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...

I took Shea to the doctor yesterday because I thought she had strep throat. She does. But according to the doctor who just called with the results of her blood tests, she also has mononucleosis. I'd already disinfected the house with Lysol after her rapid strep test came back positive.  Now, however...she's not allowed to engage in any kind of contact sports or roughhouse with her brothers for 8 weeks.  Mono causes the spleen to become temporarily enlarged and therefore easier...

Yesterday I went to the dentist to get a broken tooth yanked out and a my new partial fitted. As usual, the extraction didn't got exactly as planned.  First, what was left of the tooth broke off, so the dentist had to cut my gum to get at the root.  Even then the little bugger didn't want to come out so he had to break out the drill and remove the bone that was holding the root in.....and it STILL wouldn't come out, so he had to use an instrument called an 'elevator' and try to leve...

I'm sick. I've been peeing fire for over a week now.  I went to the doctor last Friday, but they failed to spot that my urine sample wasn't the cleanest of catches and sent me home telling me there wasn't anything wrong with me. Saturday evening Ii started feeling off color. Sunday I was dragging ass.  Sunday night I was on call and had to go sit vigilance with a patient (sat next to his bed and half-dozed my way through the night, listening for his breathing to change or to c...

As most of you know, I've had problems with my left shoulder ever since 2003.  It got dislocated in an MVA, and since then has dislocated totally 3 times and partially so many times I've lost count.  It bothers me every now and then, and despite my repeated visits to my family doctor nothing was ever suggested (apart from a sling and rest) as a remedy. Yesterday I was mopping the kitchen floor.  I was barefoot - as I usually am in the summer - and I was quite happy swabbing awa...

I've lost weight. I dunno how much because I refuse to weigh myself.  All I know is that pants that I couldn't wear two weeks ago because they were too snug are now fitting perfectly and pants that fit perfectly are now loose. It's the swimming that's doing it, I think.  I'm swimming a few laps pretty much every day, and I'm walking 3/4 mile with the dogs in the evening (and sometimes the mornings too).  I know that the walking is speeding up my metabolism, which is always g...

I have an abcessed tooth again.  I'm going to see the dentist this afternoon, and I think that rather than have a root canal done I'm going to have him yank it out.  There's a reason for my decision to have it pulled. First of all, I'm already missing a pre molar and a molar, thanks to the accident.  I asked about getting a partial to replace those teeth, but my last dentist said that he wasn't prepared to make me a partial until I had at least 3 teeth missing.  If I ge...

I'm trying to be healthier.  I'm not unhappy with my size per se, I'm unhappy because I'm out of shape.  The surgery kicked my ass and I'm in terrible shape. So, in addition to the bellydancing, I've been riding my bike and watching what I eat. I usually buy food for the family every 2 weeks on or around military paydays.  I've done that for years, ever since we got married.  This past payday, though...I decided to do things a little differently. Instead of buying 2 ...