WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR JUNE 2025

Lisa, thank you for the info on Kim. So glad she sought medical attention quickly and that the tumour is benign! Please let her know she’s in my thoughts! And add me to the list of folks who are happy for the presence of her roommate, that young man has been a great addition to her life.

Pip so sorry to hear about Yogi. Really sucks losing our furbabies. Glad that you had your vacay and that Kirby is having his tho!

Sue sorry about losing your kitty. See above comment to Pip.

Kylia, hope all is well with your granddaughter. Congrats on staying nicotine free! I quit smoking 36 years ago, really don’t miss it now, but some days were hard!

Medical stuff that I hope to put in a spoiler, not too many gross details, but feel free to skip!

Well, I’ll be darned! The spoiler worked very well once I figured it out! Yay me, lol.

So my weight had been going up and up, but then seemed to plateau a bit and now seems to be creeping down, ever so slowly. Sure wish it would go down as fast as it went up! Ah well, slow and steady I guess. I have been working on crocheted blankets for the grandkids for Christmas. That does seem to help keep me out of the kitchen. I have another, rather complicated, project for when I’m done this, hopefully that will also keep the grazing at bay!
Sorry for the novel! Hugs for those needing them, congrats to those celebrating (special shout out to Tracey on your grad!) and welcome to the new gals! Oh and Rita, keep the jokes coming, love them!

Evelyn, Vancouver Island

@auntiebk My daughter and I hiked Arther's Seat in Edinburgh and when we were ready to head back down, I went looking for a safe passage. Silly me decided to stand on the edge of a ravine, the edge broke away and I fell about 7 feet unto my left leg. Originally I thought I had just dislocated it and I called over to my daughter to call #999 (their 911). Come to find out, I did a little bit more than that.

The people there were amazing! Luckily 2 doctors (not together) were hiking at the same time and came to help. Other hikers gave me water and their version of Tylenol (Paracetamol). And NO ONE stopped to take photos or videos! Needless to say, I can scratch mountain rescue off my bucket list! Here's my view from where I fell! Pretty relaxing view while I waited for the rescue team - took them about 90 minutes to get to me 😂

And some of my rescue team!!

Got my new monkey feet! 1/2 off, love ‘em!

stats for the day-

Walk w/kids- 1hr 36min 26sec, 11398steps, 3.07ap, 31elev, 101ahr, 171mhr, 5.06mi= 506c
Strava app= 613c
ROUVY home spin bike- strava stats- 1hr 33min 29sec, 97aw, 35.8amph, 96ahr, 126mhr, gear22, 55.82mi= 469c
Strava app= 520c
ROUVY stats- 1hr 33min 29sec, 97aw, 35.8amph, 56arpm, 55.82mi= 520c
ROUVY home spin bike- strava stats- 22.04min, 361elev, 170aw, gears22, 25 & 35, 120ahr, 157mhr, 7.91mi= 139c
Strava app= 215c
ROUVY stats-22.04min, 362.5elev, 170aw, 72arpm, 21.5amph, 7.92mi= 215c
Walk kids- 7.15min 748steps, .31mi= 42c
Strava app = 38c

Total cal 1156

1892.88 miles ahead

943943

Pip - just reread my earlier post today. Called Yogi "Toby". GACK! Sorry. Evidently I was running low on caffeine. Hope he's doing better today. I too remember when he was a little fella.

Carla - love your deck! What a nice place to hang plants. Is this on the South or West side of your house? I thought of YOU the other day when I dug out Don Fiore's Tai Chi and Louhan Tapping videos - got the quick YouTube versions. I really need to do that every day and just schedule it, sure helps with balance. And mostly points out which side really needs work.

Tracey - I was just outside rummaging through my board collection to find some short 1 x 2's to make a platform to set a bird watering dish on. I thought of YOU and the scrap lumber pieces you use when you make your craft items. 😁 I need to stop by the wood products place and go through their scrap wood totes again and add to my stash. Between what I've picked up there and DH's saved long pieces of lumber, I'm a lucky girl. 😉

Mshell - wow, you sure know how to have a memorable vacation. NICE rescue team, lol. With the Scottish accents and everything. 😎 Beautiful scenery for sure!

Evie - sorry about that toe. Glad you had it taken care of.

Ginny - and glad your toenail must be healing. Can you believe you're in the final work days with retirement finally here?

Pip - and look at YOUR toes tucked into your new Monkey feet. Sweet deal!

Michele - wow, that's some crew. They all look so pretty and what a nice setting for them. Thanks for posting the pictures.

I mowed most of the back yard this afternoon and noticed that treacherous Monkey Puzzle is getting ready to drop a lower branch or two. I'll wear DH's heavy welding gloves and pick them up and toss them under the powerline where I don't mow. Let the power company guys worry about them when they come to replace a pole, lol.

Did a little more cleanup and rearranging in my covered sitting area next to the shop. That's where the bird watering dish went. I noticed a swallow in the sparrow birdhouse above it, so she won't have far to fly if she needs a splish-splash.

Looks like we might see temps in the 90's F next weekend. I have shade cloth ready to drape over my tomatoes if it gets too scorchy. They took the transplanting well, thank goodness.

Lanette 😎

SW WA State

Picked up my tennis racquet for the first time in years. Every week, as I drive my fur baby to doggie daycare to play, I pass 2 tennis courts that have a concrete back wall for solo practice. So today, I finally sucked it up and tossed my racquet and a can of tennis balls in the car and stopped to get some much needed activity doing something I’ve loved since I picked up the sport at 3 years old. It was only 20 mins (because that’s all the time I had) and my 54 year old knees were doing their best to make me stop, but I did it! One baby step at a time!

Hello Ladies,

Thank you, Barbie, for bringing us into June. My, does time fly?

I made it through a grueling stretch of work days. It took them my last night to give me a better assignment. Thank goodness—one case where a 7-year-old girl, a complex care patient, presented with sniffles and constipation. Well, on the x-ray, it showed that her bowel was inflamed and was compressing her lungs. So they did an exploratory lap and found a dead bowel. Now, she has an ileostomy. Meaning she has to wear a colostomy bag. Then Kelly had her, and her stoma looked gray, and nursing and parents went back and forth with surgery about it. Then it was okay.
They requested me to care for their daughter. She had a fever when I arrived, and it was 101.4. I gave Motrin, then Tylenol, and it went down afterward. Then she was pooping a lot, and I was worried that she was dumping. I also have a baby on the vent who likes to alligator roll. Unfortunately, he has a trach and is on the vent. The last one was also trached, on oxygen, and she was hypothermic. I had to get her a warmer, and then I got her so hot that her cheeks turned red. The Attending asked why I didn't get a warming blanket instead of a Bair Hugger. I told them that she was 92 degrees, and they couldn't find me a warmer, so I used what I had. Her temp was 98 degrees when we turned it off. When I returned, she had been discharged. When I got back, my patient had just returned from emergency surgery, the one with the ileostomy ( because she perforated or her bowels ruptured). Then, I got a new complex care patient with 16 medications. I told the charge nurse that my assignment was too much for me to handle. She told me that she would have the night charge do medications for the other patient. I barely assessed my other patients when I was called to the bedside of my 7-year-old. Her temp was 103.7. I ran to gather all of her medications together, just in case she was storming (She Has a lot of drugs to crush and one to verify on the computer with another nurse). I wish I had given her Motrin first, in retrospect. I could get them together quickly. However, as I was prepping, the doctors changed the doses in the computer after I had already prepped one. Then, the mom called me to the bedside for different reasons.
Mom was concerned that the Salem sump wasn't working. I usually don't stop my medication preparation because I like to ensure that no mistakes are made. It was all a mess. Then, Mom wanted to do a family-activated response. I called one, and the Peds ICU came in. I had the doctor come in and talk to her, but that was not good enough. So, the team decided to leave her. Mom's complaint was the length of time it took her to get her medication. I explained that she called me away from med prep to address her concerns, and the charge nurse agreed.
The supervisor was trying to determine how to repair the machines. So, after everyone got their medications and was settled, I assessed her, and she looked bad to me. Her temperature remained high even though she had taken both Motrin and Tylenol. Her body was hot, but her feet were cold, and the capillary refill was sluggish. I was concerned that she was going into septic shock. So we called the PICU team in and relayed my assessment and the fact that she stopped breathing a couple of times. So they came and got her. She is still there today. The resident called me, yelling about what she would tell the Attending. I told her to tell them she was gravely ill. I am glad that I called back the PICU team to take her. Sorry this is so long, but it was a long week. They gave me a day off on Saturday(I needed it). Thanks for letting me Vent. :)

Pip, I would love to take my dog to play in an alligator-free body of water. Yogi loved it, as evidenced by the look on his face. It's so unfair that the time we spend with our fur babies is finite.

Carol, I need my antidepressant to keep me going. Plus, I have a therapist. Think about reconsidering antidepressants.

Welcome to all of the New people!

I will address you all soon. Until then, stay safe and guard your mental health.

XO,

Mo in Mississippi

Morning, all,

I know everyone's waiting to hear, but it's 5 a.m. Kim's time, and don't want to disturb her. Did talk to her last night and she was doing fine - they moved the surgery to Thursday, and are waffling between which hospital to do it in, evidently Kaiser is a massive system with hospitals all over that region. Plus the medication they started her on isn't right for surgery, so they had to let that get out of her system. The usual hospital thing.

Her community has kicked in, she said she had visitors on top of visitors yesterday, and her nephew has stepped up and is taking care of necessary things like telling her mother in person—she can't hear on the phone at all. More when I get more news. They may well send her home until the surgery, but you know how that goes - she's already on her third neurosurgeon, and they all want different things.

Things are fine with me. Getting used to the orthotics and they're actually helping my knees and ankles a lot.

Later, y'all,
Love,
Lisa in AR

@Machka9 - I had a hard time learning to breathe while swimming —- I never could manage breathing on my left so I was always breathing on my right. My doctor said that breathing the same direction all of the time was bad for my neck. I started using a snorkel. Using the snorkel, I could breathe more evenly with my head always in a neutral position which enabled me to swim much longer. I can swim a mile using a snorkel. It is hard for me to do 2 laps without one.

While in school, I ran track. I was never good at it. It was before Title IX so our track team was very small. I ran 1000 and 2000 meters (which were considered long distances for a girl) and did running broad jump and standing broad jump. I never placed in the top 3. I enjoyed running. My knees can't take it now. My best friend was also on the track team and I enjoyed training with her. She was much faster than I and ran shorter distances. So I ran for her and she swam for me. There was no swim team at our school so we just swam at the Y.

Title IX was passed in 1972 - the year that I graduated from high school. It has made such a HUGE difference in women's athletics. My friends with daughters encouraged them to run track, play soccer, play golf and most of their daughters received athletic scholarships.

I am in awe of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Athing Mu. The first woman track star that I was aware of was Florence Griffith Johnson. I was in my mid 30s before FloJo was making her mark in track. I love seeing the progress that women are making.

That same progress has happened in law. When I entered law school in 1977, my first year class was 500. 5 of us were women. The year following, there were 50 women in the entering class and the third year, the entering class was 1/3 women. In 1980, I started practicing law in Fort Worth: I made the 13th woman in Tarrant County practicing law. In 2013, I was arguing a case before the Second Court of Appeals here in Fort Worth. The panel of 3 judges were all women, the bailiff was a woman, the court reporter was a woman. The only man in the room was my opposing counsel. I thought, "my how times have changed."