Thursday, June 28, 2012

Can You Say Cooper Head?

Let me tell you about the little excitement I had today.  First, I picked up the trash that blew in and cut the grass on the property.  I could only complete the sides and the front of the yard; it was just too hot to continue on with the heavy work.  I will have to complete the back yard tomorrow or over the weekend.  Now for the excitement; I went into my garden, over to where my potatoes were planted in the middle of a bamboo surrounding.  I lifted the bamboo surrounding up, started pulling on the straw and lifting out potatoes when all of a sudden a copper head snake (baby 9 – 12 inches long) slithered next to my hand.  I jumped, looked for the shovel to kill the bastard, and I was too late.  He slithered over to the next bamboo surrounding where my sweet potatoes were growing in straw. I thought to myself, crap…..now I need to lift this bamboo surrounding up carefully to make sure not to get bit.  While I’m looking for this snake, I go ahead and harvest my sweet potatoes.  There was no sign of the snake; he went into the ground to stay cool.  He must have sensed I was ready to kill him!  Now, when going in the garden I’m going to have to wear my large rubber boots and thick jeans until I can find the little bastard.  Speaking of harvest, I pulled up all of my sweet potatoes and roasted some tonight with parsnips (from the farmer’s market) and carrots (from my garden), a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  OMG…..there is nothing better than fresh vegetables roasted from your own garden.  Next year, I will have to plant tons of sweet potatoes.  


Since turning 50 years of age, I’ve decided I’m going to start taking care of myself a little bit better and make my health a priority.  I made a phone call and set up my yearly physical with my general physician.  My appointment was last week.  My doctor listened to my complaints, checked me over, filled a new prescription for water retention, completed the order for blood withdrawal, and made sure I received all of my referrals to (4) specialized doctors to address existing problems/issues.  Now I need to open up a calendar and write down all of the scheduled appointments for the next several months.  One of my appointments was with an orthopedic surgeon to address severe hip pain I’ve been experiencing for 2 years now.  After several x-rays, and a physical exam, I’ve learned that I have bursitis in the bursa sac on the hip.  I also have osteoarthritis (which I pretty much knew I had) in my hips and lower spine and a bone spur where the hip and pelvis meet.  My prognoses, I’m getting old, LOL!!!!!  I am scheduled to do several months of physical therapy to ease the pain and help reduce the inflammation.  Then it’s back to the orthopedic surgeon to identify if a needle (cortisone) placed into my bursa sac or will surgery be required.   On a good note, I’m using this little compact machine called a TENS unit for nerve/muscle stimulation on the hip.   After hip recovery, I will be able to keep this TENS unit (I have plans to add it to my first aid bag, I would have never thought to add one of these to my first aid bag).

So tell me, have you seen a snake lately? 
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21 comments

  1. One of my favorite quotes is from Roy Rogers, "Youth is wasted on the young." Never really had a good idea what it meant until those little aches and pains from growing old started to creep in. - K @ planningandforesight/blogspot.com

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    1. The aches and pains are in full swing here, lol

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  2. Sandy
    No snakes here-thank God! I hope you get it soon.
    Wow, you really have hip issues-I feel for you, my friend.
    I hope they can figure out what's going on and you can get some help for it!

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    1. Oh....there are plenty of snakes, scorpions and black widow spiders here.

      Hopefully after the two months of therapy things will work out in regards to my hip. If not, I guess I get the wonderful needle into my hip. I'm going to pray and work hard at the therapy in hopes it will work out.

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  3. I had one here, a surprise in the wood pile. Those little buggers do get your full attention rather quickly :-)

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    1. Mike, Yes, snakes get my full attention. Either I run the opposite direction because I don't have something to kill the darn thing or I grab something (usually the shovel) and kill it. Now if it's your typical innocent garden snake, I just let it do it's thing and leave him totally alone.

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  4. Sandy - we are lucky here - we only have little grass and garter snakes - thank goodness! i think i would faint if i saw a real-live copperhead!!!

    i am glad that you are taking your health seriously...and eating all of those good veggies from the garden will definitely help. one thing i will ask - do you take any chondroitin? i have probs with arthritis in my hands, hips and knees and i take liquid chondroitin every day. it really helps. if i miss taking it 2 days in a row - i really feel the pain - that's how i know it really works.

    good luck with your therapy. i am sure that if you put your mind to it - it will help!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Sweet Kymber,

      As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of snakes myself. Especially those that can bite and make you severely ill. We have Glucosamine Chondroitin in liquid form for my husband. He says it helps when he remembers to take it. I think I will start taking it and see if it helps any. Thank you for bringing it up (I forgot we had some in the house) and thanks for the good luck wish. Give Jambaloney a hug and you both have a great day.

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  5. The opeing to "billy the exterminator" comes to mind....

    AHHH! SNAKE!

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    1. Matt, I remember that, lol......
      Billy sure deserves credit going in after some of those critters.

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  6. Bless you. Just wait, it only gets better. And snakes? Guess where they go when you get flood rains...yeap, your garage.

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  7. Stephen,
    I can only hope it gets better :-).....I hate doctors, lol
    As for snakes, I'm not really happy with those buggers either. I can imagine, the snake(s) will be looking for dry places after all that rain. Be careful, make sure you make alot of noise before opening your garage door.

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  8. Yuck-o-yuck to snakes (although they really good for killing garden rodents). Getting old .. we all do that. Switching to a good diet rich in homemade bone broth helped me. Eliminating ALL processed foods too.

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    1. Mrs. Mac, I hate snakes to a passion. I try not to eat processed food but from time to time one will slip up :-) I will have to try the homemade bone broth. Right now I'm going through therapy for the hip and going to take Glucosamine Chondroitin with MSM. I'm hoping this problem will become less severe, not requiring surgery.

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  9. Copper Heads scare me worse than rattle snakes. We've been keeping an eye out since the rains, we live in a wooded area here in the city. Those vegies look wonderful. I'm going to check my onions & carrots this weekend.

    Good luck on the joint issues. I just recently realized that I literally creak & pop when I get out of bed in the morning (lol).

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    1. DFW, I hate snakes, the only one I can tolerate is the garden snake. I hope your onions and carrots have grown enough to harvest. Take care!

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  10. It's the pits. I have arthritis, bursitis, and tendonitis. Makes it hard to run from the snakes. When I was young and dumb, I use to catch rattle snakes by hand. Use to really freak out my best friend. He hated snakes. Any kind of snake. The last snake I caught by hand, was a water-moccasin. It crawled into my Dad's Bass boat, while we were fishing, on Table Rock lake in Missouri. My Dad was shooting at it with a little 22 pistol, loaded with rat shot. I had always wondered why there were all of these little dimples in the bottom of his boat. Any way, I tossed the snake back into the lake. I think I was like 17 or 18 then. Now, I think it would be faster to just jump out of the boat.
    And, them are some good looking veggies. YUM!!

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    1. Flier389, That's okay, I have no plans on catching any snake by hand, lol..... My sister in-law told me to use a gun instead of the shovel to kill the little bastard. Arthritis, bursitis and tendonitis is no fun. Do you think we would have treated our bodies better when we were younger so we wouldn't have to deal with this stuff now? Nope not me, when younger I would always do things that would cause me to get some kind of injury. Falling from tree, off bike, car wreck you name it.
      The veggies were awesome! Right now I am waiting for my tomatoes to turn red to harvest and make sauce :-)

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  11. Yes, I saw a rat snake and it's eating hen eggs! Just go to my post and search for "snake." On the up side, the snake has gotten rid of the ground squirrels I hate so much.

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  12. We saw Copper heads in Indiana but so far, not in Florida. Are you aware that a cortisone shot will hurt like hell for about 30 minutes? It truly will, but not as bad as recovering from surgery.

    Earlier this year, each month on the calendar was a reminder I had problems and tests in my future. Now, it's down to an upcoming mammogram then I'll hide in a hole until January 2013 and I might not come out.

    p.s. ONE copperhead = others. Just because you saw one, does NOT mean he doesn't have brothers and a mama. Bamboo is one thing they LOVE. It offers shade and coolness and COVER.

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  13. Lotta Joy,

    Copperhead snakes love to cool down in just about anything they can. Yes Ma'am, I am aware that when there's one, there's more.

    I've had cortisone shots before but they were in my foot and that was no fun. I'm trying to avoid one in the hip by doing exactly as the doctor ordered.

    I will pray for you that everything is clear and things go well. Take it easy and enjoy your weekend.

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