A Lost Week

I see that I posted a week ago Sunday, and that was about my kids hiking. I wasn't saying much about myself, and that's how it was for the next week.

I have had complications with my recovery, first dealing with nerve pain, and then serious digestive issues that landed me in Urgent Care last Tuesday, getting re hydrated. With medication we got the vomiting under control and the diarrhea ran itself out - literally. My on call Doctor said give it the weekend, and I have. I am feeling better enough to at least function now. There are still issues, but my surgery is healing well and the nerve pain stopped. I had my sutures out last Tuesday. 

Tom has been wonderful. To try to distract me, he picked dahlias that are now freely blooming in the garden and I spent some time arranging bouquets for the house, something I love to do. It helped a bit. 

Those bouquets are fading now. We'll do some fresh ones tomorrow.

The garden is producing zucchini, green beans, and lettuce. As I have improved, Tom and I have been cooking dinners together and using our fresh vegetables. We also have our first ripe tomatoes, and they will be coming on fast now.

Saturday morning, when I finally had enough energy to try, Tom and I gave myself a little haircut. I trimmed the front and sides, and then encouraged him to chop away at the neckline, saying it couldn't look any worse that it did. 

On Sunday morning, after another hard night, I was feeling low when a package was delivered to our door.  You can see my trimmed hair in these photos. 

 It was a gift box sent by Tom's sister-in-law Vicki, his brother Dave, and their daughter Julie and her family. They live in California. 

I cried when I read the message on the tote bag. It was a message I needed to hear. 

 There were all kinds of fun and interesting things in that bag. What a spirit booster. 

There were even cat treats to share with my kitty visitor. Betsy Brown Cat comes most days, meowing for attention. She thinks those treats are great! Charlie is still in quarantine. 

Yesterday Isaac came over to help Tom with a small project and then visited for an hour. We sat on the patio, where I have a fairly comfortable rocker to spent time in. He has a new job, a first job, working part time at a Papa John's Pizza. His good friend works there too, and he is happy. School will be remote again to start the year, but he can do online classes and work too. He needs to be busy.

Jill and the kids set off for the ocean cabin at Rockaway today to spend the week by the sea. It makes me nostalgic for that first week in August when we always spent the week at the cabin when the kids were growing up. Tom and I haven't been there for quite a while, but if things go well enough, we hope to spend some time there in early fall. 

This morning I managed to go grocery shopping with Tom. We had our list, the cart held me up and Tom fetched stuff off the shelves. We were a good team. But even that much was tiring. This will be a slow process.

So now we are into August, the dog days of summer. I missed the lovely second half of July. The garden is looking a little tired and seedy, but since all I can do is point my trowel, I'll be patient as Tom does a little bit at a time. August is the month to slow down, to let things go a bit, and we can certainly do that. 

Tomorrow it will be three weeks post surgery. Much of that has been a blur, but I have enjoyed keeping up with my blogging family.  Thanks for being there.