helen haywood

I can certainly understand great chefs needing someone to help with the detritus!

Well, it came from Christina Crawford’s autobiographical novel of life with Joan Crawford, her adoptive mother. Thus it was in the movie Mommie Dearest…of course, as the original quote, “no wire hangers!!” As I said, I was adopting it for the black pants…🤣

But we know he is a fabulous cook!! I guess he needs his muse. 😁

@dpostman Amazing how any color of cat will shed copiously on black pants!! To paraphrase Joan Crawford “No black pants!!!”

And I presume they know where the can opener is…😁

I’ve read great things about Masala Mantra in north Jax. If you’re ever in that area…. It’s only 25 minutes away from us on 17 but we haven’t been yet.

I really liked The Wizard of Id.

Pretty well, all things considered, thanks so much for asking! I’m EXTREMELY careful every time I get out of the wheelchair…and I kept exhorting George to be vigilant as well…if he trips on a cat or loses his balance…we are in a horrible position. Of course, since he doesn’t have Big Brain Syndrome he can’t imagine the potential pitfalls. (In my next life I, too, would like to blithely assume everything will all work out…). I’m only taking OTC meds now so that has me relieved. Follow-up visit to surgeon the 23rd. Got the walking boot delivered…I may start dreaming about it…

Yes, I do know!! George is an excellent cook…but with all he has to do solo now that I’m in a wheelchair I hate to have him cook and clean up as well. So we’ve been getting lots of takeout!! Willie Jewel’s BBQ last night…Ahan Thai tonight…

Any more exotic meals while you’re alone?!

Had the surgery Tuesday. Didn’t have any pain when I just had the cast over the fractures…now I do. Was at first hoping my OTC extra-strength acetaminophen would help… but last night realized…nope…need the hydrocodone acetaminophen. Now leg feels better…except I’ve got massive bruising on the back of my leg/knee. I have an ice pack around the top of the cast to reduce swelling. First follow up visit is next Thursday. In the meantime George and I are developing a routine with the challenges.

I think it was a couple of years ago, Cruise Critic was doing some IT maintenance or something crashed…anyway…when I tried to log in I got “page unavailable” and since I have Big Brain (what my friends call me; it’s not a compliment… it means I overthink everything) I thought horrifiedly what that could mean. I didn’t have email addresses of anyone on Dani’s thread…all my friends to talk to and commiserate with…all gone. Gulp! Thank goodness it was a temporary annoyance…nothing permanent. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.

@dani negreanu I’m glad you were able to make that journey. I know it was bittersweet.

Diana felt she, too, should check out the wheelchair…

@dani negreanu Sorry to hear you have a bad cold again! I saw some comments on Bell’s thread about there being issues on this thread…but I guess it’s resolved now…whew!! So far I’d done OK with just OTC extra-strength acetaminophen for my leg injury…but that was before the surgery. About to take the hydrocodone-acetaminophen for the first time as the OTC isn’t cutting it!

It wasn’t the bathroom ledge…I just mentioned how hard it was to get over that once I had the crutches. Put one crutch the couple of inches up into the bathroom and then sort of hop sideways and up with the other crutch back on the carpet…. If I were young and a gymnast…not a problem. No, the mundane accident happened in the Oceanview Cafe at lunch on the 8th. I pushed the low heavy chair on the carpet back from the table and rose to my feet. Evidently I did not have the chair pushed back enough and my foot caught on a leg and my rubber soled shoe did not slide on the carpet so my leg just twisted and down I went. The medical team was unimpressed with this explanation…so I’ve since changed it to “I was rescuing a child from an alligator.”

Thanks for the well wishes. Very impressed with Baptist Medical Center. Non weight bearing for six weeks; could have been worse. Will have a boot I can take off and do PT before the end of that time.

Surgery this morning. Cats did come around…

The girls were initially wary…the wheelchair, the cast…the angst. But things have returned to normal. Minnie thinks the new chair is for her since they match perfectly! And my sweet Diana…

I thought I read this issue on this thread but it must have been elsewhere. What I read before is there is some danger in men getting blood from women who had been pregnant…even women who perhaps didn’t know they had been pregnant…so it was safer to ask for male blood for men. Can’t explain the medical reasons.

Update. Well, Guest Services had told us we could stay in the cabin until 8 and to call them when we were ready to leave and someone would come and assist us. Of course when we called at 7:30 Guest Services just said we were supposed to go to Raw on 5. So I had to stress that I had been told to call and we would be given assistance…that my husband couldn’t wheel me and carry the crutches and pull the laptop. Something was lost in translation because a lovely young lady appeared with a wheelchair. Our wonderful cabin attendant said not to worry…he’d see the original one got returned. What was eye opening to me is that it is impossible to maneuver a wheelchair or scooter through the Edge Class hallways unless they are totally clear. During the normal morning and evening cabin service times the attendant’s cart blocking the hallway could generally be moved by alerting the nearby attendant. And in addition to the carts are the bags of laundry and trash hanging from the railings. Those too have to be moved so a wheelchair can pass. Well, on disembarkation morning there were carts in the hallways just parked there…no attendant nearby. My husband and the wheelchair assistant had to stop at least ten times to move carts or bags so we could make our way down the hallway. But the rest of the debarkation went as expected. One attendant wheeled me off the ship and parked me in the terminal where once my turn came another nice young lady wheeled me to the luggage area…we collected a porter and our bags and she wheeled me to the Park n Go slot and she knew exactly where it was. (And for some unknown reason Beyond returned to Terminal 18 instead of scheduled 25…even though she was the only ship in port today.) A snafu occurred when the Park n Go van did not have a front passenger seat. The driver was very nice and offered me his arm but obviously didn’t understand my right leg is totally non weight bearing. So I had to sit down on the steps and scoot up one at a time…and then get hauled to my feet by the combined efforts of the driver and my husband. Another snafu occurred when we got to the Taco Bell we planned to have lunch at. There was a homeless person circling the parking lot gesticulating and mumbling. I was afraid to get out and make my slow tortuous way on my crutches to the restaurant. If necessary I would be unable to run. Eventually the coast cleared and we made our slow progress inside. Let’s just say that between a slippery floor and long distances I realized I cannot go anywhere at present without a wheelchair. I’m terribly afraid I’m just going to run out of energy and fall and hurt something else. 😢 Wasn’t able to have my leg elevated much on the drive so we arrived home with my leg swollen and a huge hematoma under my right knee. Sigh. Have it elevated and iced now. I want to take a shower more than anything but feel I need to keep on with the elevation and ice right now. And both cats are extremely wary of the wheel, the cast etc…so are giving me a wide berth. Sniff. Hope tomorrow is better.

Thanks! I am definitely not considering this my birthday…will wait for a happier occasion. I haven’t let DH drive in over 20 years so I’ll either learn tolerance or become a basket case…or try to sleep.

@sgmn I’d love to see pictures of your sleeping arrangements on the boat… if you want to share. I’d think it would be really relaxing rocking to sleep on your boat!

Thank you. I know it’s subjective. Just never been in this position so wanted to do the right thing. Don’t think heroics will be needed 😊 so just assistance. The Park ‘n’ Go guy will load the bags.

Yes, the Oceanview Cafe…aft on Deck 14. Breakfast, lunch and dinner…only dress code is no swim suits etc. It’s adjacent to the pool so if you’re coming from there they just want you to put on a coverup.