My Other Hip is Better Now...

Guess I just overdid it on the house rennovations but yesterday when I went to work it had worked itself out and it didn't bother me the rest of the day... The hip with the sciatica is bothering me a bit this morning but I'm hopeing it's just that it's so blasted humid this morning.. at least we're getting a bit of rain to water the lawns.. it seemed like all the moisture was going to be hanging in the air for a while there..

I don't know if I mentioned it or not but Ron discovered a bee's nest under the shingles on the inside corner of the house on the back behind the oil tank.. so we just have a small strip of shingles to remove but we don't know how to get rid of those buzzing menaces.. at least they aren't getting into the house like they were last year.. he's going to go out today in full combat gear with bee keeper mesh clothes on over a couple of layers of clothes and pull the last row of shingles off.. they are tough little buggers and everything we threw at them so far has not eliminated them.. I know bees are good but not in your walls.. shudder.. and you might know it that the last two row of shingles have around eight big nails in them with numerous small nails as well.. I don't know WHAT they thought was going happen that they had to have so many nails in them.. obvious they didn't keep the bees away.. lol..

Figures.. the Chiropractor is on vacation for two weeks...

And my other hip locked up on my last night.. I can hardly walk... grrrrr... hopefully some ice and rest will have me moving again for work next week (make that tomorrow!!)... I hate getting old...

I think that I now know what hell feels like...

I think that I now know what hell feels like... it's been unusually hot and humid!!! And last night was the first night that it stayed hot until early this morning.. I hate heat at night.. (well, heat from the outside.. lol).. It has been too hot and humid to do anything around the house so the outside has remained partly stripped and partly shingles.. :(... Can't wait to get to the applying the new insulation and siding part but especially the new windows part.. We decided to go with an electric hot water heater for the domestic hot water and that, along with the pellet stove, should really decrease our dependance on the oil furnace..

I completed my deck of Tarot cards and it is at the printers as we speak, I went in and got a look at a completed deck yesterday and I'm stoked.. even tho' this first set of 10 decks will leave me in the red because of unexpected costs and buying a shitload of material to make drawstring bags for them.. I'm still excited to see my creation to it's final conclusion.. now if only I was a better sales person I could go out and sell them to some stores.. but I'm such a dweeb at that.. anyone have some sales experience that would be willing to go out and sell, sell, sell?.. *sigh*

My hip is still holding out and if the talk of a retirement package doesn't pan out at least I'm still holding out hope that I'll be able to hang on for the next three years until I'm 60...

Well, on the topic of bad choices... I dyed my hair on Monday... I thought it was a blackish color.. turns out it was burgundy black which looks like grape under certain lights.. and after a week I'm still getting dye stains on my towel when I wash my hair... well we live and learn.. with me, sometimes the hard way.. but I'm getting my hair cut today so I'm going for short and sassy so I'm hoping this old bird can pull it off.. if I don't have my glasses on I look really pale but once I put on my metallic red glasses then it brings the color back into my cheeks.. so what I think is.. it's only hair.. it will grow back into my natural color.. and I always can redye it.. lol... I never learn do I?... phhhtttt...

There was a hold up with the renovations

We thought that we would be farther along in the renovations than we are because we both ended up with strep throat and had to go on antibiotics.. groan.. but we're all better now and I'm off this week and can help with removing the shingles on the back and end of the house... we're going to be careful to wear some kind of a mask when removing the shingles and whatever's below it because of the dead flies and all kinds of yucky stuff that's under the old shingles.. ewwww.. I think that may have contributed to us feeling so miserable.. I can't wait to get going on everything but I don't like the look of the weather forecast.. it says rain until Thursday.. figures... I'm off this week.. grrrr.. but the weather here changes from hour to hour so we may be able to get a lot done anyway.

More pictures of the renovations

I have lots of pictures of the renovations in it's various stages..

Here we see Ron slaving away removing the shingles to discover a black, feltlike material below.. so the air leaks were not coming from the area of the shingles..


Another picture of Ron working away (don't you just love to see a man all sweaty?.. lol


This is a view of the front of the house and that's what the whole house will look like once it's done, all nice and green and neat with new windows and everything..


This is what we discovered once we took the black felt stuff off.. white clapboard siding.. so the walls themselves were really tight so the air leak must have been coming from the windows themselves.. there will be a world of difference once we get the new windows installed. I can't wait.


This is our pile of insulating foamboard and other stuff for our renovations.. I'm nervous about having it laying around the yard like that because it's really expensive stuff and I would hate for it to get stolen...!!!!

I'm excited about life again.

I'm so excited. My pain is leaving at a fast rate and I managed to work the whole week last week (I have this week off for holidays, nice to be off and feeling well). Who would have thought that after only two sessions that I would improve to the extent that I have. I may have to go to him on a regular basis from this point forward but if it keeps the pain away then I'm all for it. Yesterday we went to pick up some things in Charlottetown and we were walking around for quite a while and while we were walking I was pain free. Now once I sat back down into the car is when the pain started but it bothered me just for a few moments when I first sat down. I still have a bit of pain in the morning when I first get up but if it's bad I just put some ice on it off and on for 20 minutes or so and then I'm fine. If the pain isn't too bad I just walk around for a while and it works itself out.

It feels so good to have a positive outlook again.

There is hope for the future now...

Just a quick update on how I'm doing.. after only two sessions with the chiropractor I have improved immensely.. I wish that I had gone to him first instead of to physiotherapy.. we live and learn..

He was able to get my xrays of my lower back and he said that I have some bone wear and tear in my lower back where it attaches to the hip bone area especially on the right side probably caused by a degenerative bone condition.. they still don't have the second set of xrays back yet and it's been over two months.. sigh... He explained the xrays to me and showed me on a model of the spine what the problem is and took the time to explain it in a way that I could understand...

Now that he has straightened my spine out I can walk for longer distances without pain and he wants me gradually to increase the movement in that area so that I can build some strength back into the right leg.. I'm not as depressed about the whole thing and I'm hopeful that I don't have to go on long term disability and that I'll be able to work for the next three years until I'm 60 (in fact that will be exactly three years from today which is my birthday!!).

OUR RENOVATIONS

Ron has been working like a demon trying to get the renovations done on our house and now he's got my strep throat so he'll have to slow down a bit. These are some before pictures.

First my ills and then some renovation news.

For a cherry on top of the ills I've been having I discovered on Friday that I have Strep Throat... throat was scratchy on Thursday and I had a headache and was feeling a bit nauseous. By Friday my throat was red raw and I could only talk in a croak so off to the walk-in clinic to get mega doses of antibiotics (making sure there were no sulfa derivatives) and in no time my throat was feeling much better but my nether regions are a rumbling mess because of the side effects of the drugs (may cause diarrhea.. no kidding!!). Oh.. and to make it perfect, Ron just got it as well.

Everything is up in the air as far as finding out about my hip is concerned, the xrays that were taken about two months ago still haven't been read and my appointment with the specialist isn't until December so I'm really at a loss what to do. My sick time is running out so if I go on long term disability I have to wait 119 days for it to kick in and use up my sick time first. If I don't have enough sick time to carry me the 119 days (which I don't) then I will have to go on sick unemployment which is only 55% of my wages in the interm (LTD is 70%).. We're in the process of doing some MAJOR rennovations on our house to make it more energy efficient so I'm feeling a little desperate here on what to do.

People have been giving me all kinds of advice and the main suggestions have been a chiropractor and/or acupuncture. Not knowing what the problem is exactly, I'm cautious about trying something so drastic but I'm running out of options. Now enough about the complaining already.. I have pictures of the start of our renovations to follow.

More complaining.. then some good news!!

First off the complaining.. I've been so down with the constant pain in the ass.. literally .. of the sciatic problems that today when I went to the doctor to get a note for work I ended up in tears. The poor doctor didn't know what to do... my hip xrays still haven't come back and it's been a month. I started physio again and I really don't find too much of a change since I started back but they were talking about trying acupuncture on me next time. One thing: I DO have an appointment with the specialist.. but not until DECEMBER!!! (One side effect is that the time doesn't fly by as quickly now even tho' I'm getting so much older by the day.. lol).. reminds me it's birthday time next month.. the big 57.. how many years till retirement?...

Anyway, back on track again with my thoughts... the doctor gave me three perscriptions today.. one for pure codeine.. one for a stool softener to counteract the binding problem with codeine.. and an anti-biotic for a urinary tract infection.. that one I was leery about taking because of my recent bout of Steven-Johnson's syndrome.. but she assured me that this would not have the same results.. we'll just have to see about that.. hmmmm.. *keeps fingers crossed while we wait on that one*.

I'm off work until I get back to see her next week.. I took one of the codeine tablets and I'm feeling a little woozy so forgive the typos.. and the rambling thoughts.

Now what was the good news again?... Oh yeah, even though I'm not even finished designing my Tarot deck and I don't know how much I'm going to be able to sell them for I've already got about 10 decks sold and most of them are going to Australia and in England a friend of mine is going to approach 4 different shops to take a deck on consignment just to see if they will sell. I have to get my butt in gear (now that hopefully there will be less pain) and got a cd over to the printer with a couple of card designs on and a backing for them to print off some cards for me. Then I can get an idea of what the finished product will look like.. I have to tell them the size and quantity before they can work out a quote. Hopefully they won't be way out of whack with the price because I want to make at least some profit.. And I even have some ideas on more decks.

Well I really should go lie down before I fall down.. will keep you up to date on stuff later if anyone is interested.

STOP THE CLOCKS!!!

If this is what getting older'ish' feels like I'd not only like to stop the clocks but if it's possible could you turn them back 5-10 years? I'm getting so depressed because for the last month I've missed more time from work than I've been there because of my danged hip arthritis and siatica. If I don't get in to see the specialist soon I don't know what I'll do! OK.. now that the whining is over I'll move on.

How many lawn mowers does a person need?.. We have not two, or even three but four of the suckers. With the purchase of an electric lawn mower last weekend that meant we have one of each kind, a ride on, a gas push mower, a battery operated one and now an electric plug in one. Being that I'm unable to help with the mowing because of my bum hip that means that it's up to Ron to do that whole thing and I don't think that it's particularly safe to be using all four at one time.. he may cut off a toe or something.

And I'd like to reiterate that having a dark background with white or light print is really hard on the eyes. Since I've been off work I can't do squat around the house so I've been reading some blogs and those type of ones are pulling my eyeballs right out of my sockets people!!

My garden is coming along well and here are a couple of pictures of my new, pretty blooms...there are more kinds of tulips in bloom and little violets and stuff but this is all I'm putting up for now.. also there are quite a few dandelions in my garden because I haven't been able to get out and do some weeding.. my poor babies are getting all infested.. but then again a weed is just a flower that has fallen out of favour isn't it? That's it for now... later people.

Uncharted Territory

Today was a step into uncharted territory.. while shopping today my danged hip was bothering me so much that after shopping for around 15 minutes I had to swallow my pride and use a wheel chair. I'm not saying that people that are confined to a wheel chair should be devoid of pride, just that taking the step to that world was humbling and I didn't want to admit that my arthritis had progressed to that point. I was a little embarassed, a lot frustrated and got a teeny, tiny glimpse of the world from the angle of the disabled and it was eye opening.

While I could stand up and reach for things I realised that if I was truely wheelchair bound a large majority of items on shelves would have been well out of my reach. I'm a short person anyway, being just short of 5'2" so I know the frustration of not being able to reach the items on the very top shelves of a supermarket, but from the position of sitting in a wheelchair a good half of the aisle mocked me with the unattainable. And to ask someone to reach for me on a constant basis would have me ready to leave the shopping experience completely to Ron. And I realise that probably after seeing the specialist I may be pain free once more and able to walk with ease and I am grateful of that reality.

On a good note I was informed that I don't have the terrible Rheumatiod arthritis or another urinary tract infection that I was afraid that I was having.. I have to return to physio therapy and will be seeing the specialist to perhaps have cortizone shots.. we'll see.. anyway, life goes on.

In search of cheaper heat;

We've been looking at pellet stoves to provide our heat in the winter instead of the oil furnace and the wood stove we presently have. Our wood stove povides a good heat but it is getting pretty worn out (we have a brick on top of the inner lining because there's a hole in it. We're going to try and get a low interest loan through the government in order to get the stove and make payments. The stove itself is fairly pricey because we want to go for the higher end because in the long run it will be save us money. Presently it costs us close to $1,000. to fill our tank and we usually burn around $600 of that in a month. If we can get the loan it will cost us anywhere between $90. to $120. a month for the payments plus $5 a day for the pellets (the stove holds a $5.00 bag and that should last a day) so that's approximately $150. a month for the fuel and $120 for the payments if we get the most we can get, making our heating cost $270. Less than half of what we're paying now.

We will still use our present furnace for out domestic hot water and for a backup if we happen to go away for a few days and there's not anyone home to fill the pellet stove.

The end of this month we're getting a guy to come out and do an energy assesment on our home to see what improvements we should do in addition to the stove to make our home energy efficient. We know that there will need to be some additional insulation done in the bottom part of the L of our home. Our home is a storey and a half on one end and a storey on the other half forming an L. We also would like to replace a few more windows and finish replacing the siding.

Tomorrow is back to work. My back is still giving me problems and I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday but I have a feeling that she's going to say that I have to just suffer with it because there's not much they can do for arthritis. I find it so depressing to be in pain all the time and I've been missing so much work that I now wish that I didn't have to go back. I find I get that way when I've been off for a while.

Oh well, guess I'll just have to suck it up.

I now have 17 of the 76 Tarot cards done and they're coming along really well.. This is a sample of what they look like and I'm really excited with how they are turning out. Well, gotta go, see you on the flip side..

Hi ho hi ho.. it's off to work I go..

Back to the grind, as they say. I'm hoping the computer problems are all worked out.. I'm getting too old for that crap and I'm not feeling up to handling the stress... I took last week off and I just sat around for the whole week and did nothing.. I had wanted to take the time to do a bunch of stuff around the house and get out walking.. I walked once with Ron and the dog and the next two days I suffered with the pain in my hip... I think I'm in a low grade depression right now because I can't take advantage of the nice weather and get out and do stuff without paying later with the pain... Ron is so patient with me because I sat around like a lump for the whole week and only did a bit the last two days towards getting anything done..

I'm going to a seminar on diabetes this weekend with my sister. It's a whole day affair on Saturday and I'm wondering if there will be anything new that I don't already know.. I hope so.. it would be great if I could be drug free but the chances of that are pretty slim.. now if I could take off another 25 pounds to go with the 25 I already have off that might make a difference.. anyone have any ideas?

We looked into getting a pellet stove for heat next winter.. the government has some low interest loans and a few grants for that type of stuff but we have to get an energy audit done.. I know there are areas where we need improvement for sure and the wood stove we have now is pretty well done for... so in the next few months we're going to get under way with the "plan" to make our house more energy efficient.. because the price of heating oil is criminal!! That's all for now.. can someone give me a push out the door to my car?

Work and I have fallen out of favor...

Ahhh work.. it used to be my means of identification. I was that girl that worked in an office doing gymnastical mind twirls and leaps of imagination. I took great relish in a job well done (and was slightly territorial about my space and job)... who are we trying to fool.. I had my name on ever piece of equipment from pens to office chairs and god help anyone who laid a hand on what was MINE dammit!!.. not any more.. my mind set has been irrevocably changed.

The time until my retirement has become a large stone tied to my neck as I struggle to swim upstream against a tide of discontent. It's like a child preparing their parents for their eventual leaving of home by becoming rebels and struggling against the status quo with all their might until the parents are ready to kick the little jeesers out long before they are ready to leave. I'm not sure if I'm the child or the parent but either way a break is coming. But alas it is years in the coming (or until I have a breakdown, whichever comes first).. and it's looking more like the latter rather than the former as each day passes..

The beginning of the end of my love affair with my job came when we made the news.. the collective "we" of the Provincial Government.. and not in a good way. You see for the last three days of last week our computer system hasn't been working.. I shouldn't say it hasn't been working at all.. we have a split system (much like my personality) and the one that we use to process about 5% or our daily work is working (much like my mind) but the big sucker that we use to process 95% of what we do a day while passing 300 to 400 customer through our happy doors is down 95% of the day.

So we are stuck manually calculating and recording transactions for said 300 to 400 not in a good mood customers. Can you say "stress overload?".. now isn't that a nice happy, sunny frame of mind to be in while contemplating early retirement?

Oh, did I tell you that I have this week off.. great timing for a change. Let someone else deal with all the crap while I vegetate at home (much like I plan to do once I retire). Gotta break myself into it gradually.

My Theory on Weight Loss

I've had a theory on weight loss for years and it has been proven out once again today making it closer to a law of nature..

You see.. I believe when you lose weight it doesn't just disappear... it stays suspended in the air in the vicinity of your body like a fog or ghost, and when you least expect it, it will attach itself to your friends or family.

As I have said, I have lost 25 pounds and have been feeling great about myself.. my clothes are fitting better, I don't flinch from my reflection in mirrors. I foolishly thought that the weight was gone.. never to return.. and since my friends, family and coworkers hadn't had any major weight gains I pushed my theory to the back of my mind and even attempted to dismiss it.

But today I saw a friend of mine at work who I haven't seen since before Christmas and I noticed his new Budda belly. He had always been fairly fit but ummm he looked a little preggy.. He informed me that he gave up smoking and gained... you guessed it... 25 pounds. Need I say more..

My theory came rushing to mind once again. I thought the curse of the floating fat cells was a thing of myths and imagination but I was WRONG.. DEAD WRONG... so be afraid.. be very afraid.. because I plan on losing more weight.. and you could be the next victim of the fat gas.. don't say you haven't been warned!

The Before and After...

We have the before... taken a year or so ago...























and we have the after... taken yesterday...


I hadn't realised how much of a difference 25 pounds made until I took that picture.. I'm quite impressed... (even tho' I do say so myself to quote my late mother).. and you can hardly tell that I'm in constant, crippling pain eh?..

It's Spring!

Time to give the old blog a face lift. If only it was as easy to give this face a lift. I believe it is time for a new icon photo as well. That picture of me is so last year! I was told I look marvelous and hot by a guy I work with (who also told me I looked miserably in pain, how do you process that combination?) so I think that picture should reflect my new hotness, but why is it that hotness doesn't translate on to film or digital technology? You would think that we could successfully take a picture that doesn't show the reality but what I visualise myself looking like in my head. Now that would be progress.

Update on the computer front

I got my new hard drive only to discover that it was a dud and returned it in exchange for another, slightly more expensive one. When the second one arrived it wouldn't work in my computer so I opted to call a "computer guy" to pick up the said computer and see what he could do to fix it, if anything. I had images of a new mother board in my future but was pleasantly surprised (if not slightly embarrased) to find that my memory stick wasn't inserted all the way in (much like my own which has worked loose with age).. so a mere $35.00 would fix it all up sans a red face from me. I had mentioned that my power supply wasn't heavy enough for my new video card so he offered to install a new one for around $50.00 while he had the computer at his shop so I said go for it. So for $95 and change I got my computer up and running (that doesn't include the cost of the new hard drive $135. and the new video card $79.00) but now my computer rocks!!! I have 500 gig of on board memory and 500 gig of external memory and a video card that allows my 3d programs to finally work properly. Life is good.

It's time for a pity party!!

Who's bringing the party hats? I've been in pain over a month now with my sore back which manifests itself in deep, searing, tearing, rotating pain down and around my right leg and into and across my right foot. Some mornings I can't go to work because I'm in tears and some days when I go to work it takes all I have not to go home again because the pain is a wild animal taking a bite out of my resolve.

I can't even enjoy my new found weight loss. I'm down to 170 pounds and if I can't get out and walk again I fear that the weight will creep back on again. But until my doctor gets back a week from tomorrow I fear that I will have to suffer through. I do have some mega pain killers but they are nasty nasty things that I choose not to partake in. Besides the possibility of getting hooked, they make me feel like death is a viable alternative to the shit that they play with my head and body.

I had blood tests taken a couple of weeks ago to rule out rheumatiod arthritis because the xrays showed extensive arthritis in my lower back and especially my right hip which the doctor suspects is pinching on my sciatic nerve. So I don't know if there is anything that can be done or if I'm doomed to suffer with this pain the rest of my life (big bummer on that one).

So now the party's over (or at least moved to a private party at my house), time to throw the confetti, kiss the hostess and head for home. Thank you for attending.