RRN Online Volume 7

July 23 '96

Volume 7

She's What

Barbara called me at work this afternoon to tell me that Rayanne is pregnant. Rayanne called her mother to let her know and said she had not planned the pregnancy. But isn’t that the way it most often happens, when you least expect it and are in a financial strain. They have just bought an existing house and hope to soon moved into it. Anson’s boss told him on Monday or Tuesday of this week that cutbacks in the company were forcing him to place Anson on half salary and half commission.

I had thought only recently about the fact that this couple would probably want a child. I thought at the time that I was not ready for such to happen. I am still not ready. I am still not through dealing with the C of C vs. Baptists issue. At some point prior to their getting married, I was told that Anson was willing to leave the C of C and attend elsewhere with Rayanne. I have not asked what happened to that plan, but from all accounts, he is a regular at the C of C.

The pregnancy is about 6 weeks along, so it is still a little early to broadcast the news. I am not excited about any of this. After all this birth comes from a union that I strongly opposed and have yet to fully accept. I am going to have to read the Serenity Prayer a lot over the next several months.

At some point in the past, you may have been guilty of saying you would be glad when your children were grown and out on their own. Most likely it will one day be so, but the ‘raising’ won’t be over. Anxiey and worry are likely to be worse, not better. Children seem to develop in stages not just in their formative years, but for all of their lives. The hard part is once they are grown, you have to let them make their own choices. It doesn’t matter how wrong you believe the choice(s) to be.

As the mother of Rosanne Rosanna Dana and countless other mothers have said, "Its always something." Friday, July 19, was proof positive of the old axiom.

Rayanne had called Barbara after visiting a gynecologist on Thursday, to share the news of her pregnancy. Richard Pennington and I had left early for lunch in order to beat the crowd at Pea Soup’s restaurant. Upon returning to the warehouse around 12:30, the receptionist told me that Sarah had called to tell me that Rayanne was checking into the Women’s Hospital in Tupelo, in order to have surgery and that my daughter wanted her mother and daddy to be there.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to reach Barbara or Sarah. I finally called the Hospital and talked to Rayanne while she was being admitted. She explained that intense pains Friday morning had sent her back to the gynecologist office. Her doctor had already left for the Olympics, and she saw one of his associates. He did a Sonogram and believed her problem related to a tubular pregnancy. He sent her to the Hospital for surgery that afternoon or evening. I told her that I would be leaving around 1:00 and should see her before 4:00.

I was unable to reach anyone at Barbara’s office until almost 1:00. Barbara and Allison Leatherwood had left for lunch traveling in Allison’s car. The receptionist at South Delta PDD had Allison’s car phone number and gave it to me. I made preparations to leave while still trying to make contact with Barbara.

Barbara was not planning to go back to the hills for the weekend. She wanted to stay in Greenville, do a little office work, light housework and get some rest, prior to the anticipated visit by Sarah and crew. I felt that she would want to go to Tupelo with me to be with Rayanne. I was pretty sure that I would not do the right thing by waiting for her, nor would the right thing be to leave without her. Pressed for time, I decided to leave without Barbara and continued to try to contact her by phone. I had passed the Itta Bena exit on 82 when I finally was able to reach Allison and Barbara by phone. They had taken a late lunch and done a little shopping on their lunch hour. Barbara said she would throw some things together and drive over as soon as she could.

My car phone rang just as I neared sight of Winona. Barbara was leaving Greenville and wanted to know the fastest route to Tupelo. I told her that I chose 82 to Mathiston, then the Natchez Trace to Tupelo, because I could average 70 to 75 on the 4-lane then the Trace would be relatively peaceful compared to any other 2-lane road. I figured if I was stopped for speeding I could probably get off with a warning, after I explained my hurry.

I had been on the Natchez Trace for about 2 miles, the next time my car phone rang. It was Sarah telling me that that Rayanne was out of surgery, and in the recovery room. She explained that because Rayanne was beginning to swell in the abdomen, she relented to Sarah’s pressure and the doctor’s advice to not wait on her parents to arrive. There was no tubular pregnancy. The mass that appeared in the Sonogram, was a blood clot. A tear on the wall of the ovary, a common occurrence the doctor said when the egg unattaches from the wall, had failed to seal itself. He said it was near an artery and was pumping a lot of blood. He could not be certain there was an embryo present, but stated if she was in fact pregnant, prior to the surgery, she was still pregnant, but not a far along as earlier thought.

I arrived in Tupelo around 3:30, while Barbara made it just after 5:00. I found a groggy Rayanne, who was beginning to experience some after surgery pain. Anson, and Anson’s mother were also in the room. Kimberly, a friend of Rayanne’s from Belk was also there. Shortly after Barbara arrived, Anson’s father came by.

After a pain shot, Rayanne began to get easy enough to doze from time to time. The surgeon stopped by a discussed the surgical procedure and prognosis. The only part that was clear to me was that there might be a baby and there might not.

Anna had spent the week in Florida with her dad, his girl friend and baby brother of the girl friend. Anna, dad and girl friend came by about 6:00 for a short visit. Barbara wanted to stay with Rayanne until Anson got back from Belmont with some gowns and personal effects for Rayanne. I drove back to Pontotoc and Barbara got in around 10:30 Friday night.

Barbara stayed most of the day Saturday with Rayanne, so Anson could work on the house they had bought in Belmont. I stayed in Pontotoc and worked odd jobs, inside and out of the house.

Barbara and I drove over to the Tupelo Women’s Hospital at 11:00 Sunday Morning. Anson had eaten something Saturday evening that made him sick. When Rayanne called around 8:00 Sunday morning she was uncertain whether he would be able to drive her back to Belmont. Fortunately, he was feeling better when we arrived. Rayanne was dismissed at 1:00. She is to go back to the Doctor’s office on Monday for more blood work and more hormone shots. Somehow through all this they will determine her true pregnancy status.

Bumblebees

Saturday evening, I made a daring attempt to rid my place of a bumblebee stronghold. I have two bluebird houses in my backyard. One on a privacy fence and one on a post that once allowed our dog, Sugar, to race along a wire from post to post while tethered by a chain. Brett, my nephew, discovered what he believed to be a hornet hideaway inside the birdhouse on the post. He had observed a bee sized insect near the entrance of the house and heard buzzing noises inside the house earlier this Spring. Several weeks ago I bounced a basket ball against the post a few times and sent a few bees scurrying outside to inspect for intruders. The familiar black and yellow strips on their bodies identified the bees as common bumblebees.

The entrance to the bumblebee house is just under 6 feet above the ground. It is very unnerving to walk by the bee house while cutting grass. As the summer has progressed, the bees have become more numerous as well as more irritable. A spirit of conservation of the natural element had prevented me from dealing with the insects most responsible for pollinating our nandina bushes and numerous other plants in our backyard. I had envisioned various means of disposing of the pollinators turned pests. Among my ideas were a strategically dropped cherry bomb explosive, dousing with wasp and hornet spray, stuffing a gasoline soaked rag in the entrance, and a gas soaking and burning.

After obtaining a pint glass jar and filling it half full with gasoline, I decided to try a soak only approach. With all the precision of a star fighter seeking to destroy the Death Star in an early Star Wars movie, I rapidly accelerated as I prepared to deploy a deadly liquid projectile into the entrance of the bee’s home. With Olympic accuracy I slammed the lips of the jar around the circular hole while most of the deadly gasoline was released inside the house. My momentum carried me quickly away from the bee house, and when I safely reached my backdoor I looked back to see if I was being followed. A few dazed residents were stumbling around the entrance to their home but none were pursuing the enemy.

About a half hour later, in the fading light of day, I saw several bees flying around their toxic home. I reasoned they were spared a direct hit by the gasoline and would probably abandon the residence.

Sunday morning I bounced a ball against their residence and was astonished to see about a dozen bees emerge ready to do battle. My hopes of a simple, quick solution to the bumblebee problem quickly dimmed, and I began to rethink a strategy to dispose of the pests.

....to be continued.

Pregnancy Update

Anson called Barbara, Tuesday morning 7/23, to share the results of the lab work from the Monday office visit. Rayanne is not pregnant. If she had actually concieved, the pregnancy had miscarried prior to any surgical procedure.

As noted earlier, pregnancies do not always occur at a good time in a marriage. Perhaps there will be a better time in the near future.

Editors note: Effective this issue, the Volume number for the Ridge Rider News has been changed to reflect the month and date of the publication.

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