Not MIA, just IA...

Maybe that post title isn't very self-explanatory, so here you go...

Not Missing in Action, just in Action...

Meaning that things have just been topsy-turvy around here.  Lots has been going on - let me enlighten you.

WORK-RELATED:
My company has been laying people off for the past year or so, and while I've never really been nervous about my job, now I am.  And not so much about getting laid off, but more about not being able to do my new job...

I've always been a part of a department that sort of flew under the radar for the most part.  We brought in $20 million so I'm sure if we DIDN'T bring it in, we'd have been noticed, but for the most part, since we consistently made our numbers we sort of never drew attention to ourselves.  The irony is we were always ticked off that we were being treated as the "red-headed step-children," as my colleague would say. 

NOW, however, my job description has changed and I've been told I have to toot my own horn and the horn of my new department, that NOW we WANT attention brought to our division and I have to contribute to that.

My job has changed.  I'm now going to be specializing a particular subject category, focusing not on all the accounts in my geographical territory, but on a handful (25 or 30) key accounts that are supposed to be the focus of my attention and the attention of the company.  I have to grow their business, proactively expand our volume of sales with these customers, and make sure everyone knows what I'm doing, how I'm doing it and how successful I'm being.

HEALTH-RELATED:
I think I've mentioned the chronic bursitis in my hips.  I also have two knees (!), both with a torn meniscus and arthritis.  I have seen my GP, an orthopedist, an acupuncturist, a rheumatoid arthritis specialist, and most recently an orthopedic surgeon, the one who did hubby's shoulder surgery.

Regarding my hips - they hurt.  They hurt all the time.  I really don't want to be taking anti-inflammatories every day, and I really don't want to start with cortisone shots at age 52 (who knows how much shot-related deterioration I'll have in the next 30 years...).  But I'm not sure what else to do.  I've gone for therapy, taken yoga, done some stretching at the gym, and nothing has relieved the pain.  I seriously walk about 20 feet or so before I'm walking relatively normally, after I've been seated for a while and my hips have stiffened up.  I just called a radio doctor this weekend and he's recommended some alternative treatment.  I'm in enough pain to follow up on his website...

Regarding my knees - the surgeon said he'd recommend surgery on my left knee.  It's funny, I first had trouble with my right knee last December.  I'd gone shopping for the day and my knee hurt so much that I really thought, at the time, that I would have to call J to come and get me, that I wouldn't be able to drive home.  So I started seeing doctors about my right knee.  NOW it's my left one that's worse, and while the pain isn't as severe as the one day in December, it's constant.  I feel stiffness and pain, like a tight muscle or tendon, on the back of my knee, and it's constant.  Again, when I'm sitting, it takes me a long time to get up and walk.

So I made an appointment with another orthopedic surgeon, the one who just operated on our friend K.  K has had 20 years worth of trouble with his knees, and he was up and around within a week, actually up and around the next day, but functioning almost normally within a week, with painkillers only one day, and Advil for a few days.  I go on November 6.

FAMILY-RELATED:
Just worrying about a sister who's not as happy as she should be...  and hoping all my family stays healthy and safe...

We're waiting for a new great-nephew to be born.  October 18th was his due date, but apparently he's real comfy and in no hurry to be born, so if he doesn't decide to make an appearance on his own, R has to be in the hospital at 1:30am Friday morning and they'll induce.  I'm leaving for New Orleans Saturday morning so that's not great timing as far as I'm concerned.  On my last business trip I missed a family funeral.  It looks like I'm going to miss a baby this time around...

And my holiday resolution, which has to start being implemented NOW -- I HAVE to clean this house.  Thank goodness I have a lot of days off left to take this year so I'll do it and get the house ready for the holidays.  There won't be too much of that staying home and watching TV and eating bon-bons I'm so used to...

And just for fun, here are a few photos I've taken that you might enjoy...

This is Dobby who was originally named Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) except that when my daughter called her, the dog would sit instead of come, thinking she was saying "Sit."

Took this photo at the lake this past weekend, with nothing but my iPhone.  Even I'm impressed with this picture...

This is the rocking horse hubby made for the nephew-to-be.  He made a cradle for our great niece and planned to make another but the kids freaked out and said the cradle was an heirloom and they were going to pass it along to each other as needed.  So J decided to make a rocking horse this time, even before we knew they were having a boy.

This is my new kitchen at the lake house - I don't have a photo (yet) of the backsplash up and grouted, but here's a shot of the new cabinets and counters and appliances, even though the counters are messy with tools and grout...

And another iPhone photo I love, the view from my office window, unfiltered.

We were at Sam's Club a few weekends ago, and we were walking to our car when we saw this, 2 dogs in the back of the SUV, no owner, no one in the car (and I checked)...  They were just hanging there, waiting for their people...

Surgery Update

Jack had his shoulder surgery Monday.  We got home at about 6:30pm.  I started him on the pain pills right away, based on all the warnings from friends, family, acquaintances and the doctor that the pain would be bad. 

They called the next day and brought him in for physical therapy on Tuesday.  Which was fine.  Because the nerve block had not warn off yet.

But it did, later that evening, and it was bad.  He's a strong man, but this brought him to his knees.  At 2:30am he finally asked me to call the emergency number and the covering doctor told me to double his pain medication and add 4 Advil every 8 hours as an anti-inflammatory.  Since Jack made a big deal with the doctor that he didn't want Vicodin, so he was given Nucynta, which is usually used for patients with a sensitivity to Vicodin.  Once the double pills kicked in, it was like someone took a hundred pounds off him...

We changed the dressings yesterday and again today.  5 incisions, 10 stitches, total.  1 big bruise.  Yesterday he wanted to take a shower, so we covered the incision site, he took his sling off - and was shocked to find that he couldn't hold the weight of his arm up on his own!  I got my old sling out and he wore it in the shower.  You always feel so much better once you shower...  He said today's therapy session was a bit more intense, that his shoulder is moving better than they expected.  Not well, mind you, but it's moving which is a good thing.

And then there's the snow.  It snowed, about a good 5 inches.  Light and fluffy, thank goodness, because I had to clean off the car and shovel around it so we could get to the gym.  Danny, our neighbor, shoveled our sidewalk, a path up our driveway and our steps early this morning.  When I went out to clean off the car and the path to the car so Jack could get out there safely, he came out yelling for me to get back in the house, that he'd take care of it, he told me he would...  I explained he could happily do the rest, that I was just getting Jack out the door to go to therapy.  Then he said I should have called him and he'd have cleaned off my car...

It's nice to see people help Jack once in a while; he's always the one doing for others, it's ingrained in him.

Tonight I'm going to suggest we play a game, watch a movie, do something together that is interactive and will hopefully keep his attention - he's so bored and depressed.  And being laid up is so hard for him.  T came over yesterday for a couple of hours and he got so tired but he didn't want to tell T to leave...  So then he felt tired and cranky... 

I'm working from home today. It's so inconvenient to not be able to ALT TAB between windows; my database opens on a separate desktop so I can't use that shortcut. I can ALT TAB to the database from my desktop, but once in there, I have to minimize the windows to get back out to my laptop desktop. AND, to make it worse, the ENTER button in the numbers panel doesn't work - I have to use the ENTER button in the alpha panel. Everything is ISBN driven so it's a pain to have to remember to go to the alpha keyboard to enter any field entry. If I don't I'm erroring out all the time.

I'm going back to work Monday, but I'm going to talk with my manager about working from home a day or two a week for a few weeks - I know it's going to be a fight at my end, with Jack, but he's not one to entertain himself with TV or a book, like me.  He needs to be DOING and right now there's no DOING...

Will post more soon...

Why????

We were doing so well! 

We were working with CompServices on his workman's comp claim and THEY.WERE.WONDERFUL.

And he came home yesterday with a notice the Board is switching to some other workman's comp company and what do we do now with a claim started with CompServices and the surgery is MONDAY and he's going to get prescriptions and should we use the old card and I'm NOT waiting to fill them until we get a new card from the new company because the doctor already warned us he'd be in more pain than before the surgery and what if these new companies aren't as easy to work with?

Yea, I planned to keep going but even I ran out of breath reading it.

I HOPE, HOPE, HOPE existing claims stay with the covering agency.

Please keep whatever you can cross, crossed.

Surgery Is Scheduled

So on March 4, J will have his shoulder surgery.  It's confirmed:  2 torn tendons and a rotator cuff tear.  The doctor promised he'd try to get J back to pre-work-injury health but that if he'd come when he first hurt his shoulder (and I quote:  "15 or 20 years ago"), he could have gotten the shoulder back the way it was in J's 20s!!!  J said he doesn't remember hurting that shoulder, but the doctor said there was quite a bit of atrophied muscle so it's obvious he did, and then powered through it, ignoring the injury and the pain.  That was the first time we met the doctor and he pegged J but good!!!

I was so afraid that since it was a workman's comp event we'd be sent to the doctors from hell, that we'd be sucked into the black hole of red tape and paperwork that would never be resolved because we all know government workers just take home a paycheck and don't care about their work...  (FYI:  That was a JOKE, people!  Although I admit to fear that working with the comp people would be problematic at best.  We've all had insurance fiascos, I'm sure...)

But, OMG, the people we had to work with at the comp office, along with the doctor's office staff, were absolutely phenomenal!  They responded to voice messages, they got things done, the comp people even had to get the doctor's surgical center approved as a venue so they could pay for the surgery, and they did it all!  We're dealing with CompServices, Inc.  They handle workman's comp claims in NJ and in PA.  I guess the government has farmed the work out to third party handlers and they have been wonderful.

The doctor told J that if we didn't like him now, because of his recommendation for surgery, we'd probably really hate him post-surgery.  The pain he's going through now is apparently nothing compared to the suffering after the operation.  He said if J is in the 40% of his patients who don't feel immediate relief, and there's a chance of that since there's so much damage in the joint, we'd be calling him demanding another MRI "because there's no way that [he] fixed the shoulder because [J] is in worse shape than before the surgery..."  He told us up front he's going to refuse another MRI, IF of course the surgery goes the way he feels it will, because it might take two months to see/feel any improvement.  Ouch.

Then the bad news.  And yes, SURGERY was NOT the bad news.  The BAD news was that J could be out of work, according to the surgeon, 9-12 weeks.  Completely unacceptable to my husband.  The doctor agreed that if his recovery and PT went well, that he'd consider 6-9 weeks, with a return to light duty.  You know, where you TEACH the kids to do a jumping jack, but you don't do it yourself.  Yeah, like that will ever happen...  But he made a point of telling J that doing the PT was good, that doing a little more at home, as advised by the therapist AND the doctor, was okay, too, but that OVERdoing it was NOT.  We had to explain that to my thick-headed husband a couple of times...  (Just kidding, J - love you!)

I'm going to take the day of surgery off, and the day after as well, and I'm planning to work from home the rest of that week.  J thinks that's overkill and I should go back to work the day after the operation.  (Don't know why he didn't tell me to go in after the surgery...)  I'm leaving it all up in the air for now, but have told my manager my plans and he's okay with them.

We've been warned by many that laying down will be impossible for him so we're borrowing recliners from our niece.  We were going to get them tomorrow, but we're waiting until next week now, because she's sick (and her husband is, too) and we can't take a chance that he picks up something.  It's bad enough he spends 7-1/2 hours a day with KIDS and their germs...

Keep your fingers crossed for the surgery and for my his recovery.  Thanks!!!

More Health News

I realize that as I get older, I am getting more and more impatient and I don't tolerate fools very well.  I never did, but it's worse now.

I went for my MRI on Thursday 01/03.  We went back to work on 01/02 which means, after two weeks of vacation, I had to take a day off to go to the doctor.  I suppose I could have waited longer, for a more convenient appointment that wouldn't force me to go during work hours, but my knee was hurting, and hurting badly.

The doctor took X-rays (well, his technician did).  Then he recommended an MRI (the doctor, not the technician!). 

Silly me, I assumed (yes, I know all about assuming!) that once he got the MRI results and the radiologist's report, he'd call me with results.  Well, today is 01/15 and I haven't heard a thing so I called the office.  "Oh, you have to make an appointment and come in and he'll go over the results with you."

Really?  Then shouldn't you have told me on 01/03 that I should make a follow-up appointment with the doctor for a day after the MRI????  So, I say I'm off on Friday, do you have an appointment that day?  Of course not, the first available is Thursday 01/24, a day I cannot take off from work or leave early because I'm going in late after my volunteer work.  So the NEXT available date is Monday 01/28 at 3:30.  So now I have to wait that much longer and leave work early again...  I'm not a happy camper.

And here's some J news:  I believe the diagnosis included something like this...  "severe tear," "rotator cuff," "see an orthopedist," "possible surgery."  Talk about a camper who is not very happy!!!  We're waiting for the workman's comp people to call with the referral information and the doctor's name and if possible, I want him to go to Dr. M. in Montclair.  They seem to be okay with us using our doctors as long as they're in network.  The radiologist was; hopefully the ortho doctor will be, too.  (Just for $hits and giggles, DD's fiance said his doctor told him with surgery on HIS rotator cuff, he could be out of work for 10 weeks!!!)

One of my customers mentioned that if we don't have a recliner, we should borrow or buy one because her friend who had similar surgery couldn't lay down post-surgery.  We test drove some recliners at Bob's Discount Furniture yesterday, just for fun...  We're married 13 years and haven't bought a single piece of furniture yet!  A recliner?  Perhaps two?  Wow!!!  That would be wild!!!

MUY IMPORTANTE:  Is anyone else all of a sudden unable to upload photos from their computer into their blog posts?  Apparently I can still upload from Picasa (isn't that over and done with?!?) but not from my My Pictures file...  I don't know what the problem is...  I'll try to do it from work tomorrow in case it's a laptop thing...

Quick Health UpdateS

So I went to the orthopedist.  He confirmed I have bursitis in my hips, and I guess I'm basically going to have to live with that.  I had an MRI of my knee done.  It went okay.  The MRI tech was awesome!

I knew J was going to have to go to get one of his shoulder (more on that later) so I talked to the tech about the possibility of J getting a bit claustrophobic in the MRI tube.  He assured me they'd just pull him out immediately...

On the first day back at school, J was pulling the volleyball standards out and something in his left shoulder went "ping."  They suspect it might be a tear in his rotator cuff.  So since it's a workman's comp injury, we had to wait for the immedicenter to contact us with approval for the MRI.  They couldn't reach J at school so they called me.  A STAT MRI?  Guess what the earliest day was - Sunday at 7am!  So we checked and Montclair Radiological in Nutley had a spot available THE SAME DAY for a STAT MRI.  He did have a problem with the MRI machine but the tech, who we saw before J went up for the test, gave him glasses that helped him see the whole room behind him.  End of panic!

While I was waiting for him, Stan came in with his son.  His son needed a chest x-ray.  Stan (who used to work with J at Watchung Shell) told me he had a heart scare late last year.  I remember Cheryl mentioning he was in the hospital but she never said why, just that he was better.  It turns out that after a severe bout of bronchitis, it settled around his heart.  They actually had to shock his heart back to a regular beat! 

On Friday we had a lunch for J's Aunt E, for her birthday.  23 of the cousins and aunts managed to come for the lunch at Terrazo's in Nutley.  It was lovely and the food was pretty good.

That night we had a dinner at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in Edgewater.  The dinner was okay, but the service was not too good.  Salads and appetizers came out together, small plates were late and cold, they forgot plates, desserts, the coffee was HORRIBLE...  All that for a $3K plus dinner.  $3K!!! 

Anyway, the Golden Globes are on and we're going to watch.  Well, I am, and J is going to read Family Handyman...  More later this week...

Health Update - Don't Get Scared!

Although admittedly, I did, for a moment or two...

It all started last Friday night.  We decided the day before we were going to go to the Olive Garden for dinner.  So we spent a lovely day on the dock and on the water - the weather was gorgeous, hot and sunny, but not humid enough to keep me inside all day...  We ran into a teacher friend of J's who happens to live in the area so we were standing and chatting with her, waiting for our little seating buzzer to light and and vibrate.

All of a sudden I noticed a C-shaped I-don't-know-what, at the perifery of my vision in my left eye.  I blinked, thinking it would disappear.  It didn't.  The only way I can describe it is to say it was a "C" made out of alternating triangles.  Eventually I read someone else's description of it as zig-zag and that might be more accurate, but it was flashing a bit, like the flashing lights you supposedly see when your retina is detaching.  (I read way too much on the Internet!  PLUS I have a best friend whose retina was detached in an accident years ago...)

It lasted about 20/25 minutes then disappeared entirely.  No lasting effects, no vision impairment, no headache.  J and I talked about it and agreed that I'd better call the eye doctor.  So I did, at 6:10pm.  They closed already so I called their "emergency number"/answering service.  "Emergency number," my eye!  (No pun intended!)

The lady was very nice, and she asked me if it was an emergency.  Now, granted, I did say I hadn't beein in a car accident and there was no head trauma of any kind, so technically it wasn't a rush-to-the-hospital-and-save-my-vision kind of emergency, but it was MY EYES, PEOPLE!

And I waited.  And waited some more.  And when I hadn't gotten a call the next morning, I called the office because the answering service told me they were open Saturday from 8am-12noon.  But the machine came on at 8:15/8:30-ish, referring patients to the answering service.  So I called them.  Again.

And THAT very nice lady told me that my message read "customer claims no emergency" and that the doctor would be getting my message on Monday, at 8:30am.  And if they didn't answer their phones, they must be closed.  "A lot of our clients forgot to tell us they were closing on July 4th, through the weekend, so that's what must have happened with them."

I explained (calmly) that I hadn't exactly said it wasn't an emergency, but I guess I sort of did - she doesn't apparently read mild panic about MY EYES as an emergency - she just heard the words "no car accident" and "no head trauma."

So I waited until they called me Monday (at 9:30am, btw).  The receptionist kindly rushed me in as an emergency patient at 1pm yesterday, so I left work and went home at lunchtime.

I thought I might have to wait a while but I didn't; they took me almost immediately.  They gave me drops, checked my eye pressure, then told me to wait 15-20 minutes for the drop in my left eye to work.  The doctor came in, did a pretty thorough examination with multiple light sources and magnifiers.

Thankfully he said my pressure was good, my optic nerve and blood vessels all looked fine, my retina was NOT detached (not even close!).  Then he suggested I go see my GP to eliminate the possibility of a TIA or mini-stroke.

BOOM.

That was the shoe dropping.

A mini-stroke?  A TIA?  Are you kidding me?!  THEN just to be sure I was paying attention, he tossed around words like neurological consult, brain tumor, preventative, etc.

Just for the record, folks, after that initial "WHAT?!?" I knew this was just a matter of eliminating other reasons for a most-likely one-time occurence that he had no explanation for.  Dr. Internet led me to the ocular migraine diagnosis on my own, along with confirmation of that from a friend we had dinner with on Saturday night who suffers from the same thing, but with the accompanying migraine headache.  The note my eye doctor wrote for my GP reads as follows:

- One episode of unexplained visual phenomenon
- Suggests ocular migraine/vs. TIA
- check clotting abnormality
- Carotid/Doppler only if you feel patient is at risk for TIA
- Neuro consult

1.  I had a clotting test done years ago when a blood center employee told me I had thick blood because it took her 2 HOURS to get one pint of blood from me when I was donating.  I was fine.  I don't have thick blood or a clotting problem.
2.  There's no history of TIAs or strokes in my family, a couple of heart attacks, and some high blood pressure, but not enough to worry me at all.

So tomorrow I'm going to my GP for a physical.  And I'm going to ask her to give me the works; I haven't had a complete physical in a few years, so maybe this is just God's way of making sure I know I'm okay.

I did try the ole "ocular migraines are stress-induced so I have to retire" thing, but J didn't fall for it.

Darn, he's smarter than I like sometimes!!!

I'll keep you all posted!

Surprise! I'm not thin!

So several months ago I found the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell.  Yesterday Meg posted a post (?) entitled "perfect bodies, cellulite, and a little rebellion."

Thank you, Meg.  Thank you for doing what you do so well - writing what I'm thinking, even though you don't know me and I don't know you.  You captured it to perfection: 

"i don't have a perfect body.

i have cellulite; i will always have cellulite....

my body isn't perfect. i have cellulite and fleshy hips and more moles than a person can count....

but holy hell if i don't love this body of mine....

and certainly there are mornings i wish i knew what it was to be blond with thinner hips and perkier boobs....

i lost years of my life to wanting to lose weight.

and then, not too terribely long ago, i realized that the desire to change my body was the least interesting thing about me.

(that desire is in fact the least interesting thing about every woman i know).

you see, i think to love our bodies in a world or a society or whatever-you-want-to-call-it that tells us we shouldn't is a powerful act of rebellion--an even greater act of love.

i want to know what it is to live to in a world, where we, as women, say enough. enough of this nonsense. and okay, so we're not there yet, i know that. but at least let me add my voice to my betters and my peers who have gone before me and said, there's more to life than this, and so i love my body just as it is."

The thing is, I'm 51.  51-and-a-half, yesterday, to be exact.  And Meg?  She's NOT 51.  She's MUCH younger.  And she's come to this epiphany so much earlier in her life, and that's the AWESOME part of it - she'll have a much happier, more balanced life because of it. 

It took me a LONG time to realize I'm not my body.  Sure, I could lose few pounds.  Can't we all?  I could probably lose 20-30 and still be completely healthy, not too skinny, and just fine. 

But if I don't?

So.What.

You know what people need to realize?  That our husbands love us.  The us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  Our families and friends love us, the us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  And we have to learn to love us, the us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  They love and we need to learn to love the PEOPLE we are, not the weight we are.

And I'm getting there.  Yes, I'm still a WW member, I still hope to lose a few pounds sooner rather than later.  But I am SO DARNED PROUD that I went for a walk with my husband yesterday, only a 1/2 mile walk around our neighborhood, but we went for a walk.  THEN I went to the gym.  The gym I'm paying for each month but not using.  And I went inside!!!  I didn't just drive by on the way to Dunkin' Donuts for a Lite Iced Caramel Latte.  And I rode the stationary bike, I rode it for 4-and-a-half miles!  Okay, 10 minutes at no incline, 10 minutes at a incline of 2, and 10 minutes at no incline again.  But I rode it.

Slow and steady does the job.  Eventually I'll be back at a steeper incline, at a faster rate (although I'll always be walking, not running).  And eventually I'll even use the machines to work my upper body, those spaghetti arms (they're floppy like cooked spaghetti, NOT thin and firm like uncooked spaghetti!)...

But you know what?  I'll never be skinny.  I'll never be a size zero.  (Which, btw, as long as we're talking here, IS.NOT.A.REAL.SIZE.  It was invented a few years ago, and as far as I'm concerned, just means I'm really wearing a 10 or 12, NOT a 12 or 14!  It forced me to add 2 more sizes onto my "real" size.  Tell me THAT doesn't suck the big one!)

And that's okay.  It's okay not to be pin-thin.  It's okay to have a bit of a big butt, a stomach that's not quite as flat as I'd like it to be (and btw, Dr. K., NOT cool to tell me I can't blame my tummy on those fibroids I'm sporting!  I've used that excuse for a while and no one called me on it!), boobs that aren't quite as perky as I'd like them to be (hubby says they're perfect for my body!  So there!), flabby arms and thighs...  It's okay.

Meg, LOVE your blog, and thanks for putting it all out there, that it's okay to have cellulite, and that the greatest achievement we could hope for would be to love our bodies as they are, not to lose those 30 pounds!  If only all of us could see it your way!!!

2 Small Polyps and Mild Diverticulosis

I was so convinced that I'd be clean as a whistle, I was disappointed to find out I had 2 small polyps and some mild diverticulosis.  Nothing a high fiber diet can't eliminate in the future, but...

The important thing is they found them and removed them.  And Dr. M. said I don't have to give up seeds or nuts so I can easily add more fiber to my diet.  I go back in 3 years. 

Advance Notice to Dr. M.:  You have 3 years to figure out another way of cleaning me out 'cause I'm not doing this NuLYTELY solution again.  It's like drinking salt water; after a single sip I'm ready to gag.  THANK GOODNESS the pharmacist said I could mix some lemonade in with the drink.  EWWW.  (I believe I said the same thing yesterday.)

I had to take 4 Dulcolax tablets - I'll take 8 if I don't have to drink that stuff...

My daughter convinced me a small burger or something on the lighter side would be better after going without solid food for 38 hours, so we went to BK and I had a Whopper Jr.  Then after a bottle of water in the afternoon and a hard pretzel, we went to CiCi's for dinner with Mom.  I enjoyed my dinner - lots of different pizzas, lots of flavors - and Roman Holiday Italian Ice from the Lyndhurst Pastry Shop for dessert.  Mmmmmmm...

Turning 50 - Officially!

So my birthday was December 18 and that's the day I turned 50.  FIFTY!  The big Five-Oh!  5 decades!  1/2 a century!

One might think from that sentence that 50 traumatized me but truly, it didn't.  I couldn't believe I was 50 years old!  When I look in the mirror, I see the me from 30 years ago, granted, with a few more pounds and a few more fine lines on my face, but still?  50?  No way.

But today, it's official.  I FEEL 50 today.  I spent yesterday working from home, prepping for my 1st colonoscopy.

EWW.

There are probably other words I could use, like, "I'm starving!" and "That stuff sucked!" and "It made me want to vomit after the first three glasses!" and "NO EFFIN' WAY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN!"

But I will, in five years or next year, whenever Dr. M. tells me I have to do it again...

I have to be at the office at 11:30 this morning; the procedure is at 12 noon.  I'm pretty sure that I'll be fine and they'll find nothing, but even if they find a few polyps, they'll remove them. 

I have a bad headache; I'm not sure if it's from the low pressure system on its way (I'm susceptible to pressure headaches) or if it's because I'M STARVING!  I haven't had solid food from Thursday night, and I'm so hungry I could scream!

I'm dreaming of where to go for lunch, post-procedure.  I'm thinking a diner, instead of our traditional Burger King (that's where J wanted to go after his colonscopies...)...  Or perhaps California Pizza Kitchen - I haven't been in a long time and I love their Pear and Gorgonzola pie...  That would totally make J sick to his stomach, but it's MY colonoscopy... 

Home Sweet Home

I was SO darned happy to get home from my business trip, you have no idea!  I missed my husband, my bed, my shower...  Any my husband missed me, too.  So much so he put up a sign to welcome me home; I'll post a photo once I get it uploaded to my computer.

The trip home was tough - lots of turbulence.  It didn't make me sick, but apparently it really bothered my boss.  He commented the next day that he can handle turbulence that makes the plane rise and drop, but that side to side movement at the same time?  Not so much!

I came in on Wednesday evening.  Just in time for snow lightning and thunder and lots of icy slush on the ground.  And me in my flat work shoes and no boots.  Managed to step right into a cold puddle of slush outside the airport, and again outside the house.  COLD!

Finished the work week by working from home on Friday.  I had a doctor's appointment with a geriatric rheumatologist at 10am.  Yea, I didn't know he was a geriatric rhematologist when I made the appointment.  I was the youngest patient in there, and at 50, that's not saying much!  After a thorough review of my medical history and my symptoms, the doctor recommended a cortisone shot.  I know that J is anti-cortisone shot so when Dr. L. recommended one, I told him I wanted to call my husband first.  So I did.  And I explained that the doctor was convinced the injection would alleviate the swelling in my bursa that was, in his expert opinion, causing my hip pain.  Ultimately I decided to try the shot.

And OH.MY.GOD.  I'm walking almost normally again!  I've already made an appointment for the other hip, and if I need another shot, I'm going for it.  I haven't walked so comfortably or climbed stairs with so little pain in almost a YEAR.  I am going on the record right now:  this shot helped me.  I don't know how long this will last; the doctor thought this could conceivably "cure" the problem by reducing the inflammation.  I can't even imagine - but I'm going to give it a darn good shot.  Or two or three...

Well, have to go and update my iTouch - will be back later this week, hopefully with more photos...

A 4th Diagnosis...

So far they've suggested gout or pseudo-gout, but both of those ideas were tossed when my bloodwork came back okay.

Perhaps arthritis?  Take some anti-inflammatories as needed.

Then it was cellulits.  Take three weeks of bactrim and enjoy the antibiotics...  Don't forget the acidophilus...

Then it was off to the orthopedist on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  He came in and I liked him immediately.  We talked.  He took a full history, checked out my x-rays (no bone spurs or physical reason for the elbow...)  He diagnosed my elbow as bursitis within 2 minutes.

I mentioned my hips to him and he asked me to take my shoes off and stand in front of him.  He took a knuckle on his left hand and poked at my hip, and I almost went down to my knees!  Apparently I have bursitis in my hips, too!  (Hey, if you're going to do something, you might a well do it 100%)

He drained my elbow (no infection remains) and said it needed to be splinted.  He told me to go to the casting room with Rhonda.  I made a bad joke about not auditioning for anything (no one laughed).  We went there and I got a cast.  My first cast ever.  I used to think I wanted one, for the sympathy vote, but now that I do, I'm wide enough on my own.  I do NOT need a cast to make me wider still - I keep banging into people, brushing up against door jambs....

The cast is removable but the doctor said to keep it on 24/7 except for washing.  So I look forward to the 20 minutes a day I spend in the shower...  more than just 'cause I like feeling squeaky clean... 

He gave me a prescription for 2 weeks of PT - he requested they develop an at-home exercise program for me and said that after I'm confident that I know the routine, I don't have to go to therapy anymore.  I have to go just long enough to learn the program...

So between the yoga twice a week, and an exercise program at least 3 days a week - YUK.

Also, fell asleep during yoga class today - out cold!  SO asleep that I woke myself up snoring and shouted, "WHAT?"  Then it turns out that I was talking in my sleep!  OMG!  It was a late night last night - got home from work at almost midnight from sales conference and sales conference dinner...

And here's some cool news.  Just booked our trip to Cabo San Lucas for a family wedding.  Here's a link to the very expensive hotel we're staying at:  Las Ventanas.  Take a look and eat your heart out be thankful YOU'RE not shelling out that money!  Just kidding - we're going to a destination wedding for our nephew (on J's side) - can't wait!

Please send some prayers to Arizona.  My sister's dog is sick, seriously ill, and in the puppy ER.  She means the world to P and we want our Kazia happy and healthy and home as soon as possible!!!

3 Hours in the ER that I'll Never Get Back...

We went to Atlantic City on Wednesday, for a credit union seminar.  We had the usual fun, I lost the usual funds, and then won them back, thank goodness!   We ate at Morton's Steak House on Thursday evening, and I had a delicious dinner. 

I had noticed that my elbow was a bit puffy, similar to when I had the cellulitis attack a couple of weeks ago.  So on Friday, after we got home, and after we picked up Neen's car from KD's shop, I decided I had to go to either the Immedicenter or to the emergency room.  I really didn't want to go to the ER - really?  for a swollen elbow?  But the Immedicenter guy had warned me two weeks ago that if the infection didn't respond to the antibiotics within 48 hours, I should go to the ER for an IV-antibiotic.  I only had to worry about a systemic infection, nothing too serious...

So after consulting with hubby and mom, off we went to the hospital. 

Three hours.  Three hours I'll never get back.  Three hours we spent laughing and goofing around while we waited for a doctor to come in.  Three hours where we sent a photo of me in the hospital bed to my sisters and to my sister-in-law, and to our friend G who was still in AC.  I just LOVE having a camera in my cell phone!!!  That was rather entertaining, counting down the minutes to the return phone calls and the panicked queries.  In the photo I was lying in the hospital bed, laughing, and pointing to my elbow in one of them. 

The upshot?  A FIFTH diagnosis:  bursitis, with cellulitis thrown in for good measure 'cause I just can't have a simple ailment...  Apparently from sitting at my desk for hours at a time, I have caused my bursa to become inflamed.  That doesn't necessarily mean it will get infected all the time - I was just lucky this time around!  Since I took my last antibiotic THAT VERY MORNING, the ER doctor thought it might be a good idea to give me 7 more days of Bactrim, to be on the safe side.  So I'm back on the antibiotics, and for sh-ts and giggles, she wrapped my arm in an Ace Bandage and asked if I wanted a sling!  [An aside:  FINALLY, Ace Bandages with Velcro on the ends - no more metal clips!!!]  I have a sling at home so I turned that down (why pay for a second one?!) but you can bet I'll milk this at work if I can, for as long as I can!

I tried this:  Since I can't sit with my elbow on the desk without hurting myself or having chronic bursitis, I should quit my job and live off my husband.  To his credit, he just shrugged.  But dang, I can't do that!  I need what little money I make...  Ah, well, perhaps a health-related early retirement is closer to reality...

Anyhow, we're at the lake and I have to catch up on some blog reading - I haven't checked my favorites since Tuesday!  I'm just a little behind...

Back soon...

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile...

Jack went to my mom's house to pull weeds yesterday, weeds that were allowed to overtake the garage from the neighbor's house...  Not paying attention to the fact that he's not 20 years old anymore, he pulled weeds for two hours.  Pull, turn, toss, turn.  Pull, turn, toss, turn.

And so on.  And so on.

He pulled weeds for two hours and after two hours, couldn't stand up at all.

He's in agony. 

He can't stand up straight, he's walking like an old man, bent over, with even his head bowed down, looking toward the ground.

You know he's hurting when he takes 3 Advil without argument.

Usually I'm walking behind him, like a good squaw, but these past two days?  He can't keep up with me.  He's in slow motion, and can't speed it up at all!

Please send get well wishes his way!

Implant implanted...

So I had to be at the oral surgeon's by 7am, for a 7:30am implant.

They TOLD me I was going to be in the operating room but I didn't know it was really an operating room! All sterile and white, with two walls of windows - it was so bright in there!

And I'm a scrubs convert - not the TV show, the clothes! I had to put on a top and bottom and socks and a hair cover - scrubs are comfortable! I might have to buy me some at Walmart!

For the record, my bp was waaaay up, 146/89, pre-surgery. (My normal is between 120/70 and 120/80.). Post surgery, heading back to normalk 138/89. Now, sitting in bed with an ice pack on my jaw, TLC on TV, and a Dunkin' Donuts Caramel Coolatta on my nightstand - I KNOW it's back to normal!

The doctors gave me some extra novacaine, to make it through the morning. They suggested this procedure would be even easier than the extraction, so if I didn't take any Vicodin for THAT procedure, I'd most likely need none for this one.

I think I'm going to pack my ice pack and go get my hair highlighted (it needs it DESPERATELY!).

Back later!

It's time...

... to get serious about my health.

I went to the doctor Tuesday for a cystoscopy. Thank goodness there's nothing seriously wrong - just what they call "benign essential hematuria." (If you're really interested you can look it up - it's nothing serious. In fact, I don't have to go back for a follow-up for, and I quote, "10 or 15 years.")

But now I have no excuse. I have no excuse to not take care of myself. I have no reason to "take it easy until they find out what's wrong..."

So today I had fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch, and a slice of pepperoni pizza for dinner. I had 20 ounces of vitamin water, a medium iced coffee, and a few sips of J's coke at dinner. I'm going to go and grab a bottle of water in a couple of minutes because I still need some more liquid for the day.

I'm going to start walking more, moving more, eating less, eating better. I'm going to inflate my exercise ball and start using it for some exercises I read about that are supposed to help reduce the pain in my hips that I've decided comes from the early stages of osteoarthritis. I have early arthritis in my pinky fingers. My hips hurt when I sit for a length of time and then get up to walk. They hurt more when I go upstairs, trying to move my own weight against gravity, then when I go downstairs, with the help of gravity.

I'm simply too young to be slowed up by arthritic symptoms that I only have because I'm too lazy to do some slight to moderate exercise. And I know myself: once slight becomes moderate, I actually begin to enjoy it anyway. It just takes a while for me to "get into it." Deep down inside, readers, I'm just plain lazy.

So with your support (send those good wishes my way, please!) I'm going to try. I'll keep you all posted!m

I don't know what's happening to me...

I'm well aware that when I eat bad things, I gain weight.
When I don't exercise, I don't lose weight.
When I eat late, I gain weight.
And Jack has been so good about helping me.
Until this week.
All of a sudden we're having coffee and snacks around 9pm.
THIS.HAS.TO.STOP.
TODAY.
TONIGHT.
Maybe tomorrow (there's some pumpkin pie left!)

Two-and-a-half more days...

... until I can start wearing real shoes, without my favorite fashion accessory, the black broken-pinkie-toe-boot!

The doctor had told me to wear it 2-3 weeks. I went with 3, to be safe. Yesterday and today, it really feels good - a bit stiff, but less painful and I seem to be walking more normally.

I finally got a tree - 7-1/2' and artificial, but it's not.a.pigmy.tree!!! I was so tired of small live trees to replant at the lake or my little 5' tree... I'm a Christmas person and I wanted a Christmas TREE! Not a Christmas bush!

I'm in the midst of decorating it - will post pictures when I have them!

We'll be at the lake over the holidays - I'm off from 12/23 until 01/04 (YAY!) and will be shopping for a laptop, using a borrowed one in the meantime! So I'll be online over the holidays!

Well, gotta run! Toodles!

One down, nine to go...

So I have 10 toes. If one's broken, and it's only my right pinkie toe, I don't really need it anyway, right? I have nine more! In fact, my sister said they could amputate it and I'd never even miss it!

Jack's Aunt Anna died last Monday. Because of the holiday and traveling issues (a lot of her family had to come from Texas), they delayed the wake and funeral to Friday and Saturday. My first thought was that although we'll miss her and it's terribly sad that she died, and sadder still that it's over a holiday that her family has to deal with this loss, she's finally with Uncle Nat and maybe, just maybe, she's not so cranky anymore. She's been one unhappy camper for the last eight or nine years, ever since her husband died. She missed him something fierce. So now, even though we've lost her, she's back with Uncle Nat and she's finally happy again.

Anyway, the wake was Friday night. We went to the lake and came home early to shower and get ready to go and pay our respects. That night I asked Jack to wake me at 7am so I'd have time to shower and get ready for the 8:30am service at the funeral home without rushing. I overslept. I'd like to blame Jack and say that he didn't wake me after the alarm went off (which I ignored 'cause it went off at our usual 5:50am and he shut it off), but he says he woke me and I said, "Okay, just another minute" and proceeded to sleep another 20 minutes or so.

I got up and when I realized how late it was I started scrambling and somehow I was taking a step forward with my right foot at the same time that I was pulling the bedroom door closed toward me. OW! I went right to my knees!

But being the trooper I am, I powered on and showered, dressed and drove to the funeral home. We went in separate cars 'cause Jack wasn't going to go to the repast after the cemetary service, and I was. By the time he changed his mind and we were en route in two cars to the repast, I was realizing that my shoe was feeling a bit tight. I sat down at the restaurant, ate a good meal, socialized with the cousins, and when we were leaving around 2:30 or 3:00, I decided it would be a pretty darned good idea to visit the Immedicenter and have them look at my toe.

I'd always hoped to hear "Congratulations, it's a girl!" rather than "Congratulations, you have a broken toe!"

But after three x-rays, it was confirmed. I broke my toe. And as I'm sure we all know, you can't do anything for a broken pinkie toe but buddy tape it to its neighbor and hope for the best. So I'm taped, and she did give me a very attractive black boot to wear for two to three weeks. I'm stylin' now!!!

Anyway, other than that, Thanksgiving was nice. Mom was home but spent the day with my sister at said sister's boyfriend's house. Just to play with her head, I told her we were all waiting dessert for her, and why didn't she ask C or T to drive her to my SIL's house? After a VERY brief moment of silence, she said she knew I was pulling her leg and she moved on... Well, I thought it was funny!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday - lots of family, food and fun, and (private joke to come!) I sure hope your oven worked and your pies remained intact!!!

All better!

Surprisingly I had no trouble with the tooth extraction and bone graft. No swelling. No pain. No bleeding. No misery. I like that kind of medical/dental procedure.

I went in for my 1 week follow-up visit yesterday and they asked me if I wanted to be the new poster child for tooth extractions! I said, "Sure, if I don't have to pay for the rest of this procedure." Stopped 'em dead in their tracks! They complimented me and said I was quick with a retort! Mmm-hmm, I am!

Well, we're less than two weeks away from DD's engagement party. Got some disappointing news today: some dear friends of ours won't be able to come from MA to join us (hi, Mrs. B!). The rest of the family, though, will be there. Except of course for my one sister, who has yet to RSVP. I asked her about it yesterday and her response was, "Er, I think we'll be there..." And your kids? My niece and nephew? "Oh, yeah, I sort of forgot about them!"

Now I know they've been giving my sister a hard time, but she just seems to me to want to forget she's a mom. Well, she can't. She brought them into this world, and like it or not, trouble and conflict or not, they are her kids. And I know one of these days I'm going to say something to her and she's not going to like it and we're going to be estranged while she's pissed as heck at me! But while the kids are 19 and 17 and hard to control, admittedly, I still think she's contributed to her own problems, and it doesn't help that she "forgets" about them. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those two kids know she'd rather be with her boyfriend than with them. She's chosen more than once to do things for him and his kids, at the expense of her own family. She's chosen more than once to spend time doing for them, and not doing for her own kids. And I know they hold that against her sometimes. All the time in my nephew's case. And he's messed up enough with his feelings for his deadbeat dad (remind me to tell you about HIM sometime!).

Anyway, enough whining! Tomorrow is son-in-law-to-be's birthday and I bought him a Yankees doormat. We'll pick up a gift certificate to a local restaurant, too - they like to go out and this way they can have a little bit'o'fun on the ole' parental units...

Today I'm leaving work a bit early to go to a volunteer meeting at the primary school where my husband works. You may remember I read there during the school year, once a week, every other week. I've really missed it this summer! (Next summer I hope to do it with my little neighbor, when he's old enough to sit still and listen to a story!) The meeting is at 2:30; we're walking over there at around 2pm. The meeting will run until about 3:30 and we'll go upstairs with our assigned teachers to see their rooms and exchange phone/email information. I hope they kept me with the same teacher; she's moved from first grade to second this school year. (Yay! Just found out my former work neighbor has volunteered this year, too! We're going to walk over to the school together!)

My mom is recuperating. She's still bruised - really bruised - from her belly button down to the tops of her thighs, all around her entire body. I had no idea the stent surgery would be so traumatic to her body! But she came out with us last night and visited with my sister-in-law. It was the first time she was out, except for her one doctor's visit, since the surgery!

So J has been taking some pictures during After-School to hang in the gym. I'm sorry to say his pictures are better than the ones I take! It helps that he's taking photos of the kids in the schoolyard so there's great color and great lighting as they play on the swingset and the slide, etc. But J's shots all have an element of movement to them; he tilts the camera on an angle. I spend so much time lining things up and trying to make them centered and straight - I want to take a photography class! (Just thought I'd throw that in there for no good reason!)

Well, I think it's time I do a little work, before we leave for school! More soon!