Back to School Eve and Esophagus re-opened

Well Readers, A Sevie is tucked into bed and I am out here basking in the glow of the

Back to School Tree.

 

I think I might have shown it to you already, but Oh well. It's what I am looking at right now while butterflies dance in my stomach for J. tomorrow. Or today. It's in the a.m. now.

I love the

 busy bee

 at the top.
 

(Kurt or Becky made it and sell it on their surprisingly popular etsy store:Piggy & Dirt.)

This last week was one BUSY week- first there was the dilation deal, and then school supplies.
What an ORDEAL that can be but I got through it with a lot of prayer, friends, and angels.
*a story for another post.
 

J. double checked his back pack last night and we did a run through of his classes then it was to bed for him.

There are still a couple of things that I need to get that I got on Amazon, then un-got by cancelling the order once I saw Wal-Mart restocked and then FORGOT when I picked everything up.

 Got it? Good. Just remind me to get index cards.
 

The week felt like we were being chased by some angry wasps rather than the sublime busy bee making.

Good grief.

I can't believe I did all we did after the dilation inside my chest. It was sheer miracle.

 A dear friend asked me today how they open my esophagus and I didn't know exactly how the thing works. I know that afterward I took a long nap and when I woke up, I could breathe deeply.

Apparently, having your esophagus narrowed makes it so you just use a couple of those
grapes in your lungs and I had gotten used to it that I didn't let it go further because then it would hurt.

When I took a full breath I felt like I did when I had gotten glasses for the first time- I finally saw what I had been missing!! The finite of full vision is something you never can take for granted. Once you have seen what there is with glasses.
Same with breathing.

Thank you, thank you.

And this was only five weeks after they had opened it before......

I am so grateful tonight, or morning.

Readers, being able to breathe is something you just do- like blinking your eyes and being able to gulp down oxygen; clear down to the bottom of my rib cage. It was a moment that I wanted to weep for modern technology. And thank whoever invented it and shake hands with everyone I passed along my way that day.
However, even a few days from when they did it and I have a sore throat.

How it is done will be at the end of the post.

So, back to: BACK to SCHOOL

 

Shout out to Mo over at Amazon for cancelling orders that I got much cheaper once wal-mart got new material in and I actually was fortunate enough to be there when it was put out.
 

 

That's why I can't focus. The camera. But here is our back to school bird... I am telling you, Readers, these are the colors for Fall and winter. Kidding. I actually have no idea.

Let me google it for you since I am up with a sore throat.

K- I just googled it and guess what- I sorta nailed it in some areas! woo-hoo, me!

 

See that green below? That advocado or army green has been in J's room since I was born.

And his room has the same color of paneling around it.

Talk about come backs!

And how lucky am I that I was sent the wrong color of a throw two Christmases ago?

It is that SAME green that matches J's carpet. It took a year to grow on me and now I can't get enough of it.

I want it to be the "green" in my Christmas decorating.

 

I was spot on with my teals thanks to Piggy & Dirt. And one wall in my room is the peach color. Not 80's peach. But the one in the picture. Always loved that color. Love it in sea shells. Love it.
And don't get me started on coral.

 

Remember I told you that a lot of the décor has to match Aunt Maxine's paintings and they involve a lot of yellow and orange. So...... This left over material that must have a name got turned into a wreath or something verrrrryyyy frooofy and TEAL with gold in it in the form of my stars from Piggy and Dirt were pinned to it.
That cowboy needed a golden cloud and teal stars to hover over him as he rode into the sunset Aunt Maxine painted.

 

I am telling you the home fashion forecast Readers- Animals, not dead- just in pictures, and Go Big or Go Home Froofy is the forecast. Or it better be because this golden cloud above the mantel downstairs is borderline Celestial.

 

Basing my instincts on the above pain palette, I see I went wrong with my favorite Safron star

and I just loved the orchid color!

 

 

 oops. Rasperry was the color to stick with! Dang!

 

 The colors, and being up to date on the styles don't  matter;  how the mantel turned out or the other decorations I put up for the school year, really are irrelevant. It's that I kept up one of the things my Sevie looks forward to as school starts: The decorations.

 

I said this in another post but I asked J. what he was looking forward to now that school is here and he  mentioned about what he loved most; the decorations/traditions. I was sitting in my Lazy Boy Chair just after an esophagus dilation and wondered whether he was challenging me, or what.

 

Then I recalled that I felt the same way. In fact I was bummed when I was in HS and Padre stopped putting up the Christmas lights! It was one strand of the 'Old School' lights but they were tops.

 

Did I just say, "Tops?"

 

But that is what makes a kid feel safe. The traditions. Having the garden put in. When I became too sick to do it, one night it came out in one of our "debates."

 

It troubled him not seeing the different vegetables out there, me changing the water and picking raspberries for our cereal and maybe some jam if there was enough.

 

Tomorrow and this school year is making me just as nervous as J. I want more than ever to help him with his math. I'm more stoked than he is about some classes. Like Spanish.

And Science. History. All of it. I have gone through the list and my stomach is doing back flips to- making sure I remembered a drink for his lunch, washed the socks he likes, so on and so forth.

-By the way I am still under 10 on the prednisone for all you poor people on it and wondering how it's coming.  It is seriously so painful. My body wants to go above ten again and we need to try and see if I can keep up with the taper.
If not, you'll know.Wait- I did have my esophagus dilated and that can make the body go through more stress and what not.

-ANYWAY-

I may have wacked out ideas:

(how cute would these be for the grandkids at Christmas?)



and put up several wreaths in one room, written about Piggy and Dirt and used their stars so much you Readers might have wanted to puke- but they bring us some cheer.

 

 



What isn't cheerful, besides not knowing how to open your locker or it jams when you close is that a lot of kids don't have the school supplies they need.

I am going to take over a bunch of things that are left overs from J's packs of colored pencils that we buy new every year for some reason.

 

I wish they'd sell packs of the most used colors then we could just add red, blue, and black to the pack that would be minus the most used colors and we'd be in business. Or maybe Crayola could just

sell each color separately or in a four pack or six pack like they do their glue.

 

 

Mothers could do it on etsy.

 

 

All I know is school supply shopping is horrendous and I can't imagine the butterflies in a kids stomach that shows up without ANY of them. Or how their moms feel. Sorry moms that are work

 

He won't need colored markers anymore. Yeh, I still have to pick up a few things but never in our lives have we been so fortunate. Which is so surreal- because never has it been harder.

I had miracles happen in a 24 hour time period that would make one fall to their knees for a few hours.

 

 

And, yet, there are still the trials. Sure, it's great to be able to afford what you need and often what you want. But when the background of your whole existence is fighting your own body- and then add years of prednisone..... it's the bitter/sweet I talked about in a previous post. Or to a friend. Or thought to myself.
I can't remember.

More later on how my Sevie survived the first day of School.

 ".....your doctor will determine whether to use a dilating balloon or plastic dilators over a guiding wire to stretch your esophagus. You might experience mild pressure in the back of your throat or in your chest during the procedure. Alternatively, your doctor might start by spraying your throat with a local anesthetic. Your doctor will then pass a tapered dilating instrument through your mouth and guide it into the esophagus. Your doctor may also use x-rays during the esophageal dilation procedure." (ASGE site)

 

Hm. No wonder my throat is sore.