I’m home. The procedure went well but once again had to lay flat on my back for six hours and an overnight stay in the hospital. Discharged in the morning and home by 1 PM yesterday. Another week of taking it easy slowly easing back into my regular routine. Still have to have another transesophageal echocardiogram in 45 days to make sure the device is still in place and stable. The shield is made of a sterile gortex like material with little titanium hooks that grab onto the heart muscle so now when asked if I have any metal in my body, the answer is ‘yes’ and I have to carry a card with me at all times saying I have this device in my heart with instructions on safely administering an MRI if I need one…specifications about static magnetic fields, maximum spatial gradient field, whole body averaged specific absorption rate. Have yet to find out if I’ll set off a metal detector.
Wednesday when I walked around the yard there was no sign of the ox blood lilies. This is what greeted me when I got home on Friday.
Once those two weeks of triple digits were over the weather has cooled quickly, the next two weeks of highs in the 90s changed to highs in the 80s a week later, partly cloudy/overcast with rain predicted all this next week. The change has been sudden and very welcome. Besides the ox blood lilies, other signs of the end of summer and approaching fall are emerging. Marc says the pampas grass is blooming though I haven’t seen any yet. The tallows continue to drop their speckled red/yellow/orange leaves and now the oaks are starting to drop some of their tired foliage. The days are definitely shorter, nearly full dark at 8:30.
I heard some clanking in the garage. One of the puppies was stealing empty dog food cans (rinsed clean) out of the box where I put them before it all goes to the metal recyclers. Minnie and I went out and there he was under the magnolia tree, she’s barking madly standing beside me and the goofy dog is not the least bit intimidated gently trying to get nose to nose with her which they did for a moment and then Minnie started barking again so we came in and I let her out in the little backyard where she continued to bark ferociously at the puppy on the other side of the fence directly opposite her, laying there wagging his tail. Puppy just wants to be friends.
You might remember that I got stung by a wasp a month or so ago when I was working around the spot in the front yard where a pine tree used to be that died and the rotting roots have made a hole in the ground. A few weeks later I was using the trimmer around that same spot and saw a horde of wasps start to boil out of that spot and I ran like the wind and escaped getting stung. So last week, walking around the front I went over to check it out expecting to see a large paper wasp nest but what I found turned out to be a huge yellow jacket construction (no wonder that sting hurt all week). At first I thought it was a wild honey bee hive until I took a picture and zoomed in. Those were not bees.
Definitely have to get rid of this, first on my yard to do list when my week of recovery is over. Even so their construction with the nest inside is really amazing and quite beautiful with the different colors and layers of chewed up and exuded wood.
I'm glad you're finally finished with medical procedures and just need easy going.
ReplyDeleteThat yellow jacket mansion is impressive. Also scary.
Good to be home and moderately mobile again, but now go find more of a reward to yourself than clearing out a yellow jacket nest!
ReplyDeleteThe oxblood lilies look as happy that you're home and well as you must be. Excellent welcome home.
ReplyDeleteThat wasp nest is indeed beautiful. How can such painful creatures make such art?
So glad you are done and home, Ellen. Relax and rest and you will be back at your yard before you know it. Watch out for those yellow jackets! Be careful!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are home, and that this saga is finally coming to an end. You have truly been through the wringer. Yellow jackets are the worst, they're in the ground, people don't know they're there, drive over with a riding mower, and get the snot stung out of them.
ReplyDeleteRest, don't try to push yourself, So happy it is finally over for the most part. I have had experience with yellow jackets, they are not nice!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing the amount of metal we accumulate as we age.
ReplyDeleteI fell into such a yellow jacket nest as a child. I was stung to within an inch of my life.
I am glad to know your procedure went well with a follow up test further down the road! Rest up and heal!!
ReplyDeleteI think I would call in an exterminator to deal with the yellow jackets! They are a very bad bunch!
I'm not sure I've ever seen yellow jackets, but I sure enough have heard about them. Getting someone else to deal with them seems the better part of wisdom! Now that you're home and the world's turning toward autumn, it's time to enjoy those lilies, and work on your painting of the tallow leaves, and such. Lord knows you've had a hard enough summer!
ReplyDeleteYou have been through the wringer and here's hoping this is all over and done now. All the best!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how long you will have to wait for cool weather down there, but it would be best to wait until the wasps are sluggish before attempting to remove them. They sting repeatedly when angered and it hurts!
ReplyDeleteThat nest is beautiful and creepy at the same time. It's too bad you have to destroy it, but I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want it in your yard!
ReplyDeleteGlad the medical travails are behind you. Yeah, I wonder if you'll need special attention at airport security, for example.
Those oxblood lilies came up fast!
Glad the procedure went well. Now you can tell people there's a vortex beast clutching your heart with titanium claws.
ReplyDeleteThat nest IS beautiful - and terrifying! I would have to use some sort of nuclear solution for that (and by "I" I mean Mike because I'm going no where near that thing!
ReplyDeleteGlad your procedure went well - I'll be interested to hear how it works for you!
The wasps will leave in the winter won't they? The nest is beautiful, I hope you can save it. Glad all is well with all of the medical shite you have had to deal with- All better!! Good thing too. Just in time for another go around- Fall/winter/spring and then back again- into the heat. Just keep doing that, ok.
ReplyDeleteHere's some news you can use!
ReplyDeleteLook up German wasps on the internet. They are a little larger than yellow jackets and I think that’s what you have. German wasps build their nests mostly underground so that fits, too. I had a nest of these in my ground cover years ago. Mike, my husband who passed away, was mowing and they didn’t like the sound at all. They attacked him. They weren’t killer bees and he didn’t run over the nest! Anyway, I tried several times with wasp spray to kill them and never succeeded. I ended up going with a professional exterminator. He pumped about twenty gallons of poison into the ground! I just looked up how you can kill them yourself, and HGTV says use Diatomaceous Earth. The rough edges will damage their wings. Anyway, you can research yourself but be careful! And if they are German wasps, they can be aggressive.
ReplyDeleteI looked up german wasp and it says it's the same thing as our yellow jacket, makes the same kind of nest. yellow jackets are not to be confused with the common paper wasp, as I did for a long time, which are smaller and less aggressive but with the same yellow and black stripes on their abdomens. paper wasps just build small nests with the cell compartments though I have seen some as large as my hand. I'll have to try diatomaceous earth and I plan to wait until it gets cold and they are lethargic. and wasp spray.
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