Hello everyone!

I swear I'm doomed to live a life in the dentist chair! Had to go back this past Friday due to a bone sliver still attached to my jaw in front poking thru my gums. Ugh! I got that cut off and my dentures trimmed. Now I have two sore spots to heal and hopefully I'll be able to have teeth in my mouth again! :)

For those of you that have had surgeries and have been back on the pain meds afterwards? You'll understand this comment! "I'm four days off the pain meds now!" And boy does my body and brain know they are missing!

I'm getting quite a bit done around the house trying to stay busy so I don't get too antsy! It's amazing how after 29 days of taking them at small doses can zap my energy too! I feel like I could run circles around the outside of the house, but once I get up I feel weak! I just keep moving until I can't go no more! I sit down and rest for awhile and then do it all over again!

I'll be SOOOO happy to wean thru this and get back to where I was before taking them again! Yeah the buzz from them was nice while I was on them. And it controlled my pain. However? I just didn't want to do anything while on them. The days were crawling by for me!

I was really sick from the infections in my mouth for a long time before surgery! Now that it's all done and things are healing? I'm feeling better and want to get back to getting things done. Living life and getting off this property again! Thankfully I'm able to go outside or I'd sure enough go crazy!

I hope everyone reading my Thread is doing well? It's upsetting to read posts where others aren't making a difference in their life!

TOD

Hello everyone!

I had to make another walk- in visit this past Wednesday to the dentist! Had another surgery done to remove another bone attached. So I have more stitches to wait out until they dissolve on their own. I got some kind of filler in my dentures to help make them fit better and feel better! ;)

I have 12 days off the pain meds now! No pain meds given for this last surgery! Not a problem! I'm taking Advil to control the pain! Baby Aspirin for the slight fever!

I've still been slowly getting things cleaned up around here. Cleaning a window here. Cleaning out a drawer here! Little things getting done while still tending to the feathered kids stuff throughout the house and their outside pens on a daily basis! I don't have any affects leftover from the pain meds anymore. Just the new surgery pain I'm now dealing with! Dentist said it would be completely healed in two weeks! Sigh! It's always time on things!

Hi TB! Hope you're feeling better?

Wishing everyone a clean day!

TOD

Hi TOD....
Been following your thread for a while like a weirdo lurker, lol, but wanted to pop in and say how awesome and inspiring I think you are!! Great job on 12 days!!

Thank you sugarangel! Fear not! You aren't the only lurker! LOL I appreciate you chiming in though! ;) I'm an honest down to earth poster w/o a lot of the issues that others have for their reasons showing up here and/or the reason(s) they use! I post to share positive vibes here! I have been hit with negative stuff from here and I choose to not let it knock me down! Let it flow off my shoulders like a duck does water on their feathers! :) Negative stuff is all over the internet though! Just gotta learn to put it on a shelf and continue on with your life! Hubby and I have too much positive stuff in our life to let the negative get to us!

We too live with chickens in the house as pets! LOL They bring us loads of laughter, joy and loving! They are a lot of work, but it keeps us both up and moving. There isn't any grass growing under our feet! And if there was? The feathered kids would be wanting us to move so they could eat it! LOL

I have loads of chicken stories on my "Animal Planet" Threads in the Café section if you want to read any of them?

Thanks again for popping in!

Wishing everyone a clean day!

TOD

I will definitely check out your animal planet threads!! Sounds awesome!!
And, I like your positive, honest, no bs approach.
Happy Friday!!

Hello everyone!

I've made it to 17 days off the pain meds! ;) I have been super busy getting things cleaned up around here. Being sick for so long, then surgery and almost a month on pain meds left me not wanting to do anything around here except survive! Now that all that is over? I'm back! :) It's so refreshing to be able to feel like getting things clean and smelling good again. I attacked my bedroom today. I now have fresh clean hung on the line to dry bed linens to crawl between when I go to bed. It smells so good when I walk in the bedroom. I buy a furniture polish from a company I'm a member of that works great for cleaning the furniture. I flip on the light and things just shine. I still have a lot more to get done in my bedroom, but I'm on a roll! LOL I learned a long time ago to go at it slow and easy. If I look at the whole picture I get overwhelmed with how much there is to do! So I hit and miss as I go along. Little by little it's looking better and smelling better!

Poor Jethro has caught an illness bug! He's sniffling and sneezing. I fill the crockpot up every night with hot water and liquid Vicks in the water so he can breathe easier while asleep! His little Tasha has been keeping her daddy company while he's been going thru this. I call her a little goose because she sounds like one. LOL To be so cute and tiny she has a deep voice! Jethro has even managed to spoil her like he did Maria. He took a nap this afternoon and Tasha was sitting on his belly while he was stretched out on the floor snoring. SMH laughing!

Butthead Brandon still tries to peck me when I take him outside. So I got him good this evening. I took a long handled ceiling duster out with us. As soon as I set him down he turned to get me. Ha Ha Or that's what he thought he was going to do. He instead encountered the end of the duster. Boy was he shocked. He took off running when I attacked him with the duster. LOL He'll figure out one of these days: "Momma don't like being pecked!"

I better get back to work! Can't sit still for too long!

Hi TB! Wishing you lot's of good wellness!

Wishing everyone a clean day!

TOD

Your stories are awesome!!

Hello everyone!

Thank you sugarangel!

This song was sent to me last week! I want to share it with those that have lost someone! I think of our little Silkie Hen Maria when I watch it. She had beautiful soft white feathers too! Our world revolved around her for 6 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n67dSG35L4

TOD

The pollen from our cedar trees has been thick with their pollen on our cars. I noticed a couple days ago there were little tiny sliding scratch marks on the back windshield of my car with one wing imprint where a tiny bird had tried to land on the back window. It was so neat looking!

I know there are those out there struggling from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day! You have to remember you had a life before your DOC's! Why you got into the using life is your business! Just know you can stop using! Yes you're gonna feel like you've arrived at the gates of hell, but it all will pass! Lord knows how many times I C/T'ed off the pain meds myself! I've been doing this for 31 years.

I talk a lot about my Silkie chickens. They have been a saving Grace to/for me! They are special little creatures that came into my life in the year 2000. After my marriage started going down hill I dove head first into a bottle of pain meds. I spent every hour I could caring for my Silkies and soaking up their love in order not to endure the harshness of what my husband was putting me thru. After several years of this life I chose in Oct 2005 to get off the pain meds.

I went a month thru hell C/T getting off the large amount I had been taking. After getting myself clean I put all my energy into making my marriage work. I could see though my husband only wanted a maid around the house and someone he could control. Enough was enough! While he was at work I started going thru everything in the house I could to find my stuff and get it packed up. Then in July I made a move out of there! Talk about feeling free and alive again! I had ruined years of my life living in a bottle of pills in order to deal with a husband that treated me so badly!

I was reintroduced to my school summer break sweetheart that I hadn't seen in 32 years. I moved in with him and two years later we got married. Due to multiple injuries and surgeries I've been on and off the pain meds. Two and a half years has been the longest I've made it each time before another surgery got me. So that's where I'm at now. I'm 18 days off the pain meds and doing good! Loving life off the crap!

So there's you a little of my history for those newbies that's been reading my thread! ;)

TOD

Hello dear one.

Glad to hear you're doing well. Been extremely busy with life. On top of my busy schedule I gotta driving job that pays cash. I have several ads on craigslist for personal driver and one of them panned out. The job consists of me driving to appointments, shopping, and errands three times a week. I'm also on call if needed. I'm so grateful to have this job it gives me the freedom to not be on a tight budget with my fixed income.

As you know I had to change health benefits this year due to my Medicare coverage that I had no longer cover my state. So I had to start the process of finding new doctors with this new coverage. That said, I found a new orthopedic group here and it looks like if all goes well September I will be having my knee redone. I'm excited but yet fearful. Excited that I'll be able to walk on my own without the help of a walker or cane, and most of all pain free. Fearful, because I remember what I went through the last four years with this botched knee replacement.

I love your song. He is one of my favorites. Tim McGraw stay humble and kind.




Say hello to Jethro for me.

Hugs and prayers
TB

Hello everyone!

Hey TB! Seems you are finding all sorts of things to keep you busy? LOL You might as well get prepared to spend that extra money on your kitty kids. Kids of all kinds seem to be able to smell money! Or at least I think our kids can? They smell the crockpot food cooking all night and when Jethro gets them out of their beds? Their tummies are growling and they have their noses in the air! LOL

I just made a crockpot full of stuff for vegetable soup to have for supper tonight! It's going to be a cold day, so soup will be wonderful for supper on a day like today. I like to let the onions cook in a pan by themselves before putting them in anything I'm cooking that calls for onions to be added. I also slice a tomato and cook it down to mush along with any meat I'm cooking. Makes things so flavorful!

Jethro got his daughters car delivered on a flatbed Sunday. There are so many things wrong with it. She bought the oil pan that has to be replaced. I know Jethro though. He'll keep buying stuff to repair things and tell her to pay him back in sweat. Sweat doesn't pay the bills around here. Sweat doesn't pay for all the parts or fluids the car needs either! Sweat doesn't pay for the electricity used from all the power tools, lights, etc. to fix her car. IK IK I probably sound like a "B"! However she has used me and abused me for years. She has sucked hundreds of dollars out of me. The only thing she wants is me GONE out of her daddy's life! So yeah I have a bitter pill to swallow when it comes to her.

I'm still not wearing my dentures. Sigh! I have two more places in my mouth that's needing surgery! And NO there's no pain meds offered or given when I have these surgeries. I really want all this done and over with! I have 25 days off the pain meds from the initial oral surgery as it is! I'm damned sure not wanting to start over!

A woman from my childhood days posted a family picture the other day! I saw her younger brother for the first time since I was around 7 yrs old. I sent her a message to tell him I said hello next time she spoke with him. Sadly! She told me he's using meth! Just breaks my heart! He had a son that got into the wrong group of PPL and was stabbed to death. He didn't go to his son's funeral due to the meth. He didn't even attend his mother's funeral when she was buried either! I knew something was wrong, because in the picture his eyes are wild looking! :( His 2nd wife has left him at this point. None of his kids have seen him in several years. Just so sad! I have very fond memories of the good times we had growing up together.

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD

Hello everyone!

I managed to crawl out of bed yesterday around 4:00 pm! Jethro was standing beside the table when I came down the hall. I walked up behind him and touched a finger to his back. He quickly jerked around and then said: "Good morning baby!" :) Gave me a quick kiss and went back to texting his cousin!

I walked over to the coffee pot to switch it on. On the way over to it I asked Jethro if he ate any soup? He said: "Oh yeah! Had two large bowls of it!" Once I got to the counter I saw the dirty soup spoon beside the crockpot. I grinned and gave him the thumbs up! A man's full belly makes him a happy man! LOL

I go get dressed and come back to the living room! Jethro announces there will be a truck here today to get the Entertainment Center and dishwasher that's been in the way for the past three years. Can y'all see me dancing? :) Stuff has been moved all over the house that needs to go with those. So after he went to bed I went on the search for those boxes. Either me constantly telling him: "I'm tired of living in a Thrift Shop" or him helping his cousins with the remodel of their mom's home has him in the cleanup mode! Woot! Woot! Whatever the reason? I'm grinning an almost toothless grin and loving the thought of the stuff being removed!

Poor little Tasha is going to be beside herself having all the open space around her eating area. LOL She doesn't do change too well! She'll be crying to daddy until she figures out it's okay! After all that leaves? There's one more large cabinet that will be going to Jethro's shop. Then it will REALLY be opened up in that area of the living room.

The only thing I dread about all this stuff being moved is the amount of Maria feathers I know have blown underneath them. :( My heart strings pull the tears out whenever I find her feathers. But to be honest? I think her spirit is hanging around Tasha. Tasha is doing a lot of the things Maria did. Right down to her holding her foot up when she wants to be picked up! She's already got her daddy so wrapped around her little fifth toe that he brings her to me when he goes to take a shower so she doesn't cry for him. He says: "Hold her! Comfort her until I get done with my shower!" Oh LORDY!

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD

This is little Tasha!

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...pssbhfpnpl.jpg

Hi everybody!

When I got up this afternoon I walked down the hallway and peeped around the wall. BAM! All that STUFF was gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! It looked so open in that area of the living room. I haven't seen that much space in over three years. I was just giddy! LOL

I decided to try my dentures in again a couple hours ago since the last surgical area wasn't hurting. Low and behold I was able to get them in and keep them in w/o any pain. I'm so tired of being practically w/o any teeth. Even Jethro has me repeating myself over and over because he can't understand me when I'm talking. Sigh! The chemicals in these dentures has a taste that makes me want to gag. So I've started putting a little Watkins mint flavoring on my tongue to overcome that problem when it happens. So far so good! ;)

While sitting in the porch room earlier I heard Jethro in the kitchen telling Tasha he was cooking and would be there shortly! LOL I could hear her cranking up. Well it wasn't long and neither were fussing anymore! About five minutes later I walk into the house and there's Jethro cooking at the stove and Tasha is in an arm sling on his belly! OMG! I just started laughing and walked on to the bathroom. Tasha wants to be buddies with Sherry, (her momma), and Molly, the 6 yro Silkie hen. Sherry is tolerating her and Molly wants to pull all her feathers off her head. Ugh!

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD

Hi TOD. How are you doing?? I am jonesing for one of your chicken stories!!
And Tasha is gorgeous!!

Hi everyone!

Well sugarangel! I had a big old post typed out and this stupid new system on here timed me out and I lost everything! :( I'm sorry!

So here's a couple of pictures for ya!

Brandon in front is our goofy Silkie rooster!
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psr7wexkkc.jpg

This is Sherry! She's a rescue hen we got over a year ago! She was at death's door when she arrived.

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...psebhc1xah.jpg

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD

Oh my gosh, they are SO cute!! And, I love Sherry's color. She's a pretty little thing!!
I hate losing posts. I feel that!!
Hope all is well. How are your teeth doing??

Hi everyone!

Okay sugarangel! I'm doing this in a draft on my computer so I don't lose it again! I do a lot of copying while I'm usually typing on SR and for some reason last night I didn't! So I lost a big ole post. When I posted I got the message I had too many emoji's. So when I went back to my post to delete the extras? Poof! Everything was gone! I just had to sigh and say okay! I'll share a couple of pictures with her until I can get back to retyping what I lost! Things used to really stress me out! They just don't anymore! I remember driving thru storms to get a single pain pill to get some relief. Man! Just another reason to hate those damned things! Now? Things can wait until tomorrow or I get the time to do it! That is other than taking care of the critters around here.

I just knew you'd LOVE Sherry! She is precious! If she weighs a pound I'd be surprised! She likes to sit half in my hand and half on my chest when I'm snuggling her. She tucks her little legs and feet tightly up against her body and then stretches her neck/head up onto my shoulder. Then she does these heavy sighs like saying: "Momma? Life is tough, but I love being held by you!" She'll also flop over on her side while in that tight ball she's put herself into and raise her wing up and down for me to scratch under it at times. I usually have to catch her from falling over my arm because she'll put her feet on my chest and push herself backwards onto my arm. She's so trusting!

I posted a picture of Brandon aka: Butthead because he's a comedian! He has a large carrier in the living room he sits in at night, that is if he isn't sitting on the couch with his daddy or being snuggled up against daddy's chest. If he's in his cage and I walk into the living room from the porch room. He gets all excited! Momma turns him on! LOL He'll start scratching in the corner of his carrier in the way a rooster does to make a nest for their hens, all the while making goofy noises! (I know you chicken folks out there reading this know what I'm talking about)! I walk over to the carrier and say: "What'cha doing Little Man? Little Man? Little Man?" OMG the whole damned carrier starts a rocking with his dancing, scratching and talking! I get so tickled over it and Jethro is sitting there shaking his head from side to side! I look at him and ask: "What? I can't help it if my voice turns the boy on!" ROFL These little feathered Angels here on Earth keep me grounded! They are being used in many facilities too, to help PPL recover from so many things!

I'm now 33 days off the pain meds! I'm back on track with having the 2 1/2 years off them! I've been super busy doing a little here and a little there. I've just come to the conclusion it all needs to be done. I'm not going to get it all done in a 24 hr period. So I hit and miss and pick up from room to room when I'm cleaning! It's making a difference! I can slowly see it happening! But if my nose smells something weird? I'm on the search for it! LOL That's a smell that has to GO! I swear my husband has no smell unless it's grease, oil, old gas, etc. All that shop stuff stinks to me! I walk into his fancy new shop and curl my nose! Sometimes having a strong sense of smell isn't a good thing.

There's a chemical taste/smell to these dentures that makes me want to gag! So I now fill the little dish with water and add some Watkins mint flavoring to it. Then I put my dentures in the dish and seal it. It's slowly getting rid of that taste and smell. I got the essential tools out two nights ago to work on this bottom denture plate! I've come to the conclusion though after fixing a lot of the problems? My dentures are crooked! My left side hits the bottom first and then slides into place which makes everything on the bottom off! Sigh! Gotta have a come to Jesus meeting with my dentist! He loves me though! LOL When I walk into his office he's usually sitting at the computer. So I walk up behind him and rub the top of his bald head with a big ole hello! He starts laughing! Hubby is always with me and they'll talk shop or about our spoiled chickens while he's working on my dentures. After going into another dentist office on sick call one morning there and being sent out w/o anything being done because I reached stroke level? I was sent down the hall to my P/M doctor's nurse! She and hubby were both extremely worried over*my extremely high BP. I was given a high dose of Clonidine and sent home when my BP started coming down. Hubby insists on going in with me now. I also take a very small dose of valium! Which I truly hate! They make me sleepy and send my RLS into overdrive after leaving the dentist office. It's really a blessing I'm now wearing dentures! I no longer will have to endure the drills, shots or anything else that sends my BP thru the roof. Just gotta get these dentures fitting properly first.

Jethro and I have been eating in separate rooms at supper time. He's watching basketball tournaments and with not having teeth in my mouth I come out here to the porch to watch my own shows and power thru eating. I've been eating like every five hours. I can't manage much at one sitting. So today he cooked us smoked pork ribs for supper. I put my dentures in and sat down at the table with him to eat them. Etsy bitty teeny tiny bites at a time. I also made some mixed vegetables to go with them. While sitting at the table I put my hand on his and said: "This is our Valentines supper together!" He smiled and agreed! He knows I'm struggling with all this denture stuff and leaves me be! I've woke him up at 6:00 am several mornings to drive me to the dentist office too. He doesn't bat an eye. He just gets me there on time. My last husband would take me to the VAH for surgery and drop me off. He'd tell the receptionist to call him when I was in Recovery! Ugh! Jethro also knows I'll drive myself if he didn't get up and take me. Valium'ed up and all! LOL He tells everybody: "TOD thinks she's fearless! She's not!" Well hell! I wore Army combat boots many years before we got together. And I raised a daughter practically all on my own. So yeah! I can take care of myself! I really think that's what scares him! He does love me unconditionally though! *He does his best to take care of me and the critters we have. He also worries about my pain pill addiction and is truly grateful I have the drive to stay off them!

Okay! It's getting late and I've written a lot to play catch up!

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD

I loved your post. It made me grin big!! And , the story you told about Brandon made me laugh out loud. Sounds like he loves his mama. A lot!! lol. And Sherry sounds like the sweetest thing. I didn't realize she was so small!! Hard to tell size from a pic. But, gosh she is beautiful. And Brandon is a handsome little guy. Must be really fun having all of those chickens around. I love animals so much. I think I would truly be happy living in a zoo. Could you imagine getting paid to take care of animals all day?? Poop and all, it would still be the best job in the world. I prefer animals to people most all the time. Not that I don't like people, but you know what I mean.
Anyhoo, I am sorry to hear you are having so many problems with the dentures. It sounds like it's been rough lately, and you have my sympathies. I hate the dentist, have to take a benzo before I go, and stress out for days before the appt. Dentistry is a necessary evil in my book. I did just have oral surgery last month. Had to have some wisdom teeth and a broken tooth pulled. They gave me conscious sedation, so I remember nothing about it. It was the best trip to the dentist ever. Felt and remembered nothing. That was amazing. I wish they could knock me out every time I go to the dentist!!
You are doing good, TOD!! Thanks for sharing another story with me. I do love reading your posts. They are so funny!! I bet you are a blast to be around in person. Jethro, too. You make me smile.
Oh yeah, and the thing you said about searching for the bad smells made me lmao!! I do that too. If it smells ok, it can wait to get cleaned. I so get that!! I do it, too. Hilarious!!
Hope you are having a peachy day!!

Hello everyone!

Yep! Brandon the butthead is always trying to mount momma's shoes! The little snit! He's so quick too at running up behind my turned back to jump at my legs! The boy is going to give me a damned heart attack one of these days!

This evening I diced up some frozen green beans after they thawed for the little ones in the house! Molly was like: "Ummmm I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but that ain't fresh cut green grass!" Well little Tasha was about to slide off the edge of the couch to see what Molly was eating! So I put Molly on the couch and Tasha on the floor. She has such a face full of feathers she wasn't sure what was in the bowl. I took a piece of green bean to set on the towel in front of her. She stretched her neck out to peck at it. I kept telling her it wasn't going to bite her she could get closer to it. Well she wasn't having any of it! So she got the first piece eaten and I gave her another one. While she's eating it the timer went off on the oven. So I head to the kitchen. At about the same time Jethro gets up to go to the bathroom! Oh hell! Tasha started raising cane because we both ran off and left her! LOL Jethro shows back up and picks her up. She snuggles underneath his beard while being held in the crook of his arm.

I walk over and see what she's doing! I say: "OMG! I can hear her now! - "Daddy! Momma was feeding me green beans and then she ran off and left me alone. Then you daddy left too! I just can't deal with this alone time. Daddy! Can't you see my tears thru my feathers as she wiggles that little puff feathered head further under his chin?" ROFL She's SOOOOO spoiled!

I was paid for cleaning poop years ago! I worked in a Humane Society!

I was inspecting my dentures last night and was like WOW! The top denture is off! If you look at the last two teeth on each side? They aren't even! One is further back than the other! I'm like: "So no wonder it's a pain in the ass to get these things to match up on the bottom!" Ugh! Gonna have a serious talk with my dentist over this issue! I know they're temporary! But damn! I was explaining this to Jethro and he just sat there with Tasha on his shoulder shaking his head from side to side! I just wanted to slap some sense into that head of his. He's so smart, but can be so dumb at times.

Yeah those smells are something else! What really gets me cranked is when I smell the stink in Jethro's bathroom! Do you know if you don't run water thru faucets for a long time they emit gasses? He's got the whirlpool and sink in there that he rarely uses! His nose doesn't smell like mine does! So of course I go into his bedroom to make the feathered kids beds and the smell coming from the adjoining bathroom just about knocks me down! I walk in the bathroom and turn on the faucets to flush them out. All the while cussing up a stream because I'm paying for that wasted water. But I'm glad that's all I'm bitching about and it isn't being w/o drugs! :) Can we say: "SWEEEEEETTTTT!"

Okay! Gotta scoot! The sky is getting light over the top of the barn.

Everyone have a clean day!

TOD