CoCo's Corner

I've been hanging out in my house for the most part.  Hiding from germs.  Hiding from phlegm.  Hiding from coughs.  Hiding from sneezes.  Hiding from snot. Trying to stay healthy until surgery day.  Not that I can hide very well.  Roommate daughter is literally coughing a lung up.  So, she can only hang out with me if she is wearing a mask.  I am bathing in hand sanitizer when I remember.  I'm taking elderberry gummies with a bunch of zinc and vitamin C in order to boost my immunities.   Poor Roommate. Not that I would know much if I did have a cold.  My nose has been running constantly since the day Jeff was pushed up my nostril.  I have a constant sore throat, due to the tube rubbing in the back of my throat.  The worst part is when I'm laying down and roll onto my left side.  It starts to move around and I feel like I'm choking.  It doesn't do it every time, but most of the time.  And I don...

Sun wasn't even up when I headed to the hospital Today, I had my first albumin infusion.  I have it at the Cancer Center.  It lasts about four hours.  They get an IV started and slowly infuse the albumin.  Today, I learned a lot: Don't take your own snacks.  They have great snacks and beverages.  And you don't have to haul all that stuff. Four hours, sitting in a little curtained room, is really not bad.  I snoozed, I snacked, I watched TV, I played on my phone. Make sure you take your power pack. If they ask you if you want a heated blanket, the answer is always YES.  I had three by the time I left.  I told the adorable CNA fella that I planned to just look like a pile of blankets by the time I was ready to leave. In October, we wear Halloween fare The side effects are headaches and achy muscles.  I'm the lucky one that gets both.  I'm doing ok tonight.  I don't get headaches, I'm used to achy muscles.  I limit my intake ...

  I kind of referred to Ted and my "effing burger" saga that turned into a full-on tradition for us on a Facebook/Instagram post.  I added that if anyone wanted to hear the story, let me know, because I love this story.  A couple of people said they wanted to hear it - so I'm sharing. It was my 50th birthday.  It was a pretty significant birthday.  Now, in all honesty, a couple of people had gone against my express wishes and planned a whole surprise birthday party with family, friends and all sorts of people.  The funny thing was the person who was behind the whole thing had planned one for her mother a couple of months before.  She told me the story, and I said, I would kick your ass.  I'd be so mad!!!  Yeah, she took it as a challenge.  I had planned out a day of dinner out and the Muppet Movie at the dollar theater and I was excited to spend that time with my family.  When Ted started driving the wrong direction, I knew there we...

Enough said!!!  It's been a rough couple of weeks.  But, this whole drama started on March 17.  Yep - St. Patrick's Day.  I woke up in the middle of the night and was in crazy pain.  I was sure my appendix was about to burst or something.  I laid there for a bit and dozed.  About an hour later, I woke up again and was in so much pain I couldn't think.  I called in sick to work.  I was so disappointed, I had my green beads and my four leaf clover earrings all ready to go.  Got up and simply dressed myself and dragged myself out to the garage and drove myself to IHC Hospital in Murray.  I just didn't want to wake anyone up, so I just did it myself.   Tests were run; blood, urine, CT scan and all that regular stuff.  I was given medication for pain.  I was told that I had a kidney stone that was making it's way down to pass and that is what the pain was.  My emergency room doctor was amazing.  She said I s...

This is not a health update. I decided to talk about life, in general, since 2014.   Today, I realized that eleven years ago today was my last day at my previous job, my previous career, my previous life.  I loved my previous life, until I didn't.  And that all turned around the end of 2013.  I was a 911 dispatcher for 32 years.  I started on March 1, 1982 as a records clerk.  Moved into dispatch as a call taker and dispatcher, was promoted to supervisor and finally was the deputy director at the end of my career.  That last part was probably the worst decision I ever made.  And maybe the best.   I was there through so many crises and events.  The day I took my application in, I was told pretty much everyone was gone "to the funeral".  A police officer had been shot and killed the week before and nobody was there to take my application.  This was LONG before the internet.  It was a handwritten application and ba...

Penelope is the fourth grandchild to get her one-on-one with Grandma CoCo.  She was asked early last year where she wanted to go.  She waffled between Disneyland and LegoLand for a long time.  She suddenly got set on Disney and so that's where we went. She spent Saturday night with me and we woke up really early on Sunday and headed to the airport.  We were at the hotel by 10:30, we were able to get her clothes changed, give the hotel our luggage and catch the last shuttle for five hours to the park.  I kind of let her run the show that first day and we were all over the place.  It was a very busy holiday weekend and there were lines.  She was pretty upset about having to wait in lines - so it was hard to get her to decide on what to do.  We did very little that first day.  We did do one very important thing though, she met Belle.  That was worth the ticket right there.  She looked so sweet, dressed in her own Belle princess dress...