HELLO.. HELLo..HELlo.. Hello.. hellooooo...

Wow.. gotta do some housecleaning and get rid of some of the cobwebs that have accumulated here over the last little while.. last post was a couple of months ago.

Well, my doctor put me off of work indefinitely.... I tried going back to work and was an emotional wreck because of the pain. My doctor also gave me an anti-depressants.. and it seems to be working somewhat.. I just upped the dose today after being on it for a week (doctor's orders).

I also sent in the appeal to the insurance company for the Long Term Disability.. I have a diagnosis from my chiropractor who saw the x-rays of my back and diagnosed it immediately. He also showed me the x-rays and even my untrained eye could see that my bottom vertebrae is tilted to the right, where all the pain originates. He said that my vertebrae is thinner on one side because of my degenerative condition and is pinching on the sciatic nerve. His recommendation is that I either have surgery or that I go on LTD. We'll see if his recommendation has any weight with the insurance company.. I'm not holding my breath.

My family doctor is trying to set me up with a surgeon who specializes in the spine to see if surgery is necessary. I think that being in pain for two years would constitute a need for surgery but we'll see how that goes.

On a lighter note, our new puppy, Tinkabelle or Tinka for short, is just so sweet and cuddly that it makes my day brighter just to be around her.. even if she does occasionally go to the bathroom in the house, even though we let her outside a dozen or so times a day.. *sigh*.. the joys of dog ownership... lol

Tinka's adventure into the big world...

some videos...

Tinka's new style of travel.. and Ron gets to carry a purse... :)

Some Pictures of Tinka

Good day my dear readers...

I am still here although I haven't wanted to bore you all with tales of my woes.. I'm still off of work so there is no money coming in and I'm getting desperate. I put a request in to return to work on a trial basis but apparently my doctor hasn't sent the papers back to my workplace yet.. also they have to find me a job that will accommodate my reduced abilities. I feel like I'm sinking in a sea of despair... now aren't you glad I've avoided sharing that little bit of cheer your way?...

On a brighter note we have gotten a little puppy (I know ... another one?)... well the last pup only lasted two weeks and he went back.. he was very destructive with chewing and messing all over the house. So we waited a while and now we have a hybrid pup.. part Shih Tzu and part Pekingese, and her name is TinkaBelle but we call her Tinka for short. She's tan and white and pretty smart and very adorable.. I'll post a couple of pictures of her so you can see what she looks like. Ron has her almost house broken and at 12 weeks that's pretty good I'd say.

Was to see the specialist once again.

I was to see the specialist once again to get the results of the CT scan.. I've now had a CT scan, a full bone scan and an MRI...

I have good news and bad news .. the good news is that it's not bone cancer that is causing my pain which the specialist was afraid of. The bad news is that it's not anything that can be fixed surgically and the specialist doesn't feel comfortable filling out the long term disability because he can't make a definitive diagnosis. So I asked him where that leaves me. He said that the pain will have to be managed somehow (and he couldn't seem to understand why I was upset, just thought that I should be elated that it wasn't cancer!)

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's not cancer but I'm still frustrated with the pain. He is going to give me a cortisone shot on the 28th to see if that can help. I told him that I already had a cortisone shot and it didn't help, he said that he is going to give me a much stronger shot because if the shot isn't strong enough or isn't in the exact correct place then it may not work (encouraging eh?).

Also, the note that my family doctor gave me for the EI was only for the first of April so that is run out as well, I'm seeing her on the 27th to see if she can give me another note for the remaining 7 weeks I'm entitled to for EI and then hopefully the cortisone shot will work and I can get back to work next month some time.

The specialist as well is suggesting that I be enrolled in a pain management clinic. So after the shot hopefully I can start back to work. Send healing thoughts my way everyone.

Oh and just a side note: We took the pup, Bailey, back to the Humane Society because he was putting us in a lot of stress that we didn't need at this time.

Well the cat, Penny, told Bailey what for last night.. lol.. Bailey was wanting to play with her but Penny would have nothing of it.. Penny went up a few steps and Bailey was barking at her.. then Bailey started up the steps to play with her and Penny hauled back and swatted her on the nose a couple of times (Penny has no front claws so it scared Bailey more than anything.. lol)... Right now Bailey is at the bottom of the stairs and Penny is about three steps up and won't let Bailey come any further.. lol.. I don't think our cat is too happy with us peoples..

My Gawd! that dog chews a lot.. and puts everything in his mouth!.. you can't lay anything anywhere and he's into it.. and taking him for a walk you have to keep moving or he eats pebbles.. at least he doesn't mind you putting your fingers into his mouth to take stuff out... I hope this puppy stage doesn't last too long (I know.. yeah right.. lol)

Well we got through the first night with him.. he made it to the pee pads 50% of the time .. so we'll have a job getting him house-broken but he spent the night upstairs with Ron in his room and was really quiet all night with no whining so that's good.. he's teething so we have to keep an eye out that he doesn't destroy the furniture and offer him a chew toy when he gets to gnawing on something he's not supposed to .. I think that yesterday he was getting over the anesthetic from his surgery from the night before because he threw up a bit after we took him for a walk.. but he was excellent walking on the leash considering it was his first time!!!!

We have renamed him from Trouble to Bailey and he sure is one handsome boy.. and he'll have a lot more energy than our last little doggie... whether that's good or bad remains to be seen.. lol..

New member of the family..

Well it's been a month, almost to the day, that we had to put our Missy down. We had went to the humane society of PEI and were looking at dogs but I think that we were trying to get another Missy. That wasn't fair to the dogs or to us. So when we saw a litter of pups come up for adoption we (make that me) decided that we would go for something completely different instead .. this is Trouble and he's a part smooth collie and part mutt.. he had been well socialized and gets along with cats. He's going to get a lot bigger than our little Missy was but than again Ron will be able to take him on walks and he will actually be able to keep up unlike Missy who would be great going but not coming home, she would normally drag behind. I'm looking forward to having another dog in the house but not looking forward to the house training.. pooo pooo ewwwy.. lol..

We're back and forth on getting a dog. We went to the spca shortly after we lost Missy to look at dogs but I think that it was too soon. I sent an email to a dog breeder friend about her keeping an eye out for us on a dog but she hasn't gotten back to me on that yet. There is an interesting dog on the spca web page right now called Harmony that we may have a look at (she's good with cats which is a plus for us because of Penny the cat, poor thing, has put up a lot with Sophie and then Missy). We'll just have to wait and if the right dog is out there we will know it when we see it.

On Penny, she's such a patient cat, when we were giving them both a treat, Missy was the one who gulped her food before it hit the floor and Penny was daintily eating hers and Missy would take the food right out of Penny's mouth and Penny wouldn't do a thing, not hiss or growl, just let Missy do whatever she wanted. And Missy was so jealous of Penny that if Penny started to go towards me Missy would push at her feet with her muzzle like she was herding sheep and Penny would just walk away from me without putting up a fuss. Now Penny has all of my attention and she's getting so cuddly, sitting on my lap in the evening while I'm watching TV.

That's the main reason why we are taking our time with getting another dog because we want to be sure it will get along with Penny.