Surgery Monday August 8th

[dshobbies]

As a New York girl, I hope we get snow for Xmas - fat chance!

My back is doing ~ ok. Could be better but I'm very concerned about what is coming next week. Julius has a convention in Las Vegas. We're leaving Monday and home on Thursday. I love to sit at the tables all day but...
Then we leave for La Jolla on Friday -Sunday for a writer's conference with classes all day for all three days. It usually takes a few days to get over Las Vegas which I won't have this year. And now sitting all day at the conference has me worried. I hope I don't push myself past a point of no return.

Judy, a few years ago we remodeled our kitchen. I now have a place to sit at the island where I do most of my prep work. It makes all the difference in cooking. You can actually buy a small mobile butcher block table that you can move out of the way when not in use.

Maria, I've seen incline bikes ( if that's the right description) on the streets a lot more often. Much easier on the back but I do think they're a bit more expensive.

Hate the winds - they hate me too, Dale

[Maria]

Dale,
I'm originally from New England however my body prefers warm weather and sunshine and so do I! I find I'm emotionally happier in warm sunny weather tho not hot.. and yes these Santa Ana winds bother me too except they used to really get to my eyes badly and I had the lacrimal glands cauterized which was a big big help. I don't suffer much from allergies however (I did at for a while tho have gotten better it seems) so I think that's why I'm doing ok with the winds so far. Going out for a long wonderful walk a bit early as I have a birthday party to go to this evening for a friend that's turning 60!

The back to back trips might upset my back as well particularly if I had to sit for any length of time at either one and it does sound like the writer's conference you would definately need to? That sounds like a wonderful endeavor however and I do hope that you'll not suffer much pain and you are able to do both trips without "seriously overdoing."

Ok just checking in again before I'm out the door for my earlier than usual walk. Today has been a day with so many of my friends calling early (starting at 0730) to see if I want to get together today and I have had errands and the birthday party to go to and don't want to move my walk off the list so I asked my various friends if they wanted to walk with me but all have said I've gotten "too fast" for them and go too far!

LOL.. me!!!! That's a crack up!!! oh well seems like all we getting on senior boomer types have some kind of injury be it knees, backs, hips.. whatever!

take care all and hope everything goes as well for us all

[jsewell]

I am a New England girl as well, but there is nothing like a White Christmas. I do think i prefer the sunshine as well. When i lived in Pine Mountain Ca (above Frazier Park) it was the best. the kids were little, the snow plentiful as well as the sunshine.
I know you two have mentioned the wind, none here in Sierra Madre so far. I did experience some wild wind and really cold temps the other night when my friend wanted to show me some new so cal mountain area he discovered. It was so unbelievably cold with the wind.

Dale i wish you the best of luck on your upcoming trips. Try to not be like me! Bring plenty of meds. Have fun too.

My kitchen is way too small for any type of Island, i sometimes sit at the kitchen table and do the prep work, sometimes i am in the kitchen with the rolling desk chair! It is a little to short, but it works if i am not having a good time.

Maria, i am so glad your feet and everything else is holding up from all the walking you are doing. Good for you, but don't overdo it now.
I know what you mean, i have a knee problem and feet problems too. I will just get a really bad pain in my foot in various places every day.

I am going back to my therapist today. It may take the whole time just filling him in on my life and surgery in the last 2 years, but i really need to know how to deal with my daughter.
She now says she will go to school on Monday and is almost done with an assignment book to turn in. I'll be so happy if she goes.
judy

[dshobbies]

Do I wish I could walk too fast or too far. Julius was always able to tell how I felt by the speed in which I walked. But as of now, I haven't walked for weeks. For whatever reason, yesterday was a particularly bad day - my left leg, especially my ankle burned all day with no let up. As I now must finish editing my book by next week, meds were out of the question but plain old aspirin helped a little. As for the conference, I plan on wearing my brace. I usually don't like depending on it but I can paint all day when I wear it so I will give that a try.

Judy, glad you're seeing your therapist. You really need someone on your side. With your divorce, and we haven't heard any updates about attorney's etc., and your surgery and your classes and your financial worries, the biggest one of all is your daughter. Perhaps the two of you can go to therapy together because she sounds like she's having a very hard time. The teen years are very difficult and she has so much more to deal with. If adults have a hard time dealing with life, imagine what she must be going through. It really sounds as if she's lost and needs direction back in her life. How to get there ????? which is why I think therapy will benefit her too.

If you want to put things into perspective, a dear friend lost her only son 2 weeks ago. Life has stopped for her, we're just having difficulty maneuvering through it.

Dale

[Maria]

Is really the highpoint of my life and I'm actually feeling quite good emotionally and physically. Last night however I attended a birthday party for a friend turning 60. It was mostly her family and I was one of the few unrelated guests so that was really nice of them to invite me. There was live music and really it was so nice as there were mulitple generations there with her Dad (she has 2 other sisters and 3 brothers), his kids, his kids' kids and so forth!

Ok so to cut a longish story short I had taken the little local ocean side bus there as it's not far from apt. tho far enough to walk quickly with my feet would have rendered me somewhat sweaty and tired so I stayed awhile, had a great time chatting and lightweight dancing to the great music tribute to S's era and then decided I needed to leave because I had been up since 4a.m. and wanted to leave at an hour still good for awaiting the bus safely.

So I left about 8:45p.m. and instead of waiting at a bus stop on Ocean Blvd (straight shot home pretty much) I decided to fast foot it home. Now something happens to my right foot when I walk too much and too fast.. it really has a prob with the toes mashing into one another (reason I had surgery on left foot) and some particular toes are involved but also the foot feels like clod foot with pain and burning! I HATE THIS!!!!!!

I practically had to limp the last few blocks home as that right foot needs the same surgery as the left foot had. Problem is my Podiatrist died (age 47/brain tumor) and I've found no one that would even do the same surgery he did esp. in the office (I have hammertoes on all toes/right foot and need a bunionectomy) .

This right foot just drives me crazy when it ats up from "too much activitiy."

So yes I can walk fast and fairly far at least once/day but when this stuff happens to the right foot ... ohh... it's just like that sharp pain you might feel in your upper back Judy or others or that burning that might stop you from moving Dale.. it just "stops me nearly dead in my tracks"....

GRRRR!!! I hate that my back is good and one foot is telling me "no!!!!!!!"

Oh well. This is nothing in comparison to losing one's child however or having serious health probs so while I complain believe me ladies I realize there are things far worse and definately much more important to deal with!

Dale, just hoping you have a great time and things actually go better for you than you imagine they might. I would LOVE to attend a writers conference. Someday I will.

Judy, good for you re going to your therapist to see how to deal with or best help your daughter. I don't have kids as you and Dale both know however I do have a stepson and those teenage years can be quite challenging. Then again I had only to think of my own to realize there is much that goes unsaid tho if one is fortunate there are actions that might reveal quite a bit about how the teen is feeling. At least that seems better to me than one covers their feelings revealing very little but is hurting quite a bit.

Teen years can be downright hard! I know from my own personal experience (we moved 4 times while I was in high school). Good luck!

[jsewell]

It was great seeing my therapist, it has been about 2 years since i last saw him. He wants to see Becka. I'm glad he works with adolescents. I think i might be able to get her to go. I told her she can sit there and say nothing if she wants, i also told her he can't tell me anything she says. I think i got a maybe out of her. I'll call Monday to make her an appointment. she has still been working on her math, so i think it will be a go for school for Monday. i sure hope.

My daughter had been helping me look for something in my room. I should call it her room as all her stuff is in here all over the place. Just this morning i told her we really have to clean it up. I was looking for a certain envelope today and tripped, and fell hard. I have some pain on the side of my left breast and under and am wondering if i broke a rib . I went down really hard on my right knee and have been icing that. It feels ok right now, i am going to go for a walk and figure the worst will come in the morning. I'm not really worried about my knee just the possible rib injury. And of course any damage to my spine!
judy

[jsewell]

the discomfort goes to my left side of my back too , probably a rib, nothing they can do . I did come to my senses and not go for a walk though.