Barbara Edwards's Blog, page 26

Sailing away from Everyday by Barbara Edwards

Cruising is a fun, relaxing way to travel and i really thought we’d need to cancel out plans after my husband’s heart attack. On Tuesday we got the all clear and I finished packing.

Yesterday we sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yards in New York. Our cruise will sail up the East Coast to Canada via the St Lawrence River. Ten days where someone else cooks, cleans and makes the bed. Sheer heaven after the exhausting months just past.

It was one of those stunningly clear days. I’m not going to say much. Sharing the pictures says it all.

Freedom Towers, NYC skyline 

Under the Verrazanno Narrows Bridge

Queen Mary 2

Brooklyn Navy Yard Dock

Statue of Liberty

Filed under: writing

Guest Kendra Daniels at Barbara Edwards comments

Hey, Barbara! It’s good to be here at your blog. Thanks for having me here today to celebrate the release of Tight Spaces.

Tight Spaces is the first story in The Double Dare Club series of Erotic Romances. All the stories will be connected in some way to the Double Dare Night Club. The couple might meet there, work there, or even have a fender bender in the parking lot. You can check out http://kenradaniels.com/double-dare/, for more info about the series as it becomes available. The itinerary for this blog tour will be there, as well, so you can check out some other great blogs.

To celebrate, I’m giving away some Kindle copies of Tight Spaces, a couple of $10 Amazon Gift Cards. Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chances to win. Keep watch on http://kenradaniels.com for more giveaway and contest opportunities, and news about upcoming projects, including the one Azure Boone and I are embarking on.

Blurb: With the first anniversary of the messy break up of a long-term relationship bearing down, Amy has the blues. When her friends suggest an evening at the Double Dare, she reluctantly agrees to go along. She doesn’t do the casual sex thing, but it’ll be good to spend time with her friends.

Seeing Jesse at the Double Dare immediately cheers her up. She’s fantasized over him for months. The evening gets more pleasant as they heat up the dance floor. Things go from hot to sizzling, until her ex shows up and confronts Amy in a low blow. Will his interference deter Jesse and Amy from continuing what could be the start of something wonderful?

Finally, the doors opened, and the line started to move. The doorman checked IDs, turning away one young couple with fakes. By the time Amy made it to the front of the line, the heavily muscled man had relaxed a little, and started flirting with some of the women in the line. When Amy’s turn came, he gave her a nod while his blue gaze flicked up and down, taking in her appearance.

His smile broadened when his gaze arrived at her generous breasts. “That’s an awfully nice dress for a dump like this, Sweetheart.” His voice, rumbly and intimate, sent a charge directly to Amy’s pussy.

She licked her lips before answering, causing heat to flare in his eyes. “It’s my favorite, so I decided what the hell.”

“If you get tired of the jerks inside, come on back out and keep me company a while. I know how to treat a lady.” His voice promised a good time.

Feeling especially daring, Amy made of point of letting her skirt brush against his pant leg as she walked past. “I’ll just bet you do.” With a long look over her shoulder, she headed on through the heavy steel door.

God! Had she really done that? Embarrassment heated her cheeks. Never in her life had she behaved that way! Every male without sight would read her actions as coming from a bitch in heat. Hopefully those young jerks hadn’t paid attention. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to resist paying her a visit.

Author bio:

Kenra Daniels lives in a tiny rural community in north eastern Kentucky with her very own Romance Novel Hero. In addition to Erotic Romance, Kenra writes Paranormal Romance, and has plans for Historical Romance, Urban Fantasy, and a few other things. She has a completely new paranormal being in development and will soon start those stories. With multiple other projects in the works, time and energy are her only limits.

 

 

 

Author’s Links:

Tight Spaces Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Tight-Spaces-Double-Dare-ebook/dp/B009AZLYYM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347737116&sr=1-1&keywords=Kenra+Daniels

Blog and Website: http://kenradaniels.com

Amazon Author Page: http:// amazon.com/author/kenradaniels

Facebook: facebook.com/KenraDaniels.RomanceAuthor

Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/#!/kenra_daniels

Google Plus Profile: https://plus.google.com/1151955744194...

Google Plus Page: Romance From Kenra Daniels: https://plus.google.com/1024418957014...

Pinterest: http:// pinterest.com/KenraDaniels

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed under: writing Tagged: Kendra Daniels, tight spaces

Depression is a writer’s curse by Barbara Edwards.

Storm Cloud

Depression is not a moment of sadness. Depression is a vicious beast. Depression wipes life from your spirit like a giant sucking sponge.

People who have never been depressed don’t understand. Shake it off. Cheer up, take a walk, do something –fill in the blank here- and you’ll feel better. What a bunch of crap.

I’ve had the luck or unluck to have survived bouts of depression several times in my life. I say lucky since it was intermittent. I say unlucky because it takes a big chunk from my life before I recognize I’ve fallen into the black hole again. Many people aren’t as lucky and suffer from a chronic condition.

I’m not going to give you a clinical description. I find myself tired for no reason. I have trouble focusing, yet am irritable, short-tempered, but the temper doesn’t last since it takes too much energy. I overeat, but I’m not hungry. I can’t write. And that is the big tell for me.

This time I asked my doctor about it. To my surprise, he took the time to ask me about my symptoms. After a few minutes in thought, he suggested I think about a prescription. Something short-term to snap the cycle. Hmmm. Since I hate medicine, I said maybe. When I return for my check-up we’ll talk again. Just knowing he listened, helped me. So does writing this.

Sunset in New England

I noticed on my various loops other writers’ blogging about depression. Sharing emails about the pain and loss. I realized it seems to be insidious with creative people. Are we more vulnerable because of our imagination? Is it because our lives are spent in a world no one else sees until we create it? Is it because we are by nature loners?

I don’t have the answers. I did get up this morning and worked on a project. It made me feel good and I savored that feeling.

Visit https://www.barbaraedwards.net for excerpts and buy links.

 

Filed under: writing Tagged: Barbara Edwards writing, clinical description, depression, vicious beast

Playing catch-up on my promise to share his heart attack with you by Barbara Edwards

Bill Edwards

There is no simple way to recover from a heart attack. Impatience makes the waiting, the slow rebuilding almost too much to handle. I hate watching my husband crab about the lack of anything to watch on TV. He doesn’t watch television under normal circumstances. Despite his interest in my writing he doesn’t read books either.

He likes to be busy. He’ll l spend hours shopping for the right tool to finish a job. He’s hop in the truck and visit the lumberyard. Only he can’t right now. I have to drive him and he doesn’t like being chauffeured around. And I don’t enjoy taking him: to the hospital for blood-work or for rehab therapy; To the doctor’s office for check-ups;   or for that dragging cough.

So he has pneumonia and has to be admitted again. Only this time he’s awake enough to complain bitterly about the food, the floor, the beds, the other patients. Why can’t they give him medicine and let him stay at home?

I have to admit I gave a sigh of relief. I’m so pooped. If he needs to be on IV antibiotics, then the hospital is the best place. I slept twelve hours that first night and woke with a severe cough. No joke. I called my doctor and made and appointment. I am diagnosed with bronchitis- not quite pneumonia but close enough to scare me silly. I didn’t know that pneumonia is catching, but it is if your defenses are down.

So I take heavy-duty antibiotics. I take cough medicine with codeine to help me sleep and I visit the hospital daily. He gets better faster than I do, but he’s there for five days.

To my horror, a dear friend’s husband dies and I don’t hear the news for days.  They are in my prayers.

So my husband is home again. He spends a lot of time on the phone complaining. I don’t even ask who he’s garnering sympathy from. They don’t live with him, pick up his mess, cook or wash. They don’t get his meds arranged so all he has to do is take them.

In another couple days, he’ll go to have his heart checked for permanent damage. Maybe when he has the facts, he’ll be more positive. He doesn’t see the big picture he. He’s alive.

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, pneumonia, rehab

Don’t be snarky about prayer by Barbara Edwards

My sister suffered from diabetes for most of her adult life and lost kidney function. I prayed daily for her recovery. I prayed for her to get a transplant. I believed that God would answer with the wonderful miracle of health.

When she died after years on the transplant waiting list, I screamed my rage. “Damn you, God. I’ll never speak to you again,” I vowed.

I repeated my promise daily as I ranted at Him for taking this wonderful person from my life.

It took me two years to realize that I was still praying. Maybe not in church or on my knees, but the words were aimed to God’s ears.

To my shock He helped ME to heal.

Some things happen the way they are meant to happen. I still cry about the loss of my sister.

I also have long conversations with God. A little one-sided at times, but He has answered me over the years.

Prayer is an odd thing since you need to believe first. The methods varied from religion to religion. Tibetan prayer wheels spin in the wind. Incense burns in the Orient wafting prayers upwards with the smoke. Prayer rugs are spread three times a day to focus the conscious on the center of the Muslim religion. Worry beads are fingered in Middle-Eastern pockets. The Rosary with its repetition of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, comforts Christians with familiar prayer.

Several years ago I read a scientific study done in an attempt to verify the power of prayer. Machines were used to measure all kinds of energy. The researchers were surprised by the results. When people pray the energy can be measured.

The more people praying together as in a house of worship, the more powerful the energy waves became.

So I’ve reached the point of my blog.

Barbara and Bill in a happy time

So many friends and acquaintances offered prayers for my husband’s recovery after his heart attack that I lost count of the numbers. I am so grateful for your help and support.

Thank you for your prayers.

I truly believe that every one of you added so much strength that the prayers reached God and he answered.

My husband’s struggle still isn’t over, but he’s getting better daily.

Please keep praying as he recovers.

I’ll pray for you, too.

Visit my website http://www.barbaraedwards.net or follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/Barb_ed

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, incense burns, prayer, thanks, tibetan prayer wheels

Don’t let your husband’s heart attack kill you

“Don’t let your husband’s heart attack kill you,” our cardiologist warned.

I nodded absently, my mind on a hundred details of taking my husband home from the hospital

Yes, he made it. Now he’s going to recover and rehab. He doesn’t need to go into a facility after all. He can walk the hospital hall, feed himself and use the bathroom. Everything is paced at a crawl. The next four to six weeks will determine what the rest of his life will be like.

The heart recovers very slowly and any extra burden can hinder the progress.

It’s like getting hit with a baseball bat. Initially everything goes numb. The heart muscle goes into hibernation from the shock. This prevents further damage if you heed the warnings and take it easy. Rest is the great restorer.

He’s to rest, so who has to do all the fetching and carrying? Of course it’s me.

Take him home. Set him up in the living room with the tv changer, something to drink and a newspaper. Go to the pharmacy for his medicine: eight prescriptions that he never took before. Remind me to tell you how that got messed up. Take them home and put the right dosage in the right dispenser for am or pm. Go to the grocery store for food. I sort of depleted the fridge and cabinets over the last week. Unload the bags and bring them inside. Make his meal without using salt, fat or anything with vitamin K since he’s on Warfarin. Get the bedroom ready so he can get up when he needs to without stumbling over anything.

Bill and Dixie enjoying the surf

Our dog had decided he was gone too long and if she lays on his feet he can’t leave again. She is right in the middle of the floor, but I don’t have the heart to shoo her aside. She missed him, too.

I sit down just as he wakes, ready for a nap myself.

I’m tired and when my son calls, I realize I lost a day.

My husband needs extra care. He doesn’t want to sit and wait to get better. If he feels a little better, he’s up and walking around. Then the fatigue hits and he growls as he climbs back into the recliner.

He is angry. Shot-tempered. Impatient. And I’m in the target zone. I understand.

I really do since I have my own heart problem to deal with.

That’s probably the source of the doctor’s dire warning.

I’m tired. But I can’t tell you how happy I am that he made it. Sure it’s a long haul to full recovery, but we’ll do it one day at a time.

 

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, recovery

Doctor-eze or What did you say?

I think that my brain stopped working under real stress. I didn’t understand what the nurses were telling me about my husband;s condition. The cardiology floor is a busy place and I sat with him for hours gathering snippets of information about heart attacks, stents, after-care, ekgs, sonograms until I felt stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey.

I woke up after a terrible night and drove to the hospital so early I beat the valet service. I arrived hours before visitors are allowed. I wanted to speak directly with his doctor. Do you understand that our cardiologist is part of a large group practice. The good part is that there is a continuity of care. The bad part is you never know which doctor will be covering on a specific day.

The doctor on duty had a pleasant manner and to my horror I heard myself ask if he had graduated from high school yet?

OMG. A bad start to a serious discussion. Luckily he had a sense of humor. He actually took the time to explain to me why my husband is on the medicine he’s taking. How they monitor the dosage and what to expect over the next few days.

So here I am. Depending on his progress: his warfarin will be adjusted until he reaches the proper dosage to keep another clot from forming; he’ll go to rehab if he needs to recover muscle mass from lying in bed; he’ll improve slowly over the next four to six weeks.

So. Another day to practice my patience with my patient.

Thanks for your prayers and support in this difficult time.

I’ve always believed that prayer works miracles.

 

 

 

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, stents

Patient or patience: a lesson to learn

Waiting is the hardest part of being the one not in the hospital. I have no patience in real life. I want everything done right now. Be prompt even early.

That’s not what happens in the hospital. I wait for the nurse to finish her (I am surprised by the number of male nurses. I guess i’m old-fashioned.) or his giving of medicine, checking vital signs, checking the lines or asking questions. I wait for the nurses aid to do her share of the care. I wait for the doctor to make his rounds and I wait impatiently for his answers.

I know my husband will be on a low salt, low fat diet. He’ll also need to avoid special foods that interfere with warfarin, a blood thinner. He’s already complaining.

It’s a good sign that he’s grumbling about the bed, the blankets, the air-conditioning and the food. He’s the the patient, but I’m the one who will need patience.

 

 

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, patient

Waiting in ICU

My husband is in the ICU. Intensive Care Unit for those of you lucky enough to never have needed it. If I sound a little blurry, I am. I know I slept last night, but I’m not in any way normal. My mind keeps jumping and yesterday I found myself stuttering when family and friends called for updates.

How do I know what’s happening? I listened to the doctors explain the procedure, why they are treating him with certain drugs—

Why don’t they understand I can’t hear them? I want my husband home and well, not in this busy place with machines beeping and honking and chirping. So many dedicated people concentrating on th e patient care. Blue scrubs seem to be the norm. I have to walk carefully between the complicated machines waiting in the corridor for the unexpected.

Two days and I’m hoping they moved him to the step-down unit today. They will if he’s better. Something I can understand.

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: health, medicine

My husband had a heart attack

No it’s not a joke. My husband had a heart attack yesterday morning. It wasn’t supposed to happen to him. His cholesterol is 130, his blood pressure 120/70 and his pulse 60. He goes to the Cardiologist for for a yearly check-up and is in very good health.

Take this as a warning. HE thought he had an upset stomach. Lots of gas and burping, then it went away. He woke at three thirty am and I asked him if he was

okay?

“I feel funny,” he said. That raised the hair on my neck and I called 911 without asking him any more.

Forty-one minutes later they were wheeling him into surgery for a blocked heart vessel.

He had ‘the widow maker’ on the table. If it had happened at home he’d be gone and I’d be writing a different blog.

They saved his life and inserted a stent to open the vessel.

He got out of bed this morning.

I am praying he will be fine.

 

Filed under: family and friends Tagged: Barbara Edwards,, heart attack, widow maker