Thursday, November 01, 2012

He's Recovering at Home Now

Arthur gave us a scare when he had stroke-like symptoms at my aunt's funeral last week.  
Here's the short version:
I took him to emergency and they ran a whole bunch of tests ruling out one thing after another, including a stroke.  In the end it was a small rip in an artery in his neck.  The best we can figure out is that it is a workplace accident that happened when he carried some heavy presentation materials on a shoulder strap.  
The treatment includes blood thinners which need fairly constant monitoring for the first few days so he needed to stay in the hospital for 4 days.

 Day 2:  Erik ran out to get a meatball sub which he and Arthur shared in the emergency area.   
 Later that Day:  Arthur got a room with the best view in the hospital.  It overlooked the parking lot so there was lots of coming and going.  I always waved at him on my way in and out.  (Sometime I blew kisses.) 
Even though the view was nice, it was hard for him to sleep in the hospital.  All the noise bothered him and his IV was very uncomfortable.
 On Sunday morning I brought him granola and yogurt for breakfast.  He didn't enjoy the hospital food!
On Monday morning he was discharged and came home to nap for 3 hours.  He would have napped longer but Bert woke him up because it was time to take his medicine.
 Now he's back home, reading in the sun room.
He'll go back to work on Monday, but no heavy lifting for a few months.
 Conrad asked for some pictures of his grandparents. (They came out for the funeral and stayed because of Arthur's situation.)  In the photo above, Grandpa is reading an email from Conrad out-loud to all of us while Grandma is sewing on an MCC project for the upcoming craft sale.   

Conrad also wanted to see the flowers that I bought for Arthur as a welcome home gift.  
Added bonus:  Grandpa in the background.

My Foray into the World Of Beauty



One of the participants in a program that I am involved with at work needed a model to help her with her esthetician exam recently.  This was her second attempt and for the first, her mother-in-law was the model.  She doesn't have many friends who are not in the industry so she asked me to be her "model".

At the time I agreed, little did I know, that what she really wanted was a "victim" or "guinea pig".  There were only four things she needed me to help out with.  Gel nails, acrylic nails, eyelash tint and evening make-up.   The gel nails worked out really well.  However, she ran out of time on the acrylic nails and managed to file off some of my skin and drew blood for them.  We don't think the examiner saw blood, but you never know.
 

The real fun began with the eyelash tint.  Before we began, she had told me that the reason she failed the first attempt was because her mother-in-law had "cried out" during the procedure.  So she said to me, "Phyllis.  Not a word.  Not a word."  So, I held my tongue.  It burned!  The examiner said that it was a non-toxic vegetable based tint that would not harm us.  Someone beside me said, "Vegetables.  Like onions!"  I cried as we waited the 10 minutes for the tint.

Then came the evening makeup and she did a fairly good job of that.  (The photo above is the practice round.)    The whole thing took all day.



I've still got the gel nails on 10 days later.  
I'm going to keep them as long as I can stand it because 
I'm NEVER going to have this done again.  I just know it!