New shots 6/18/22

My B12 lvl was still very low. So I have to give myself a shot once a month and take B12 vitamins I do this for 6 months. 

I am not going to complain. When I had to do it every week I thought...geez..I wish I only had to do this once  a month or once every 3 months.

 Any way, so many people have much much worse things to do, this is baby stuff.

This was also my wellness visit where you answer a bunch of questions and do a memory test which I passed with no problem since they seem to give you the same one every year.

Our weather has been HOT and HUMID with very little rain. There are NO storms, so I can deal with everything else. :)

Education

 We did not have a lot of that in my family. On my father's side, his mother, my Grandma Maude Griffin, could not read or write. I was told, when she would visit and my sister's wanted her to read the comic for them, she would make up a story as she went along. She would use an X to sign her name. I just assume the rest of her family was the same.  I think the men had some kind of education. I guess they could read and write since it was never said that they could not.

On my mothers side, I think they were more educated. They had some education. They could read and write.  My mother went to a Catholic grammer school. This is part is a little hazy...she did go to a catholic high school. At some point her mother could not afford to send her, so that was the end of her education. She also had appendicitis and she may have been held back because of that, she missed a lot of school because of it.

My father  went to a catholic grammer school and might have had a little high school education. He joined the CCC's  (Civilian Conservative Corp) at 17.

Both parents could help us with our homework.  I had to go to my father for math help as my mother was not good with math.

My siblings and I were not forced to finish high school. Back then, you didn't have to finish to succeed in most jobs. I know a few friends who had good jobs and later had to lie and say they graduated to keep their jobs that now required a diploma.

So most of  us quit school at 16 and went to work. Barbara was the only and first person in our family to finish High School.  Back then, usually, a women worked until she had a baby, then she stayed at home, Yes, there were exceptions. It was the 1960s and things were changing.

I quit at 16 and got a job but went back and got my diploma at 22 or 23. Agnes's father did not finish High school and I didn't want Agnes to say, why do I have to finish when neither one of you did?  

A few of us had college classes but none of us were college graduates.  The granddaughter took care of that ❤❤❤

Well, she took care of that a few years ago. lol

video talk

 Yesterday I got to facetime with my brother, Charlie. We have been trying to do that for about a year and I finally managed it yesterday. I don't exactly know how I did it, but I did. 

Since we are only 14 months apart, I was very close with my brother.  He was a very kind, sweet boy. We shared a room till I was 10. 

Everything was good till Charlie started to drink when he was a teen and it just got worse as the years went by. He married a drug addict, the marriage lasted a few years.

He could not hold a job for long. When my parents died he lived on and off with me. He rehabbed a few times. He would be good for a period of time but when he fell off the wagon he was horrible and we all had to deal with his problems. Which was one reason I left New York. I did not want to deal with him any more. I always took him back because I could not let him live on the street. 

I have not seen him since 2000. He made his life with someone he met in a newspaper ad and lived with her and her kids.

So, anyway, we finally "saw" each other on video chat!  It was fun.  He is in a rehab/nursing home and he was showing me around his room and I was showing him around my room.  We only did it once, but I hope we do it again soon.

I wish he had a better life, that he could be in a better place now that he is heading towards the last stretch. He knows he is there because of his choices. I just wish this life was easier for him. Maybe the next one will.

Injection

 So I went to the doctor the first week in March and found out my vitamin B12 level was very, very low. Infact my Dr. said she has never had a patient with a lvl this low.  So, to build me up I could :

1. Come in every Tuesday for the next 5 (doctor gave me a shot in the office or it would have been 6) weeks for an injection.

2. Do it myself

3. Get a friend/relative to do it.

I did not want to go to the doctor every week and I did not want a friend of ours to do it,  So, I said I would try, I think I could do it. The doctor said if I really couldn't do it, to come in, someone would give it to you.

I watched video's on Youtube on how to do it since the only thing the doctor told me was...not to go in on an angle and it is not that hard.

On Tuesday, the hardest part was getting all the medication into the needle. That took a few tries.  I am not afraid of needles, but when I get a shot, I have to look away, I don't like to watch. So this was a little challenging. But I did a great job. 

On Tuesday I will inject on my other leg.  I do this 4 more weeks and go back to her in June for lab and I will be probably be put on B12 pills.

I am very proud that I did do this, I still can't believe I did it. lol

It was also appropriate that I did it on March 15th, the Ides of March. You should know what day this is, if not look it up. 

So, if anyone needs an injection, I can do it for you :) 

When I got Covid

 

I thought I would write  about  covid here so I would not forget what hell I went through. 

Soon after Christmas I started with the following illnesses. Headaches, cough, stomach  pains and chills with a low grade fever.  The chills lasted 2 days every thing else at least 5 days. Daughter was sick before and during this also. 

Jan. 4th I could not taste or smell and tested positive. I guess you could say it is like the worst flu you ever had x2. Still, stomach problems. I see commercials for colon cleanse...that's what I got, thanks to the virus. It was awful. I had the sweats and was getting weaker by the day. I did not eat for days. I knew I had to, to get better. 

Sometimes I only had energy to take a shower every few days. I almost fainted in the shower, so taking one was always an adventure.

Even though I can not taste or smell I tried to eat. Toast tasted like cardboard. Tea tasted like warm water and I am not sure  if I will ever be able to eat a McDonalds again which tasted like sand with bigger bits of sand that I think was fat. 

I started to Hallucinate. I saw a cat 4 times. 2xs in my bedroom, once in the dining room and once in the hall. I also had this...hallucination...or dream once that was weird about a robot/human.  

I thought I might have to tell Agnes I need to go to the hospital. But I never said it, I did not want to go there. But I needed to eat or I would end up there. I spent a better part of 2 weeks in bed.

I also had dry nasal passage, I had scabs way up in the nostril, you have no idea how painful that can be.  Blowing your nose is a horror story. I would pull the scabs out so I could breathe.

Of course with this, I got a UTI, because...that's how I roll. That was it's own horror story. And I also got Shingles! on my back which was painful in its self. sigh. 

I could smell and taste peanut butter. I had peanut butter crackers so I would eat that.  I also decided to try sweet potatoes. I had to ask Bill to open the can for me because I did not have enough strength. I could taste them! I think they saved me. I ate them twice a day. They are loaded with good stuff. 

At one point I felt like a turned the corner and was not going to die. Yes, for about 2-3 days I thought this would kill me and I would not have been unhappy. 

Then even though I still could not taste or smell, the texture of the food wasn't as bad and I could eat more gaining back some strength.

Around the 17th I started feel better, I could shower and do my wash in one day! Getting stronger!

Today is the 23rd and I still get tired at times, I still can't smell or taste most foods. My throat has...a coating, still. But not bad. My back still gets sore. I would say I am 80% recovered.

I lost 13 pounds!

I do hope to never get this again! I do hope I get my taste and smell back!

Rockefeller tree lighting

 I worked in St.Agnes HS cafeteria from 1980 to 2000. In that time women who worked there, came and went but for many years a group of us worked there. Kitten (our boss) Rose, Ethel, Barbara, Dolores and me. Some times on the spur of the moment we would plan a trip into the city. 

One of those was to see the Tree Lighting ceremony in Manhattan at Rockefeller Center. None of us had ever been there to see it. 

So, after work we all got on the bus and train and headed for the center.

We stopped at a bar first to have a drink. There we were  6 women all with white uniforms. Kitten told people in the bar we were nurses. LOL

We headed for the tree, roads were closed to car traffic around the plaza. It was PACKED with  hundreds of people.  We were herded around the plaza by cops. We were packed shoulder to shoulder! It was a bit frightening!  We were going in a circle around the tree, which went around the tree, into the Rockefeller building (in back of the tree) back out again. 

I remember thinking, if I trip I will be trampled!  I don't know how many times we went around when we stopped. We stopped in the building right behind the tree. There were a wall of windows, we could see the back of the tree and waaay up top, I saw one christmas tree light. Thats how big this tree was. You don't  realize how big till you see it in person.  

We were told they are doing the tree lighting ceremony now, so they were not letting us move till it was over. We would not have a view.

But I kept my eye on that christmas light bulb waaay up on top of the window. I saw it go on, I knew the tree was lite.  We were allowed to move again.  We went to the front and saw the tree. Then we went home.

You could not pay me to see the Tree lighting again. It was scary being herded like cattle with all the rest of the people. But it was an interesting experience.

delta

 So, things were starting to get back to normal.  Masks were required for some employee's but for the most part, the choice of wearing one or not was up to you.  I did not wear one.  Group activities were allowed, New Orleans opened up. There were some restrictions but things were moving in the right directions.

BUT THEN ALONG COMES DELTA. 

This one is more contagious, it affects all age groups. It is more deadly.  So, restrictions are starting again. On a side note__Our southern border is open and all kinds of people are just walking on over, having been vaxx'd or not___but american's not vaxx'd are starting to lose some freedom. 

You need a mask in school, hospitals are full, lines are around the block for clinics.

The unvaxx'd are to blame even though many of the people who have it, did get vaxx'd. 

You can only go to certain places if you show your vax card, you will get money, food, tickets to places if you get vaxx'd. I think you can still fly, but that all might change soon.

There are a lot of things they are not telling you. They are just telling you the unvaxx'd are causing most of the problems people are having now.        

Walmart is not making you wear a mask (why not?) but they stand by their doors holding a mask and say, they want their customers safe, do you want a mask? I always say no. It's just odd they are not making us wear one.  

More and more people on social media are posting about people who foolishly refuse to get the shot, causing everyone else to suffer with these restrictions and shut downs. 

I will stay unvaxx'd until they force me to do it.