Bad Day Turns Out Good

Well Neil is still in the hospital but he is on the mend.  Been 2 weeks now, everyone panics cause its been so long but I would rather him there healing than home sick.

On Friday I rode up with him in the back of an ambulance to Red Deer so they could drain what they thought was a pus pocket.  We got there and they wouldn't let me watch :(  something about using x-rays and ct scans to find it.  But anyways it wasn't pus just a separate pocket of fluid, the same stuff they drained out on last Monday.  They also gave him 2 units of blood on Thursday and that and removing this pocket seemed to make a huge difference.  They left a drain in so it would completely drain out,  and so another attachment, what a pain.  But so far so good hes feeling a lot better, even got bored in there, but hes still weak.  On Thursday there was quite some excitement at 10:30 at night they thought he was showing signs of tuberculosis and so they rushed him into another room and all his furniture and the other guy in his room and did a major disinfecting.  Then they put a sign on his door saying airborne disease must wear mask, gown and gloves in the room.  And he was swelling up so they gave him a water pill to pee every 10 minutes, what a nuisance, he said he didn't get much sleep that night.

But it was a false alarm and everything is back to normal, hes still in a private room and he will be in there until his drain isn't draining anymore and the doctor is sure he wont come back.  He really wanted to get out tomorrow for his birthday but it doesn't sound like its gonna happen.  He even walked all the way to the x-ray and back this morning but was really tired afterwards.  I am glad they are gonna keep him till hes stronger less work for me to take care of him too.

Its been going well here, except this morning I lost a calf in the heifers that maybe coulda been saved if I was more invasive.  I find I would rather wait and let them do it without interfering if at all possible, but in this case I shoulda helped her sooner, but whats done is done I cant fix t now, too bad cause she was such a nice quiet cow but she didn't even turn around to look at her calf, she just walked away from it after we pulled it.  I tried to put one of the twins with her but he just kept climbing through the fence away from her so after about 3 times I gave up on that and just turned her out.  Was a pretty rotten morning, had me wondering if everything was going wrong.  But then had a nap after lunch and rode through the cows and I felt much better.  I am always nervous riding through the cows cause Neil always says they are wild and scared of a horse and I just don't do it very often, so easy to just grab Bob and drive, but I guess it wont get easier/more normal for me unless I do it.  And it was nice, only took about an hour and I didn't even need to wear a coat.  And I saw a calf being born, so all is alright in my world again.

 Although I do want it back to normal again, I don't like this.  It wouldn't be so bad if I never had to spend 4 hours to go see Neil everyday but still would rather it be like it was before.  Although I know when he gets home he will still need help and be weak, they said not 100% till June :(  That seems so long away.  Although as much as I complain I would rather do this than be the one in the hospital.  I think the hardest part is its hard for anyone to understand unless they have gone through this, and the worst of it is we have no family around to help besides Neils dad who has been coming up every couple days to help out.  But seems like everyone else has tones of family around and here I am all alone.

Sick Husband

Last week Neil had a cold, and it wasn't that bad, and then it got worse, he thought it turned into the flu, so he laid around for a couple days and then he asked me to take him to the hospital, I was a little surprised he seemed wimpy but I thought all men are when they are sick.  So we went in to emergency and the triage nurse looked at him and asked all kinds of questions then they send you back to waiting room to wait for doctor.  About 5 minutes later the doctor saw him and said its not the flu its pneumonia.  And the said they wanted to start him on iv antibiotics for a few days and since we live so far from the hospital they would like to keep him in.  He agreed cause it was a pretty awful drive for him.  So we got there at 8 and by 11:30 he was in a room and they even brought him lunch at noon, pretty organized I was surprised.  He didn't eat it of course but it was there.  That was last Tuesday the first.  I left and went home to check heifers and bring him some clothes cause he was wearing his jeans and no one wants to sleep in jeans in the hospital.  So I brought him some stuff and he was feeling pretty bad, slept in the chair so he could stay upright and not cough.

The next day he made it into the bed but had it sitting all the way up and he was a lot more cheerful but still not great.  kept getting a little better everyday.  Then Sunday he woke up and said hard to breathe so they put him on oxygen which he never needed before cause they kept testing blood oxygen levels and they were good.  Also gave him a couple puffers to open his lungs.  Worked for a while then Monday they figured should drain some fluid around his left lung, the right side was all cleared up and so they took a bunch out and he said wasn't bad but didn't seem to make a lot of difference.  Took a CT scan today and no cancer but might send him to a specialist cause they are thinking there is maybe a blockage of some sort stopping him from healing.

I also think its taking longer cause he is probly going through withdrawal symptoms from not smoking for a week, he says he doesn't miss it but the its still hard on the system.  He asked his doctor for something to quit and he wont give him something unless he starts missing it cause no need to introduce more nicotine if unnecessary.  I hope he quits, would be an ideal time.

Meanwhile I am here taking care of things on the farm, not too bad, we have heifers and cows calving so far no problems and I think only 13 heifers left out of 33, I haven't worried too much about cows, still feeding a little so they all bunch up and then I can go look at the ones who don't come up.  Got about 19 out there, they are so funny even when i don't want to they make me smile.

The worst part is we had to cancel our trip to Texas which doesn't bother me cause he's sick but I really wanted to go.  But I guess there is always next year.  He will still need care when he gets home but I am hoping they keep him till hes pretty good.  Seems like a long time to be in the hospital nowadays but they seem in no rush and they hospital is not full so its good.  I sure have a better appreciation for nurses and am glad I am not one I dont think anyone would like me after a while.

Heifers from Donalda

So yesterday Neil and our neighbor Craig headed up to our north place to pick up our heifers.  The ground was a little snowy in the morning and it can get really bad up there, so we wanted them home before we couldn't get them home.

They left about 9 and stopped for lunch up there and got back here about 5, so not too long a day.  I generally end up going but if just me and Neil haul it takes 2 trips for me and 3 for Neil so its easier to hire someone to haul them all in one trip (and cheaper too).  I kinda liked staying at home but it was weird cause I kept wondering how it was going all day.

But they came home and we left them in the corral overnight and chased them out to the cows this morning, almost went too smoothly.  Then we hung around inside and had cocktails before supper.  I had to move Razz and Jazz out of the corral and in too a different pen so they could unload the heifers and they were quite happy to follow me (and my oats, lol) into a pen that had some grass in it so it worked good for me I didn't have to feed last night.   But they were quite happy to get out of there this morning though.

Also linking with Farm Photo Friday 

A Few Updates

Yesterday I headed to the dentist then then went riding, well I actually didn't ride but I treated Jessie with MTG again and koppertoxed her feet and I think the girth area looks better, and the gall is starting to grow hair back, so that's a good sign.  It was a fun kinda day just hanging around and visiting and of course seeing the ponies.  When I got home I had a look at my ponies here at home and I caught them unaware, but before I could get the pic of Duchess and Belle sleeping with heads down, Bailey seen me and whinnied.

So of course they lifted their heads to see what was going on and then they saw me and got up fully.  Silly girl, she is a talker that's for sure.  I fed them some oats as a treat and today Neil gave them another bale.  On April 5 I got the farrier coming and so I guess that's the day they get to move to different pastures and I can get to working with them :)

Since Neil left to take the ice out of the curling rink then to a vaccination meeting, I also had a look at the heifers to see if anything had calved.  Sure enough there was a new calf in there.

A few days ago Neil moved all the heifers with calves into another corral and all the ones to still calve into the close corral so its easy to check who has calved and who hasn't.  He left the stitched up cow in and she is sure easy to tell apart too!

I went in the house and this one cow kept bawling and I was just ignoring her cause I knew they were almost out of feed and thought she was complaining, but after a hour or so I figured I should go check and then felt kinda bad cause her calf got up on the wrong side of the fence and so I opened the gate and chased (well pushed) it back in.

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

A while back I was asked if our land was really that flat and no trees.  Well Janice, Yes it really is.  I was on my way to our community poker rally this morning and when i got there, no one was around.  I guess I shoulda asked where we were starting instead of just assuming it was at the hall (which it obviously wasn't!)

So I drove up the road a ways and stopped to visit a friend i haven't seen in a very long time.  It was kinda nice to catch up but we only had an hour because she was on her way to a 4-H meeting with her daughter.  So after I left there, I went to see the people I used to work for.

They are busy trying to combine, but the wheat seems tough so far, but since it was so warm today, hopefully they will get it done.

It was a fun day and I'm glad I did it, even though I woulda really liked to have gone on the poker rally, i guess next year I will be smarter and ask more questions.

It was kinda fun driving around with nowhere to go and just stopping where I want to and taking pictures and visiting old friends I never seen for a long time.

As I got to our corner our heifers were standing there staring at me wondering what was in my trailer and if they should run away or investigate.

They were pretty funny standing there, and more up the fence were pretty cute, i like the ones with the white on their faces, not the pure white heads, but the brockle faces best.  Like her.

All in all it was a good day, just not the day I expected it to be.