My Baby is Growing Up

Today my precious little one turned six years old.
She got a Bike, a soccer goal, a swim suit, and a couple giraffes, in a few weeks the rest of her presents will be here since we don't want to move them twice they are in lay away.

I got my Birthday Wish

Today was a peaceful day.
Nothing went wrong, noone complained, it was warm and muggy, but a great day overall.
My pain levels were even somewhat cooperative so long as I stayed in the air conditioning.

Tomorrow is another Chiropractor appointment, going to visit a friend at work after the appointment, going to deposit Chris's paycheck, and then going to Secretary of State to pay for 2008 tabs. We will change our address when we are all moved out of here in 2 weeks or so. Then when we come home, we have to clear and move furniture to get the desk out and ready to go to the new house, I think this trip we plan on taking the desk, the loveseat, and the table if there is room in the truck, in the car, we will have two sets of shelves a computer, tv, and some groceries.

We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, its a splurge that wasn't supposed to take place til August due to finances, but it was too hot to bake my cake and too hot to bake my chicken quesadillas, so we opted for a 2fer deal, 2 6 ounce Sirloins, 2 baked potatoes (chris had his loaded) I added mushrooms and 2 ceasar salads and Lauren got a kids meal, We all came home STUFFED. The total spent, under $33 including the tip.

So much for that good morning, the mid morning and afternoon more than made up for it.

At least all was not wasted, the new front door was installed on the house this afternoon.

My first battle of the day started with a fight with Blue Cross, and I didn't win, Oh my are they getting on my nerves, I am grateful we have insurance, but lately I am questioning if its worth it.

Then the orthopedic surgeons office called to reschedule my appointment to a week later than it was originally scheduled for, this irritated me something fierce, its already been 5 full months that I have been struggling to walk and function, so my patience is really thin, maybe he will be worth it and find out WHY its not working though.

Then we got the call about the door, that was actually a good thing, it wasn't supposed to be in for 3 weeks, and 1 has barely passed.

At Dinner none of my family showed up til I had finished, really annoying seeing as I called them almost 30 minutes earlier.

I guess I am just totally stressed, I had better go stretch my neck and do my exercises.

Tomorrow is my birthday, here is hoping for a MUCH better day.

Mornings are Not supposed to start this early

Why is it, on the busiest days you have planned, do you wake up early so you will be tired before you even get started.

Its 5:30am, I have already been up for an hour and a half, and the hardest part, I went to bed at 11pm last night as I am trying to reaccustom myself to those later nights so I am not totally fried when I start school in August.

Why was I up at 4am you wonder? Chris almost always wakes up about then, but he goes to bed about 9-9:30 too. Usually I get up about now, to make breakfast and get ready for our day, but this morning, the cat, woke me up insisting that I clean up after him. I then went to set out Chris's clothes to discover he didn't have any left, good thing I had some in both the washer and dryer, so his clothes are now drying for him. We will be taking him to work this morning and leave at 6:30.

Now, at least I am in a good mood, my morning routine is almost complete and its just the time I usually start my day.

We are about 1/3 there

Today we moved the contents of our Shed, got rid of the shed and the swing and are about 1/3 of the way through our move.

I am very excited, its hard moving when you can't do the majority of the work yourself.

It will likely be finished in two weeks though when we will give up and call in my dad to rent a truck for a worst case scenerio, maybe, Hopefully, Chris can get a hold of one of his friends to help instead.

This week, my goal is to pack ALL of our clothes except what we will need to wear until the move is complete. I also aim to pack up all of the homeschool stuff and get that over as well. We also hope to get Lauren's room totally cleaned, she needs a lot of trash removed from her room and then we should be just about set.

What was I thinking??

I guess I was really hoping for the Chiropractor to tell me I really didn't need to see the ortho after I saw him this morning, I wasn't so lucky. So when I came home I actually scheduled the appointment. July 15th at 9am.

I really do love my Chiropractor though, he has gotten me this far and I like how he does things. Today when I asked about my next appointments I realized just how much I really liked him (although I can't say I liked him working on me) He asked if I was better yet, then I knew when my appointments needed to be.
He has made HUGE improvements in my back, neck, and now is working on my knee, but its not where it needs to be yet.

I asked him if I really needed to see the ortho or if it was just a tight muscles, he thinks it needs to be seen to make sure there isn't more of a reason that its being favored. The nerves are healing wonderfully but the knee still sticks and those muscles are killing me, but they are all concerned (the physical therapists and Chiro) that there may be a reason that its healing is SO slow.

I am glad that I actually asked though, I am trying so hard to be good and take care of myself. Its so challenging, I have grown terrified of doctors after all I have been through. I know God is in control of this, and he will work through it, but I am tired of going through this over and over and over again.

I am grateful that I have a great set of doctors though who actually care about ME, and I am interested in what this one will bring. I guess I also should call the primary, but I think I am going to check with my sister in law and see who she sees first.

Ok, so its not going to be a LONG six weeks

I got discharged from therapy today. Its kinda bittersweet, on one hand, its exciting to not need physical therapy, but on the other, my knee isn't quite better, but they don't think its a neuro issue, so I have to make an appointment with a NEW orthopedic surgeon, YUCKY.

I was given a list from the physical therapist I saw today to choose from. I am kinda sad, kinda stressed, but also kinda relieved since MAYBE I may be able to get back to normal, I can't put weight on my knee and still can't climb the stairs easily. We think it may be related to the sprain I had more than a year ago.

I will call tomorrow, I will also call and schedule the appointment with the regular doctor as well, for the B-12 and to see whatelse they feel is important. Gee, I feel so overwhelmed, did I mention I don't like doctors very much anyore.

Other things are going good, I talked to two of my close friends today and I really needed that...it made me feel quite a bit better about a lot of things.

Its Gonna be a LONG six weeks

My physical therapist is on FMLA leave, I am happy for her but totally bummed at the same time, not just because I will miss her but the reason she is on FMLA means some mom and dad don't get to be parents, that thought always kills me, its so hard to see someone unable to raise their own children.

See, she is a foster mom, and her other three foster childrens mom had a baby and they agreed to take her too.
I already had an interest in foster parenting from being a foster child, having a foster mom as the head of our homeschool group and she just made the desire even more intense, however, it will have to wait til I am ALL better first.

We knew the baby was coming, but she got here 4 weeks early...she is gonna need lots of prayers and support though, she is heartbroken for the parents since she doesn't feel they are bad parents and they really try, but they just can't quite do what needs to be done. She also is going to have her hands full, her older three foster children are two foster daughters 8 and 6 and a foster son 5 and the baby is a girl who was just born on Monday.

Physical therapy will be interesting without her there. The other therapist worked with us today, not that big of a deal because she didn't have many patients since she is going on vacation tomorrow through the weekend, but Thursday ought to be interesting, we will be working with a stranger. Its a good thing I know my routine pretty well, except now we are adding manual stretching to my list because my knee was having some muscle issues that were KILLING me this week.

I am trusting that God will really move in this and it will all be ok. I don't know when I will be discharged, but I almost hope its not til after she comes back.

Happy Fathers Day

Oh how I wish these days could be a bit more peaceful.
We aimed to get some stuff moved yesterday, but alas, we didn't get hardly anything done, we got the papers turned in, some of them (I will call on the other one on Monday though)
They had to fix our door on the house, so we could not move a lot of stuff that we were supposed to move on Saturday. Then today, Chris's dad was supposed to be here at 11:30am, ok, I am at church, so he called at noon, and nothing got done today either, grr.

I am so tired, still feeling pretty cruddy as well, but at least I know that we will be getting things done this week.

My goals for the week, to pack part of the kitchen and load up some boxes for Charity and to go through some clothes to give to my girlfriend for her little girl.

Hopefully I will get through that.

Whine

Today I am in a whiny mood. My head still isn't cooperating, my aim is to at least make it to my appointment on July 14th without making a trip to the hospital first.

Poor Chris finally got an earful this morning. I ALMOST feel sorry for him, he whines at me all the time over anything that bothers him, but today it was my turn.

I did not sleep well last night, I was up til well after 11pm and back up at 5:30am, yes, I am very tired, but have lots to do this week, so no time for real rest.

My CPAP machine seemed to be smothering me last night, I just could not breath against the air pressure. Not to mention the fact that the last thing I wanted to do was actually get sick with it on, eewwe gross. So it came on and off a lot last night.
I had a chaffe spot where my ph is off. I have been sponge bathing because getting in the shower is very hard, and my balance is off as soon as the ground gets wet, but last night I was determined to take a bath because I figured a good soak would help the nausea and the sore spot, HA, that didn't work, I could not get down on my knees to SIT in the tub, I wasn't goign to run the water til I was in and I am so glad I didn't because I would have been stuck in the bathtub half in and half out while everyone else was asleep..I will have to talk to Cathy about that, I NEED to be able to sit in the tub or on the floor without feeling like I am going to die.

Then I came back to bed again, and just basically struggled to get to sleep til almost 11, now I am used to going to bed by 9 at the latest lately this was VERY hard.

For the most part, life does not get the better of me, I don't believe in complaining since it doesnt make me feel better, today I just really needed to get things off my chest. I really do not feel like God has abandoned me, but rather he is trusting me with a lot of things that I don't feel qualified to handle...its a good thing that HE is really the one who handles these things huh?

MY Aching Head

Oh how I wish Chiropractic could cure this. Unfortunately, I know better since they couldn't get the headaches under control nearly 20 years ago now when they started.

Today has been unusually bad, it actually started yesterday, probably from all of the stress of the closing, traffic, construction, and just plain going too much.

I knew it was bad when I looked up the PTC support group web page, I don't do that very often, usually its just when I need to be reminded that I am stronger than this disease. The reason I do not like the support groups much is from my initial diagnosis back in 1998, my life was not going to end at a mere 22 years old just because I got sick. The new group that I found isn't the same way, they actually have a really cool forum called "I need a hug" and people actually live lives there.

My pressure back in December was 38cm, I don't get another tap til August, and its feeling pretty far away right now. I have never prayed so hard that I could make it to a doctors appointment before because I never did really good at follow ups. For the first time in 10 years I actually have doctors that feel that follow up is important for me and not just their monetary gain.
I don't even mind going to the appointments knowing that either. I always struggled with ignorant doctors before.
I do feel though that my head is encroaching the "lets head to the ER" stage that I have hit so many times before. I am 2 days away from my last spinal tap being 6 months ago and I can feel its definitely time for another one.

Right now I am praying that when I see Dr. Guthikonda we will be able to do something other than schedule more follow ups. My goal, by his visit, to have lost a minimum of 10lbs. I am doing the weight watchers points system, and need to really get it right.

Benefits of Chiropractic

Ok, this week I am totally convinced.

I had been stressing over my decision to try a chiropractor after all my complications from the shunt removal and the PTC and Chiari.

I researched it pretty thoroughly, the only negatives all said they could feel more pain rather than less so I figured if it was going to be a bad thing, I would stop going. The brain is a pretty touchy area to work with so I was a bit nervous.

The nerves though, are GONE. I had my 6th appointment this morning, back up a moment.
Friday I had my 5th appointment, I left somewhat disappointed, I had been having some major swelling issues with my leg and Lots of pain all week, every appointment I had had up til Friday gave a good deal of relief at least of the pain my back had been feeling...Friday though, not much relief, about 3 hours worth.
All day long though, I noticed something, My leg wasn't throbbing every time I pushed my heel to the ground...When I got back home, I took my shoes off as usual, and something weird happened, I did NOT swell immediately upon removing them...
The swelling has been down ALL weekend.
Today I had my 6th appointment, I use the walker to get in the building, back to the room, but I don't use it to walk in the room as they aren't big enough. I didn't NEED it to move around, my leg and hip are moving very freely and with very little pain.
My therapist noticed it too over the last two weeks, I had been stuck for about a month not making hardly any progress, it was VERY discouraging, that's when I decided I needed to do SOMETHING, and she knew I was gonna see the Chiro...Tomorrow we will likely be trying a single cane, hopefully we will be able to order one before my birthday. YAY.

Chiropractic works. I am so grateful to my sister in law for talking about it, I knew in my mind I needed to go, but I wasn't about to hunt down a doc, I was too afraid of getting a bad one. Her doc is the greatest, I see dad, Thursday I will see his son (but I will be sticking with dad for my regular appointments at least for a while)
I was told 6 months or more of recovery time, right now, I am at the 4 months, I am hoping to be totally better by the time my 6 months is up. I realize it may take a while to be 100%, but at least if I am walking with a cane or without, if I have a bad day once in a while it will surely beat the Lots and Lots of bad days.

Good Grief, Where did this week Go?

Wow, its been So busy, I am used to being busy, but this is rediculous.

I had Chiropractor appointments Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I had Physical Therapy on Tuesday and Thursday. I had appointments to go back to school Wednesday and Friday. I am tired.

This weekend we will be packing a good bit in the heat. We close on the mobile home on Monday.
I start school August 11, I will be taking classes Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays from 6-11pm. I will have a lot to get together between now and then...its amazing how busy I am.

So far though, its been great, we have been busy and enjoying seeing things get done.

What a Busy Weekend

Goodness gracious, it seemed like Monday would never get here this week. Now normally I dont wish for Mondays but this was a very hectic weekend.

Friday I had another Chiropractor appointment, Oh how I love those, I actually felt good until Almost bedtime, it will be a while before they stick over night, but we shall see since I saw him again this morning.
After my appointment, we took Chris up lunch, then we came home and I took a short nap while Lauren played on my computer.
When we got back from picking Chris up from work, I packed a box of books, wow was that a lot of work.

Saturday we went shopping early in the morning, FIL stopped by in the early afternoon and Lauren managed to really REALLY make him mad, she was really rude and we didnt even know he was here til she came in to me crying that he had left.

Dealing with that was a total nightmare. Chris acts JUST like him too, which certainly didn't help matters with me. I have never prayed quite so hard to control my tongue as I did before I called him.
I ended up talking to Chris's step mom for a while and she and I worked things through to make them realize how stupid this really was.

It was exhausting though, and the stress didn't help my head at all. Because I was too stressed to sleep, I stayed up with Chris to watch the Wings win their third game going for the Stanley Cup, I was SO excited, I just love hockey.

I think the stress affected my leg too because throughout Saturday night my swelling went up and my nerves started misfiring I woke up in so much pain it took me almost two hours for my foot to hit the floor.
We did not end up leaving the house at all on Sunday I barely could get across the house from room to room.

Then this morning We took Chris to work, went to Chiropractor again, ahh that felt SO much better, came home and went up there for Lunch, we will have to start packing ice through since its getting significantly warmer.

Now I need a nap before we go back to get him. Good night