie down the hall and throughout the house.  I jumped on the couches, I pushed all of the pillows off of the couch and I jumped on them repeatedly.  I pulled all of my toys out of the playbox, I played with them and then I moved to the kitchen when I got bored.

The kitchen is a wonderful place.  The piggy gate wasn’t closed because everyone was asleep.  Snicker – good for me.  The kitchen is where all of the food comes from.  I know this because I watch mommy in there making magic.  I waddled over to the big black food box.  With enough pressure from my snout, I was able to open the magical door.  A light went on and it scared me.  I jumped back and the magical door slid open.  WOW – for a moment I actually thought I heard angels singing.  I went over to investigate the glow and stuck my snout in the door.  SHUT THE FRONT DOOR – that thing was COLD – shivers.  I started moving things around and everything was as hard as a rock.  This must be what they call the freeze box.  Darn it – wrong part of the refrigerator.  I looked up to see the fridge part above the freezer.  Darn these short legs.  I couldn’t reach that part.

I guess I made some loud noises in my midnight adventure.  A few minutes later, mom came around the corner slowly peaking into the kitchen.  That’s how she found me.  Sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, freezer open with that magical glow licking ice.  So, yeah, I guess it was fun and giggles at that time until she saw my back.  After that, she kind of freaked out and lost it.  She started getting fussy and playing doctor with it.  Geez mom, it’s just a little scrape.  She made me take some godforsaken medicine and put bubble stuff on my back.  Afterwards, she gave me a treat (which is always good), I went potty and she walked me back to bed. 

Yes, we also had a little prayer meeting about the Great Pig Escape and Midnight Adventure.  I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.