update on my back...

ok guys and gals! here's the latest and greatest with me and my back. i went for a consultation with my ortho/back doctor yesterday. to talk about what we've done so far and what the results show, etc. basically they narrowed down the source of my problem and it is not just the one blown disc pressing on nerves. it is a combination of things, but mostly what they consider to be a "mechanical" issue with my back. the actual vertibrae (L4/L5 and L5/S1) levels are really messed up and are not going to get better, they will only degenerate more. which i cannot even imagine at this point! i have already been in so much pain. i've dealt with this in some way shape or form since 1999. now it's at a point where i had to make a decision to keep going the way i am, or do something to help stabalize the whole situation and hopefully provide me with a change in my pain level and be able to function better from day to day. i do not want to take pain meds every single day/night. tentatively, i have a date of oct 17th set for surgery. it's tentative because there will be two surgeons working on me at once, so the second surgeon has to have that date open too! lol they said that the surgery will last approximately 7 hours and i will be in the hospital for approx 5 days. afterwards i will have 3 months of extremely limited activity while my back is healing (i'll be able to get up and go to the bathroom, go to the dinner table, watch tv, read, etc.), and then physical therapy to help strengthen my back and stomach muscles to help achieve a better mobility and support. the overall recuperation time is somewhere between 6-9 months. di'm not even nervous about having the surgery, i've just been in pain for so long... i can't live like that... the pain is so bad that i can't do normal everyday things. and if i take the pain meds to alleviate the pain, it does take away the pain, but it also knocks me out as well... and i end up sleeping my days and nights away and the times that i am up and awake, i lose alot of that, actually forgetting alot of stuff because i've been out of it so much. so, that's what's going on. i'll make sure to let everybody know if this becomes a definate date and all. i wanted to let you all know. ok, i'm out of here for now! lol i'll quit rambling! lol

what to do, what to do, what to do....

well, the affects of the last epidural injection (sept 3rd) gradually wore off every day untill i was back in constant pain 2-3 days before i went to get this second one. i had it done yesterday morning and they decided to do two injections so they could "bathe the root endings for my legs" since i was having pain down into both legs. ok, not a problem. and they even got the IV in with only one stick! yay! but i really didn't get any relief from the pain at all yesterday, i actually had to walk with my moms walker! i took some meds and went to bed and slept until 10:30pm, much longer than i intended to! but then i got a few things done and was up when ann got up at 1:30am to go to work. i've just been putzing around for a bit with emails and stuff. now i'm due for more meds, so i'll take them and go back to bed now. this morning there wasn't any difference in my pain level, so i may be calling them once it's late enough for them to be open. ugh. i am so tired of this.

i have a "TO DO" list that is several pages long.... NOT all of it for just ME to do!lol but there's alot of stuff. alot of it i want to get done before winter sets in. AND before the holidays get here! i cannot believe that september is nearly at an end! halloween in oct, thanksgiving in nov, christmas in dec, new years in jan, valentines day in feb.... omg, makes me tired just thinking about it! lol it's not that i HAVE to do something special for all those holidays... but i LIKE to. it feels good to me. if that makes any sense! lol

tomorrow i go in to have the color touch-ups done on my fairy tattoo! i'm so excited! i know, it's going to hurt again! lol but not as bad... so i'm ok with it. and believe it or not, i already have an image that i want to use to put on the back of the OTHER calf! lol i think they will complement each other. but i have no idea when i will get that one done. we'll just wait and see.

well, i'm falling asleep at here at the computer, so i'll say good bye for now. see ya'll later!

shot didn't last more than a week... but getting another one...

well, the epidural injection i got on sept 3rd lasted for a few days before wearing off... i'm back in pain again, which i don't like, but they're planning on doing another injection this coming wednesday. i'm not so apprehensive of this one, and i really do hope that it helps longer than the first one. even if i am eventually going to have the surgery, i'll welcome any pain relief i an until then!

i have a few art projects in the works. i sent in some fatbook pages for a vintage halloween fatbook project that one of my groups is doing. i can't wait to get the finished project! i forgot to take pics of the pages i did before i mailed them. i am so made at myself! but i'll take pics when i get mine back and i promise to post them! i am working on an alphabet fatbook with my RR group, it's still in the planning stages, but i'm still excited to be working on it. i'm also TRYING to work on an altered cigarbox shadow box project but it's moving so slowly. i'm sure it will "click" sometime soon (it always does)and i'll be able to finish it. i also have the latest RR book to work on, suppose to mail that out next thursday! yikes! but it's moving along. oh, and i have an a-z happiness fatbook project that i am working on, it's not due till nov 1st i think, so there's plenty of time for that one. anyway, i'm keeping quite busy along with the usual day to day tasks and all the dr's appts and stuff to deal with. i don't mind being busy with the art stuff... it keeps me calm and stable when everything else makes me totally insane! today i'm pretty much relaxing and taking a break from the busy week. i might even take a nap! what a thought!

what a difference a shot makes...

no, not a shot of tequila! lol an epidural shot. oh how i dreaded it! but it did make a little bit of difference in the amount of pain i have, so that's a good thing! before i was in pain ALL the time. now, i'm only in some pain when i move certain ways or if i do a bit too much. at least i'm not having to take pain meds every 4 hours around the darn clock! there is no way to accomplish much of anything that way! so now, i have to carefully play "catch up" with all the things that didn't get done while i was all loopy and sleeping most of the time! i don't quite know what to do with myself... i haven't done a bit of art in over two weeks! that's just wierd! but first, i have to catch up on household stuff... work before pleasure! tomorrow is cage cleaning day, i promised by little critters i would make them first priority on saturday. then the living room and the bathroom and... well, you know how the drill goes! lol at least one, possibly two, people are going to be out and about tomorrow so i can do things without trying to "do around", which suits me just fine! lol our son and i have been feverishly working on his high school courses that he started a few weeks ago. we've been up to our eyeballs in Civics and Literary Analysis and Composition! ack! i can't believe that high school is kicking my butt for the second time in my life! just doesn't seem fair now does it?! lol at least he's a whiz and ahead in geometry! cause i have not a clue where math is concerned! lol i'll take my blessings where i can get them! for now, i'm off to indulge in reading a book i started while waiting for my shot the other day. and then maybe a little tv. this week, although busy and having a busy weekend in front of me, still feels better than the previous weeks that have past, so i'm glad.

another week gone by...

well, it's friday night and all day i've been thinking it was thursday?! lol so much for me keeping track of time huh? i've done nothing creative this week, nothing at all, haven't had time or energy for it. school officially started full force for our son this week (was suppose to be last week but his login and password info for his virtual school courses didn't make it's way to us till this week) and we've spent the week working our patooties off to get things figured out, organized, started and caught up to date! we've got two of three subjects up to date, and this weekend we will work on the third. now, i don't mean that i am doing any of the work, he is doing the work, but i am right along with him because he has a hard time with reading comprehension/finding the answers within text, keeping things organized, and getting his thoughts down on paper or into a word documents. if it was all oral/spoken, then that would be a snap for him! but we are doing well and he is making great strides in his academic endeavers. so everybody's happy!

i have my work cut out for me this weekend. i have to clean cages (four of them), clean the litter box (just one! thank goodness!), and take pics of some stuff i am going to post to our local craigslist to sell. we are tryint to weed out stuff that is just taking up space and not getting used. and i STILL have to get my art studio finished! i have it partially done, but there is stuff spread all over the place! lol and of course i am the only one that can do it because nobody else knows what half the stuff is for or where i want it... so it's all up to me! which i really don't mind, i just have to get the spare time to do it! lol

i cannot believe how fast this month is going by! it's almost the first of september! before you know it we'll be dealing with halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, new years... yikes! a whole nother year gone by!!! wow. it's amazing how time can fly by sometimes. but it's never dull around here, something always going on, something happening, etc. so at least i'm not vegging in a chair watching soaps or news all the time. i don't read the paper, i use it to line the bottoms of cage trays. and i don't watch the news, i get the highlights from my mother who DOES watch the news. lol if there's anything noteworthy, i figure i'll hear about it eventually or see it online at some point! lol i'm horrible aren't i? the news is just so depressing! i can't do that to myself every day or mulitiple times a day. i have enough to deal with on my own.

well, i suppose i should attempt to go to sleep now. i took a nap this afternoon, which of course made me not so tired tonight! i'm hoping i can get a good nights sleep. good night and happy creating!

omg, how many days have i lost???

well, i'm taking my medicine the way the dr said i have to, but it doesn't leave me much time that i am awake and coherant! i mean, rest is good and all that, but things really do have to be done and i certainly can't do any of it if i'm sleeping! the pain is better than it was, so that is under control, which is excellent! only 4 more days till my ortho appt! yay!

it's finally time to mail out the RR book i worked on during july. it's been done for weeks and i've been chomping at the bit to get busy on another one! i've been told that the next RR book is in route to me now, so i should get it in the next few days. now i just have two other projects to get in the mail; the fat book pages for one of my groups and also the altered board book for my other group. but i HAVE to remember to get pictures of all of them before i mail them off!

i've made some headway in organizing my studio/craft room. there's still a ways to go, but it does look promising! i never thought i'd have an entire room devoted to creating art. what an awesome thing! i'm really anxious to get my sewing area set up so i can do things as the thought strikes me and not be held back by not having enough room.

i am thoroughly enjoying working on all the projects that have been started in the groups i'm a part of. each one of them offers new insight, new ideas, new techniques, etc. i love learning new things and i love collaborating with other artists.

well, it's time to go take care of furbabies and get things ready to settle down for the night. i can't believe it, but it's not even 8pm and i'm ready for bed already! maybe going to bed early will give me an early start to tomorrow. you never know... until next time... keep creating!

oh my achin' back...

well, just when i thought my back was going to settle down and give me a break... psych!... it doesn't! i feel like i'm gonna die and i'm afraid i won't! pain meds and muscle relaxers can only do so much, and when they don't work on what the problem is, it just ends up making you groggy and out of it. so, i just deal most of the time. what else can ya do? and i have to do thing here at home, there's no way around it. everybody else is helping me and being very considerate and all, but there are still things that i have to do and even those small things are really getting to where they hurt. i can't wait for the 25th to get here so i can go see the orthopedic surgeon and see what he says! i'm gonna call them on monday and see if they have any other cancellations!

my tattoo is healing nicely, it hasn't been that bad at all. sometime in september i will go in and have him touch up/add more color to it. i'm still really glad i got it. and i STILL haven't showed it to my mother! LOL yep, still chicken! i'll show her soon, i think part of it is that i want to keep the good feelings about it, you know? it feels good that i got it, it's something i've been looking forward to... and she's going to gripe and nag about it and i just don't want the negative feelings that will come my way. so if anyone is planning on "outing my tattoo" to my mom, DON'T! LOL

school starts next week for alex, he does school at home through a virtual school online. it's an extension of a kansas public school and they provide everything and keep track of all the grading and credits and stuff. it's also a college prep course of study, so it is definately challenging, but that is good for alex. he's a smart cookie. especially in math!!! wow! this year will be a bit more involved for both of us. we'll have to figure out the new "rhythem" of the new school year subjects and then we'll be good to go. the first few weeks is the hardest.

i've got to knuckle down and get some pics taken tomorrow. some of some art pieces, some of my tattoo, some of the puppy, etc. i keep getting distracted and forget about taking them. *sigh*

until next time...