Familiar Feelings

Howdy, everyone!

As the title of this post reads, I definitely have "familiar feelings" today as this is the day I have to go to yet ANOTHER seminar about the Lap-band or Realize band procedure.  And they couldn't have picked a busier hospital than Good Sam in downtown Phoenix!  I'm worried about parking and how far I will have to walk to even get to the conference room.  I've had MAJOR problems with walking lately.  My right leg has just been incredibly painful with "pins and needles" in my foot, muscle spasms in my calf and thighs, and let's not forget that lovely "shooting" pain I get from my lower back.  This morning it took me about 15 minutes (and me having to stop and lean against the wall to work out severe cramps in my thigh) to walk down the short hall to the bathroom.  And then back into the bedroom so I could take my morning cocktail of medications.  Please work fast!!! 

Yesterday I went to the podiatrist and he gave me a clean bill of health - for just my left foot!  The pain I was having in the arch is completely gone. So either that lovely moon boot or the steroid shot I had a month ago has finally started to kick in.  But I haven't had pain there all week now.  Praise the Lord!!  Now if only the REST of me would get the picture and follow suit.  I'm really glad my foot really cleared up, because as of October 1st, my insurance will no longer be paying for podiatry care.  Our state's government is bankrupt (or close to it!) and that is how they see fit to fix it...take away even more health care benefits to the poor or the elderly.  Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it????!!!

I talked with my dad, who now lives in Michigan in his own apartment, on Monday and he sounded fantastic!  He has met a new friend online, her name is Gina and I spoke with her, too, on Monday. She set up a three way phone call.  Pretty neat....I would have absolutely NO idea of how to do such things. I'm glad my dad is happy.  It's been a long recovery process, and I didn't know how I'd feel seeing him with other women, but I know it's what Mom would have wanted for him.  And it isn't really so hard seeing him with someone else (or "hearing" him with someone else, for that matter!). She sounded very nice and sweet and perfect for my zany and crazy dad!!  LOL....couldn't help myself there for a moment.

AND, I've saved the best news for last.  MY GRANDMA IS COMING TO SEE ME IN DECEMBER!!  My grandma (on my mom's side) who moved to Texas shortly before we started our move out there too, decided that two years is too long of a time for us to see each other.  I agree!  And the last time I saw her, I was in shock and grief over mom's recent death. If it hadn't been for her there with me (as she came from College Station to San Antonio in record time when she heard how bad mom was and that she wouldn't make it for long), I don't think I would have made it.  I love my grandma soooo much and have missed her equally so, that I'm thrilled that my in-laws have warmly welcomed her to stay in their home and my aunt and uncle (grandma's son with whom she lives with now) already bought her ticket.  When I saw my grandma's name on the ticketless travel receipt in the email, it just tickled me so!  OK, so I'm a little giddy....LOL!!!  She will be arriving Dec. 8th and staying until after Christmas on Dec. 28th.  Three solid, whole weeks!!!

Nothing much else to report. Please pray that I can get to the conference room tonight for that bariatric seminar and please pray I can have the procedure.  My husband called up my insurance and verified again they cover this procedure and they said yes, as long as it is for medical purposes and NOT cosmetic.  No prob there...all they gotta do is look at my charts and they'll see all my medical problems that could very possibly be corrected by having this procedure.  And hopefully this place is the RIGHT place this time!!

I'll be sure to post again tomorrow and let you know how it went. You all have a wonderful day....may it be without too much pain!!  We can only hope.


God bless you all,
Until next post,
Missy

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
As many of you know, I have a support group on Facebook that used to be called the same name as my blog.  Well, I met a new friend, Sally, and she set up a beautiful forum based on my support group.  She worked day and night on it and didn't find the error until the forum was complete. And that was, she left the MY out of the title.  But that's not the important news, just a tid-bit.  :0)  The notice is please accept our sincere apologies about how Facebook kept sending out duplicate messages this past week. We have been in contact with FB, but have not received any response.  So I completely understand if you wish to not be part of the FB support group....but please DO come over to our forum. There are NO problems like that over there.  We've love to see you all that signed up in the FB group and we would love to meet new people, too.  So click on the purple butterflies at the top of this page.  See ya there!!

My Big Foot

Hello, folks!

Well, as you know, yesterday I went to the foot doctor because my left foot has been hurting me something awful. The arch part especially. Every time I would stand and put full weight on it, it would hurt so much I would see explosions of stars going off in my brain-it hurt that much!  And everyone knows that when your feet hurt, your WHOLE body hurts!!

Anyway, I told the doctor that the steroid shot he gave me last time didn't do a thing.  So he said, "those shots ALWAYS work, which means your problem is different."  Of course. I'd hate to follow the same road everyone else does!  So he examined my foot and pressed on all the right places where I'd wince in pain or pull back.  He then took a look at my x-rays that I had taken when I was there two weeks ago and he said they looked good, even the "bad foot."  So he is saying I sprained the arch of my foot.  Which is entirely possible with all the moving we've done over the past year and then Mom and I trying to do the travel nursing circuit....I could have sprained it anywhere!

So the "cure" for this is a "moon boot" or "air cast" boot which I wear when I'm walking.  I can take it off to sleep and shower. At first, I thought I'd NEVER get used to it and I was afraid of falling because it set my center of balance off.  But then, today, I'm walking around the house wearing it and it isn't that bad.  I don't have that searing pain I used to get in that arch area.  So they may look goofy, but they are working against ONE of my painful areas!!  I took two pics of my new "boot."

Well, one thing I can say for it is that hopefully it will help keep my swelling down in that leg.  You can see the build-up of fluids in my calf region of my left foot.  And walking around is a lot easier and it gives that arch a rest so it can heal.  The doctor says it can take anytime to heal from two to three weeks to a month.  Everyone is different.  So I can expect to wear my special boot for a month!  At least it's nothing that requires surgery or anything like that to fix it.

The rest of me is so incredibly sore. My right hip region is giving me such fits of pain that I could just scream.  The humidity is up there and I think that is why I'm in such agony. I see a lot of other "fibromytes" are having problems, too.  So it definitely is something in the air!!!

I don't know if you've seen it yet, but I added a new page to my blog called "New-Blog Awards."  I've seen a few sites that have awards on them and they are so cute and it recognizes to the owners how very hard it can be to get a blog up and running and have it be of quality work.  So every blog I see that fits my requirements, I will give them an award for their hard work.  So please check out the new page and leave me a comment with your blog's URL and you could be the next person I give an award to!!!

That pretty much is all the news around here. Frankie's drain is draining more on the outside.....on his dressing instead of in the drain.  The visiting nurse thinks the tube has migrated outside of the wound.  So I'm not to flush it until he has spoken to the doctor.  If I haven't heard from him by 5pm, I'm to give him a call.  It would be such as a shame to have to have it re-insterted and then removed on the 7th!  The wound looks good: no redness, swelling or unusual pain.  It's just not draining to well inside the bulb like it should.  Complications, complications!  That's our middle name, think!

You all have a great day and God bless you all,
Until next post,
Missy                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Happy September!!

Good day, my fine friends!

Happy September 1st!  I thought I'd start the day/month out with a blog post.  Can you believe it's already September 1st?  Where has the time gone?  I'll bet the kiddos are happy to be back in school....NOT.  I remember when I was a kid (a long time ago!) I didn't like summer to be over and then having to trot back to school for another year of carrying heavy books and listening to your teachers drone on and on about things that happened way before you were even born!  As you can see, I'm NOT a historical buff!

I don't feel too badly today, of course I had my morning cocktail of pills, pills and more pills.  I wonder if I will ever have a day again where I don't have to take pills all day?  Maybe after the lap-band surgery I can drop some of my pain meds, blood pressure meds, and the diabetes pill.  We shall see.  I'm so excited because this is the month I go for the initial appointment for the lap-band and since I've already had the cardiology clearance, it should save a lot of time and we can move forward.

Well, today is the day I go back to the foot doctor. I plan on holding up my grossly swollen feet and saying, "fix me!"  If anything, my foot is even worse than when I went in the first place.  The shot he gave me did nothing.  He also said something about getting insurance authorization to take care of my ingrown toenail.  Sounds fun! He better hurry. I got a letter from my insurance stating that due to the state's bad budget, more people are going onto the state insurance so they are cutting back on things for people over 21 yrs. old.  One of them is podiatry care!  Great! I've only got one month until this takes effect, so hopefully everything will be done in that time.  They ALWAYS take away from people over 21 yrs old, while if I were a kid, I could get everything - dental care, even.  As it stands, I can't take care of my teeth issues because I have no insurance and my other health issues kind of trump the dentist.  All in due time, as my dad always said.

I'm sure you've noticed all my Amazon ads on my blog. I signed up with their Amazon Associates program and they approved my blog almost immediately!  Makes me feel better, since Google adsense rejected it (after looking at the WRONG blog) and then went on to say I have broken links, under construction signs, ect.  I appealed my application and still haven't heard anything back. They are soooo way over the estimated "week" they told me a month ago!  Anyway, I just LOVE Amazon and have been ordering from them for years.  You can get all kinds of stuff there and I've included a "search" Amazon widget near the bottom of the page for your shopping convenience.  Everything you order off of my blog, I get commission for.  So if you love Amazon, too and order a lot, please do so off of my blog, please. :0)


You remember me talking about that pillow wedge that I use?  Well, on Amazon it is even cheaper than what I got at ActiveForever.com!  And it works so well and takes pressure off my lumbar spine.  If I didn't have that pillow, I'd have to sleep sitting up because I can't lay on either side.  Here is the pillow wedge link in the sidebar if you are interested:


I find it helps very much if your ankles swell, too. It keeps them raised while you sleep.  While my ankles are always swollen, they are a lot less so in the morning when I get up from having them raised all night.  I also keep them raised while reading, too.  It's soooooo very comfy, if I don't say so myself!! :0)





Another product that I highly recommend if you have a sore neck is "the neck pillow."  So much more than a regular pillow, it centers your head and neck in a cradle of comfort!  I love mine!  Here is the link for that in the sidebar:













One product that I use on a daily basis is a pillbox organizer.  I take so many things, I'd be lost without it!!  Here is just one of many types/designs. This is the one that I use:

Hmmm.....I see they have a 31 day organizer out now that I may have to buy myself!










One more product that I just can't live WITHOUT is my TENS machine. And Amazon has a number of them, both new and used, that will do the trick. They even have the electrodes and conductive gel, if you need that.  Here is the link to a similar machine to what I have and love:













I hope you all have a great day and the start of another week.  Joy, health and peace I wish for all!!!

God bless,
Until next post,
Missy