Pictures are NOT forthcoming!

Caution – TMI ahead. For the second time this month I went to the Hospital. I don’t think I have been to the hospital more than four times in my whole life, and two were this month. I go to the Doctor’s office all the time but just for scheduled maintenance stuff. I have to get my blood work checked every six months for my cholesterol medicine. However, I have put significant effort in avoiding surgery. Call me what you want but I don’t do needles and blood very well. Kathy says all her patients tell her they hate needles but I’m telling you I HATE needles. So back to the topic at hand – I had a weak moment last month and agreed to a vasectomy. I went through this process once back in Texas but I somehow managed to avoid the actual surgery. In fact, I still have the Valium the Doc prescribed for me prior to the procedure. So I go see this urologist that Kathy knows about. He says the procedure is no more that a pinch, a burn and 10 minutes later I go home less than a whole man - My words not his. No Valium, no drugs, no anesthesia at all – just a local shot to numb the area. I’m a little reluctant as I know I will be anxious and as a reminder, I hate needles and hospitals. The doctor tells me to man-up and don’t worry about drugs. So you can guess where this is going. All my friends who have had this done say it sucks. All of them echo the same story – you will be happy when it is over but the procedure hurts. So I get in the OR and I get the pinch and the burn…. Then I get the hurts like heck. Pinch and burn turned into holy crap batman. I let out a yelp and he says – Sorry. Sorry, are you kidding me. Do you have a hard time getting numb at the dentist he asks me? Why yes I do, is that a problem? Well yes he answers; you should have told me that. What?! Are you kidding me? You have all been to the Doctor. They ask every question imaginable and most of them are irrelevant. Do you think you could include the relevant ones too while you are at it. That was the longest 20 minutes; he lied, in my whole life. On the upside, you get to lay on the couch with a bag of frozen peas stuffed down your pants. When you get your tonsils out you get to eat ice cream. You get a vasectomy and you get to freeze your butt off.

That was Friday and now it is Sunday night. I’m finally talking to Kathy again. Kathy did this to me you know. I’m almost all better now. I have to sit on an airplane for six hours tomorrow and that has me a little worried. I wonder if they will let me take my peas through the security?

This is Kathy Jo talking now. And let me just say this--when John says he hates needles, he really does. When he has to give blood whether it be 10mL or a whole pint, he turns white as a sheet, the blood pressure drops and he needs a soft place to lie down. So, he when he came out of the OR he was WHITE! But he did it! Way to go John! And he got to waited on hand and foot all weekend. That has to be an upside, right? AND let me point this out--he skipped out on not one, but three appointments to have this done. Twice in Texas and once here. And if he had kept his Texas appointment, he would have had some GrOOvY drugs during the procedure. There we go....more than you wanted to know about the Thompson's. Call me if you want to know more!

The chiggers in Virginia

must be on steroids. I got attacked down by the lake about 2 weeks ago. One little spot on the back of my left leg, about 8 to 10 bites. They didn't bother me that much at first, BUT NOW they are killing me. Keeping me up at night. Waking me up in the middle of the night. Oh my word!!! I begged one of the doctors at the ER to give me a prescription for some cream and it is working.....s l o w l y! However, I am not complaining because it IS working. I thought chiggers were only in the south. Although, if you ask any Virginian, Virginia IS IN The South. If you're from Texas, Virginia is North. It's all relative, isn't it?

It is raining so much here. I know in August I will miss the rain, but I want a little bit of sunshine so I can get a garden in. We had a small garden in Texas year before last. It was so fun to get vegetables out of our own garden. We had Texas sized zuchinis in our Texas garden. Loved them. And how did we eat them most of the time?? Fried!

Well, that's all for now. I think the cream and the Benadryl are finally kicking in and I can sleep without scratching the flesh off of my leg.

Ahhhh.....real food

And I am STuFfEd!! still. John had a conference in Texas last week and I got to go too!! What fun! John's mom came and watched the kids. So I had John all to myself (for the most part) Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And we ate and we ate and we ate! We ate REAL Mexican food twice and glorious Whataburgers twice!! Happy days, yes they were. We went to San Antonio to eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant on the riverwalk. We had dinner on the riverwalk and then walked up and down the riverwalk and did lots of shopping. It was fantastic! Of course, we are so puffy from all the salt (not to mention all the fat) our clothes hardly fit, but it's a small price to pay for all the good food.

An Experiment with Vanity

Have you ever Googled your name. I have and I hope others do too. My intent is to connect with some old friends. Hopefully these guys will search their names some day and see our blog. I have lost touch with so many good friends over the years. Maybe I can find a few this way. I will add to the list as I think of names.

Robert Karl Keefe
Noel Clemons
Chris Plourd
Ray McCasland

These guys were my best friends and the worst influences a guy could ask for. This is a good starting point.

Emily loves chocolate to pieces......

Her class used Hershey chocolate bars to help them learn about fractions. Oh, and Skittles too, she is telling me. And you can see how well her tasty study has paid off. What a smart girl!!

John is very bored in Atlanta at his conference. Once again, your tax dollars at work. Couldn't cook dinner tonight because somehow the gas company missed us and we are OUT of gas. So, we HAD to eat out. PIZZA!! We were so disappointed. But don't worry about us, the gas truck will be here first thing in the morning. And it's not that cold, so we won't need the fireplace. But don't get me wrong, it is still too cold for me. Just not cold enough for the fireplace.

Alright, I think that's it for us. Haven't had too many crazy people in the ER. A whole lot of drama, but noone really just crazy. AND now that I have said that....that's all we'll have on Thursday when I work again. Stay tuned....

Your tax dollars at work

The Army is sending John to Atlanta for a conference this week. ALL week! Yippee! Party at the Thompson's! Those of you who know me well know that I am rummaging through my closet looking for my straight jacket because I go crazy when he is out of town. This should be a good week though. The kids are out of school on Wednesday, so we will go do something fun.

This picture is the first one that John sent me when he went to Iraq. Everyone was doing manual labor when they first got there. You would think they would have had the place ready for them when they got there.

Patch

This is what happens when he just refuses to do what he's been told.

Poor thing! Really, something blew into his eye when he had his head in an A/C vent at work. A foreign object was embedded in his sclera right, directly over his pupil. Couldn't have been a worse place. We had to go to the ER. Fortunately, his wife has some connections there and he was able to see a doctor right away. The doctor numbed his eye and scraped the foreign object out with a needle. She did have a burr removal device on hand, just in case. Picture a small dremel. But, thankfully, she didn't need it. Scraping the object off the sclera created a small defect there that will take a few days to heal. He will have some light sensitivity and irritability for a few days and then he will be just fine. JOHN--next time wear safety glasses!!

This is an edit to this post--John insists that I announce to everyone how brave he was throughout the procedure. How hard can it be to be still when there is a needle coming right at your eye? And he didn't even budge. You are tough, baby!

And now I have to edit this post AGAIN because John made a comment. I do believe that John would rather drive the car with one bad eye on a rainy night than be seen having his wife drive him anywhere.