August chitchat

[Virginia]

Tim, it will probably be a miserable few days. I hope it will not be too long. I hope you are still able to get down some of your soft foods.

I am learning something. I didn't realize psychologist didn't have to have some kind of educational background. I think I probably was aware that some didn't have 4 years, but I would have thought at least 2 years. I am speaking of the US. I hadn't thought about other countries.

Jingle, you seem to do a good job of keeping up with your reading. I do pretty good until something comes along to interrupt my peace of mind. Then it can take me a long time to get back to it. In the meantime, when that happens I try to read the newspaper and some articles.

[Prot]

Thank you all.. My daughter is making soft foods for me. I've just woken up, and have had to take p/ks. Hopefully it'll ease off soon. I've got codeine,cuprofen, and paracetamol that I can take. I wish that I could enjoy reading fiction. I read a lot of online articles. I find them via RSS feeds and X/Twitter. I've shared a lot of articles over the years. It's my way of trying to be helpful. I've also done the Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register... since 2005.

[agate]

I've always like reading fiction, maybe because I can get lost in some other world for a while and forget my own. Pure escapism.

Those sound like heavy-duty pain meds, Tim. I hope you won't be needing them much longer.

[Prot]

agate. I don't take them on the hour every hour. When the gums settle I'll just be taking codeine to help with the leg pain.

[agate]

Even codeine is a pretty powerful drug. Maybe soon you can get along on one of the lesser painkillers?

[Prot]

I don't disagree with you,agate, about codeine being quite powerful. I just didn't want you thinking I was going pill popping crazy with a smorgasbord of painkillers.

[agate]

Having to put up with intractable pain is ghastly. I hope that you can be free of it ASAP.

Happiness is...being free of pain.

[Prot]

Thank you. The leg pain isn't constant and the level of pain can vary. It happens if I'm upright/moving about for more than a short period of time. At the moment my gums hurt more, but that will pass fairly soon. It, doesn't help,of course, that like many other autistic persons I have chronic constipation/the opposite. I've lost count of how often I've been to the toilet today!

[agate]

Re bathroom frequency issues:
People with MS often learn to scope out the bathroom situation before venturing out anywhere. Some supermarkets and malls have printed maps of their premises so you don't need to hike all over the place in search of a bathroom. I've made my own maps when a store didn't have one. It also helps to keep in mind just how accessible a bathroom is. How heavy is the door for instance? Is a numeric code needed just to open the door?

I wonder how Virginia is doing. I hope she's not having a setback.

[Virginia]

Hi to all! I've had to take a little break from doing much of anything the past week. About the middle of the week I had dizziness again. I had several episodes one day, so I just pretty much stopped doing anything.

The dizziness got better, thankfully. Then I woke one morning with my bad knee hurting. I have had this off and on for a number of years, but this time I didn't know what I had done to bring it on. It was more swollen and covered more of my leg than I remember at any time before. I can't take anti-inflammatory medicines such as Advil which might would help. I don't know. I just got really depressed. But last night and as much as possible today I have been just sitting with paper towels taped to my knee and soaked in witch hazel. It seems to help while I am doing it, but then when I have to stop for any reason such as fixing food it starts back. I don't know what brought this on. I wasn't aware of doing anything that would aggravate it. I just woke up with it hurting.

I get depressed because when these things happen I can't do my leg exercises and that is vital to my walking and being independent. It is like being caught between a rock and a hard place. I have an appointment tomorrow, so I am planning on going out. It is my right knee and leg, but I will not be driving far, just a few miles. I hope it will be alright.

Tim, I know you are still having a hard time. I hope when your gums heal you will have a better period of time than you have had lately.

Agate, how are things going for you? It would be really nice to hear from some others. I miss hearing about Linda's fresh vegetables. I wonder if Snuggles is taking any vacations this summer.

Jingle, I hope your apartment is turning out to be just right for your downsizing. I bet it is easy to keep.

[agate]

Too bad about the knee pain, Virginia! It sounds as if heat wouldn't help it? There may be no way of knowing what brought it on but I hope you can avoid any activity that makes it worse, and that you can get to the appointment tomorrow.

At least the dizziness went away, and that is definitely good.

I miss hearing from the other people here too. I've had no word from Ralph (Tom Cat) though I sent a couple of messages to him on Facebook some time ago. No reply.

The weather here has been perfectly beautiful for a while, quite a change after the several days of 100'+ temperatures a while ago. It's predicted to go up into the 90s again soon and I'm not looking forward to it but at least nothing has been said about 100' weather in the forecast.

I often hope that forecasts will be wrong, and sometimes they even are wrong.

I'm still making hats but am doing a scarf just now. I don't know if it will work out but one type of yarn in the latest batch is really meant for a specific scarf project, not so much for hats. The woman who is in charge of this project gets free yarn from various yarn stores and passes some of it along to me. I don't have to buy the yarn, and that is nice because yarn can be pricey.

Virginia, are you able to relax at all in spite of so many problems--watch TV or read something maybe?

[Virginia]

I did go out yesterday for that appointment. I actually did pretty well. Better than I expected. I went to the pharmacy, then to get my hair done. I was really glad when my hairdresser walked me to my car. She didn't hold on to me, but just walked beside me. That was where I had a bad fall on the cement the last time I was there, so I had lost my confidence and was very happy to have her walk beside me.

I then went to the grocery store. I got what I could and tried to be careful about walking so I wouldn't hurt my knee again. I got home and realized I had forgot to take my shopping cart and put it in the trunk of the car. It was on my porch so I got it and filled it up and did my thing of parking it at the bottom of the steps and bringing the groceries in a little at the time. I had to go back for a 2nd time with the cart and bring it up to the steps, but I finally got it all done. I had bought a salad to eat, so I set down and propped my leg up.

Today has not been as good. I was hurting a little more, but have been sitting with my leg propped up as much as I can. I did wash my sheets and will have to make the bed in a little while. I always hate doing that and walking around the bed so many times. If I could learn to sleep in a warmer house and use less cover it would help, but this is the only way I can sleep. I just have to have the cover on me.

Tomorrow I have another appointment. This one is with my Dentist. It is going to be in the high 90s to 100 degrees, but my brother called and he is coming to take me. I hated for him to do it, but I was still glad when he called and said he would. I can just get in his air conditioned car and not worry about the heat. This is to be another long appointment since he will be putting the permanent crown on my tooth and removing the temporary. I do hope I will not have to go back for a while .

Tim, I have had 3 long appointments and I know this doesn't compare to what you are dealing with. I am sure it is very unpleasant for you. With our other conditions it just makes it harder. I just hope you are getting better day by day. I also hope that by having your teeth fixed that in the long term it might help your other conditions.

Agate, you just keep on doing for others with your crocheting and making hats. My Aunt Virginia did crocheting, knitting, needlepoint and sewing. She was forever working on something. She was a piano teacher, but loved to do things with her hands including gardening. She planted such a big garden every summer and froze and canned so much food that she and her daughter ate out of her freezer almost all winter. When she got too old and had too much arthritis to have her garden she sold her house and rented an apartment for many years. She kept busy still taking some piano students and playing for the church on Sunday. She was a gorme cook and enjoyed doing some of that. You remind me of her always doing and staying busy.

[agate]

Thank you for the compliment, Virginia. I do stay busy and I guess I like to stay busy, actually, but not overly busy.

I'm so glad you were willing and able to go back to the scene of that fall, and you managed it! Congratulations on getting so much done without overdoing so much (I hope).

My grocery delivery plans for this week went all to pieces this afternoon because the store where this service always shops is going on strike as of tomorrow AM. I had been hoping this wouldn't happen but it is happening. Luckily I don't have any rx's waiting for me there just now, or I'd be out of luck. Supposedly the strike will end in a week. I've never heard of a strike with a time limit but I hope they mean that because by next week I might need rx's from that store's pharmacy, which is where all my rx's are.

So ever since I heard that the service wouldn't be delivering this week, I've been scurrying to get an Instacart order together from another supermarket. It has higher prices but I'm hoping to get groceries delivered from them through Instacart on Thursday.

And for the next two days this building is having inspections of all alarm and sprinkler systems. They start at 9 AM and are going to "knock and immediately enter" each apartment. This means that they knock as they are opening the apartment door. Heaven help you if you happen to be using the bathroom, I guess. I don't know who the people will be except that they are from some company that does these inspections.

So that's my tale of woe, and I feel embarrassed to be whining about these issues when one person here is about to have a bunch of teeth extracted, and you're facing dental work too, Virginia. A friend in Chicago is about to have a tooth extracted too, and since she's in her mid-80s and has health problems, it won't be easy for her either. When I think of all of you facing Dentists for unpleasant experiences, I feel very lucky after all.

[jingle]

Agate, I wish we lived nearer to each other. I'd be happy to pick-up your prescriptions and groceries. Doing without those things is SCARY.

Yesterday this apartment (I just moved in 2 1/2 weeks ago) had an air conditioner/furnace filter change. That was supposed to be done by a man opening the door while he knocked. No matter if I'm home or not. He has a key that opens every door in this development?? It was done by a very pleasant young man who knocked until I opened the door. Whew. Living here is such a giant change for me ... mostly because all my stuff does not fit!! I hired a man and his assistant to come here and do major things for me and then a man from church and his son came and moved things, but I am still very needy for help. There is so much I can't do .

I've been having major dental work too. It's a difficult thing. And I don't have any dental insurance so it's difficult that way too. But a few days ago I had a routine mammogram and that was OK. Tomorrow it's a routine, annual visit to a cardiologist.

[agate]

Oh my. Major dental work sounds miserable, jingle. Having to pay the total bill would be miserable too. Some dentists are willing to make arrangements for installment payments. Others want most of the bill up front, sometimes even before the work is done.

Moving to a place where your belongings don't fit is a challenge, to put it mildly. When I moved here, I thought I'd done a really good job of getting rid of things beforehand but no. I found I still had to get rid of lots of things. It's hard to part with things you've had for years.