Nuthin' but net

We've gotten almost 2.5 inches of rain since Tuesday. Yay!  So on a 'good' day, I planted some more of my annuals.

I decided since I didn't want to haul water to the butterfly bed, I'd put something really drought (and, hopefully, DEER) tolerant there.  Marigolds.

To give them a decent start, though, I did cover these tenders with baskets.

Other good news - bean sprouts!  This was my 3rd (and FINAL) attempt at getting some bush beans this year.  The first 2 plantings just rotted in the soil.  So this time I sprouted them in moist paper towels.  Even then, most of the seeds rotted.  (I won't buy from Dumont's again.  This is the 3rd year where there seeds failed.)

I had enough sprouts to start a pot for Mom for snacking.  I netted that one right up.  I draped nylon net over those that went into the garden, but the moment they poked up, something tore through the nets and began digging up the sprouts.  So I covered them with my wire baskets(actually from an old closet insert).  That will keep out birds and squirrels. Chipmunks, however, (should they be the culprit) could squeeze in there.  Fingers crossed.

Finally, since I HAVE a lot of baskets now, I did something fun.  I cut out the bottom of a basket and slid it over my potted parsley plant.  Now the rain doesn't beat down the leaves and keeps them clean.

It also looks nice, I think. Eventually the plant will most likely get full and tall, but the basket will still be a good way to support the stalks.

For more veg bed update - click this pic. => 

Still no result news from the mamos/ultrasounds.  And I'm in no hurry to take a tilt table test.  I'm sooo burned out from seeing so many doctors with so little results.  I'd like to take a break....

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P.S.  This is my 400th Post on this page.  :-D

Basket case

Yesterday, after a morning at the hospital for mamo's & ultrasounds (fingers crossed for neutral outcomes), I stopped at yet another Dollar Tree store and cleaned them out of colorful wire wastebaskets.  Yep - 28 of them.  (They are only $1 at Dollar Tree.  At Dollar General they were $1.50 - hardly ANYthing at Dollar General was actually just a dollar.)

Anyway, when it's not so hot and humid,  I can plant out more zins, etc.

They'd promised us rain this week.  So far - nothing.  It either goes north or south or, when it's coming right at us from the west, it dissipates.   Very dissappointing.  Things are starting to dry out and I could use a couple of soakers back on the grass seed in the veg-bed-that-never-was.

Late afternoon:

Yay!  Some thundershowers! 

Better yet, it started down right AFTER I'd emptied one of the rain barrels watering plants.  It was empty, clean and ready for a refill.

And the temps have tumbled - from 86 to 73.  Now that's niiiice!

In between....

.... spells.   I'm somewhere near normal for the past few days, so have been (gently) getting some things done.

First off - the border zin beds have been planted and protected.  I cleaned out Dollar General and Dollar Tree of their colorful wire baskets.  They are the perfect size for flower guards.  I keep them in place with sod staples.

I also weeded the crabapple, butterfly bush & the end of the privacy fence beds.  A little at a time.  I also trimmed back the 2 front rhodys, and set up the deck umbrellas.

In between I went to the dentist - TWICE.  There was no infection/abscess found from last weekend's pain and puff.  It was my jaw that was swollen.  The xrays (Monday) showed nothing.  He thought I was grinding me teeth or that I'd irritated the joint.  Wednesday, when I went back for a scheduled cleaning, all was fine.  Then, later that day, it started to ache/swell again.  I resorted to ice packs.  Today it's seems ... better.  Just one more thing that is 'fine', but ailing me.  I don't get it.

I also had an FU with the endocrinologist on Friday.  And the gist - I'm fine.  Everything is fine.  Sure I have Hashimoto's, but otherwise adrenals are good, nothing else is amiss, the thyroid levels are normal (for now), so bye bye - have a nice summer - come back in September and we'll ultra-sound your little lumps in your thyroid to see if anything changes.  My spells?  Well, they don't seem related to any glandular dysfunction.  Again - no help, no treatment. 

I've never heard from the cardiologist regarding the tilt-table test.  I thought they were supposed to call me to set up an appointment once they got the order and that Medicare approved the proceedure.    I'll give them some more time. 

But, while I've been doing some gardening and doctor visits, I've also taking as much time as I could to visit my Mom, keep her in groceries and some treats, and have nice long phone chats with a couple friends.  Y'see, for the past couple months they (like my endo & neuro docs) have mostly had to deal with the shaking, fearful, weak and tearful Kris.  I want to to let them know that the real Kris is still in here, still hoping for a breakthrough, and not someone to be written off. 

Tomorrow I'm going for the diagnostic mammograms & ultrasound.  Please -  keep a good thought for me.  I'm hoping it's only calcium and/or cysts.  Hoping REALLY hard.....

More worries

Last Thursday night we had a big storm.  I was worried not only for myself, but for my Mom who lives alone.  She wouldn't come spend the night with me, nor did she want me to stay with her.  So, after making myself climb up a ladder and clean her gutters (prep for the rain), I went home and worried all night, getting no sleep.

In the morning I had a follow up with the neurologist regarding the EEG.  It was normal.  He said he just couldn't help me since he couldn't find anything wrong.  While leaving I re-iterated those 'spells' I had.  His eyes got big.  Obviously the PA did NOT give him the information I gave her about those spells.  He says I may have a problem with my autonomic systems that control blood to my brain.  It's these 'spells' that are making my life miserable.  In fact, as I was checking out, a wave of weakness, dizziness and fear washed over me and I could barely stand up during the checkout procedure.  (I was so confused that I didn't even mention it to the girl checking me out that I was feeling bad.) I was down that day and most of next morning, unable to do anything but shake and cry.  I had to have a friend drive me to the gastro appointment the next morning where I was so weak/shaky I had to have a wheelchair to get to the doctor's office.

The gastro listened and checked the bloodwork, saw no celiac and we didn't schedule an endo at this point.  What we DID end up discussing were my mammograms.  (He's not just a gastro surgeon, but a general one to boot.)  I told him my idiot GP doesn't discuss my leg that is losing muscle mass, my fatigue, and my mamos, only reads what the radiology report says.  No other info.  When he learned I had to have a mamo next week (the 24th) for a SIX-month checkup, he got concerned. Why?  I didn't know.  He called up my last few mammograms and asked when did my GP last do a breast exam.  I said maybe 8 months.  He wasn't happy and he did an immediate breast exam.  Not only could he feel what was on the mamo's, but ... he found something new.   So instead of a mere 'screening' the GP had scheduled, now I'm in for that and an ultrasound - maybe a biopsy.

Yesterday afternoon my head 'cleared' and I felt better.  Then I did something STUPID.  I went outside and did a bit of work.  But reaching overhead and then bending up and down, I triggered another attack of what might be sycope.  I'm so angry that I can't do anything without making me sick.  And I'm sick of being sick.  And, on top of that, the gastro explained to my mother (she had an appt too) that her cancer counts are up and she has to have work ups to see if her colon cancer (6 years past) has gotten into her liver or lungs.  I also found out from  her yesterday(!) that she's had a persistent cough for the past 6 months.  Oh good God.

I've let the gardens go.  I don't weed.  I pay someone to mow the lawn.  I can barely keep the house clean.  It's hard to make food because I can seldom eat...  And I doubt I can help my Mom. Right now all I want to do is move into some kind of assisted facility,  lay down, and do nothing.

As for the autonomic thing?  Now I have to have my cardiologist give me a 'tilt table' test to see if my arteries expand and contract when they are supposed to so my blood pressure and brain blood flow is compromised.  I tell you, I just want to crawl into a hole and cry because nothing is getting better, but everything is getting worse.  And being here alone all day all my mind can do is race from fear to fear.

Can it be this possible for someone apparently healthy scant months ago to come to this so quickly?  How did it happen?   Are there so many different things wrong with me all of a sudden or is there some underlying element triggering all of this?  But since doctors don't play well together, they only see the pieces, not the whole.

And the whole thing is going south....

P.S.  And, lately, my lower left jaw aches.  What now? Get the Dentist involved?  Why not... *sigh*

Later in the afternoon:  Emergency call to dentist - I discovered gum swelling - I have an abscess.  Taking antibiotics (and doubling up my probiotics to protect the intestinal flora).  Good God, what NEXT????

New veg bed details

Vegetable garden update:

Click the pic for the whole story.

Some dirt therapy

After this past Thursday's 1" of rain, I knew that now would be the best time to pull weeds.  Yesterday was mostly cloudy which kept me cool and out of the sun.



I hauled out my plastic stool and (slowly with breaks) worked my way through both of the driveway zinnia beds.

I ran across a couple of volunteer dill plants, so left them in place.  You can't have too much dill, y'know.








Then I weeded the birdbath bed.  So much loss here this year: several mums (and one of those left is really struggling).  There's been no reseeding of salvias (coral nymph, white, short elegans) either so the area is pretty bare right now.  At least the oak leaves are holding up and doing their job as mulch.

I also cleaned out under the big crabapple next to the privacy fence.  It wasn't so much weeds per se, but a dense thicket of tree suckers.  They get worse every year.

That was it.  I was pretty much done in, but things look a little better.  Hopefully this week I'll be able to plant out the zinnia starts in the cleaned beds.  I'm looking forward to some color....

Next in line (waiting for one of my good days) is the crabapple bed.  You can see it's getting overgrown with dandelions and henbit.  Also a lot of loss there, too.  Less than half of the Golden Jubilee agastache made it through the winter.  Both Crazy Daisy shasta's succumbed as did those gorgeous 'special' mums I prized so much last year.  In fact, most of the mums everywhere died as did all my Apache Sunset hyssops.

What hasn't died is being eaten by deer.  This year I see they have eaten milkweed (even with its bitter latex sap).  I don't think anything is immune - except maybe the steadfast catmint.  I should just plant THAT everywhere.....

Downsizing - 1st steps

As you can see, the new (right) (and OLD (left)) veg bed crescents are unplanted this year.  I have realized that even if my health were 100%, I would still not enjoy growing veg back there anymore.  I cannot protect the plants from the destructive deer.  The only way to do it would be to erect very tall and esthetically unpleasing fencing. 

I've decided to completely do away with the new arc.  I'd planned for it last year when I was still pretty healthy and had some stamina.

Now I have neither.  So Wednesday evening, knowing that the forecast was for rain, I overseeded the freshly tilled soil with something that the deer just don't eat.

Grass....
Oh well.
*sigh*

Again a mixed bag

Well, the blood work etc. is back and all tests for celiac are - negative.  Odd.  I seem to have lots of symptoms.  Still, this isn't definitive.  I'm making arrangements with a gastroenterologist (one other than my usual gastro surgeon (who is only in the office one day a week - not responsive enough for my liking at this time)) who will, most likely advise an endoscope for to confirm the lack of celiac and, perhaps, find something ELSE that is keeping me from gaining weight. 

Either way, it's the not knowing that is the hardest to deal with.  Perhaps my digestion if fine, but the Hashimoto's Disease is making it hard for me to calm down enough to process.  I'm trying to hook up with other Hashimoto's sufferers (numbers that are climbing every year) for insight and advice.

I don't know what they put in the IV during the ACTH test last Wednesday.  As drained and down and overly-emotional as I was when I took the test, my friend noticed that by afternoon I'd perked up considerably. was more vital and positive.  And it was Wednesday night that I got that 8 hours of sleep.  The 'uplift' continued thru Thursday and have been doing pretty good getting down food since then.  I don't know what drugs/hormones the test included, but I'm certainly going to talk to the doctor during the followup to see if I can get that stuff in a supplement somewhere!

Meanwhile I've gotten a few chores done over the past days - paltry compared to what my old self could have done in no time.  Still, it's heartening to not feel so overwhelmed all the time.  

I added a few dozen Cortland onion plants to the fence veg bed (down past the garden globe). Those seedling were so healthy I just couldn't bear NOT getting them in the ground.  Next I'll make a first (short row) of bush beans in the empty area nearest the compost bin, leaving half of the space for a another short row later in the season.

I've also sprouted some bush champion cukes and will be growing them in the deep pots in front of the deck this year.  I can keep them draped under netting to save them from the deer....

One day at a time.  Some better, some less. 

But forward.  It's all I can do.

Also disheartening.....

Overnight, the deer are back. 

I just can NOT catch a break lately.

Look at my poor little Prairie Fire crabapple.  Denuded.









The once lush and lovely Johnson's Blue geranium now bare stalks.














The September ruby asters were 2ce this height yesterday.
















So were the phlox.

















And the entire east side of this clump of sweet Joe Pye is gone.


There are days when I feel good enough to walk around and see how things are doing without me.  Oh, the weeds are going crazy, but I try not to angst about them.   Because up to now - we've had enough rain and things were looking good.

But now - it'll be downhill from here.  I cannot protect anything from the d^amn deer.  I had 8 years of no deer.  Then the golf course cut, pulled and burned anything close to the ground so now the deer have overflowed into the neighborhood.  It doesn't bother the nabes - they are not gardeners. 

Is that my future?  *sigh*