"Cammy"

Hello, everyone!

My husband spent the better part of today waxing our "baby", our Toyota Camry.  We affectionately call her "Cammy." (I have to have a name for everything...even the computer!) He started around 10am, then had to quit because of the blazing sun and NO shade.  He wears the Duragesic patch and when he sweats, he gets too much of the medication because his body "sucks" it right out of the patch.  If he gets too much at one time, he sounds drunk!  We had experience with that one time not too long ago.  He was so stubborn, though, and wanted to finish the whole thing today.  I said that was fine, just wait until later in the day when the shade hits the sidewalk and the car.  So he waited until 2pm and waxed his little heart out.  He came in about an hour later, sweat pouring off him, but he reached his goal.  "Cammy" had her very FIRST wax job.  And I took a photo of my hubby's handiwork.  He is so proud of it.  He says to me, "are you going to put it in your blog?"  I said, "of course!  I put EVERYTHING in my blog!!"   So, introducing for the very first time on this blog, our most prized possession (other than Jack, of course) is "Cammy".......

Isn't she a beauty?  And Frankie did a FANTASTIC job of waxing her down.  You would never dream she is a 2000 model, now would you?  We bought the car December of '09 and the previous owner did an excellent job of taking care of her.  Our Honda van was repossessed as part of our bankruptcy last year, so we went without a car for a year.  We saved up hard and bought this car for $6,000.  The Kelly Blue Book had it listed for $7,000! And then, on December 15th, we were just driving home after making a window tinting appointment for the car (an absolute MUST in AZ!), minding our own business, when some drunken jerk rammed into us!  We were in middle lane of a three lane road and he came zooming up and like the domino effect, he crashed into three cars.....ours was the worst.  Luckily, he did stop and pull into a shopping center parking lot.  Of course his tire was blown out, like ours was.  We all pulled into the shopping center and got out.  We all were OK.  Just very, very shaky.  And when I saw the car's left quarter panel, I burst into hysterical tears.  The panel was completely whacked and the tire (fortunately NOT the rim!) was damaged. The trunk lid was partially up. The driver's side mirror was completely ripped off and hanging by one wire to the car.  The cops came, arrested the crazy driver for drunk driving and a slew of other charges.  All I could think of was our baby, that we saved soooooo long for, was damaged beyond repair!  I was so afraid the car was totaled.

We have Progressive insurance and they were so nice to us.  Since the driver did have insurance, they worked hard at getting them to pay up.  Luckily the driver's insurance was nice as well, and complied with everything....including paying for our rental car while our car was being repaired.  The car was in the shop for three long, miserable weeks.  We didn't like our rental car, but was blessed to have it, if that makes sense.  The seats were too deep, thus very hard for me to haul my big butt out of it!  The three weeks passed and finally we had our car back.  The total damage was over $5,000, almost close to the totaling state.  I mean, our damages were almost the price we paid for the car!  Toyota keeps its value longer, I had learned, so that helped in deciding whether to total it or not.  I'm so glad they could repair it, though.  Now it looks beautiful again.  We have our car.....because life sucks without a car!!!  When my hubby and I would have doctor appointments, our insurance paid for taxi cabs.  I think Frankie and I have ridden in every cab in Phoenix by now!  And having the walker was a pain in the butt, too.  Of course, the walker fits perfectly in "Cammy."  What a coincidence!!!  LOL!

OK, I quit droning on about our "baby."  It's just when you have filed for bankruptcy, you don't have many assets left.  Right now, my husband and I have Jack, our car and a dining room table with four chairs that was given to us as a gift from the next door neighbor's son.  The son's parents both died recently and he was cleaning out their house, getting it ready to sell.  But you know what?  I am thankful to God to be alive after that accident.  I am thankful for everything that we have.  I am just thankful!!  And Frankie's parents have been sooooo kind and patient and putting up with us these last two years since Mom died.

I've been feeling ever more miserable than before.  I have a new symptom to add to my overflowing list of symptoms.  Yesterday, for some reason, I've contracted a twitch.  My hands, arms and throat will involuntarily twitch.  With my hands, it's very frustrating, especially with holding things.  I hold a can of soda and my arm will twitch, and the soda will fizz all over me.  With my throat, which is the WORST, distorts my speech and makes it very hard for me to talk.  My stuttering is back and with a vengeance!  I have no clue what is causing this.  I'm thinking a lot about my surgery, worrying that everything won't get done in time, or something will happen to me while I'm in surgery.  I keep reassuring myself I'm in good hands.  I trust the doctor AND the hospital I will go to.  It's just scary to be thinking about losing 85% of your stomach.  It will be a whole new life for me....and it's also exciting, too, thinking of the clothes I can wear when I lose weight, how good I'll feel, my poor back and legs won't be taxed down with my being morbidly overweight, and I can work again.  I think those support groups will help in regards to I can see what happens next and how other people coped with the surgery and aftermath.  I go to a meeting this month, and I have a bariatric education course I go to in December.  This class will teach various surgeries, post-op care and follow-up.  It will also teach good nutrition and exercise.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The program runs for three years and they really keep an eye on you with weigh-ins and taking new pictures for your medical chart.  It sounds top notch.  So I don't know why I worry!

OK, I'm a positively beat.  My twitch is bad in my hands right now and it is very hard to type.  Does anyone else have this problem?  If you know of someone or how to fix it, please let me know in the comments, OK? 

God bless you all!
Until next post,

Is It Monday Again?

Boy, time sure does fly fast, doesn't it?  I can't believe another Monday is upon us.  I don't even remember the weekend, it whizzed by so fast!  I hope all my blog readers had a good one.  I did nothing but relax and try to keep my feet up as much as possible.  The swelling in them has gotten so bad, I can't even bend my feet very much.  The skin is pulled taunt and the top of my feet get red sometimes.  I've got photographic evidence of my "lovely" feet.  How would you like to wake up to this?

This is my left foot, obviously.  It's the worst of the two.  And all this swelling is with me ON a "water" pill!  I can't imagine me NOT taking it!!

Now, what's a left foot without a right foot?

 

 I just cringe when I look down and see my feet.  They were NEVER this swollen BEFORE I had them damn shots in my back.  They started puffing up the day after the shots.  Coincidence?  I think NOT.  Even my primary care doctor says she thinks its the shots the pain clinic gave me. The pain clinic, of course, denied any such claim.  The real mystery is why they won't go down in size.  I had those shots in February of this year. They should have resolved months ago!  That's why I was sent to the cardiologist and everything checked out good with my heart.  So I have a big mystery on me hands.....er, feet, I mean! LOL!

OK, let's go skipping down memory lane again.  This is fun to record all my memories before they fade away.  I plan on having my blog made into a book one day and it will have all my favorite memories and pictures (except my feet!) at my fingertips forever.  I always wanted to start a diary, but some reason, I just didn't.  I'm a "lefty" and when I write, my hand gets all dirty from the ink, so I'm constantly cleaning ink marks off before they embed in my skin. (No, I'm not too OCD!!!))  And then this idea of blogging came into focus and I thought, "cool....I can do a journal online" and other people can read it and maybe associate with it and learn from it.  I've made a lot of mistakes being a "grown up."  I ran up high credit card bills, a sketchy work history because of the fibro and the stress in our household, and we went into bankruptcy.  We had no choice.  So at least the phones stopped ringing off the hook and it gave us our life back.  I really don't recommend filing, but sometimes you just have to.  And as our lawyer said, we had no other options.  We owe so much to Frankie's parents for keeping us under their roof and excellent care for the past two years.  And to my grandma who kept us afloat when we were living in Yuma and Tucson.  If I live to be 140, I'll never pay them all back!  My mother-in-law and Grandma say that their pay back will be seeing us on our feet and making it work, just the two of us.  I agree.  And we are trying, it's just very hard in this economy.  Since our van was repossessed in April, we had to start saving for a car.  And a good car, not some clunker that works for five minutes!  I've had too many of those growing up, where I'd have to push the back of vehicle while Dad tried the clutch.  I didn't want to relive those memories all over again!!

Right after we first got married, my parents moved into a one bedroom apartment that she could better afford.  She still had to get medications, doctor visits, food, ect.  Luckily, they had no car (having a car meant more expenses than Mom could afford) as I had the Neon to get to and from work.  I felt bad with leaving them, but I just had to try out life on the big city for just a little while.  I had never lived in a big city to remember it, (when I was a child we lived in Kalamazoo, MI but I don't remember a thing about that!) and I was leaving with them my computer and Toby, who originally started out as MY cat and ended up being dad's!  I did feel bad about taking the car, but I had to.  Mom was perfectly OK with that.

I remember the day we said goodbye, loaded up the car and took off into the wild blue yonder.  Here's some group photos we had taken before we left.  Debbie was riding with us to Phoenix to catch her plane.  Debbie was the maid of honor at my wedding.

Pictured are: Mom, Dad, Frankie and Debbie.  What a motley crew they make, don't ya think?  It was a very emotional good-bye for all of us.

Pictured here is: Yours truly, my new hubby Frankie, Mom and Dad. I remember a lot of tears being shed that day.  I think I cried all the way from Yuma to Phoenix.  It wasn't like I was going to live on Mars, but 4 hours away, I kept telling myself.  We could make it work.  Below are pictures of our very first apartment.  I wish I would have taken some of our bare-bones furniture.  We had a bed that my in-laws gave us as a wedding gift and a dresser.  In the living room, we had a plastic patio table in between two lawn chairs!  Ah, how I remember sitting in them and not being able to know what to do about my arms.  Arm rests might have been nice.  They were the reclining chairs with NO arm rests.  One month into our marriage we got Tora, our kitty from the shelter.  He came pre-named and was 8 months old.  Such a sweet kitty!

Here's a photo of the outside of our apartment.  My mom and dad were visiting for the weekend.  They borrowed Grandma's car to make the trip. I was so happy to see them!

The apartment was great in regards to the living room was huge, as was the bedroom.  They were stingy with the kitchen, though, and it felt like a galley on a plane!  I remember the first meal I made for my parents: cheeseburger macaroni hamburger helper!  My dear, sweet parents acted like it was a gourmet meal!

They also came in time to welcome our kitty baby to the family.  Here Tora is being brushed by his "grandpa."  LOL!  He never sat that nice for me when I had to brush him. He'd zip across the apartment like it was the kitty 500!

 Awwww....the "newlyweds" with their "baby."  He was such a sweet kitty.  He will forever be missed.  He passed away Sept. 23, 2009 of a blood clot to his little heart.  We never saw it coming. The vet says cats are very good at hiding their illnesses.   Here is one more shot of Frankie getting some quality time with Tora:

Tora always loved to snuggle and be by people.  Frankie was like that too...LOL!  Anyway, isn't it funny what you remember about the past?  I have a lot of good memories of my family, I truly do.  Sure, we fight and argue like any other family and nobody is perfect, but we help each other out the best way that we can.

Whew, that ought to do it for today.  Memory lane is very taxing!  My hubby and I just got back from Active Forever and purchased my shower chair.  So I can shower like everyone else and not have it be physical, sheer torture.  I'd do the quickest shower in the west...and that's NOT a good thing!  But this shower chair should be perfect.

Nothing much more to report today.  I'm exhausted from going out, but that is nothing new.  My stamina is zero, I think! 
Hope you all have a good evening!
God bless,
Until next post,

62c4d810-2ab6-4f75-b394-bfadfb2c3c7e

1.03.01