Update

Things are going well. Chuck is doing good. He is still in pain, as can be expected. What is weird is when he was hit by the train in 2000, he took 1 pain pill when he came home and nothing after that. This time he has been taking them round the clock. I guess this time it's worse. Last time it was just his ankle, this time it's all his lower leg and his ankle. He gets me up to take some and he NEVER takes med's for anything but a REALLY bad headache so I know he's hurting pretty bad. He's been sleeping on and off the whole time we've been home. He lays on the couch all day and in bed all night. I actually have a headache today from watching so much TV. I have it on but I don't sit and watch it all day, but today I sat with him and watched a couple movies. He's sleeping now and I have to run and get the boys from school in about an hour.

Tonight is Joe's Christmas Party for the swim team, I think CJ is going to stay home with Chuck tonight. Tomorrow I'll be gone again and I feel bad. I was gone for over 5 hours last night but he did okay.

They are still looking for a cutter to go into the woods. They have a couple of leads, just need to call around and find someone that is willing and won't cost too much.

Chuck's Accident Cont.

So, Charlie had to be picked up with a front end loader and be carried out of the woods. So there stories were so much alike, it was funny. He got hurt here in Conneaut, says he likes to hunt and fish up here and would love to live here but his wife's family is all down around youngstown.

The second night wasn't that great. We all fell asleep around 10pm and at 1am the awful nurse comes into the room, turns on the light screams "Hey Charlie, Hey Charles, time to get up for your pain medicine." Then she picks Chuck's bad leg up and shoves another pillow under his leg and does the same thing to Charlie. All she did was make them hurt even worse! Then she finds me there and comes over and smacks my legs and starts screaming at me "Hey get up and get out, you can't be here!" Said I would have to leave cuz this isn't a private room and since he has a roommate I would have to leave. That made Charlie mad and said he wanted me to stay that we are all friends and I wasn't going anywhere. That made the nurse mad and with all the commotion the LPN came in and the RN left. Thank God! The LPN said I could stay and she would talk to the RN. We never saw the RN again and I'm glad. They got their med's but the guys where in so much pain and were upset by the whole ordeal that they couldn't sleep so they stayed up talking for over 2 hours. The nurses told them in the morning that they almost came in to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep cuz they were so loud, LOL!! They both don't hear that well. We had the room right across from the nurses station.

Then at 4am this little old lady comes out to the nurses station and starts screaming at the nurses that she should have had her med's at 3am and it's now 4am and why aren't they there yet and why didn't the nurse order them when she told her too, etc. She went on and on and was no mean and nasty and LOUD!! SIGH!! There is NO resting in hospitals!

Then by 6am everyone was coming and going, nurses for med's, blood pressure and temp. people, those that give baths and clean the beds, physical therapy, doctors, just on and on all morning long.

The nice thing is that you can order your own food from a menu and get as much of it as you like so Chuck ordered double so that I could eat too so I didn't have to spend money on the expensive cafeteria food. The food was actually good too.

A little after lunch we found out that both Chuck and Charlie could go home, took over 4 hours to get a set of crutches for Chuck and Charlie had to wait over an hour for a wheel chair ride to his car. I had to walk over to another building to get Chuck's med's that he has to give himself twice a day. He is on shots that he gives himself in the stomach twice a day for blood clots, I guess so he doesn't get any. Just a 28 day prescription the guy told me it was over $1,000.00 for the stuff! I was lucky he had enough there someone didn't pick up theirs so he had enough. I'm glad. I didn't have to pay for that but I did have to pay for the pain med's and there were 2 and each was about $16 so that isn't too bad.

We finally made it home at 5:30 and of course coming into the house a piece of ice gave out and Chuck slipped and hit his bad leg on the stairs. Poor guy, CJ and I helped him up and into the house. We got him on the couch and I gave him 2 pain pills and he slept till 9pm.

He is fine, and basically sleeps on and off all day, I think the pain pills makes him tired. He gets around the house alright on his crutches but he is still in a lot of pain. Once the pain gets less he'll be able to move around more. I don't think he'll be leaving the house till the 28th when we have Christmas at my sisters house. We just have to be sure no one touches or bumps his bad leg.

I have to put up the tree, which is in town and I have to get yet. I guess the boys are going to have to help me with that. Chuck was going to help me with that this weekend. I'm glad that tomorrow is the last day of school, I will do a LOT LESS running around with the boys come Monday. Just CJ will have gymnastics but other than that, I don't have to run anywhere! That will be a very nice break.

Today, I took the boys to school and came right back home and went back to bed. Didn't get up till 9am. I'm still very tired and I feel like I could sleep all day. Tonight is my long night out with the boys. I leave at 3:30 and get home at 8:30. I hope he'll be okay while I'm gone. Then tomorrow night is Joe's Christmas Party at the Y for the swim team and that starts at 6pm. Then on Saturday Joe has a swim meet and they go all day and CJ has caroling from 3-8 and I have to make sure he gets a ride to that. Joe really wants to go too but can't cuz of the swim meet. So, come Sunday I don't think I have to run anywhere and live can slow down a bit.

I'm glad we got our Christmas shopping mostly all done on Friday night. There might be a few things I will pick up but mostly it's done and I have it all wrapped! When my husband was hit by a train in 2000 that was on Dec. 14th and I had all the Christmas stuff done then too but we had the tree up, this time we don't. He had surgery on his right leg with the same recovery time. This accident was on Dec. 15th. We told him he should just take December off and not do anything around that time of year, LOL!!

We are looking for someone to cut trees down while Chuck is healing so that we can keep working and making some kind of money. I hope we find someone by next week.

Come to find out, his wallet and cash are gone. When I went for his clothes, they were all over this room they keep them in and there was nothing in his jeans pockets. Chuck told them to give the wallet and cash to his brother but they didn't and they are now gone. So, had to get a hold of the bank for new bank cards, I checked and no money has been taken out of either accounts! He has to get a new drivers license once he is up and around, we'll do that. Just sucks to have this happen on top of everything else!

Chuck's Accident

Okay, it' s been a VERY LONG week, my brain is fried and I'm exhausted! But I'm home now and all is good.

On Monday just when I walked in the door from picking the boys up from school Chuck calls me from his cell phone to tell me he broke his leg, he thinks it's a compound break but isn't for sure cuz of all his clothes he has on. Said he called 911 and his brother and that he thinks he'll be going to Ashtabula hospital. I said okay and hung up. I got the boys and left the house. I then called him again to see how he was doing and he told me that he was cutting down trees (he's a logger) and one got hung up on another so he moved on and left it that way to get it later with the skidder. He didn't realize how badly the wind had picked up (said had he known it was that bad they would have called it a day) and apparently it picked that tree up, turned it around, and it came down by him. He caught the end of the tree on the back of his left leg below the knee. He said he could here people coming so he hung up. He was a mile back into the woods so it took a very long time for the EMT's to get to him.

When they did get to him, they strapped him on a back board, and put him on the hood of the skidder and his brother Dave drove the skidder backwards as best he could the mile out of the woods, then he was transferred to the bed of a pick-up truck to get back to the main road where the ambulance was waiting.

Now, I am at the hospital in Ashtabula waiting for him and NOTHING! I waited almost an hour, and I even called other hospitals! NOTHING!! Where was he???? Finally, Dave answered his phone and come to find out, no one in our area can treat him, his leg was that bad so they had to life flight him to Youngstown, an hour away.

Come to find out, it took them an hour to get to him and he had to lay in about 6 inches of cold water while waiting for them. So, because of his hypothermia and compound broken leg they had to fly him to Youngstown.

So, the boys and I followed my inlaws all the way there. I have no extra clothes, we haven't eatin since lunch, I was NOT ready to be gone for a few days! We get to Youngstown and we get to see him for a little bit but then he is rushed off to surgery around 8pm. The doctor comes out at 10:30 to let us know how he's doing. Said he broke his leg in 3 places and broke his ankle too. The shin bone did come out of the skin (NASTY) so we have to be VERY careful of infection but the surgery went really well. They put a rod in his leg and 2 screws in his ankle. We got to see him at midnight when they put him in his room.

My inlaws stayed a few minutes and talked with Chuck and then they left and took the boys with them. My sister in law stayed with them the first night. I didn't plan on leaving the hospital until Chuck did. The first night I ended up on the cold tile floor next to his bed and got about 3 hours sleep but not all together. My hips hurt really bad come morning. His roommate seemed nice enough. He gave me a blanket and some pillows, which was nice. He smoked in the bathroom and coughed a lot though, LOL!! He left the next day.

He did well after his surgery, ate well, got lots of rest and stayed on his pain med's so the pain didn't bother him too bad. He did get out of bed and with a walker walked out of the room and back in and sat down in this nice chair that reclined. I then used this chair to sit in and was very nice to sleep in!

Then Charlie came in the evening to fill the empty bed. He's really nice. It was funny because both of them were named Charles, both were hurt having to do with trees! LOL!! Charlie was building a tree stand by himself and fell and blew out his left heal. He did this the day after Thanksgiving and had to wait for the swelling to go down before he could have surgery.


I'm exhausted, I will finish this on the next post tomorrow.

Good King Wenceslas

This is my mom's favorite song so I thought I would have Joe play it on his violin so she could here him.

Karate Kitty

Okay, now that I know what I'm doing I might go a little video crazy, so bear with me! Here is Little Kitty and Sandy "playing" Sandy knows she isn't allowed to "play" with Little Kitty so I had to set the video camera up and leave the room and pretend I was busy in the kitchen. These "Playing" sessions can go on and on but here is 30 seconds worth!

Joe's Swim Meet

Okay, I feel like a total "Ninny Muggins". I searched for why I can't upload my videos and come to find out I have to "Publish" the movies. I didn't do the last step! LOL!! Okay, so I'm going to try this again. Here is Joe's last swim meet on Dec. 6th in Oberlin OH which was 2 hours from home!

Sandy's Case

Well, I went and signed the papers today, they are settling and I'll get my money back. I'm glad it's finally over! I think my lawyer is too.

I love the videos over on Becky's blog. I have been singing "Hamster on a Piano" for days!! LOVE that one! I also love her sense of humor on the Russian song, LOL!!! I can't seem to upload any videos. I've been trying for days. I use a program to take the videos off my camera and make them into avi's but they won't upload. I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to upload Joe's Concert but it never went. So, I guess until I figure out there will be no videos from me. What a bummer!

Cookie Exchange

Well, yesterday was the cookie exchange at the restaurant. It went well, one person didn't show up and another backed out so I ended up taking 2 dozen of my own home. I was fine with that as I really like these cookies. I brought them home and put them all out on the counter and after dinner we all dug into the cookies. I don't think they will even make it through the week! LOL! I was surprised that some of the cookies were barely a bite, they were so small!! 12 cookies fit into a sandwich bag! I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year though. We shall see.

CJ & Baby Peter

Here is CJ and Baby Peter today. The cat always likes to be on us and I thought this was cute that he wanted to sit on CJ while he practiced his piano. If you are wondering what's on TV that is just the Christmas Music Channel. Looks like "The First Noel" by Elvis! LOL!!

I got all my cookies done today with 2 cookies left over!! Man, that was close because I didn't feel like making yet another batch! So, now I get to eat two cookies! I think we have to put the recipe with these too, so I need to get that done but it's nice to have them all in the freezer for Sunday.

Cookies

I'm in a cookie exchange so I had to get busy making cookies. I have to make 12 dozen!! I'm so TIRED today!! Joe's concert went really well but we all didn't get to bed till after 11pm then I'm up at 5:45am. I'm just dragging today. I didn't even go to SNAP to workout this morning. I dropped the boys off at school and then came straight home. Took a shower, did a load of clothes, did up all the dishes that I hadn't got to yesterday and gave the dog a shower because I let her out and she came in covered in mud, oh joy! Then I baked up one batch of cookies. I still have many more to go! But at least I got something done today. The exchange is on Sunday and I'm busy tonight and Saturday so I have to get these done soon!