Saturday, March 22, 2008

Good Saturday!

I’m tired again. But my hip joint isn’t hurting as much.

I slept late this morning; got up around 10:00. I was tired, so I went back to bed, which is kinda unusual for me, after Ben went off to work. I slept until around 6:00PM.

You don’t realize how much you use your hip joint until you injure it. Just to turn over in bed requires use of the joint. Using the joint causes pain, and pain causes an awakening from sleep. A return to sleep doesn’t occur instantaneously. So, too much of that and you don’t get much sleep at all.

However, being awake also means wanting to do things and 'doing things' exacerbates the inflamed joint tendons. Not a plan. So I figured I’d sleep.

When I awakened at 6:00 I wondered how I was ever going to get back to sleep tonight. But since I am already tired, I guess I won’t have any problems. It’s funny how that works.

Not much to say tonight ‘cause I wasn’t up much today to do anything.

So, Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

And TWO March 22 Birthdays!

Happy Birthday guys!

One of the birthdays belongs to someone in my family, someone very near and dear to me. And the other birthday belongs to a friend who read this blog.

So you can see how hard it woud be for me to forget my friends birthday. All that has to happen is that it get mentioned once, I document it somewhere, and it's mine, Mine, MINE forever more! Until I lose my memory, which has happened. :-) But the memory link is there!

Now, I know, I know, I'll see it when you visit my blog, so there's no need to respond. You know how I am about privacy, and so I won't put names to dates and verse vice-a! :-)

Just let it be said that I remembered, and wished you both the Happiest of Birthdays during this, the early days of a new spring!

Happy Birthday!

Friday, March 21, 2008

A March 21 Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

I was lying in the hot tub, soaking up as much heat as I could when I remembered something I had wanted to add to today’s post. I feel a lot better, BTW.

I have a birthday in the family today. Rather than broadcast whose and how old, etc. I figured I’d just post a birthday wish here. Although this person is getting rather old. :-D

I had spoken with my son about it before he had run off to work today, but it was this afternoon that I finally decided to say something about it here.

So, again, Happy Birthday, with love, and I wish you many, many more!

Real Moody Today For Some Reason

I was up after midnight but still got up at 6:00 for my 7:15 PET Scan appointment. So I’ve been tired all day. I even fell asleep on the table.

The procedure went well, other than falling asleep. The technician was rather talkative as he showed me back toward the familiar sections of the facility. Now, I don’t want to be reading too much into this, based on a sample size of 4 scans, but it may bode well for the results on Monday. He was talkative back when the diagnosis was “Dramatic Improvement.”

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I stopped by Wendy’s on the way home to try and use up my gift cards. Thank you, BTW! You know who you are!!!!

I’m always complaining about the graduates of the government schools. The dropouts almost always seem to do better. Why is that? Even back when I was a kid there was a saying that A-students went on to teach, while B-students ended up working for C-students.

But you’d figure that an order taker/ assistant manager would know how to handle gift cards. I received two cards. The first had already been used so I know it worked and still has some credit on it; the other card hasn’t been touched at all. When I offered the first card I was told that the card had been declined. The same explanation came when I tried to use the second card. Looking at the receipts offered to me to prove that the card had been declined I read “Invalid user ID/pswd.”

What would that tell you? The user of that little card reader couldn’t input their ID and password correctly. Yet they made it sound like I tried to rip them off with using bogus cards. And this was the ranking person in the restaurant.

Imagine what would have happened if I had only those cards to pay for my order! Just one more reason I don't trust digital cash.

At least this time I got a decent amount of gravy. Although I am a fan, now, of the B&G, the breakfast burrito isn’t very good at all! The way the restaurant is run leaves something to be desired. I remember when Wendy's was a step up from the rest of the fast foods. Now, the food is barely any better, just more expensive.

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I got home and lay down for a while. Then I got back up and drove over to mi amiga’s house and got to play with her daughter, Daniela, for a couple of hours. Her daddy was there and printed out a calendar with her photo, and a page of other photos, for me to have. No, he’s not proud at all! :-)

She is so cute, though. Six months old last week, standing up pretty well while hanging on to something, and getting ready to cut some teeth; I want one!!!

If I ever get my scanner working, I’ll put her pics in my computer. I did get a video of her making funny fussing noises for some reason. I need to get that into the computer; it wouldn’t work in my handheld. I wonder if it will work in my iPod.

Is it strange that I go to my friend’s house, play with her daughter, and spend most of the rest of my time talking to the proud papa? Well, they are latinos after all… No se!

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Stopped to grab a couple of staples at the store, and could barely walk out afterward. Obviously, I had overstayed my pain and anti-inflammatory meds. Been that way the rest of the day.

So, is it the pain meds, the anti-inflammatory meds, the meds given for the PET Scan, and the lack of sleep responsible for my run down, drug out mood? Don’t know. Moods are funny that way.

I thought it funny when I ran across a Pisces bookmark I purchased in Ybor City, Florida, a year or two ago. One comment about the personality of a Pisces was “Self-pitying when low.” Haven’t checked lately but I must be at least a quart low about now.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Which Would You Choose?

I had to make an interesting choice today: morphine or Mobic, an NSAID. I went with the NSAID.

[sarcasm on]The left hip joint has been feeling just wonderful today. [sarcasm off] So I called the Clinic this morning to schedule an appointment to see the doctor. Luckily, they could get me in this afternoon.

So, if you called this afternoon and I didn’t answer, that’s probably where I was. And I am suffering some cancer drug hearing impairment, as it turns out. Several times when I should have heard the phone, I only noticed the vibrating feature.

Evidence so far would indicate that it isn’t the joint itself, but the tendons, that are causing the pain. They took an x-ray today to see what they can see. If that doesn’t work it sounds like MRI time. I can’t recall having one of those. So for now my choices were to live with stronger pain meds, or go with an anti-inflammatory that, combined with my Warfarin, can cause me to bleed internally.

Why isn’t it ever easy? Then again, for me, maybe it is. It could be a lot worse.

That’s one of the things that I discussed with Nurse Diane today. She’s the one who kept calling me “Sir” during several phone conversations that we’ve had and who is undergoing cancer treatment. She was encouraged to hear that I’ve had some of the same symptoms that she has been having. And we discussed how hard it is to get people to understand and believe us sometimes about what we are going through.

She called another nurse over, saying, “Come over here. Ben’s been having the same symptoms that I complain about. I’m NOT crazy!” So we three discussed symptoms for a while.

We also discussed the problems that the people in our lives have watching us in sickness and in pain and how they feel so helpless to do anything that can ease our suffering. I wanted her to know the situation from the other point of view, too. I can’t imagine being married and having to go through all the pain I would be causing my partner. It’s bad enough having to have my kids go through it. But then again, I am a pretty big softy!

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I got to use my handicapped parking permit today!! When I stopped by Shopko, all the normal spots nearby were filled, so I broke down and used the permit. I didn’t at the Clinic; there were other spots near enough that I didn’t need to. But then again, they made me walk all over at the Clinic. Maybe I should have parked closer.

Walking exacerbates the problem, the pain. My attempts at exercise have probably contributed to the inflammation. So, I really should be limiting the amount of walking I do. Good Luck with that!

You know me; I’ll keep you updated! Speaking of updated, I kinda updated the Sticky Schedule recently if you hadn't noticed.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

You Could Knock Me Over With A Feather

No, there isn't any good news. Quite the opposite!

I think I need to call a doctor. Remember that I mentioned my old "getting run over by a spotting truck" injury to my left hip joint from 3 years and 11 months ago tomorrow was acting up? Well, now it's acting up big-time! It wouldn't take too big a feather to knock me over right now.

I guess that I just can't get enough of that pain thing. So, I may have to go back to the doctor and be put on aspirin or something.

I have been exercising as much as I can and my calfs (calves?) are showing it. I'm starting to get my 'hard body' back! OK, so maybe there is some good news after all. Now I need my arms to tighten up so they can support my weight when I have to use my cane. BTW, thanks Kris for the cane; it has come in handy quite a few times.

Maybe I'll get to use my temporary handicap parking permit after all!

Don't have much to tell tonight. There's a lot going on, but we need to make more sense out of the situation before I can say anything. Let's just say that Type Number Three has proven to be true to form. The question is "what to do; what to do."

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Om Mani Padme Hum

I’m cool; I’m cool. It just takes a while to get over it, that’s all. Not that I can ever get over it. But at some point you have to just write it off, let it go, and get on with life.

This past week hasn’t been a particularly good one. I’m used to the ‘being sick’ part, and as ‘being sick’ goes, this last week has been pretty good. I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. Then again, being the pessimist that I am because I like being right, I realize that the light at the end of the tunnel may just well be a train! But I keep hoping.

This past week has been pretty bad due to the actions of my fellow humans. I’d like to describe just one incident from last week, if I may.

Like a lot of people, I needed to obtain a loan to purchase my current vehicle. At the same time, I took out a Death and Disability insurance policy on the loan. If I die, the kids get my vehicle free and clear. It’s while I’m disabled that things get sticky. Insurance companies don’t like to pay off on policies.

Late last month I got a nasty letter saying, “Since you haven’t seen fit to fill out the form we sent you and return it to us, we’re going to terminate your policy in two weeks.” I called and responded that I’d be happy to fill out their form; they just have to send me one! I haven’t received any mail from them until the nasty-gram. They said they’d send another one out right away.

Ten days later I was still waiting for the USPS to “deliver de letter, de sooner de better!” (It still hasn’t gotten here. I mean Minneapolis isn’t THAT far away.)

So, another call to the insurance company last Thursday resulted in “We’re so sorry. It went out the same day we last talked, blah, blah, blah!”

It makes you wonder why they didn’t send a form along with the nasty-gram, doesn’t it?

So, rather than have them mail another and have the USPS use the letter to toss under the wheels so the mail truck can get out of another snow drift—OK, what’s your guess where it went?—I asked if they could fax the form directly to my doctor. They said “Sure, we can do that. We’ll do it right now. What’s the fax number?” So I gave them the fax number and off we went, I thought!

I needed to let the doctor’s office know whom the fax was coming for, and what I needed from them. It just happened to be 8 minutes after 5:00PM but I called the doctor’s office anyway. I got the after-hours computerized answering machine. I stayed on the line to talk to a person and requested that I be transferred to my doctor’s office’s voice mail. “We can’t do that. You’ll have to call back during office hours in the morning. This line is just for emergencies.” That’s why it took so long to get through the computerized menu!

So I set my alarm and called back bright and early. Of course I got the old “Due to the high volume of calls it may take until Doomsday for us to answer the phone but we will take you in the order in which you called. BTW, we may monitor this call for Quality Assurance purposes.” I wish they would have.

After about a 10-minute wait I finally got a human, and I’m being kind. There’s another word lurking in the back of my thoughts even today, three days later.

I asked for my doctor’s office and the, the, ah….woman… said that they don’t do it that way. I have to leave a message and they may return my call. Then she wanted my name so she could call up my record and leave my message and that’s when all heck broke loose. I tried to explain that I don’t use my first name, just my first initial and that I wasn’t sure how they had it in the computer.

She wouldn’t accept that. I had to give her my “legal first name.” I tried to tell her that even if I gave her that name, it wouldn’t be in the computer because I DON’T USE THAT NAME and the account wasn’t set up with it. But she wouldn’t listen. She said, quite snottily, “You are just wasting our time if you don’t give me that name.”

That’s when I lost it. I hung up on the, ah, the…woman!

I got dressed and drove to my doctor's office so I could actually talk to a human. I handed the receptionist, Bonnie, my driver’s license and said, “That’s my name. I need to know if a fax was received last night regarding my disability status.”

Bonnie looked at me kinda strange, and said that she’d check. She came back and said that nothing had been received.

Even when I give them the fax number, the insurance company couldn’t deliver the fax. Or maybe AT&T was on strike. (OK, what’s your explanation?)

So I called the insurance company and asked if the form had been faxed. “Of course it was.”

“Well that’s funny because I’m here at my doctor’s office and they have no fax to back up your statement.”

“Ah, ah, ah….”

“Do you think that it is possible that you could fax it here while I wait?”

“Ah, yeah, sure, we can do that? What’s the fax number?”

“Well just take a look at the fax transmission verification report.”

“Well, I, uh, I don’t seem to have one in your file.”

“Fine, just let me ask the receptionist.”

So, I got the insurance company to finally get the form to me through the use of my doctor’s office. The girls, excuse me, NO! Don’t excuse me! I’m not calling them by the same description that I gave that other, that, …woman! The girls in the office did a wonderful job and got the darned form filled out and back to me very quickly.

I filled the rest of it out, photocopied it, had it faxed to the insurance company, and mailed them a copy as well. I’m sure time will tell that I should have sent it registered mail, but by then I was so pissed I was seeing red, hence the title of this screed, Om Mani Padme Hum.

So, how was your day? LOL

Would it surprise you to know that was probably the least of my worries last week? You may eventually hear about more as time progresses. And it gets weirder.

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As long as I was out I stopped by Wendy’s and tried their biscuits and gravy again, eating it there instead of taking it home and eating it hours or days later. It’s still pretty good! A little short on portions, but still good!!!

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I received another photo of a little angel and her mother. I think it’s going to have to go up on my screensaver.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen mom. I probably saw her the last time at her mom’s wedding, when we were all a little younger. But I’ve been getting pics of the angel fairly regularly, thanks to grandma!

I would post the photo but I don’t have permissions, so I’m going to cheat just a bit. I ran it over to a photo-editing program and cropped everything but the eyes of the angel. You have to see these eyes. And I’m wondering how they will turn out in this format, so let me finish this up and post it.

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BTW, I keep posting the link to the Fully Informed Jury Association via a quote by L. Neil Smith. I just might have to stop. If you know your jury rights, would it surprise you to know that the judge and prosecuting attorney don’t want you on the jury? Read the adventures of one juror.

Kunolunkwa, y te quiero!