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Sunday, January 3, 2016

Ringing In The New Year

First of all an UPDATE on my stepdad... Lowell has been moved to a Hospice Care Center in Sandusky, about 45 miles north of their apartment in Ohio.  Mom is able to stay in the room with him, sleeping by his side in a large lazyboy chair.  They are getting his pain medication under control... as the patches were no longer working for him.  She will let me know more in the morning after conferring with the docs.  The place is very nice with staff focusing on comfort for end of life care with cancer patients.


We decided to head up north for our second annual New Years Celebration at my sister's tavern.  Last year she and her husband and their brotherinlaw took over ownership on New Years Eve....  and we drove up 170 miles to surprise them with coming through the door in masks and party favors... they had NO idea who we were! LOL Here is a blog post from last year:


This year, Steve and I drove up earlier in the day, and stopped at dad's cabin to snowblow...  nephew Matt had just been there and got most of it done before getting called away for a family emergency for his wife's father.  (hope your dad is doing much better Amanda!)   We drove up the rest of the way to Michigan and checked into the Bicigo Hotel (my brother Butch's house)

A little trek down town and I made this little video clip of "lapping the gap" to put on the "I Grew Up In Iron River, MI Facebook Page"   .... 

We stopped for some good ole Riverside Pizza (it's award winning pizza and voted the best in the whole state many years in a row!)   

I can still taste this pizza by looking at the pic!
It has a flavor like none other I have ever had. Yummmmmmm

We found this fun video game with an exact likeness of Steveio,
My Brawny Lumberjack Man! 


Our grown kids with their spouses Erin and Waylen, Heather and Jesse, met us over at Bicigo's Hotel... we got our doggies settled into crates and headed out to my sister's bar.  

Wheee heeeee  it was fun!  

Here are some pics...... 










My sister gave bar tshirts to myself and both daughters...




The bar was full of old and new friends, some relatives and of course US!   My sister put out quite an array of free food, with the evening feature, King Crab Legs!   What a nice treat!!!  



Thanks for hosting a great evening...
Schmoo, Fuzz and Dave! 

  


We finished up the Old Year and greeted the New Year with
a kiss, a dance, and then I was the DD home...(Designated Driver)


After I safely delivered everyone back to Hotel Bicigo, (and we did see one police officer)
the die-hards stayed up till 4 am playing traditional cribbage around my brother's table... 
this is a yearly event.  I went to bed! 

The next morning, I had taken the dogs out for a potty break.... and as I brought them back up into our guest room, Steve noticed one of my brother's cats snuck into the room.  Instead of being SMART and shooing it out with my foot... what did I do???  Yes, I picked it up, and carried it up over the dogs in their crate.  They barked, the cat hissed, and twisted... and I either got clawed or bit, not sure which.   Four spots, one deep into a vein.. OUCH!  

I bandaged it up... and later poured peroxide in it.  No biggie, right? 

About an hour or two later, the finger started to feel numb. Hmmmmm  then it started swelling.  I put on a bag of ice and we headed on back home to Chilton.  I was driving because a certain Steveio was still under the weather with "New Years Flu"     As I drove on the three and half hours, my finger and then hand started to swell more and more.  I was feeling pain by the last 20 miles.   OUCH! 

We dropped off the dogs and we headed on over to the walkin clinic on New Years Day....  turns out all animal bites automatically become emergency room visits!  Oh well, we will meet our deductible on Jan 1 already!  ....  I do not know if it was a claw or a tooth, but the ER staff said it didn't matter, because cats carry a certain bacteria in their mouths that is also on their paws and claws from licking.  

They said almost all cat scratches and or bites result in infections!  like 90%!   Sure enough... that was me! 
The bacteria in a cat's mouth is called Bartonella, it is responsible for "Cat Scratch Disease."

They took down all the necessary information and we proceeded with treatment.  I was given antibiotics and pain killers and instructions to come back if I see red streaks up the arm. It's going to get worse before it gets better they said. ACK!   They treat all cat scratches the same as bites, because the intrusion of the bacteria is the same.  

Sure nuff... it did....   and by Saturday morning I was oozing, in pain, and the hand and arm were puffy too!   



But by Saturday afternoon, the antibiotics were kicking in and I was doing much better.... 


Here I am this morning, just 36 hours later, and it's amazing the difference! 
The swelling is gone, I can feel with the fingertip as well as the whole finger now,
and it's no longer oozing.  The arm and hand are fine too. 


Thank goodness for antibiotics!


So that is how we rung in the New Year..... 


8 comments:

  1. The tavern and pizza remind me of good times we used to have at The Thirsty Moose in Hibbing, MN. Cozy wee place and the pizza was . . . well . . . too exceptionally yummy! Thanks for sharing your holidays and a very Happy New Year to you both!

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  2. We head up to the Iron River area all the time - will have to check out Riverside Pizza.

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  3. Glad to read that you partied responsibly with a DD.
    Also surprised about the infections from the cat scratches. Hope all is well soon.
    Be safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    2. Yup.. I only had a glass and a half of wine in over 6 hours there. I drank water. The police up there are notorious for following you home from the bar after they run all the plates on the cars parked outside. They want the repeat offenders of course, but also the outoftowners who will just pay the ticket and not come back to court to fight. My brother lives less than 2 miles from the bar and we were watched by the police. I drove safe and carefully made sure I did things like come to a complete stop, used my blinker etc. so they had NO excuse to pull us over. I have never had a ticket my ENTIRE life and was not about to start.. LOL

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  4. So glad you had the sense to seek quick treatment. My stubborn mother was bit by a cat, would not go to a doctor, and ended up loosing half of her finger. If my brother and sister had not insisted she get treatment when the red line went up her arm she could have lost it too, or even died. She ended up having to go into the hospital for IV antibiotics every day for some time. She was older, should have known better, but as I said, quite stubborn.

    You should be OK, but don't hesitate to have it checked out if it doesn't seem to be healing.

    Stay warm.

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  5. Cats can be nasty little creatures! I looked out my bedroom window one morning and saw my cat taking apart a squirrel. So gross!!!

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  6. I just love family owned bars, and they are easier to find in the midwest, at least I think so. I'm glad you got early treatment for the cat attack. I try to stay a healthy distance away from all cats, but I didn't realize they could do that kind of damage.

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