Is It Me Or Is It Memorex?

It's been a heck of a week, and I guess I better at least let folks know what has been going on. Mainly, I have been feeling pretty puny, and I have been staying close to the house, taking it easy and trying to figure out what approach to take to this health thing. I've told the doctors everything I know, and they've given me the meds they think I need. Except, it ain't working. I throw up the medicine that is supposed to make me stop feeling nauseated. The medicine for the pain in my shoulder makes me such a zombie that I am only taking the Tramadol before I go to bed. Otherwise, I am simply using Tylenol.

I am making other adjustments to accommodate the way I have been feeling. I don't plan on going anywhere before 0900. I am usually through throwing up by then -- although, I have had some surprises in that department recently, so if I have to be somewhere, I try not to eat or drink much. Today, I limited my diet to steamed rice with some raisins, cinnamon, and sugar along with cups of green tea with peppermint. I splurged tonight on soda crackers and milk, but plan on no more food today. Other than the morning nausea, it hasn't been a bad day. We'll see how it treats me in the morning!

The bright spot is that the pain has slowly been getting better on its own, either that or the nerves are shot and I just can't feel so much. Either one works for me at this point! I've changed the way I sleep, so that I am not sleeping on my right side. This has been a difficult adjustment, as it is a lifelong habit. I have to self-correct a couple of times a night, but gives me something to do since my shoulder-pain has awakened me anyway. I've also cut down on my computer time and even texting on my Blackberry, because I could feel the twinges in my shoulder when I would do these things ("Doctor, it hurts when I do this.""Well then...don't do that!").

It has been suggested that some of what I am experiencing may be a result of grief; more specifically, the grief of a long-term caregiver. I'm willing to entertain that line of reasoning. I'm willing to entertain almost any line of reasoning that would lead to leaving these annoying symptoms behind. With that in mind, I have booked an appointment for a Reiki treatment early next week, before I leave for Maryland. It did not escape me that these symptoms became more acute as we were attempting to finalize plans for Bill's service and the family and friend get-together afterward.

A friend of mine used to say, "I'm not going to let my stomach tell ME what to do!"

That friend is now approaching 60 and still takes stomach medicine every day, and still looks like his stomach hurts all the time.

So, maybe my stomach will just tell me what it wants, eh?

Somewhat Daily Dose of Wow! 101710

Today, I used the basic Tassajara bread recipe using molasses for sweetener and 50/50 white/whole wheat flour. It looks, smells, tastes wonderful!

One More Day

Rest and the meds are doing their job, and the pain is more like discomfort most of the time, except for certain activities that seem to fire it up. The nausea has been absent the past few days as well. I am still having some occasional wooziness and weakness with the Tramadol, but I just take that as a cue that it's time to stop whatever I am doing and lie down for a while. I was able to work in the garden and make bread today (bless my KitchenAid), but I have found that resting my wrists on the keyboard is one of the activities that fires up the pain. So, I am taking another day off from writing.

Tomorrow, I go back to see the doctors at the VA Center. Sure hope we are ready to figure this out and fix it. I am ready to be healthy again! I have things to do!

Rest and Recovery

The pain meds are helping, and so is resting the arm. Kept computer time down to under 30 minutes today and will probably rest it again tomorrow. Was very drowsy and woozy today. Hoping that tomorrow is a little clearer!

A Sick Day

There aren't many things I despise more than being unwell. I hate hurting and being unable to do things. It makes me very angry. It pisses me the hell off! This thing with the nausea I was willing to put up with as long as it confined itself to the early part of the day and didn't come with vomiting. That changed, so I went to the doctor. We are still working on finding out what that is all about. I had an abdominal ultrasound today, and there are some possibilities in the gall bladder area (hmmm...thought I heard that somewhere else, oh yeah, that's what I thought), described appealingly as sludge and small stones. Follow-up is on Monday.

The right shoulder pain is relentless. This isn't arthritis, or none like I have ever had before. It makes me cry. It kept me off the computer for most of the day yesterday, preventing me from writing. Today, they gave me some Tramadol and extra strength Tylenol to keep me until Monday. Hopefully by then we can tie these two symptoms together (gallbladder anyone?) and fix it! I am done with being and feeling old and sickly and not being able to get things done!

House Chores on a Rainy Day

0900
A cold, rainy day will keep me out of the camper today. The last place I want to be is trapped in a small place with the hidden bodies of dead rodents on a damp day. Yuck!

The rainy day project will be putting together the shelf unit to keep my plants over the winter. That is if my old arthritic aching shoulder will let me turn a screw or two today. My right shoulder has been aching like an abscessed tooth for the past several weeks, and has been the worst over the past two days. I'm pretty sure that this weather might have something to do with it. 

1300
The shelf project was much easier than I thought it would be. It took longer to clean up the plants and pots as I was bringing them inside than it did to put the shelf together. Once I had them all inside, I made up some insecticidal soap to drive off the little buggies (1 teaspoon Melaleuca Tough and Tender to 24 ounces of water in a spray bottle) and misted them all. I noticed that as long as I was moving and doing things, I didn't notice my shoulder, unless I tried to be Sheera which is stupid for me anytime. It hurts the most when I am mousing around on the computer or trying to relax. The first seems to aggravate it, and the second is what happens when all distractions are removed and the pain gets my attention.

Before

After

1700
The Bob-in-law began the project of giving us more light on the counters in the kitchen with some wonderful LED bars. I knew after he installed the first set that I wanted to extend the lighting around the counter, both below and above the cabinets. This afternoon, I  installed the rest of the lighting under the kitchen cabinets. It looks fabulous and adds to the appeal of a kitchen that I already love, as well as providing some nice work light on the counter.

I might have to let Josh do the second half of the job (above the cabinets). Ladders are probably not a good idea for me right now. And since tomorrow will be a warmer, sunnier day, it will be back into the camper to continue Search and Recovery ops.

Monday Again, All Over

The fresh box of D-Con was empty when I opened the camper today. I found one dead mouse, on the easement. I went through the bedding and  mattresses and found only a few signs of mouse waste, nothing major and no holes or nests. No signs of rodents, dead or alive, in the cupboards and storage space opposite the sink or under the bed.

I am not naive enough to think one mouse went through two boxes of D-Con before trying to crawl off into the night. There are more. Common sense and my instincts tell me this. The not-finding is freakier than the finding. There could be dozens of bodies under the floor! Is there any kind of air gap overhead?

And the news keeps getting better. I took our new truck in to Costco get new tires (wearing my hat, of course) and they discovered that I had two missing lug nuts on the left rear wheel and one missing on the left front. The bolts that are supposed to hold the nuts are, of course, stripped. Ach! Sure glad I didn't know that when I drove it home from across town!

Naturally, this became the new priority on the job list and Josh is in the garage with the front end of the truck jacked up and the wheels pulled off. This looks like it will take more than an hour or two. The update from Josh, just now, was that the wheels were about to literally fall off the truck. Sure glad I insisted he pick up four new wheel kits instead of just replacing the stripped bolts. How's that for instinct?