500

That's the number of posts I've published on my blog so far. In many ways I wish that I'd have been able to keep up with daily posting. I'd be close to 1000 posts right now, if I had, and that would have been sort of cool. That being said, I want this to be a place for me to unwind and decompress, and pressuring myself to keep up with daily posts is not conducive to decompression. 

So 500 it is.

At the same time that I want this to be a place to decompress, I don't want it to just be about kvetching about my life. My mama taught me that if I can't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything at all. I think there can be a happy medium, though, so I'll probably be back here complaining from time to time.

It is what it is, and I am who I am.

So I figured something out the other day. One of the amino acids I'm taking to help with the neuropathy sort of counteracts my thyroid medicine. I don't know why I didn't see that when I researched the amino acid. I don't know, if the information just wasn't there, or if I overlooked it at the time, or what. What I do know is that I've been absolutely dragging the last few months. I've had no energy, and that's a major symptom of hypothyroidism. 

I've been taking the amino acid for over a year now, and I hadn't noticed a difference in the effectiveness of my thyroid medicine until somewhat recently. I don't know, if it's because it took awhile for the effectiveness to be altered, or what. Unfortunately, my neuropathy has been out of control lately, so giving up the amino acid isn't an option, and in fact I'm needing to double up on it and take it twice a day. It's the only thing I can take that makes any difference in the pain level. I'd love it, if the prescription nerve meds worked for me, but they don't. If I take them, I sleep for days, and that just isn't an option. So I've made an appointment with my doctor to discuss it all in the next couple of weeks. 

In the meantime, I'm hoping we'll all be feeling well enough soon, (This hit and miss stuff that always happens once school starts for the year is so frustrating!), so we can finally officially celebrate the 4 birthdays that have happened since the end of June. 

We're also hoping to get a bunch of yardwork done and get rid of a bunch of elm trees in the backyard that have once again grown into a jungle back there. We'll take down our apple tree when we're back there, too. A windstorm took about half the tree a couple of years ago, and another wind took half of what was left back there a couple of weeks ago, so it has to go before it falls on the house. And then there's the scraggly little peach tree in the corner of the yard that has been slowly dying over the last few years but is tall enough it's in the middle of the power lines. 

Once we're done getting the trees down, we're hoping to toss some grass seed down and cover it with straw to help it stay alive over the winter. If it survives, we'll just rake up the straw in the Spring and have an actual lawn instead of the dirt pile we have back there now. We'll also be chipping the trees with a professional chipper and we're hoping the wood chips put down between the fences will prevent future saplings from taking root. We so need to get the trees out of there, so we can lower our fire risk. After all the wildfires we've had in Colorado this year, we don't need to add to the problem.

And to end this on a good note...I spoke with the attorney today, since we still haven't gotten our paperwork in the mail showing that we are officially the girls' guardians. He said that he mailed them yesterday or the day before, and we should be getting them any day now. 

We can hope.

A little of this. A little of that.

I've been a bit out of sorts lately, but I think I'm back on track.


My Christmas gift has been in the shop for 3 of the last 4 weeks. I finally got it back last week. The Hubster was a bit frustrated that they didn't fix my netbook the first time it went in (when they replaced the hard drive), but he's glad they fixed the touch pad, and I have it back. It means he gets to use his again whenever he wants, since I used it while mine wasn't available. I'm really glad to have my computer back and in good working order again. And I'm superdeeduperdee thankful that Bugster figured out the password for the network, so we didn't have to reset it, and I can access the internet again!


Bugster, Bubster, Hopper, Scooter and Frank surprised us with a gorgeous arrangement of 25 roses that Bugster made for us for our 25th wedding anniversary. She did an amazing job, and they are still gorgeous a week later! Then Bugster and Bubster came over to our house and hung out with Hopper and Scooter, so we could go celebrate.
                            



We spent the day enjoying one another's company and got some much needed alone time. We did a little shopping, went out to eat at a Greek restaurant that was out of this world, and went to the movies. But our favorite part of the day was spent at a paint-your-own pottery place where the customer paints the piece, and the shop fires it for you. We've gone to this little place a few times over the years for our anniversary, and I have to say it's one of my favorite ways to spend time with Hubster. There's no stress, pleasant conversation, and one on one time with my favorite guy. It's a win-win all the way around.


We didn't get to the shop in time to finish the painting in one sitting, so we'll get to go back and spend some more time together at some point in the upcoming weeks. We're very much looking forward to having that time together and seeing our finished creations. I'm definitely looking forward to finishing our mugs and picture frame, but I'm most looking forward to seeing the necklace Hubster makes after the beads he painted have been fired!


We did a lot of sitting the day we went out, and my back has bothered me ever since. I've been having problems with nerve pain in my legs and feet again lately. It happens when I'm in the middle of a fibro flare, and one started up a couple of weeks ago for me. I took a medicine I'd been prescribed quite some time ago, and it took care of the neuropathy pain within an hour. I felt so much better, but the pain started up again the next day, so I tried it again with good results. However, the third day when I took it, I made the mistake of taking it on an empty stomach, and I couldn't seem to stay awake for the next 2 days. If I sat down, I dozed off. So I stood. A lot.


I'm feeling a bit stupid for not trusting myself to stay away from the medication that I'd stopped taking once before. I won't make that mistake again. If I am as out of it as I've been after only 3 doses, I know that it's not a medicine I can ever take again. I just have to try to figure out how to keep the fibro from flaring, so I don't have the neuropathy issues as often.


I am hoping to get some help this weekend to make a raised vegetable garden bed, so I can get my tomatoes and peppers in the ground. As much as I love my umbrella planter, I don't think I'll be doing upside-down tomatoes in it anymore. I don't think they get quite enough sun to really flourish, so the tomatoes and peppers are going to go in the ground this year, and I think I'm going to try flowers in the planter. The strawberries looked great last year in them, and they did okay, but they didn't come back this year, so they're out, too. I can't afford to buy new strawberry plants every year.


Right now, I'm going to go work on pinatas and dishes and laundry and such. Maybe if I get something done, my head will stop aching. 

One can hope.

Progress

I cut back a little on the cola today. I the equivalent of 2 cans instead of the typical 3. It has already seemed to make a difference with the neuropathy. I only took 1/2 of 1 vicodin all day, and although my toes are a tingling they're not hurting like they have been. Although, the toes on my right foot are a bit more miserable than they were after Scooter decided to grab on and twist them, because she decided for some reason that was what she wanted to do. Little stinker.

Hopper was feeling much better today. She was sick all day yesterday. Woke us up getting sick to her stomach and then went back to bed. She didn't get back up until this morning, having slept 40 hours straight. It's just how she handles being sick. She needs to sleep whatever it is off. It still a bit unnerving, though. It was good to have her back to her chaotic loud little self today.

Didn't get a lot of anything done today but some laundry and dishes and resetting the breaker. The little window air conditioner keeps popping the circuit. I'm not sure, if we can get something to plug in that would trip the outlet only and leave the circuit working. It kept shutting the computer off after I'd been on for only moments. I really don't want to ruin the computer by having the air conditioner pop the breaker when the computer is on. I'll be leaving the computer off during the day until we can figure something out.

I'm beat tonight. I feel like I've come through the worst of the last couple of weeks and that things will only get better from here. It can be draining when things just play at your mind and body all the time. Glad the focus is coming back in, in spite of the fact that I'm sure I just sound like I'm rambling tonight.

I'll take that as a hint.

I'm off to bed.

I wasn't onto anything.

Several weeks ago, I thought I was onto something. Turns out I wasn't.

For years, I drank a 2 liter bottle of caffeinated soda every single day. Sometimes more. According to the pulmonologist, it likely helped keep my asthma from getting out of control over the years, so I didn't feel too bad about drinking it.

However, 3.5 years ago, I gave it up completely. I felt fine. It took me a few days to get through the headaches, but my energy level stabilized, and I didn't feel bad for having stopped drinking the caffeine. Last October, when we got sick with the Swine Flu, and my asthma went way out of control, and I had to be put on steroid after steroid after steroid, I started drinking cola again. And it definitely helped with the breathing. I have no doubt in my mind that it did.

However, I've also had problems with it. I've been having problems with peripheral neuropathy when I drink the caffeine, and I'd totally forgotten that I'd discovered it quite by accident last summer.

We were out of town, and it was breathtakingly hot outside, and I was so thirsty that water didn't seem like it was cold or wet enough. So I got a raspberry iced tea. And man, did it taste good! We got home a short while later, so I filled up my mug with ice and cold water and continued drinking nothing but water for the rest of the day.

However, later that evening, I noticed that I was having problems with peripheral neuropathy. It was like I was being stuck with pins and needles indiscriminately all over my body. Like someone was doing a bang up job on a voodoo doll, and I was the intended target. And I never would have thought of the caffeine or the tea, except that I was paying attention to my body for a different sort of reaction from the tea. I don't remember now what it was, I just remember being surprised when I put 2 and 2 together and came up with caffeine = pain. And I didn't drink anymore tea or anything with caffeine in it until we got sick in October.

Then when my asthma went haywire and I started drinking the cola, the neuropathy didn't bother me at all. It's like my body used all the caffeine I'd ingested to help with my breathing, and it didn't bother my nerves. And I've been drinking the equivalent of 3-12oz cans of cola every day since then. That's about the same amount of caffeine in a single 8oz cup of coffee.

The last several days I've been getting sharp shooting pains like one gets when their feet get too cold in the wintertime, and you come indoors and they start to thaw. I've hardly been able to make a fist with my hands from the pain in my forearms. And even though it's been near 80 in the house, I've had to keep a sweatshirt on at all times, or I ache all the way through to the bone. I have to sleep under thick heavy covers, or the pain wakes me up.

I know that some antibiotics have the potential to cause peripheral neuropathy symptoms. In fact, I started one such antibiotic before I'd finished my steroids the other day. So here I've been thinking this whole time that my problem has been with the antibiotic. And it may be partially to blame, but I think it's more likely the caffeine. I've taken this antibiotic in the past with no problem whatsoever. The pain has come just from the last couple of times I've taken it. And both times have been while I've been drinking the cola.

I have been breathing much more freely. The bronchitis appears to be gone. I think that at this point my body just doesn't need the caffeine, because the steroids worked, and I'm breathing better. That in fact it's trying to tell me to stop with the cola. I'm listening. I've had to take a half a vicodin every 4 hours today to keep the pain manageable, and even then it hurts.

Yep. I'm listening.

The message is loud and clear.