T.G. (travelocity Gnome) got to go on his very first real trip with Ava to see the 4th of July Fireworks on the beach...They were both pretty excited.

Happy anniversary to Mr. and MissGnomer!!

And Ava is just to ADORABLE for words! Look at that smile! It melts my heart

Thanks Xenia, Ava melts my heart every day....
I'm having too much fun turning her into a little Gnomer.
She loves her Travelocity Gnome and I will have a great time making the T.G. book for her with all the Photo Ops til she is grown.
I ordered her the big 12" Hot Pink Flocked Gnome Bank from "Dream in Plastic" for her 5th birthday on 7/27 and it makes quite a showing. Only one little problem with it...(WILLOW- take note) when I took it out of the box and plastic wrap, the chemical smell was overwhelming from the glue that they put the velvety flocking on with. I have it outside in the sun trying to air it out, along with the box it came in. Its getting better and the company said it could be returned if the smell doesn't dissipate...(which was very nice of them)
I am so glad I took it out of the box to examine it, as I would have been so embarrassed for her to open it at her Birthday party and have the chemical smell permeate the room straight out of the plastic wrap and box. It would not go well with the smell of Ice Cream and Cake. I'm going to leave it out in the sun every day this week and see what happens. It looks quite adorably impressive and I really want to give it to her. I'll know by the end of this week if its a do-able present.

Willow & all - Bob (AKA Mr Sungnomie) here.

The Cowboy gnomes are nice but I must admit that I did watch the Ice Bowl back in the mid 60's and was pulling for the Packers in that one. Of course the Cowboys will always be "America's Team." And my beloved Jaguars are still a "new" team after 15 years in the league.

Sounds like you have a lot going on with your eye repair. I do not have an astigmatism so did not have to worry about that part or have the flap procedures done. On a positive note, looks like your cataract surgeries are only about a week apart (I waited two weeks) so there will be less time adjusting to one good eye in the interim. When you go for the follow up after the first surgery, I would suggest asking them about some reading glasses in the interim (they probably have some "cheap" ones they can give you). If you cover up the bad eye and use the good eye with the glasses that may work in the interim. I doubt contacts our possible during this period though.

You will get by - time seems to go slowly but once all is said and done you will be so happy with your new eyes it will all be a distant memory!

And keep using the drops as prescribed, will help prevent any kind of infection. One of the drops caused my eye pressures to go up (don't be surprised if this happens) but it resolved quickly once the drops were discontinued.

It will all be over soon! Good luck!

Bob

Hi Everyone!!!

Thanks for the Anniversary wishes for me and my husband. We were married 14 years ago on the 4th of July -- in our backyard sanctuary of course. And only I would pick one of the hottest days of the year to get married... OMG it was so hot... I had big fans blowing on me so I wouldn't sweat my makeup off during picture taking! LOL! I know it's kinda weird to get married on "Independence Day" -- but we did it because we knew that no matter where we worked -- we would always have that day off.

Waves to AVA! HI AVA!!!!! I love your outfit and T.G.! Tell your Grandma to start a thread for you in the traveling gnome section of the forum. We can see all the cool places you take TG AND you will be our youngest traveling gnomer EVER! Yippeee! We are so glad to have you

My husband had a surgical procedure done on the 5th that will hopefully alleviate some of his chronic pain from all his surgeries. His pain management doc has temporarily installed a device (using a huge needle - sigh) to put some electronic wiring into my husbands ribcage and lower back. It works like a "tends unit" but it's on the inside of the body. It is supposed to block my husband pain signals from reaching his brain -- which hopefully will give him some much needed relief after all these days. If it works correctly, he will see a surgeon who will install in permanently. Right now, he actually has the wires coming out of his back (I know!) and connected to the unit which he uses a remote control to adjust. Thursday (tomorrow) the trial will be over and they will remove everything. He is in pain right now from where the needles went in to install the wiring (which is normal). Poor Mr.MissGnomer -- he has been through so damn much.

Sorry I'm just now getting back to you, Bob. I haven't been feeling too well, and haven't been very "conversational." Not due to my eyes, just life in general. But I wanted you to know I read what you said and really appreciate it all.

I am definitely wondering how things will go between the 2 surgeries. I might just be at home doing nothing. I've told them at work not to count on me coming in.

I'm just so tired of wearing these old glasses...the prescription is 4 years old, and it's so blurry. It's about to drive me crazy. Way back at the beginning of this odyssey, if I'd realized I would've had to be without my contacts for so long, then I would've gone ahead and bought new glasses, even if only for a month and a half. But by the time I realized that, it was so late in the game that I couldn't bring myself to do it. If I could've gone in and gotten my new glasses the very day I ordered them, I might've tried. But knowing I also had to wait for them to be made and shipped...that takes 2 weeks sometimes. ~sigh~ I'm just weary of not being able to see. I try to not go out after dark, because the blurriness is so much more noticeable with all the headlights and traffic lights. It's maddening, and I feel like I can't see and could possibly hit something or someone and it makes me sick to my stomach. So I don't go out after dark...thank goodness it's summer and doesn't get dark early.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm still deciding.

It's totally understandable. It seems either you are a Cowboys fan or you hate them. No in between.

I became a fan because my older brother was. And I don't know how he became one...our dad didn't like sports, so it must've been someone else's influence. But he became a fan in the 70s...maybe after their Super Bowl wins. And then I became a fan in 1984, once I was old enough to realize football was cool.

We live in Bears country, so growing up Cowboys fans sucked. No Cowboys merchandise. Every week we had to see a Bears game. The Bear, the Bears, the Bears. Blah, blah, blah. Hate 'em. The only game we got to see of the Cowboys was on Thanksgiving. I believe that's one reason Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

I honestly wish that they never would've gotten the name "America's Team." That seems to make people dislike them even more. I just want them to be MY team.

I actually got to see a Cowboys game in St. Louis a couple seasons ago. My brother took me for my birthday. And they sucked!!! Unbelievable!! They got beat by the Rams, bad. And the Rams were terrible at that point. It was awful!! But I was still excited to see them in person.

There were more Cowboys fans there that day than Rams fans, I think.

Hi Everyone!

I know I've been MIA -- but I've been outside in this gawd-awful heat pouring statues! And by the time I come in at night I am so tired I can't do much but go to bed.

(((Willow))) I'm sorry to hear you aren't feeling well. I sure hope your eyes heal soon so you can get back to being your happy, bubbly self. I suffer from clinical depression -- and every now and then it kicks my ass so bad all I can do is lay in bed. Life certainly is no bowl of cherries for MissGnomer -- which is why I started "gnoming" in the first place. Take it one day at a time -- and hang in there girl!

Off I go to AFRICA in the GARAGE! LMAO!

Willow what a cool cute picture of you at the Game... Love it...
Bob sends his regards and good wishes for your eyes to heal quickly so you can experience the joy of new sight very soon.

MissGnomer I do hope you are feeling better.... Depression seems to affect a lot of people these days..
I have a few family members that suffer through this also....
I highly recommend Gnomes also, as part of the therapy.

My neighbor, who lives alone, is suffering from cancer and depression and she has lots of big treatments coming up. She keeps cleaning out her possessions (like a hand crocheted table cloth her Mother made) and giving me some of her fairies & mushrooms, which makes me sad too.
She collects fairies & mushrooms and orders lots of stuff for her tiny yard from "collections", etc.... This makes her happy and I love to see her get something new in the mail ...it just lights up her face.
You know when Gnomes & fairies, mushrooms, etc. can bring us an inner kind of lasting joy, I say that is worth a lot to our inner peace when we need it most. Maybe better than some medicines....
None of us know exactly what kind of trials and suffering our friends and neighbors could be going through. So be kind to everyone you see and talk to. and always Pay it Forward
OK, I'm getting melancholy now... I'm going back to look at my happy Gnomes

(((Sherry))) you are so right! You never know what is going on with someone else. And I loved the movie "Pay It Forward" -- cried my eyes out... but it had such an awesome message...

Oh... and several of you have inquired about MissGnomer's little fantasy story... it's not done yet -- but then is ANYTHING I do?? LOL! This little "tale" has the most hits of any thread on the Forum -- and you can read it here if you like:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=162

MissGnomer I hope the DH gets his relief, my mother is going through the same procedures, all the
pain stemming from procedures that were supposed to alleviate it in the first place *groan* So the pain mngmt
doc gave her the temporary spinal device (SCARY!!!! wires coming out of your lower spine, precariously attached
to a box that you have to strap to yourself and "hope" you don't get it caught on something! YIKES!)
She goes soon for the permanent installation of her new robot parts. (she will be a 'terminator' soon)

Carol, I've been keeping you in my thoughts! It will all be worth it.

MissGnomer (again) just noticed the sleeping fairy in the etsy shop, TOO CUTE!

Sherry Ava is ADORABLE!

Xenia how is home life going?!?!? Any exciting news updates?!

Hmmm, where is our Mr. Hindes?

I know it's August...but I wanted to post here about my eyes...

I had the left cataract removed last Thursday, and the sight still isn't that great in that eye. Well, far away, it's better than it's been in years. I could actually see the alarm clock this morning without squinting or leaning forward. And that was about 3 ft. away. So that's a definitely improvement.

But she told me beforehand that she probably wouldn't be able to fix all of my astigmatism in that left eye. So I still might need either Lasik or a reading glasses prescription. It's been 4 days since the surgery, and it's still really blurry up close.

It's healing ok with no infections, but my pressure is too high. It was high on Friday, the day after surgery, so she gave me another sest of drops to use 2 times a day. Then I went back today for a check, and it's still high. So she's changing one of the other drops I've been using (Omnipred, for anyone familiar.) I've been using that along with Vigamox and Nevanac since 3 days prior to surgery (mostly anti-inflammatories and antiseptic drops, I believe to combat infection and swelling.) Anyway, I guess the Omnipred is a steroid, and she says some people (and perhaps me) are "reactive" to steroids. So she thinks that might be causing my pressure to stay high. You don't want that, because that leads to glaucoma.

So instead of Omnipred 4 times a day, she switched me to Lotemax to go along with my Vigamox and Nevanac. And the Timolol in left eye to keep pressure down.

I started the 3 drops in the right eye on Saturday to prepare for the surgery on it tomorrow. But now she wants me to stop Omnipred in right eye also and switch to Lotemax. So no more Omnipred, Lotemax instead. And hopefully my pressure will go down and stay down.

I am a bit discouraged in the sight in my left eye...guess I was hoping for too much. Maybe it will improve some still.

I am a bit concerned about how well I'll be able to see after right eye surgery tomorrow. I already know that the lens she's putting in could not correct the whole myopia...that's why I knew I needed Lasik in it afterwards. So it's going to be lacking in sight...and if lefty is not up to par yet, it's going to be rough. The past few days I've spent a lot of time with lefty closed and using righty only.

Continued...my computer doesn't like when my messages get too long on here, it won't let me see the bottom of the message box, so I'll finish in a new post...

Anyway, the worst part of the surgery was the nausea afterwards. I felt so sick for the whole day and into the next. I think from anesthesia. Gosh, I felt horrible. I almost threw up, but not quite. So I'm going to ask tomorrow if they can give me anything for that. Someone said they have a patch they can put behind your ear or something. It was awful. Plus I couldn't watch TV, or read. Computer time was very limited. I was bored. What are you supposed to do? I was trying to listen to an audio book, but I was so nauseous that even that made me feel worse. It was bad.

Didn't really have much pain though, so that's good. Just headaches from having to lay around. I'm a pretty bad patient.

She gave me the option of postponing the 2nd surgery since my lefty isn't real clear, but I already have the time scheduled off. I have made preps at work. If I don't do it now, then the FAll semester at work will start in a few weeks, and I can't miss work then. So it has to be now. I just want it done. If the vision is too bad before Lasik, then I'll have to get reading glasses or something. Right now I have the left lens of my glasses popped out and am using the right only. Actually right now, looking at the computer is better than it was yesterday, so there is still some improvement. I'm still hoping this left eye clears up more.

Probably won't be able to see well for the next couple days...I'll update when I can.

Hang in there Carol!

Thanks so much for the update... and for the reminder I forgot to start the August thread!
Which I just did

I know there is something they can give you for nausea because of anesthesia... I would definitely discuss that with the doctor. Sorry you had such a tough time with it. I know when I am nausious the ONLY thing that works is quiet.... I need it dark... and quiet.

Sending Gnomish good health vibes your way!