I'm having a bad back day. I would do almost anything to rid myself of the burning, throbbing, aching sciatica that's running down my legs. This is the worst it's been, ever. The thing is, I know WHY I'm having a bad back day. I have to go to the doctor this afternnon and, after I plead with him to temporarily put me out of my misery somehow, I'll have to explain just HOW I hurt myself this time. *blushing* I have a.....a.....fornication related injury. Yes, yo...
...you find your feet swelling at the end of the day.I never had this problem before...ever. Not even when I was pregnant. Not even when I was overweight.Tonight my feet look like sausages with little toes sticking off the end of them. Not very pretty....I recall my mum and her friends talking about how they dare not take their shoes off on the bus on the way home from work because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to get them back on again and would have to walk home barefoot. I nev...
My quest for non-narcotic pain relief for my back landed me in the pain relief clinic today. I'm ambivalent about what therapy I have to start tomorrow...but I'm very happy with this little gadget they lent me. Tomorrow I start traction therapy. I get to go lay on what could be called an instrument of torture in some countries and get stretched for an hour. It's supposed to take some pressure off the discs in my back, subsequently taking pressure off the nerve roots and h...
In light of a recent article I wrote about Teri Schiavo and the battleground her existence has become, I thought I'd post an article about Living Wills and Advance Medical Directives. They're really very simple documents....you don't even need an attorney to draft one for you. I found a good one here: Link and I've copied the form to this article so y'all can see exactly what it looks like (and maybe include a little bit of explanation as well). You can copy and print...
No, this isn't a Buddhist wisdom blog (I'm not THAT predictable ). I'm doing things one handed for a couple of weeks. Actually, it's one-armed. I dislocated my left shoulder (again) on Saturday. I reached behind me to scratch my back, and it slid right on out. It's come all the way out 3 times in the past year (this weekend was the 4th), but according to the doc all the clunking and stuff I hear when I swim and stretch is my humeral head sliding partially out. So,...
I have a headache. It's not a classic migraine. I'm not sure what it is, but it hurts like a sumbitch. It started this morning.....it began with my right eye hurting, then getting a little fogged over...I can still see out of it, but it's like looking through slightly frosted glass. Then my temple and right forehead started to hurt, then the pain extended down the right side of my nose. I instinctively rubbed my right temple, and there's one 'sweet spot' there that, when I appl...
I've made an appointment to see my doctor this morning. I think I'm sliding down the slippery slope of depression. I'm not sleeping much, and when I do it's not well. I cry all the time. I don't want to go anywhere or do anything, I just want to stay home. I don't want to go to work, I don't want to clean the house, I don't want to watch TV, or read or knit or cook or....I just don't want to do anything. I have panic attacks that are getting harder and ha...
Today is the fifth day that my boy Jake has been on Concerta for his ADD. It's been going remarkably well so far. Day one, his teacher sent him home with a note saying that she had used his math worksheet as an example for the rest of the class. Usually Jake's work is all over the page; this time, though, he had lined all his equations up neatly and had written them clearly. A total turnaround from his usual work. Day two, she sent yet another note home saying that sh...
I wrote this article recently Link about how I was going to try and gain some weight because I felt I was too skinny. Of all the men who replied, not-a-one of them said they preferred skinny, scrawny chicks. In fact, most of them said they preferred women who were 'curvy'. I find this revelation very curious. It makes me happy, but I find it intriguing. Why, if American men like women who have some shape to them, are we women going to extreme lengths to make our...
It's official. My concerns and doubts about Jake's behaviour have been right...he has ADD. He starts taking Concerta tomorrow morning. The doc started him out at the lowest dose, 18 mg, with the option to increase if necessary. He doesn't have to take it on the weekends if we don't want him to, nor during school holidays, but she said that we should give it to him every day for a couple of weeks before we think about giving him a weekend break. We talked about the possibi...
Today is the day my boy Jake has an appointment with the pediatrician and psychologist to review his ADD score results. I saw the questionnaire that his teacher completed; she scored him really high too. So, we go talk to the professionals this afternoon and see what they want to do. I've been given some hope by my friend Rob (Hi, Rob!!) who's son AJ also has ADD and recently started taking Concerta. Rob says it's like night and day....but also says that he's been given the option...
I'm taking my youngest in to get tested for ADD. Jake's had issues with listening and following directions for ages. He rarely finishes anything he starts, he forgets things constantly, his room and his desk at school are disaster areas, he's disruptive.....sometimes when I talk to him I can almost see the words bouncing right off him. He doesn't listen, he doesn't absorb. We had parent/teacher conferences last week, and his teacher brought up his lack of self-disc...
Link A recent study at Harvard University concludes that sleep-deprived interns make more mistakes than those who have had adequate rest. Well, you don't say??!!!!! Did we really nead a Harvard study to tell us that?!! I find it amusing that truck drivers are legally limited to the number of hours they can drive for in order to ensure they get enough sleep....but we're letting physicans, fledgling physicians at that, work on people when they're sleep deprived. Makes not much...
I saw a wonderful image this morning. A picture of a little boy, holding a stethescope to the chest of an elderly man, listening. Listening to the beat of his father's heart within that elderly man's chest. The boys father had been killed, and his organs had been donated. The man who got his heart had been told earlier the day of the transplant that unless a heart became available soon he wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the surgery. Miraculously, later that day, h...
And it's not nice. I had my gallbladder removed 5 years ago because I had stones. I've had the same kind of pain that I had when I was trying to pass a stone since saturday...it's ranged from pretty uncomfortable to downright painful. I stuck it out, but this morning gave in and went to see my doc. Apparently, the greasy burger I ate on Saturday afternoon, combined with the big glass of warm malted milk I drank that night, added to the dark-meat chicken I had...