We Saved a Baby Bull Again !

Megan, thankfully, waited to have her calf until we were above sub zero temps.  We kept checking on her and it was just after dark when she had him.  We watched them both close and she was frantically trying to dry him off.  The temp outside was 17, so we knew we had to watch closely.  Steve went back to check on them about and hour later, and the calf was shivering terribly.

He loaded the calf on the 4-wheeler and brought him home.  Having been through this before, we backed my truck into the garage, put a soft blanket in the bed of the truck, put a heating pad on low down, put an old sheet down, put the baby (boy) down, put another sheet on him, then a nice warm blanket on him. We put an oil heater out in the garage and turned it up high.

Little guy was still shivering uncontrollably.  I ran and got my blower dryer with the defuser and dried him off.  He has a very thick curly coat!  🥰  He is adorable.  😍

After we dried him, we covered him with the sheet and blanket and went to bed at 1am.  I set the alarm to check on him for 3:30.  He was dozing and still covered.  Checked again at 6:20, got dressed in many layers and drove my truck out to him mom who was pining in a corner for him.

It took her a few minutes, but once she smelled his umbilical cord she started tending to him.  He has nursed and is fine❤️

A few years ago, a mom had her calf during a freeze and we found him with his eyes froze open and rigid.  Our vet has told us not to consider them dead until they are warm and dead, so we brought a stiff icy calf into the garage and did the exact same thing for him.  

It took hours for him to loosen up and unfreeze.  We settled in for the long haul and by the time we though he had a chance we went to bed.  We checked on him several times, and when we went to check on him in the morning he was standing in the bed of my truck and bellowed the instant the door opened.  🎉

We took him out to his mom who was waiting by the gate and she immediately started tending to him.  

Farm life.  ❤️

Dr Idiots and the Weather

Dr tales, just in the last 7 years, but I quit after 5 year of going to idiots.

Went to a neurologist for my uncontrollable shaking with a list.  He valiantly tossed it over his shoulder and said “anyone that brings me a list like this I handle by doing THIS.”  Never have been back.

I went to a podiatrist to get fungus on my toes checked as it seems to have “spilled” onto the toes it is on.  He said not to worry about it.  I told him I was susceptible to systemic fungal infections and I wanted to be sure it was cared for.  He asked why I am susceptible to them I told him my CD4 numbers and he rolled his eyes and said, “if you had those numbers you’d be dead.  Don’t worry about it” as he walked out the door.  🙄

I went to a hematologist and he looked at my numbers and said, “I don’t believe those numbers.  I don’t even know if they are yours!”  He did give me iron twice, but assured me I would be dead IF those were my numbers.

I went to an Infectious Disease Dr who saw my numbers and walked me out the door because I was “too susceptible to be exposed to the germs that could be in his office.”

🤦🏻‍♀️ 

I could go on and on, but I won’t.  I haven’t had good luck with specialists - even with documentation, and apparently I didn’t have luck with my Louisiana Drs who left me undiagnosed for 32 years.

I was 54 when I was finally diagnosed with Idiopathic CD4+ Lymphocytopenia and 56!when my igg antibodies plummeted and started IgIV, which are human antibodies to replace antibodies that my body cannot make.  Evert4 weeks, I get 21 days supply, but the expense of ($7,000+) Dr tries to stretch it to 28 days.  

Enough.  So many PI patients go through similar scenarios.  Very few Drs know what a primary immunodeficiency is.  Can you believe that?  We have 2,270 members in my Facebook group with one kind of PI or another.  Drs need to know about them.  Nearly all of us have to teach ER staff, specialty Drs and GP’s.

That’s all I will write about Drs.

**********************

Nothing medical except I am sick of sinus infections and today I shook so bad I couldn’t work a puzzle.  

The weather... 

This last 10 days have been miserable weather wise.  Just thought I would post the stats for the future.  We are on the up end of it for now.  Gotta love La Niña years.

My Problem With Drs; Part 1

              

                           Photo just because... 

I have been sick for years.  Many, many years I caught everything and had a chronic sinus infection.

I was with a team of Drs who oversaw my care for 32 years.  I trusted them both, but mostly saw one.  I kept asking why I always seemed to have a sinus infection.  His answer was “because you live in south Louisiana and are allergic to it.”

I got a yearly physical with my husband’s company and it said my lymphocytes were low.  I would alway ask my Drs why my lymphocytes were low.  Every year for 16 freaking years, I asked why they were low.  He said “Because you have a sinus infection!”  For 16 YEARS!  If he had bothered to do a subset test of my lymphocytes, he would have found out I was in dire straits medically.

We moved to and from from Singapore and eventually sold our home in south Louisiana and moved to Oklahoma.  I went to an immunologist for my sinus infection.  She listened to my frustrations and in 15 minutes told me that she suspected I had an immune deficiency.  

She also asked if I was sick all the time.  My answer was, “no more than anyone else.”  She said, “Strange.”

She tested my allergies with the shots in your arms and back; 300+ actually.  I did not test positive for even one - not even the false positive.  That was the second time as I had the same results with my immunologist in Baton Rouge whose statement was, “very strange”.  Nothing else was done.

She kept testing.  It took 8 months for her to diagnose me with a very rare and serious immunodeficiency: Idiopathic CD4+ Lymphocytopenia.  Nothing can help and she assured me I would soon die.  Then, since she couldn’t help me, she dismissed me from her care “as I can’t do anything for you to help.  Good luck.”

It took another year of going to a Drs and them walking me to the door as I “was in danger being in their office”.  Frustration was high so I went for a long time without a Dr.  Finally on an immune deficiency Facebook board, a nurse had me come in to her Dr.  I told her she had to SHOW him my blood results and be sure he would see me.  She did and he blocked off 2 hours for me.  He is still my Dr.  

One time I told him about my immunologist question about being sick all the time and me telling her no more than usual. He stopped what he was doing, and said “she should have asked if I had ever been well.”  It was like a reverse movie in my mind thinking of all the times I was well and I’ll be darned if I could think of even one!  I remember going to an ENT from the time I was 4!!

I said to Dr, “Good point.”  His response was “you have never been well to know how it feels because your entire life you have fought this.”

So that is my ICL story.  Drs do not know how I am still alive but I guess the Lord isn’t ready for me and my body has worked around the t-cell deficiencies.

I would love to find any Dr who would care for me doing physicals and not so much my immune system.  I have finally got an amazing Immune Dr who focuses on immune problems, but physical stuff?  Not so much.  

But I don’t like being walked to the door when I go to a Dr.

I am writing this because I know someone needs to see it.  Someone else has an immune deficiency that they don’t know about and realize Drs don’t know it all.  If you are sick a lot, get to a CLINICAL Immunologist, please.

A Few Farm Shots Today

I love God’s art!  Look at the crystals!

The eyes were watching me:

Frozen cattle.  Actually the ice on them is a good thing, it means they are holding body heat in.

And this is true.

Too tired for more - and tomorrow will be worse.  5+ more inches of snow tonight.

 Night all.

 

It Is Freaking COLD!!

Coldest day yet.

Deep dry snow.

Temp at 8pm tonight.  

Windy.  Not happy.  See the ice cycles especially on her eye?  She is not happy. 

Pissed would be a good word.

See her side?

We have broken many records!

And look at they temps this next week

 - oh, and look at tonight’s temp!  

We will all be sick.

Steve feeding cattle.  It takes us both about an hour several times a day to check, feed, and water cattle.  But we are doing good.  Cattle are ok, baby is running and playing and Windy is mad.  

Jake?  Happy as a lark!  Ran across the pond for a coyote and came home and protected us - outside our back door of course.  😂

You can’t make him come in!

 

****************

This is the second time I wrote this.  Last was better, but I am exhausted and have an awful headache so this is it.  Sinus infections and cold cause miserable headaches.  Traipsing through the snow wears me slap out.  I ache all over and done sleep well because my right side is broke - shoulder and hip. One way hurts laying on them, the other way pulls on them.   Life as a chronically ill person.  Life as a farmer.

And who had time for Valentine’s Day?!?

 I am with him every day.

Negative 2!!

That is our temp right now!!  

It is freaking cold, the wind chill is in the negative teens - and we have cattle to tend to!

They need extra food, water that isn’t frozen (we have heaters) but these young cattle are cold, tired of fighting it, and the other (in another pasture) cattle are pregnant and due now.  Praying they will wait a week.

This is what I look like heading out to help feed and water them.  Actually, I water (the preggy ones drink about 200 gallons in 12 hours) so it takes me about as long to do water as it does for him to feed.

I need this many layers.  My glasses do come off because they fog.  

Remember, I said that I water?  The hose got away from me and got my jeans wet.  They froze on contact!

Jake?  He is fine.  We have to force him to come in - even with icy paws!  This dog just wants to play in this miserable weather!

I do worry about him and I am ver concerned for our cattle.  I just pray everyone can get through the next 5 days.  As of right now we have been under freezing 165 hours!!  We have been in single digest for 2 days and teens for 4 days.  Ya’ll this is as serious as it has ever been for us.  Pray please for these storms to get on out of here.

****************

My depression is rock bottom, anxiety at an all time high and I have a very bad sinus infection - and every part of my body just hurts.  Lupus probably doesn’t like cold either.  It’ll all work out, but I am trying to keep track for my counselor.  
 

Our 10 Day Weather Outlook

⛄️ ❄️ UGH!!  🧊  ⛄️ 

                                         🥶