I will admit that I wrote 2020 when dating this article instead of 2021 even while I was thinking “do 2021”. Probably will happen a number of times before 2021 becomes a brain standard.

Did you ever have to do the “what did you do over the summer vacation or your Christmas vacation”? My summer 2020 was a long ago mix up of things I hardly remember but ask me what I did for New Years this year and I will tell you a true story.

Husband Larry and I are not party people so being at home with a stir fry for an exciting supper was not a hardship. I began to feel not so good after supper and it just would not get any better. We will skip some details but instead of staying downstairs on the sofa I did say yes to have Larry look up apendicitis symptoms on the ever faithful Google. It was about a half and half mix so since we almost live on top of the ER, I said lets go just to be sure. The whole hospital system is on Red Alert so I get dropped off at the ER at 10:30 pm. Time takes on a different feeling as you lay in pain. About 4:30 am and I am now all belted in an ambulance headed to United Hospital. I had a very inflamed appendix and since I have a history of blood clots and bleeds they decided to transfer to me to United for surgery. Husband Larry is told to stay home and any information will be by phone.

The time thing continues and I am into surgery on New Years Day. I am such a good patient that I “pre-planned” a small hernia so that the laproscopic surgery could be done from there! Everything went very well and all the staff was wonderful in so many ways. They kept Husband Larry informed on everything. If I must mention a negative it was the food. They need a bit of help getting that area a few more stars. I was doing and feeling so good I was able to come home on Saturday. There must have been some really good drugs in me as I only began to feel a bit of pain on Sunday morning. I also have to bridge with Lovenox for 5 days, but I have had past experience with that.

The hospital made all the future doctor appointments for me. It turns out my surgeon spends most of his time here in Hastings so I can see him here instead of going back up to United Hospital. Really could not have planned this event any better I would say. Of course some weight lifting limits are applied to this and that means no moving the earth or rear- ranging furniture. I am also thinking I could apply it to doing heavy dish washing and cleaning for a short period of time at least.

My sister Shelly reminded me that I did my part in keeping with the family tradition of someone ending up in the hospital during the holidays. This has happened for a number of years and Husband Larry has also been part of that program. We are strong supporters of the hospital system. In past years we have found that the ambulance can get to our home in a just a few minutes and the ER is less than 2 miles away.

I certainly had not been planning on having this to be the topic of interest in this article. A review of last year was planned but then one’s plans do not always run true to course. It probably was fitting that another twist be given to the goodbye to 2020 and welcome in 2021. Daughter Nissa was not home for Christmas for the first time in her life and that was a bittersweet time for all of us. All presents were delivered to each others doors by the systems in place to do so. We had to be sure that anything edible coming our way was hustled into the house upon arrival as Mr. Sitka makes it an instant opening project. I did sweep a few chocolate orders out of the hands of the delivery people. Thankfully I am home, on the way to being well and taking some pills. I better check out the Hot chocolate bomb supply.