Today seems to be all about water. Rain; is the yard flooding? Are the sumps working so the basement doesn't flood? Do the laundry, wash dishes. Shower - I've never liked showering on a dark and gloomy day like this one. Drink water, lots and lots, to help flush out all the meds I've had lately. Change the water in the fishbowl. Water the plants. Check the dehumidifier downstairs...
Yard (grass is *very* green) and basement are not flooding, the sumps are working, laundry is about half done, dishes are done, still have to shower my outside but my inside is well hosed down, the plants are no longer thirsty, and the dehumidifier is chugging away diligently. Fishbowl still pending. :o)
So. I guess it's all good.
Life'd be better if we could get CBC tv here... but at least the Outdoor Life network is carrying some playoff games.
Take care, all.
*hugs*
Well, neither set of shots have really done much good. One of the guys Paul went to college with is a doctor now, and they have stayed in touch... his assessment is "it's good that the surgery is already scheduled."
Work is frustrating. I'm turning it around in my head, to see if there are any bits I can get a good grip on. I will be giving it a good think... you'll undoubtedly hear more about it.
Favourite word for today - reintarnation: coming back in your next life as a hillbilly.
Have a good one, all!
Had the shots Friday afternoon. Now it's Sunday; I've mostly just slept in the meantime, and I feel a little less truck-hit. The doctor injected steriod and some other stuff into four facet joints (L4/L5 and L5/S1 on both sides) with the hopes of making them hurt less.
Whee.
Paul has cleared much of the stuff off the back porch - some into the garage for temporary storage, admittedly, so it can't really be counted as dealt with, other than "for now" - but we now have the wicker furniture we bought set out and useable. It's *so* nice out there. :o)
The house smells *really* good right now. Paul went to the near side of Chicago this morning, to Walker Brothers, and brought home apple pancakes. They're in the oven... mmmm, cinnamon. :o)
He's my hero.
:o) Warm cinnamon-y wishes to you all.
*hugs*
Paul has worked incredibly hard this weekend. I think he got everything on his list and then some done, so he's feeling pretty pleased, and its well-deserved. So of course, he is out in the porch, doing more stuff.
Ben has also been working hard, currently on some homework for his Spanish class. He's doing well in school, though his average dropped from 4.0 to a still respectable 3.67.
I'm doing OK. I had the first steriod shot on Friday, and they pretty much knock you out though it's not a true general anaesthetic. I guess if you twitch at the wrong moment it would be bad. Yesterday was a pretty bad day, and today had been a pretty good one, soreness-wise. I'm hoping today is a harbinger of things to come. Though, that said, even if the symptoms improve, I think I probably still need the surgery to fix the cause of the problem. This is only symptomatic relief.
I'll keep you posted.
*hugs*
It's been a busy week.
Paul's Uncle Paul (his mother's brother) died suddenly last week, and his funeral is today, in Michigan. Paul is there now, and Ben and I stayed home. My back couldn't have tolerated the drive. I feel guilty about that. :o( Though I know it's not really a choice, beyond certain levels of pain. :o(
We traded Paul's Honda Accord (a 1998 with over 221,000 miles on it) for a new Ford Focus. That Honda served us very well... I was sad to leave it behind.
The new car is a standard, which means Paul will have to re-learn how to drive a stick. It also means that Ben will be learning to drive in a standard. Which will be interesting.
I had a consultation with a surgeon on Friday. I will be having surgery, likely in May. It seems that I may not be a candidate for an artificial disc... my disc space may have decreased too much for him to be able to get the replacement disc in "without causing me harm". The doc said my L5 and S1 are already trying to fuse together. He said he felt quite comfortable predicting a fifty to eighty percent decrease in my pain after surgery; he said sometimes "you hit a home run" and all the pain is relieved, but he couldn't promise that. After discussing options, he said he will have everything ready to do both a disc replacement and a fusion, and will do the replacement if it's at all possible. We discussed fusion - they put a wire mesh "cage" between the two segements to hold them stable relative to each other, then fill the space between with stuff like a cotton ball, that has been soaked in a protein that will make those two bones grow to fill the space. No "harvesting" of bone from the pelvis is required. Thank goodness. I've said before that I would resist a fusion... seems there may be no other choice. Well that's not quite true, the surgeon said my other options were to take pain meds and live with it. Call it no other palatable choice.
And, for those of you keeping score at home, no laminectomy, since that won't solve the problem.
Recovery time is three to six weeks or longer, depending on how aggressive they have to be. From the sounds of it, they're going to have to be pretty aggressive to restore the proper amount of space to keep my nerves from being compressed. So, whee. The US has a law (Family Medical Leave Act) to protect employees from being fired due to having to miss work for long periods for health problems... and I have disability insurance through work that will cover me for a portion of my income while I'm off.
Paul has been working like a dog (a very hard-working dog, not one of those dogs that sleeps all day) to get things back to normal around here. Seems like about the time things are back to normal, I will be in surgery, and things will be not-normal again.
Sigh.
Any good thinks you can spare for us will be much appreciated.
*hugs*