She has grown

Brook has grown up a lot! Here she is in her cheerleader outfit. Eighth grade was full of events. There were lots of times when arms would just fly up in the air with a fist pump or whatever. Sometimes those events happened in her sleep! LOL

This was taken at the black belt testing. This is a group of new black belts now and a new second degree black belt, my Brook. That is Master Lee on the left.

This was taken during the test. Look at that tired face. This is after about 2 hours of testing. She had just a long enough break to grab a bottle of water before she was back to her testing exercises.

Notice she is standing doing squats while everyone else is doing planks? During pre-test testing she hurt her hand and wrist during a blocking exercise and has a plaster splint on. It is full contact for her so yes, she can and does get hurt. So how long can you plank or hold a squat? This time it was only 5 minutes. look at that smile. This was taken at the 4 minute mark.  See the staff people? They walk around and push on you. Several times her shoulders were pushed and she went to an even lower squat. The plankers had to maintain straight arms and backs, ouch! 

Ok, so now Brook has her second degree black belt in Taekwondo. She is working on her third degree now. She is also assisting with teaching 2 classes a week. She is paying for her own classes now. She is 14! I know adults that do not have the dedication to stay with it like she has.

I am proud of her. She is a freshman in high school now. She will be in 2 honors classes. She plans on college. At present time her goal is neonatal nurse.. I am just glad she is thinking of the future even though her goals may change, she still has goals!

Updates starting now

I have not been writing here much lately and I do need to get back to it. I need my outlet again. So much going on and very few I can talk to about it. So I will talk to me here and that means I will be talking to you here.

Retirement was supposed to be our time to enjoy things. We did get to go on our cross country trip by motorcycle. I am ready to do it again. It is a good thing we did because Pat's health took a turn.

After several trips to the ER and several time of being admitted to hospital because of breathing issues, Pat finally got an official diagnosis. He has COPD (emphysema) GERD , Oxygen de-saturation while asleep, CHF, hypertension and nodules on his lungs.

Friday we finally saw a pulmonologist and he looked Pat in the eye and told him,"You are not dying." You have to do some life style changes and you will live a long time. 5 days prior to that Pat had taken a Nuclear Stress test for his heart. He informed him that his heart was doing great except for VERY mild CHF. This was a relief off of my mind. It also means that I have been doing something right by eliminating friend foods, introducing skim milk into his diet and veggies that are not fried, etc. His entire family has heart disease with the exception of the 2 that have(had) Alzheimer's. I have him playing games that he has to use his mind to help with that.

The GERD is going to be a bit more difficult to deal with. This means another diet change and a big change in his eating habits. He is taking medicine that, of course, he will have to take forever. He was already started on it but we were not given instructions on the best way to take it. The way he sleeps will now include having the head of his bed elevated.

The CHF means no salt in his diet, medicine and feet elevated ( will sleep like a V at times!) It also means no fluid overload. (YIKES) On hot days this can create a problem coming up with a balance. Actually it already has. He ended up in hospital with dangerously low blood pressure due to dehydration. Three of his medicines can cause him to lose excessive water.

Three medicines that he takes for high blood pressure. Ugh.

The COPD has him on 5 different medicines. He has no lung reserve. When he runs out of air he cannot take a deep breath and recover.

The oxygen desat means he wears oxygen while asleep. I will be requesting a sleep study in the future to check for sleep apnea, which I am sure he has.

The lung nodules are a wait and see thing. In 6 months they will do another CT Scan and check for growth and if they have calicified (which would be good) If they is growth then a biospy will be in order to check for lung cancer.

So that is the way things stand right now.

Oh yes, Pat and I got married on Feb 1st this year. After 19 years it was about time.

That is enough for now. Tomorrow or the next day I will update more. Probably next day as Pat is going to have a colonscopy tomorrow.

5 Question from Barbara

1.  What was your favorite magazine as a teen and why?

I guess I was not the typical teenager. My favorite magazine was Reader's Digest. I really was not interested in singers and movie stars, makeup or clothes. I loved reading the jokes and stories. The last section always had a long short story that always was interesting. I loved the word game, where you had to choose what a word meant. I guess even then I thought like a geek.

2.  If money was no object and you could do anything you had dreamed of with them, would you choose motorcycles or horses and why? 

Since I have both this one is hard. I love my horse. She gives me great pleasure but lots of grief too. I think I would have to choose my motorcycle. I would like to ride around the country again only this time get all 48 mainland states and Alaska. I would like to see more and stay longer in places. I would like to visit my Facebook friends and my blogger friends. I would like to take a year or more to do this in.

3.  What's the best thing God has ever done for you, personally?

 Allowed me to walk again after breaking my back

4.  What do you enjoy the most about where you live and why?

 The solitude. Sometimes I just do not want to be around physical people.

5.  If you could have dinner with anyone past or present, living or dead, who would it be?

My Daddy

I am doing a meme from 

LIFE & FAITH IN CANEYHEAD

It just may be a good way to get myself involved in my blogging again. Life has been crazy lately and I need relief! Thanks Barbara.