a busy week......

Bidness is picking up, as they say, and I've been very busy this week. The only doctor appointment I had this past week was a nerve conductivity test at my neurologist's office. That's where they stick needles in your legs and put electricity through them to see how the nerves conduct sensation throughout. It was most.........unpleasant. I had to be pried off the ceiling at several points throughout and I'm sure patients in other exam rooms were wondering what they were doing to me to get me to make those extraordinary sounds. I get to do another one on my upper body this coming week and oh......HOW I'm looking forward to it.

My great-uncle Bill passed away this week. I wasn't able to make it up there to the funeral, which I felt bad about. My Aunt Alice was always there for me when my Mom was ill. Aunt Alice is the only one of my grandmother's siblings still alive and I'm close to her. She and Uncle Bill were married for over 50 years and even though Uncle Bill had been very ill for a long time, I know she's suffering now. I hope she will be OK. I hate to think of her being sad, but she has children and grand-kids to help her through. I don't even want to think of Adrian going before I do.....

We got most of our yard work done last weekend. There were still piles of leaves that were starting to leave bare spots in the yards, so we finally got them all raked up and put into bags. We spread mulch in the front flower beds. Now our yard looks beautiful again. Adrian has been reading up on natural or "green" gardening and he now knows how to compost, make weed-and-feed without chemicals and when and how long to water. I pulled up all the dandelions that infested the yard while my back was messed up. It looks like this now:

This canna flowered with a lovely bloom.

The hummingbird vine has flowered again too...and it smells so good!

The flower bed is looking a little less bare.

5 Years On......

I lost my mom 5 years ago yesterday. Time does heal, but the pain of not having her to lean on or talk to never goes away. I miss hugging her. She was a large woman and soft all over, and hugging her made me know that everything would be OK and tomorrow was another day.
I miss talking to her, because she had a hard life, thanks to her parents and my father. Mom was never bitter about her life or how it turned out. She always knew what to tell me and how to best deal with a situation.
Last night before I went to sleep, I asked her to give me some sort of sign that she wasn't hurting anymore and was OK. I had a wonderful dream about her, my grandmother and my great-grandmother (both of whom I also miss).
I still have her with me and that gives me great comfort. I can't imagine having to go to a graveyard to visit with her. She never wanted that. She wanted me to take her with me wherever I went and that's exactly what I will do.

Ah Bin HEEEELED!

Yesterday, I went back to pain doc and received epidurals in my neck and my lower back. Once again, I was sent off to La-La Land with a lovely cocktail of Versed and Fentanyl, the deed was done and I was sent on my way, which was back home to bed. I slept deeply for 5 hours and woke up a bit nauseated. A tall glass of water cured the nausea, then Adrian and I went to buy some groceries and kitty food.
Went back to work today. I came home and let Dinsy out in the back yard. I then proceeded to pull some of the dandelions which have overrun our back garden. I did that very carefully so I wouldn't re injure my back. Unless you keep up with dandelion pulling without slacking for 3 weeks, you can be quickly and completely engulfed with the fuzzy, tea-making weeds. I think I'm going to have to dig up most of the yard to completely rid myself of them.
I'll be taking my new memory-foam lumbar back rest to work tomorrow.

More pain than I need

My pain level has skyrocketed since I last wrote. The pain doc sent me to a chiropractor for physical therapy. The first visit was OK, the chiro just put those electrode things on my back as well as an ice pack for 20 minutes. The pain kept getting worse, so on the second visit, the chiro tried adjusting me. It hurt so bad, I was in tears. I scheduled my third visit for a few days later to see if the pain would lessen, but by my third visit, I could hardly walk. Sitting and then getting up off the chair would just about make me faint. I wondered whether I had damaged the torn disc in my lower back even further.
On the third visit, I saw the main chiro who owns the practice. She again attempted to adjust me, but since I was literally howling in pain, she asked why I hadn't gone back to the pain doc. I told her it was because I couldn't get anyone on the phone, which was true. She said, Well, I'll fix that!"
She get somebody there on the phone and shouted at them about sending her a patient who was in terrible pain and obviously needed better painkillers than Ultram. I heard her say that somebody there better see me today. They gave me an appointment for 3pm that day.
I expressed my concerns to the pain doc about my lower back. She told me that she was sure it was just muscle spasms, that I hadn't damaged my disc. She moved my final injection appt. up 2 days to next Tuesday and gave me a prescription for Darvocet and told me to take my muscle relaxers during the day as well as at bedtime.
So........now I'm still in pain, but I can deal with it better. I wish they could have moved up my epidural appt. sooner.

On a lighter note, we missed Iggy & the Stooges (a free show) at Waterloo Records last night. They came on at 6pm and by the time I picked up Adrian and we got downtown with all the traffic, it would have been over anyway. I'm more sad that we'll miss the Buzzcocks at Emo's tonight. They only let in a few people without SXSW accouterments, so we'd never get in anyway. Two bands I've wanted to see since I was a kid and I miss both of them.......

What happened?

I was supposed to be feeling much better by now. I went to the chiropractor for my first visit and was worked over. Now, my head hurts, my arm hurts, my back hurts, my hips hurt, my legs hurt......and it pisses me off. My job is becoming more stressful and working when I feel so bad makes me feel even worse.
The chiropractor wanted me to come back every day for an adjustment, but fucking hell, who can afford that? I'm wondering where the money is for the appointment tomorrow. I'm TIRED of hurting. I want it to STOP.

On a similar note (being pissed off), SXSW is coming up this week here in Austin. If you can afford hundreds of dollars for a wristband or a badge, there are loads of great bands in town. If you can't afford a band or badge, you can still hear great bands for free. What pisses me off is that I can't go anywhere downtown or south of the river for the next week and a half because every place will be jammed with tourists and record company weasels. This is as close as Austin gets to being a resort town. Traffic will be much worse.

I'm only griping because I feel like shit. I really don't give a toss about SXSW.

Plants I haven't killed yet

Cannas in the back yard last summer.

Mystery plant in the back yard

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow plant in the back yard

Pretty, lovely-smelling narcissus in the front yard

There are several other plants I figured out yet. We have feathery ferns, monkey grass, loads of ivy and several ligustrum trees. I hope the cannas come back. The stems all turned brown and dead looking in the freeze, but bulb plants usually do that, then bloom again in the spring or summer. When we were looking at the house, the blooms were flaming orange........

Morning From Hell and Day After of Beauty

Yesterday morning, I awoke an hour and a half later than usual. Forgot to set my alarm, you see. When I realized how late it was, I sprang up out of bed and then I felt it. You know when you turn a certain way and you feel that little "catch" in your lower back, then you have to walk very slowly and gingerly and you have to lift yourself out of a sitting position with your arms because your legs aren't cooperating? Yeah, that's it........it'll go away in a couple of days. Just a muscle spasm, but very annoying.....

Since we were going to be late anyway, I minced out to the truck and took Adrian to work. I didn't have time to make coffee, so I thought about Starbucks, which has a drive-thru. Paid $7.25 for a large Cinnamon Soy Latte and a cinnamon roll. That was the second mistake of the day. Starbucks is a rip-off and their coffee sucks. Plus, the girl at the window didn't put the lid on right, so when I got to work and picked up my "coffee", it came off and then all of the Cinnamon Soy Latte was all over the front seat of my truck. Didn't get to drink a drop of it. Nice start to a LOVELY day.........

Fortunately, I had the second epidural injection this morning, this one in my neck. I was also nursing a blinding migraine from yesterday, so I was hoping it would help that too. After a nice IV with a side of Versed, I breezed right through it and was soon sitting in recovery sucking on a juice box, like a happy 6 year old. I took an Ultram when we got home and stretched out on the couch for a 3 hour nap and, aside from the catch in my lower back, I feel pretty good. My shoulders look to be about 4 inches lower than they were, which makes my neck look longer. YAY! Anything to help the vanity, eh ladies?

Plus, I have lovely narcissus growing in the front yard. They smell divine. When I can bend down again, I'll take some pics. Adrian has been doing yard work today while I've been "Diva of the Divan" as the Yankee nurse at the pain doc's terms it. Yard looks verrrry nice-ah......