Waiting...for better health and better Weather

It has been a very long hard winter and I don't think it is over yet. So there is really nothing new. Randy is recovering nicely and I have been fighting pain for several months. I have been tired and dizzy with bad pain in my upper stomach and a pain that runs up my shoulders and neck and down both my arms and hands. After numerous tests, I find out it is because of my spine pressing on nerves. I have really bad arthritis and the shape of my spine has caused these nerves to be pinched. It has been some of the worse pain I have ever had. Just like a lighted match burning me. At least I do not have anything wrong internally and my colitis has burned itself out and I probably won't have it ever again. So because of the dizziness I may have nerves pressing on blood vessels so now I have to have another MRI on my cervical spine. So if you ever get a weird pain and they cannot find what it is, it could be your spine. What I have is called Intercostal Neuralgia Syndrome.  Some days I feel really good and others are terrible but I am on some medication that is supposed to help with nerve pain. We did manage to go to St George for Randy's birthday and even though I was sick most of the time, it was still nice to get out. We went home the long way through Hwy 89 and I saw a lot of old truck and cars which made me think of my boys, Marty and Matt. They just love old cars and trucks.

I hope I feel better soon. Maybe we will still be able to do some camping if the snow melts in the mountains before it starts snowing again. We also plan to visit Tammy this summer if things work out and go to Peter's wedding in Montana the last of May. I would also like to visit Jennifer and Marty during the summer. It's too bad we have such long winters spent cooped up and then we have to try to do everything when the weather is good and the time goes by too fast.

I am sorry that I have been sick and not been very good at communicating with all of my family.  I am glad to hear that I will soon have two more great grandchildren. Anyway, here's wishing everyone a very happy Spring and Summer and know I am thinking of all of you always.

Randy at Carmel Junction for his Birthday
Our trip to St George

I

Cabin Fever, Sick of Snow!

Well bloggers, it's been a while. Just not much news. I am tired of winter, snow and cold. I wonder if Spring will ever come. We are doing OK. I have been feeling a little better and Randy is too. Although he still tires easily. This it to be expected because he went through two major surgeries in a week's time.  Randy gave up coffee cold turkey because caffeine does cause the heart to beat faster and irregular. We may not camp this year, at least not until later in the summer. We want to go visit Jennifer and Tammy and go to Peter's wedding in May. So it depends on our health and we are hoping gasoline does not go above $4.00 a gallon.

I almost lost my Jennifer. She went in for minor same day surgery and ended up almost bleeding to death because they nicked an artery. She had to be rushed b;y ambulance to another hospital. She kept blacking out. Her body filled up with blood and fluid and she gained over 30 pounds. She had most of her blood replaced and had a really hard time and all of us were very scared. Robert was so worried and now he is helping her get her strength back.  He and the kids have been really good to her. She is still really tired but we pray she will be fine soon. I think she should take legal action. I know with this bad experience she will be hesitant to see a DR again but I hope she will if she needs and does not let this scare her if she needs medical care. Just remember to tell those we love that we care about them, we just never know how much longer they will be with us. Life is precious and can be gone in an instant.

Well Randy is having a birthday on Sunday and if all goes well, we are going to St George for a couple of days. Hope the weather will be better. Hoping all of you have a wonderful Spring, (if Spring ever gets here) and be healthy and happy.

On the news front, I did get another little great grandson. Michael and Brooke have a little boy, Ryan Opfar. Born Dec 2010. They also got married. So I wish them congratulations. I hope I see them someday when the time is right.

What a January!

My, we have been through a lot lately. Randy went in for hip surgery and came out with hip and heart surgery. When he was in the hospital for his surgery, the nurse said his heart was doing weird things. He had many tests done on it and found out some of his arteries were blocked. He could have dropped dead at any time. So he had a 6 by-pass heart operation as well as his hip operation. I have been really stressed. Having lost Alex. I was doing a deja vu.

Randy came through both surgeries fine. There is a long recovery time however. The thing that scared me the most was that he had a couple of hypoglycemic attacks. Those can be very serious. It's when your insulin levels get too low. You can go into shock. The DR had told him to give himself an insulin shot in the morning and at night and taking it at night lowered his insulin to very low levels. He had cold sweats, his body temp was only 95 and he was shaking all over and could not get warm. Luckily the home health nurse came and they finally got him better. He had to drink hot water, Ensure and pile on a lot of blankets. He was actually very irritated and slurring his words. That was a close call! Now he does not take his insulin at night and that is not happening. I sure had to live in a really hot house for a couple of days when he was so cold. He is on medication to keep his heart rate good and his hip no longer hurts. They had found an impingement in his hip joint as well as arthritis. Of course, he is still weak but getting stronger every day. I have had to be Randy's nurse for a while and I can tell you it is hard work. Those medical people deserve a medal for all they do. They work 12+ hour shifts and are so dedicated. I also appreciate having the home health people who come and do heart and hip therapy. We are blessed to have these options with our Medicare and I know people think we spend too much on government medical programs, but we would not have been able to do without these programs. The hospital alone was over 200,00K. We only had to pay $1200.

I have been more tired than I have ever been in my life. I have had a bad winter with my fibromyalgia. Now it actually feels like my MS may be coming back. I am really dizzy, extremely tired and weak. Hopefully it is just stress and is caused by all the things that have been going on. I do go to the DR tomorrow and get things checked out.

I would like to thank those in my family who have helped. Tina for sitting with me during the surgery, Monica and Jay for visiting Randy and giving him moral support and especially for John and Kathy who have helped me with the cats and the house cleaning. And for Tammy, Matt and Jennifer who have called me and given me moral support. I hope things will be back to normal soon and I do appreciate everyone. I also am thankful Randy's sister who lives very far away but she has called and given her support. And also Randy's friends in California and Arizona.

There may be no camping this summer but we will still do road trips I am sure. Randy has to be careful of his hip until everything heals up well and camping is maybe a little too much physical work for him this year. Bless all of you and thanks you for offering to help me in these tough times.

My Cute Grandchildren

Felicia with Keira
Such a Happy Giggly Little Girl!

Brandon, Me,  Felicia and Keira

Chevy
Such a Handsome Young Man!
Kids Grow up Way too Fast

Contessa and Little Kennedy
Such Pretty Blue Eyes and Such
A Great Big Smile!

In Sickness and in Health

Randy is in the hospital. He had to have a complete hip replacement. He has been in pain for ages. They also found a femur acetabulum impingement. Something was pinched between the ball and socket of his left hip. That was one reason for all that pain. I hated to have him go through surgery. After all I went through with Alex, I never wanted to have to go through that again. But to find one of the causes of his pain, I guess I am glad he went through it. Also, they found a problem with his heart. It is an irregular beat. So the echocardiagram showed something wrong and he has to have a heart stress test tomorrow to find out more. If things check out OK, then he will go to the convalescent home for a few days. If not, then I do not know exactly when he will be released. He is walking and eating now. He is just really tired at this point.

He has no pain and he did have a fever but it is gone now.  His blood sugars are really high which the hospital did not really seem concerned about. They said after surgery, the hormones of the body take time to adjust. I guess with all these complications, it is good that he had surgery anyway because they found another problem for his pain and they were able to find something with his heart and I am hoping they can do something about that if needed.

As for me, I had a rough time last week with upper stomach pain. They tested my gall bladder and did not find anything but want to do more tests. I myself believe it was pancreatitis brought on by a bad reaction to a drug I had been taking for a couple of months. I started noticing upper stomach fullness, pain and gas when I first started the drug and it finally got so bad that I was doubled over with it. If I ate anything, it was 10 times worse. I have been off the drug for several days now and I have no more stomach pain but I am going to see the DR to have my pancreas and other organs checked out.  That drug I took did say that some people get pancreatitis while on it. So it's no fun to get old. Wish we could get new bodies that did not give us so much trouble.

January News

Randy and I at The Red Lobster
My Birthday 2011

Randy and I at Mimi's
My Birthday 2011

Tina and Kipp at Red Lobster
My Birthday 2011

Thanks to all those wished me a happy birthday and for all of the gifts I received.

The holidays are over and I can't say I am sad about that. The holidays get to be a little bit much with all those commercials over and over etc. Glad to get back to normal. It has been a very hard winter with lots of snow and a lot of COLD. Everyday from now on, gets closer to summer. YAY!! Winter is so gloomy. I have ordered me a warm light to bring the sunshine in on these cold winter days.

Next week Randy will have hip surgery. I hope it helps his pain and that he recovers quickly.

Christmas 2010

Fireplace at Gia's Restaurant in Logan

Matt's Christmas Tree 2010

Outside the Sherwood Hills Resort

Sherwood Hills Resort

Randy at the Dining Room in Sherwood Hills Resort

Randy with our Waitress Sherwood Hills Resort

Randy on Christmas Day in His New Cat Shirt
From Tina and Kipp

Gimli Enjoying Christmas
He Wants to Be a Present

Even though I do not usually like the holidays, this Christmas was pretty good.  Everyone was so good to us and all our gifts were wonderful. The clothes, candy, blankets, movies and cat memorabilia was so fun to receive. I will probably gain a ton with all the sweets, and Randy will have a blood sugar attack, but that always happens and it would not be Christmas without it. A special thanks to Monica for the Carrillo Family DVD. It did make me shed a few tears and I just cannot believe how fast time flies.  A gift, no matter how expensive can not be as wonderful as our family and memories of our lives together. Life is so short that we need to really love each other and enjoy the time we have here with one another.

Thanks to Jay and Monica for the wonderful time we had at the Bar J Wranglers. Their company was great and the show was so entertaining and fun. We enjoyed having dinner with Monica and Jay in Logan. We had a wonderful experience staying at the Sherwood Hills
Resort in Sardine Canyon. It was very snowy and the drive was difficult, but the experience made up for it all.  It was a winter wonderland there.  While I hate the grayness of winter, there are some things that winter brings that are beautiful.

I want to wish all a Very Happy New Year. I hope you had a good Christmas and that next year will bring you all the blessings you can possibly want.

Happy Holidays

Boy, time really flies these days. Seems like we just had Thanksgiving and Christmas. Needless to say, I am not prepared for Christmas yet. I do plan on having Thanksgiving here at my home with just Randy and John and Kathy.

One thing that is bad about the holidays, is that it's usually stormy and very hard to travel to visit family who live far away.  Randy does not like to fly and I don't either especially now that they have their new security screening. Because of my knee replacement, I am always selected to get more security than others. I show them the card from my DR but they still have to screen me for a long time and pat me down all over. And now that they have this new screening going on, I will probably have to go through the scanner (they can see you naked) and also be patted down even more intensely. I am sorry, but do I look like a terrorist?  Anyway, flying is expensive too. So unless we have a real global warming and fast, I don't think we will be going to visit anyone for the Holidays. No matter if I travel west to Seattle or east to Wisconsin or even Idaho, we would have to travel through mountains and storms to get there.

Maybe we should have a new tradition of having the Holidays in the summer. Ha Ha.

But I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.
Love, Mom

OUR LATEST NEWS

Kelby Carrillo
His Blessing Day

 

Kelby Halloween 2010

Kinley Halloween 2010

Matt's Girls Halloween 2010

Matt and his Pumpkins Halloween 2010

Savannah and Friend Halloween in Wis 2010

I have included some Halloween photos from Matt and Tammy

Tina and Kipp Halloween 2010

At Tina and Kipp's Halloween Party 2010

And I could not resist a couple of Tina and Kipp's Halloween Photos for those who don't see them on Facebook

Not a lot has been going on lately. I have joined the Fitness Center with my Medicare card and Kathy and I have really enjoyed going there. I have worked with the weights and the bikes for heart rate and calorie burning. I have used the pool and done lift ups in the pool. I have enjoyed the hot tub, steam room and sauna. We have been going twice a week.  I really am enjoying it.  I probably won't lose any weight but it does boost my spirits and invigorates me.

John's store closed but because they like him so much, he was moved to the old Albertson's (now Fresh Market) on Center Street in Provo. They wanted him so much that they even cut other people's hours to get him on there. It is really good, now he does not have to file unemplyment and lose his insurance.

We had a good time a couple of weeks ago at Monica and Jay's. They invited us for dinner and we went to see Lacey get her young woman's medalion.  Their poor doggy swallowed a ball and had to have an operation to remove it and they had to take some of his intestine out. Very costly but Jay loves his Seymour. He is a Basset hound.  Peter is working in Lincoln NE and has met a nice girl from Laramie who lives on a ranch. They are getting married in May.

My brother Chris was here because his father-in-law passed away. He was 94 years old. I visited with him a little after the funeral. That man was a millionaire and Chris had to dump some of his money so he bought another house and is renting it to his son.  Chris mother-in-law, known as Mrs Kitchen is still with us. She taught a couple of my kids in school.

We are very tired of dealing with our travel trailer. That place that manufactured it must have hired kids off the street.  The shelves broke, some of the fittings were bad etc. Then we noticted that the siding was buckled. So after they had fixed all that other stuff they had to take it back to Twin Falls Idaho and fix the siding. They brought back in worse condition than when they took it first. The siding was even worse and they had screwed up the roof while putting on the siding. And the door was out of alignment. So it is now back at the manufacterer again. I hate to see what it will be like when they bring it back again. If that happens, they owe us a whole new travel trailer. Good thing it isn't camping season.

Randy is still set for hip replacement in January. He got a new laptop and hopes to use during his recovery. We are hoping it helps with all the pain he has had especially if he over does it. Kipp was kind enough to help us out in getting it to work on the Internet.

Chris, Robin Elain and Dean

Mrs Kitchen, Paul, Elaine, Paul's Boys, Chris and Dean

Dean, Me, Chris and Elaine

We are enjoying our new Roku player. We can watch unlimited movies from Netflix without having to download them from the computer. Now we can cut down some of our cable but of course, we still have to have SCI FI. (Randy's favorite genre)

The weather here has been beautiful but I know it will not last. My mood swings come and go but are better with medication that I finally found that works.  I miss those I do not get to see very often but I am thankful for blogging, Facebook, cells phones and e-mail. What did we ever do without those kinds of things?

Another Day of Venting

John's job at Fresh Market is ending. The company has been losing money. Why is it that some people have all the breaks and some get none?  John is such a good worker. I hope he can find something soon.  He should have stayed at his old job that was Albertson's because they were bought by Ridley's and they are doing so good that they are expanding their store size. But he did not know that when he was offered the job at Fresh Market. Albertson's was for sale then and nobody knew if it would get bought out or not.

It's hard to keep your spirits up in this economy. My property tax has gone way up even though my house is worth less. I know I should not complain because I do have it better than a lot of people. I would not even be this well off if weren't for Alex having all those problems with his knees and he didn't even get the rewards he deserved. Life is not fair but that's the way it has always been.

I was hoping to get over this depression but it's really hard and Randy has been in so much pain and I do hope the hip replacement will help him.

Latest News

We had a nice ride up Springville and Payson Canyon. We drove the Nebo Loop. The leaves are changing and it was a very pretty ride.

Other news is that Randy is having total hip replacement in January. His hips have hurt for years. I hope the surgery will help him and free him from pain.

We have been doing a lot of Fall cleaning. We cleaned the little shed and found out that Alex had even more collectibles in there than upstairs. They were still in the sacks that he had when he bought them. We threw a lot of old stuff out but we are going through the collectibles. We cleaned out a lot of stuff in the upstairs room but we still have a lot of things there that we have to store. Alex's things are still on the shelves and I guess I will leave them there for now but I really need to dust the shelves. In going through a lot of the things, I found the Old Carrillo Chronicles (the newsletters we used to send out) It was very interesting to read through them. They are here if anyone wants to come and read them and reminisce about the past. Some of the grandkids weren't even born when those newsletters were created.

I also found a TO DO List that Alex had made out in 2003 where he had a list of errands and chores he needed to do and some were crossed off as he did them. That was just a little sad for me.  When cleaning out the shed and seeing his work that he did when he built made me realize even more how much talent he had.

As for me, I have had a lot of mood swings and I am seeing the DR again to see if he can give me any help. I hope all of you are doing fine. I can't believe it will be Christmas in no time at all. The older I get, the faster time passes. I hope to enjoy life more because I know all our time is short upon this earth.