Storms in our lives

I have journaled for years. This happens to be the one I am writing in now.

Sept 11-15 I recovered from stomach virus, when you already have Crohn's this is even harder to go through.

We had a great day the 16th , even though I was "weak" at the Amish produce auction. I got 10-15 lb pumpkins for $1.25 each, pie pumpkins for $1 each and jack be littles for 25¢ each. I also got 10 lbs of Asian pears that were not ripe and 140 lbs of Roma tomatoes.I got Mums for the front porch. AND I was able to eat decent. I was able to stop at Wishing Well Farms and get winter squash (69¢/lb) and 10 lbs of apples (50 ¢ /lb)

I worked on some of the tomatoes on the 17th, went to the store and got groceries, stocking up on the fresh veggies and getting some stuff for our family reunion . We had 5 generations there  between my dad 89 yrs old  and my new born great grandson 1 month old.

Went home and thought, get up in the morning, and finish the tomatoes....well

Hubby caught the stomach virus through the night. By that evening I had it back and it was a down hill slide from there. He miss all week of work (haven't seen that ever in over 20 yrs) and I wasn't getting better myself. Not processing food, didn't want to "seal" it in canning and make us sick or sicker later. Neither us was doing much more than sleeping it off.

Sept 25th, at 3 am I wake Hubby and ask him to take me to the ER. My Crohn's was starting to kick up and I knew, just knew it was going to be bad.

At 5 am Sept 25 I was admitted....I got out the following Thursday Sept 29th in the late afternoon and had to do a pit stop at the Chiro's because I threw out my shoulder in the hospital. Also had to stop at the grocery store because a full liquid diet (mashed and mushed) isn't something I was keeping in my pantry but will for now on.

We lost food in the frigs, lost some of the produce and I have lost produce in the gardens. It rained for 3 days starting the day I got out of the hospital.Hubby lost 1 1/2 wks of work. He took vacation to cover it but that doesn't pay his TL , shift etc that makes a difference between just getting by in good times or having let alone being hit with medical bills. We have medical bills that will be coming in, granted most of it will be paid for but there is enough not paid for that is going to crush the budget big time.

Hubby is back up on his feet, tires easily , part of that is the stress of watching me fight for my life once again as my entire digestive system shut down (AGAIN). I'm slow at recovering. Has extremely low potassium levels and other stuff that was making the Crohn's even worse. Having your digestive system slowly start up is hard and painful at time. I haven't had a solid night's sleep since the stomach virus started. I do miss my nurse for the middle of the night conversations and laughter to keep me fighting and not just give up.

I had a long chat with my brother by text. Our schedules don't come anywhere close to being able to talk of the phone about what I was having to change. He thought that it was a simple change in diet and it would never happen again.....NOPE don't I wish?

I then called my Dad. At the age of 89 and already buryed 4 sons out of 6 and me being the only girl, he was heart broken, thought he had lost me this time and wasn't able to get to me to tell me he loved me and with his dementia just kept telling me I was his daughter and he was my daddy....he has been forgetting he has a daughter in the last couple years so it meant a lot to both of us. We talked about lifestyle changes that could help me (eating an apple a day to keep the doctor away is what will bring the doctor my way but he doesn't understand that) and that even with the loss of food,me getting my strength and health back was more important ( I was born with a bad digestive system and my parents were told I would die without surgery which since they had no ins and had just paid for my younger brother to have open heart surgery was out of the question ).

Everyday to make a priority of ONE THING that I NEED to get done. And only focus on it. THAT'S very hard when you see losses all around you. He also reminded me of the time he asked why I was canning 4 oz jars of veggies and I told him that was what had came in and I would lose it before more came in . Better a mouth full saved than a mouth full wasted. Might make the difference in that water soup(HA HA) I had more than one time had to make when I was single and on my own.

SO better a mouth full saved than a mouth wasted ...as I learn to dance in the rain.

Since I am still resting, we decided to go over the Tday dinner menu  and then Christmas gifts,cookies and candies. We do gag gifts  for Christmas and usually only give $10 (in ones) as we buy for about 40 (over half of that is our kids,grandkids and now great-grandson). We came up with the ideas....then over a couple days changed it to fit the budget we are now on.

We are not where we thought we would be sitting at this time of year nor is the pantry as full as I really prefer it to be...BUT I have winter sq, pumpkins and some sweet potatoes. I will have a few more tomatoes and from this dining room window I can see a bell pepper that is turning red. Another mouth full to save. We'll pick up potatoes next month and again in Nov. I just got to focus on that ONE THING and that ONE MOUTH FULL.

Blessed be, may you be healthy, wealthy with love, and wise.