I love Thanksgiving! This year, I am thankful for a lot of things. 1. Health-related things ... like the fact that I still have my mind and my memory, I have a fully functional nervous system and messages get from my brain to my toes. I don't have nerve pain, I don't have Shingles or Post-shingles pain, I don't really have any pain at all. Aside from the occasional cold or headache, I haven't been sick at all. No hanta virus, no septic shock, no flesh-eating bacteria, no major traumas involving broken bones, etc. I'm guilty of not liking my body because my stomach isn't totally toned or I may have gained an extra pound here and there, but ultimately, it's functioning perfectly and I need to be more thankful for that! After seeing several young, previously healthy people die this year due to freakish things ... it just makes you feel more thankful for good health. So I am thankful for my good health :) 2. Home. I found the most perfect house ever -- it&
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You've simply gotta love a guy named Gus. (That's the name of Mom's neurosurgeon) Mom had her surgery this morning, so we got to the hospital bright and early ... well, dark and early (5:30) and got her all checked in. She got to put on the lovely gown and tin foil shower cap, get an IV and her vitals done, and then once she was pretty much squared away, I headed upstairs to work. I told her it was somewhat like a trip to the dayspa --- you put on their robe, put your clothes and belongings in a bag that will be locked up while you're on your excursion, you start out in "the sanctuary" (snort) and they gave her nice warm blankets! Fast forward to 11:30 AM. I was done with ICU stuff and so I headed upstairs to see if she was back yet. I pulled a couple strings in the morning with a friend who was the shift coordinator on the floor Mom was going to, so she got a private room with a lovely room and a wonderful nurse. I got there just after she was wheeled i
Mom update: She's scheduled for surgery on Wednesday with Dr. Varnavas here in Yakima. It will be a resection of the L5/S1 area of her spine. He thinks he can help her by doing some more of that rotor-rooting in there to give her nerves more room, and maybe work some magic with those discs in there too. She's lost pretty much all feeling in her left foot and leg plus some on the right side. It's pretty scary watching how little she can do and how unstable she is on her feet, due to not being able to feel the floor. I wish I could get a better handle on her mood but I think it's one of resignation. Now that it's a reality, perhaps it's making her more nervous ... wondering how she'll feel this time when she wakes up. Last time she wasn't very nervous and things didn't go so well, so ... I just hope hope hope things go well. I have complete faith in this surgeon and his PA so I'm actually planning to go ahead and work that morning rather t
A disappointing epiphany or two.... So are these post-30 blues normal or are they a result of a recent visit from my brother?! Nice of him to get right down to the heart of the matter and have me wind up admitting that indeed, nobody (young male and single) is interested in me. I've been having a great week as I'm sure you can imagine, self-reflecting and being all introspective. I've come to a couple conclusions and they're not all that fun. One of them is that I can't control love/relationships/male-people and that's very frustrating for me. I can't force things to happen nor put it into a tidy little equation to get my head around it, nor can I put my mind to making it happen. I can find solutions to so many things and solve countless problems in every other aspect of my life except this one. Aargh. I guess I am a control freak after all :-) The second one- I haven't figured out how to put it into words just yet. I'm trying to keep it blan
Ok never mind, I'll just keep my blog here since I've already got mom's bookmark tab set up for this one, and I don't feel like remaking all those gadgets. :-) So for those of you who have already reached and passed this milestone and still remember it --- did anyone have the blues shortly after the high? That's where I'm at right now. According to CNN, all major organ systems in the body start to decline after 30, and I'll start losing muscle mass. I think I'm even detecting vertical ridges in my fingernails! I bought a book called "How Not To Be A Little Old Lady" and was horrified to see that I am already do several of the things they say to avoid! Aaack!
Today I zipped home from work to pick up Mom and take her to see the neurosurgeon I work with here in Yakima. She had surgery June 23rd and woke up feeling like they broke her ankles during surgery or something, and since then she's just had horrendous pain, making sitting a very painful activity, and then yesterday her leg gave out and she fell...again.... drat - that's why she had the surgery in the first place! It was incredible to see the extent of the nerve damage she's experienced somewhere along the line since Jan 1st when this all started. She has no feeling in her feet, nerve messages don't make it down to her toes and feet so when the PA asked her to raise her toes and raise her feet, nothing happened! She also wasn't able to rock back on her heels nor up on her toes. How insane is that?! She had to close her eyes for one part of the exam and the PA used a 2-sided tool (one side smooth, one side pin-pricky) and she had to say whether she felt "dull&qu
This birthday was the best one in recent memory! The past few years we've all gone down to Portland for the Pharmacy Girls Shopping Getaway and shopped ourself into exhaustion. This year due to mom's health and work schedules, it didn't work out to go for that, so I took a few days off and went to Seattle with Velva. I was deliciously lazy. I went to Ummelina Day Spa in downtown Seattle for 4 decadent hours of indulgence and pampering. ( www.ummelina.com ) Aaaah. It was better than shopping! I called my aunt to apologize for taking so long getting done but it was fine with her because she hadn't really gotten up and going yet either! So I picked up some Starbucks for her on my way back to the hotel and then we both took naps until sometime around 3PM, when we started shopping/walking our way to Pike's Place market for supper at 5. :-) I like life at this pace! haha The next day I did this and that, and then went to Beth & Troy's for supper. I got