Travel to Texas

May 13, 2010
WARNING! THE BLOGS FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS MAY CONTAIN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL, AS WE ARE VISITING MY FATHER, WHERE WE HAVE NO INTERNET CONNECTION AND LOTS OF TIME ON OUR HANDS!!!

It is Thursday morning, 4:40, and I can’t sleep, so I though I would get up and write a bit. Wow, what a day! Or couple of days, actually.

A few weeks ago we decided to make a final trek to west Texas before we head off into our great adventure. We have a couple of frequent-flyer tickets which will expire before we return from France and figured to put them to good use. I wanted to spend a little time with Daddy before we go to France, and Craig is graduating on Friday from Tech, so we chose to go at this time. We also need to help at least a little with the cleaning-out of Mary Jean’s house. All the burden of caring for her and dealing with the house has fallen to Susan C. and I felt that we needed to pitch in at least a little bit.

We checked the availability of flights on Southwest and found that, for this particular weekend, the closest flights available to Craig’s graduation allowed us to fly in to Lubbock on Wednesday and out on Monday. We checked with Jimmy and Susan to see if one of them could ferry us to Daddy’s house in Muleshoe and got a positive, then called Daddy to make sure he could accommodate us for a 5-day stay. Everything lined up fine.

Tuesday morning, the day before our departure, I awoke with a slightly-swollen left eye. No problem, just a minor allergy issue. I don’t have them often, but they are not unheard of. I did pet a cat on Friday or Saturday – maybe that’s the problem, although the onset delay seems a bit distant. No matter – during the day Tuesday the eye went down some, although it did not resolve completely. When I awoke on Wednesday, departure day, the eye was much worse – it was half-swollen shut. Ack! I hated how I looked, but had little choice but to head on out. We needed to leave for the airport by 11:00 at the latest, and I planned to stop by WW and weight in at 10:30 before we left. There was no time to get in to see the doctor, and I felt sure he would just tell me that it looked like an allergic reaction and that there wasn’t much he could do. So we headed for the airport, stopping on the way to pick up some Benadryl. Our flight took off on time for the New Orleans-to-Dallas leg. In the air, I became aware that my face was tingling on the lower right side. (It felt like the same tingle I had 5-6 years ago after eating seafood at Kevin’s Cajun Cabin in French Settlement. My face swelled and broke out and I think I probably went to the doctor the next day, but I don’t have a specific recollection of the outcome – did he give me a shot? Prednisone? Or did it just resolve itself without medical intervention?) My face also felt warm inside, and I knew I was in trouble. My right jaw began to swell slightly, and the warmth inside told me that this allergy attack was still ongoing.

When we got to Dallas, we located our gate, got some lunch and I sent Susan W. a text telling her that I would need to get to an urgent care clinic when we landed in Lubbock. She kindly texted back “No problem.” My face continued to burn. We landed 10 minutes late and Susan was waiting at the front door of the airport. About 20 minutes later, we were at a clinic. Bless Susan’s heart!! She took an extra 2 hours out of her day to schlep me around to the clinic and to the pharmacy. At the clinic, the doctor took a look, heard my story, and gave me a steroid shot. He also prescribed prednisone (sigh) and Zantac and said to continue the Benadryl I had already started (sigh again!). (Nice clinic set-up. I walked in and was seen by a doctor within half an hour. He emailed the prescriptions to the pharmacy of my choice, and by the time we got there, the prescriptions were ready for pick-up!)

Benadryl and I have an unpleasant history: it keeps me awake. Hence my blogging at 5:00 a.m. Prednisone and I don’t get along particularly well either, but I am hoping we will manage.

Susan took us to Daddy’s house where we unloaded our luggage and picked up Daddy to go to dinner at Leal’s – one of Muleshoe’s few restaurants. Brant and Jimmy joined us and we were six for Mexican food, starting with the ubiquitous chips and ending with sopapitas (miniature sopapillas) and honey. Susan dropped us back at Daddy’s after dinner and we all headed for bed about 10:00. I slept pretty well initially – the Benadryl did not keep me awake – but I roused around 4:00, tossing and turning enough to wake Roger. We straightened out the cover issues and I left at 4:30 a.m. to go into the living room so Roger could sleep.

• I remember now why I don’t like prednisone. It makes me hungry. I had a bigger lunch today than I usually have, but my stomach is rumbling at 4:15. We went to Mary Jean’s house this morning and spent a couple of hours working there. The electricity is on, but there is no running water. About 10:00, I needed the toilet, so I decided to drive somewhere and find one. But when I got into Daddy’s car to drive down there, the car would not start – it tried twice to turn over, then went into that dead battery clicking mode. Uh-oh! After reporting in to Roger about the battery issue, I left to walk to the court house for their bathroom. Passed the sheriff on the way, and just waved. After I left the court house, I walked across to the First Baptist Church to present to whomever there my idea about letting the youth tag and sell the contents of the house for a garage sale and letting them keep all the proceeds. I had a nice discussion with the church secretary, a Mr. Pollard (?). I told him that I thought Robert Fowler had a key to the house, and he called Robert on the spot and verified that he did – the Fowlers being church members. I left and walked back to the house to report in to Roger. We tried the car again with no luck, and it weighed on our minds for the next hour or so as we worked to clean personal stuff out and throw out trash.

About 11:15, who should walk in the front door but Robert Fowler! He introduced himself to us, and I reminded him that I had met him a couple of times prior, and that I had picked corn at his house one summer while visiting Mary Jean. We discussed the garage sale idea a bit, and he indicated a pile of pots and pans in the floor of the kitchen and said his daughter, Hailey, wanted those. We said “no problem, but sort of suggested that he or she should get them out of the house soon or they would be tagged and sold by the youth group. Hailey is probably a part of the group, although she may be too old now. I asked how Hailey is doing with the car that Susan donated to her, and he said “just great,” remarking that somebody had rear-ended her last weekend and the collision pretty much tore up the other car but barely dented hers! The car was Mary Jean’s, and it’s fate was to sit in the driveway, never to be driven again after Mary Jean went into the nursing home. So Susan asked us if we minded her donating it to Hailey and we told her “no problem.” Hailey she got an 11-year-old car with about 65,000 miles on it, if that!

We told Robert that we would return on Saturday with Susan, Randall and Craig to work in the house some more, and he will probably show up then to get Hailey’s stuff, although, since he has a key, he can get it any time. We sort of gave him permission to let the youth group in the house, but didn’t specifically so state, so we need to clear that up on Saturday. Then, bless his heart, he took a look at the battery, listened to the car, and pulled his truck up next to the car and jumped the battery. The car started right up. Outstanding!!

We returned to Muleshoe to pick up Daddy for lunch. Roger did not turn the car off during the short wait to get Daddy. We met Jimmy, Susan and Brant for lunch at Mom’s, and afterward the car started with no problem. Nevertheless, we took the car to Burton’s for a battery check. Daddy introduced us to the elder and younger Mssrs. Burton. The elder Mr. Burton recalled to us that Daddy had gotten three of his hired hands and had brought in a trailer, and the four of them helped the Burtons move into their new location several years ago. He said he has know Daddy for more than 30 years and had high praises for him! The younger Mr. Burton began to check out the battery. He suggested that the battery needed replacing, but that it might be under warranty and eligible for a partial refund. Noting the brand, he indicated that Daddy had bought the battery from another shop in town. He then proceeded to take the battery to the other shop and get the refund for Daddy. Now that’s small town service!!! In another small-town indicator, when we were lunching, I happened to notice a guy, probably because of his sizable stomach. He was wearing a red shirt and had a moustache. After we had been at Burton’s for about 10 minutes, he walked in there as well.

I have been reminded even more forcefully why it is that I don’t like prednisone. I think is screws seriously with my metabolism. I feel as if I have a prednisone furnace raging in me. My face is swelling and breaking into a rash and my upper body, particularly my face, is hot. It is 11:45 at night, and I am up writing this because I cannot get to sleep. And I’m restless – I feel as if I must have had a couple of cans of Jolt, or as if I perhaps have ADHD. I was given prednisone about 6-8 years ago for a severe poison ivy reaction. I seem to recall that at that time I had a similar reaction to the prednisone. In fact, I thought it was that the prednisone was not working, and I increased it on my own. Then, when I went to the doctor for the prednisone rash, I had to re-reduce the dosage a little at a time. I don’t recall whether the doctor also gave me another shot but I think he may have. I know not to stop the prednisone. Tomorrow is a 4-pill day. We are going to Lubbock tomorrow for Craig’s graduation, and I plan to try to see Dr. Schilling before the graduation, perhaps for another shot, or at least to discuss with him the issues.

I read the prednisone fact sheet provided by the pharmacy and the medical info insert which came in the package. After reading that, I am trying to figure out why anyone would take this medication!!!!