This is the 1st time I’ve felt good for a whole week. Someone must have had a direct line to heaven about my side/rib. About Tues, it just pretty much quit hurting – at least all the time. It remains sore, but I’m not thinking about it like I was. What a blessing that has been!!! Until the last couple of days my nose has been so much better, too. The big sores that covered the inside of my nose are gone. There are still some small ones that remain, but it is not keeping me up at night like it used to do.
My eyes have remained swollen, but the last couple of days, they have at least eased a bit by bed time. If I sleep on my back (which I can do some, now that my side is better), they do not swell as bad, but if I sleep on my right side (which is when I get the best sleep), I wake up with the right one almost swollen shut.
The biggest issue now is ITCHING!! My hands itch to beat the band! Sometimes, I’ll get little blisters along the sides of my fingers, but mostly they just itch! Last night I was up, I think, about 6 times – nose plugged, and I had this tremendous itching attack – EVERYWHERE!! I would have taken a Benadryl, but it was after 3:00 am, and since they last about 6 hours, I wouldn’t have made it to SS or church. I did take one after lunch, and I believe it did help. But I’ve slept most of the rest of the day away.
Thursday was the day we went to the Kansas State Fair!! I have a regular doctor’s appointment next week so needed to get a fasting lab done ahead of time. That’s what I did first, then we went to MD’s for breakfast and headed to the Fair. We took a chance to go into the handicap parking lot, hoping to find it wasn’t full at 10:00 in the morning. We got the last place available. Guy unloaded my scooter. (He had put a new battery pack in it, and it worked like a champ.) At two of the gates to the grounds, there were tents with scooters you could rent. I think they were $75 a day. They were doing a land-office business. I wish I knew the actual statistic, but I would say for every 3 adults, there was one on a scooter. Some company is making a killing on this baby boomer generation. I was glad to have my own. It is kind of pain if you get into a crowd, but thankfully, it was not a terribly crowded day – at least not to start with. I went to the domestic arts building first to look at the quilts. I took lots of pictures, but I’ll do a separate blog and include the pictures there. It was kind of a pain getting around in a building with the scooter, but I did lots of going forward and backward down the aisles.
Here is Guy standing by this cute dog house.
And look a this life-size metal elephant. RTR!!!!
After I left there, I took off for the Birthing Center, on the opposite end of the grounds. I wish I could describe the immensity of this place for those who have never been. If I had not had the scooter, there would have been no way I could have walked anywhere. Anyway, the Birthing Center was kind of sparse this year. There were 4 cows, each in her own stall, but nothing was happening.
The mama pig was sacked out, as were her 10 piglets that were 4 or 6 days old.
In the center of the room were several baby goats, calves, and sheep that were already born.
From the Birthing Center, I drove through all the vendor booths under the grandstand.
Ye Old Mill is still operating – a very iconic ride.
It’s probably been over 50 years since I rode it. After getting into the boat, I would put my head on my lap and shut my eyes – to keep the wet strings from hitting me in the face and the scary creatures from jumping out at me – and of course screamed my head off. Oh, those were the days…..
So many familiar sights…..
Thankfully, I had my water along. I finally met up with Guy, There are 3 large buildings at the west end that have vendors of every kind in them. He was sitting on a bench between them, so I left my scooter with him, and decided to try walking through the last two buildings. It was getting crowded by then, and I knew I could get through them much more quickly on foot, and I was tired of sitting all day – needed the exercise. Again, the vendors were pretty much the same in pretty much their same places. One was a double-wide booth with Brother sewing and embroidery machines. I saw a Brother ScanNCut. I asked him what his Fair special was on it. He said it sold for $600, but he was taking 20% off at the Fair. Wow! I told him that HSN just had their Today’s Special Value, selling the DX model for $299 and they included $299 worth of designs. He about fell out on the floor. He said, “That’s the new model, too. I can’t even buy it whole sale for that price." So I guess the deal on HSN was a really good one – kicking myself for not getting it for $299. I've looked and looked at those and several times have come within a hair of getting one. It would be nice to cut out applique shapes from fabric. I’m not really big into card making, which is a lot of what they are used for.
I went on around to the other booths – mattresses, kitchen tools of all kinds, spas, glasses cleaner, super-doper aloe cream that would cure a myriad of skin disorders (almost bought that one, but couldn’t pull the trigger on $60), kitchen cabinets, fancy cookware, bamboo sheets, home TV antennas (get rid of your cable – would work if you didn’t live in the boonies), jewelry, spices, humming bird feeders, slicer/dicers, knives, leather goods (purses, wallets). You name it, someone was hocking it!! You had to walk down the middle of the aisle, with a very disinterested look of your face, or you might be grabbed and takin’ in! I did stop at this one booth where this guy has every kind of scissor, nail cutters, tweezers, etc. They had a whole section of magnifying glasses. I bought one that is about 5” in diameters and clips onto whatever. I clip it onto my lap desk, so I don’t have to spend over 30 minutes now to thread a needle.
By the time I got about half way through the 2ndbuilding, I was needing to sit down – just got weak all of a sudden, so I didn’t spend as much time in that building. By that time, it was about 3:00, and I figured I had seen what I really wanted to see. Guy had been sitting, people-watching for about an hour, so he was ready to go. Before we went through the exit gate, he took this picture of me. I should have taken that fanny-pack off, since it made me look a little “thick” in the middle! J Good-bye Kansas State Fair……you have been a good friend for a life time……
Our neighbors and little community are so generous. We’ve gotten tomatoes from two different neighbors. One is growing these monsters – about a lb per tomato. Wow! There is NOTHING like the taste of a tomato picked right out of the garden.
Another neighbor has brought lots of those small oblong tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. The lady across the street and one down the road a ways have brought sandhill plum jelly. Guy’s mom used to make that and keep us supplied.
I’ve been doing some sewing this week – working on those little flower blocks. I stitched the applique down with the machine (because my fingers won’t tolerate the hand sewing L), but I sure don’t like how they look compared to the needle-turned blocks. This quilt with have a duke’s mixture of techniques within it. You’ll just not have to look closely at it. For the 1sttime in my life, I’m saying I’d rather have it done than have it perfect. Ouch! That is hard to say!!! L
Saturday began my week off from my medicine, IBranc. So many people ask me if it is working. I never know what to tell them. I think it is doing something because of the reduction in the number and coverage of the scabs on my scalp. But there are some really ugly, stubborn, deep ones that have not budged. The skin discoloration continues on the right side of my forehead and down onto my eyelids. I’ve developed a cough that occurs occasionally, but I have a lot of post-nasal allergy drainage. I hope that is what it is from, and not the cancer in my lungs! One never knows what is going on inside where you can’t see, but I’m still feeling good, so I can’t help but think that the med is working. I'll include pictures at the end for those who want to see. There probably is not that much difference from last week. Maybe a little worse looking????
My grandson, Chris, (Mark’s), turned 15 this week, and Dylan will turn 17 next week. My goodness these boys have grown – becoming young men. Here they are working on Chris' varsity soccer banner in
Jeannine is supposed to close on her house the 24th. Please pray that all goes well there for her and the girls. There have been a few migraine-causing glitches along the way, so she needs this week to go well for her.
I really appreciate your specific prayers this past week. I do believe they were more effective. Here are my specific needs for the week to come.
1. Pray for the sores in my nose to heal
2. Pray for my cough to go away.
3. Pray for my white count to rebound while I’m off my medication for the week, and that I don’t get an infection or have to take further precautions (mask)
4. Pray for continued healing of my rib.
5. Pray this ITCHING stops!!! I’m sure it is the medication.
6. Pray I don’t have to get out of bed every night with leg cramps – don’t know why those have started.
And as always…….I’m in His hands……
Glad to hear you had a good week and enjoyed the state fair. Our starts soon.
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