Hard Wear Removal Surgery

[jsewell]

Hi Maria,
Well we had moved all the big stuff on Monday. They did forget my grandmothers sewing machine , i have a message to them to bring it in the next 3 days before i am no longer renting the house In Sierra Madre.

It is fine here , quiet. We do have a lot of dogs in the neighborhood, sometimes they all get going, but so far that is it.
The second night here i went to put towels in the bathroom on the opposite side of the house that Tim and i had not been using. It was flooded and into the room that backs up to it on about 6 inches of carpet. So i do have insurance for that, one year coverage from my realtor. but they couldn't send anyone out until the next day so i called a plumber , but i will get reimbursed. He said it was a main line clog. So nothing we could have done in less than 24 hours. That pissed me off, this is supposed to have all new plumbing. I guess not to the street. So then the plumber wanted to come back with the video camera to go to the street because he got tree roots.
I declined, but today , my son tells me there is water on his carpet at the other bathroom. The plumber told me the way the pipes splilt the other bathroom was not effected. So he is coming later this afternoon.
Homeownership is starting out to scare me alone .
I am going to check in the front yard because i think a tree has been recently cut down and that may be the reason and they just didn't rooto rooter the pipes to the street before. I wish i had the sellers phone number.

They sent a notary to my house to sign everything so i never went to any official closing and met the guy.
I have a totally fenced in gated driveway yard. Yet my little dog has escaped 3 times. I have no hope of getting him walking so slow and still with a cane. I should probably still be using a walker , but i never brought it from the other house.

My son is my only helper and he seems to have some disease or something wrong that is causing him to be fatigued, he keeps falling asleep on me. We still have so much to do at the other house. I have only packed what was in the dishwasher. A few other things from the kitchen too.
My sister in law was here for a few days to i got little done then and the day before Tim goes to school morning and night. We had to get trash out at the old house and the new house and that kept him busy. he is not a worker bee that is for sure. My daughter is better , but we unpacked here this morning and now she is off to work, and now i have to wait for the plumber. Meanwhile, Tim has fallen asleep! OMG and my ex never answered my pleas for help.

So he gets left with the mess. I have left lots of dirt, some furniture that doesn't fit and a lot of trash. I told him not to wait until the last minute, but he said he can't get there until Sunday . I told him he has lots to do and he will be sorry.

You can write anytime , even though i have lots to do, i can't do much at a time and my back just gets too tired to stand up anymore. So i must sit and usually go to my computer.

But the dogs have spent lots of time enjoying the fenced in yard. The bigger dog has no problem staying in. I fixed the first 2 spots my dog got out of , but i will have to fix the next. If the guy that built the shed comes back to get his mess, i'm sure he will, i'll have him fix the front people gate. I think that was his last escape route.

My younger daughter has refused to come and live here. She came one night when she couldn't find anywhere to sleep, but one night she did stay at the house alone. There is still a day bed in there that jeff is taking. He is also getting the place cleaned. He said he was going to go halves on the moving costs, but every time i ask him to talk about money, he does not reply. He first said tomorrow, but tomorrow never came.

I still think i should have progressed more with my back. I think part of it is the really low dose of painkiller. I can't catch a break , so it is difficult to stand up at all. In the middle of the night, things hurt so i am not sleeping well either. Only for a few hours. Last night i was up 3 times. I don't see my surgeon for 2 more weeks , it should have been one, but the receptionist made a mistake and made it 5 weeks instead of 4 , i tried to change it by phone and she said he had no openings. Bullshit ! if i saw him and he said 1 week, somehow there would be openings.

It is supposed to be a hot week and no air here or in my car. I will be a mess. Or maybe hanging out somewhere air conditioned. I think i am going to have to spend a lot of money on plumbing or i would get estimates on air conditioning.
well i think i will unpack another bag of clothes now that i had my kids put my bedroom furniture where it belongs.
Let me know how you are doing
judy

[Maria]

Hey Judy,
Just thought to look and see if you replied! duh!
Went on bus trip with Italian American club from here at Laguna Woods on Sunday to LA Italian American Cultural Center celebrating Christopher Colombus day and had a great time even danced after 2 little glasses of wine tho the bus trip trashed my back. Very bumpy tho glad it was just an hour back and forth. I stood alot during the speeches given at the cultural center.

Today I hurt my upper t spine lifting a 20lb bag of dog food into the car. I have been having some tspine discomfort around the bra area tho this is higher.. and actually it bothered my cervical area too. Stupid me. I swear I can't seem to stop doing things that trash my body in some manner or another but who else is there to do stuff for me but me!

I'll need to hire someone to do some things around here tho just small changes since I've gotten some of the bills from my foot surgery and I know more is coming. So far near $500 to pay. Thankfully at least I'm here and not paying rent right now and many other bills like cable and a parking space and all the other things that were over and above my rent.

I am spending too much on groceries tho lately since I've been going to the local Trader Joes that's close by way too regularly. The Laguna Hills Mall is very close by too which is also not good for me since I've popped over there a few times and done some clothes shopping when I already have too many clothes to even anywhere near fit into my closets in a 2 BR place with plenty of closet space! In fact the guest bedroom is sitting still half full of boxes and probably will stay that way since I don't feel like unpacking anymore!

As far as walking Lola goes coyotes are a serious threat here to small animals so walking Lola isn't as pleasurable as it should be in such a nice area. In fact I saw 3 coyotes today and it was daytime not even dusk or early morning! They are getting very brazen as I imagine they're very hungry.

My one cat that is still alive, Alaska, is driving me nutz crying so much at night when she wants me to come to bed. And I've still not gotten a bed frame of any sort so my old futon mattress is on the floor and I sleep on that. I think my back felt great the few nights I slept on my old mattress that I gave my husband to put in his house. That's when I thought I was going to be going there more. I still have so much stuff over there and my Mom's china is there and I definately want that tho I don't drive hardly even down the street here so don't know how I'm ever going to get stuff if he doesn't bring it to me!

Sorry to hear about your water leak problem. Water damage for whatever reason is one of the biggest probs with home ownership and something that no matter how well we go over the inspection papers sometimes can come out of nowhere. It sucks for sure.

I still haven't gotten reimbursed for the damage done by the leaking water heater here that damaged the laminate flooring I had put into the guest bedroom. I'm supposed to get $510 but they are so freaking slow here about it. I'm going to have to check and see what's going on with that as it's been a few weeks now and I turned in everything they asked for re paperwork.

I better get to bed as my neck, tspine and low back are hurting and my hairdresser is coming tomorrow to color and cut my hair!

oh re your son do you think he has Eipstein Barr virus by any chance? He should get tested or be seen soon I'd think if he's that tired or falling asleep that much unless he's not really sleeping at night. Sorry about your younger daughter. Where will she stay if she's not going to live with you? I hope she comes around and will move there too. That's got to be worrying you sick.

Ok gotta get off my tush and hit the sack! Take care and don't overdo (yeah sure who am I to talk!)!!!

[jsewell]

Hi Maria
Are you lifting properly with your legs and not your back. I asked my doc at my 1 week after apt when i could start lifting, he said with my back, NEVER.
My legs are not really strong enough to get up from a squat so i have to work on that.
I am really trying to be good. But my son is really lazy. I just went to target,my first time out alone since July.
Actually my younger daughter came here last night to move in and she came and lifted the heavy stuff that she picked out. She and Tim carried it in.While we were gone i asked him to take Buddy out, put my clean laundry in my room, empty the dishwasher. None of it was done. He claimed our neighbors came by with my grandmothers old singer which missed the move and he didn't have time. I'm sure they were here for 5 whole minutes.
So i took the dog out, put my laundry in my room and need to empty the dishwasher . Becka is here , but mad as can be and she won't do a thing except complain. She wouldn't even pick out some food for her self at Target to tide her self over until i get real grocery shopping done.

WE have been here a week now and my rent ended yesterday at the old house. It is a mess, but all for jeff to deal with. It has a dryer , some other furniture which i told him to call Habitat for Humanity as they pick stuff up. But he waited until the last minute to even get to the house, so he must have made some deal with the old landlord to have extra time. He keeps texting me saying, we have to etc. I told himj what he needed to do and that i was totally done with the place. I left some pots and pans that i would have liked to have, but Tim was too lazy to get them so , I am just done. Then he was nice and asked me if i wanted any of them. I told him he would have to come get me and then i could decide when he got them out, no reply to that one.

I had my sister in law visit for 2 days at the end of last week so that kind of slowed us down a bit, but i welcomed the diversion. She did help at the house packing up some kitchen stuff which was nice. Then we showed her China town and had lunch there. She is Chinese. Has been married to my brother and living here for 9 years.

I decided to go back to my one night a week job tonight. DrFriedman emailed me a few times saying they missed me. So i told him a few weeks ago that this was my goal day to get back. My back is still needing the support of a cane to try to stand up straight. Those back muscles are taking a long time to recover.

I met my new pain management doctor yesterday. He seems very knowledgeable. He is the only doctor of mine that bothered to have me get my liver and kidneys tested after being on percocet for 4 years. He wants me to try to get off it. So he is giving me 30mg of Ms Contin twice a day and one percocet per day. I sure hope this works. I am used to taking them every 4 to 6 hours during the day and not at all at night which means i wake up miserable throughout the night. I need to get to Sierra Madre to get the prescription filled and try his program. I already got permission from him to call him if it isn't working. I took MS Contin in the past , but can't remember what dose i was on. I was also allowed to take percocet every 4 hours as needed. This will be different.
I thought i had weaned myself down pretty good. I used to take 20mg of percs as one dose and went down to 10 only 4 times a day. Sometimes only 3. But i guess these doctors want me off it soon.

My older son in Ga got all suicidal with me. So he is a great source of worry. He is very depressed and needs to turn himself into the army. He now was advised by his attorney to turn himself into a hospital VA or civilian. He hasnt received the message yet because his phone broke and i think he is waiting to get a new one.

WE really dont have that many boxes to unpack. I have only my winter long sleeve clothes to get out of one bag and another unknown bag of clothes. So not much at all. I threw out so much or donated it. It was horrible not being able to do anything at all though. I have unpacked my stuff that is about it.
I love shopping at Trader Joes too. I dont mind my kids eating their frozen food as it is all preservative and color free and that is the way i started out raising my kids. Got a little slack with the last 2, i was overwhelmed with no help from you know who.
I'll let you know how working tonight goes.
You stop doing too much.
Judy

[Maria]

Hi Judy,
Had a pretty bad backache for a few days tho yesterday went w/friend to Laguna Beach and walked it off pretty much. I think when I sit it comes back if I ride n the car for about an hour or so which I may be doing if going to Long Beach today (which I hope I am).

I still have a room to unpack that isn't getting unpacked as I've no motivation to do so. No furniture to put unpacked objects in!

How's the adjustment going to new neighborhood? How's your younger dau taking it? Have you had a chance to get your son to a doc re his tiredness/sleepiness?? That does sound a bit like Eipstein Barr virus if I was thinking of the most common thing in a younger person to cause such symptoms of course there are plenty of other reasons that can happen and sometimes just apathy.

Ok hope you're doing Ok. I'll write more when I have more time as I have to get poor Lola out the door soon since she wasn't walked since 6p.m. last night. Poor dog I can't imagine holding my bladder that long!

take care! Maria

[jsewell]

Hi Maria,
Tim's tiredness and sleepiness is gone. guess that and the throwing up were a virus of some kind. Now just back to his being unmotivated unless i ask him a few times to do something.
Becka is here but basically just hangs out in her room. She waits until i go in my room to go to the kitchen too. Just tries to avoid any contact with me. Unless she needs a ride somewhere then she is sweet and will even call me instead of texting.

i woke up today with pretty bad upper leg pain. It has kind of stayed with me all day so i haven't done much of anything. My older daughter was home for the weekend so i just really sat around after we went out yesterday and did a few little things. I was planning on shopping today after she left and i probably would have if my son had not wanted the car to go to a friends house. so i let him go and now the pain is pretty bad if i try to bend at all , the right way too. It was time for my mscontin so maybe i will see what is going on in a few hours right before bedtime. I hope it is not the leg pain coming back.
I'll let you know
judy

[jsewell]

My leg pain did continue to get worse so i saw my spine surgeon. He ordered an MRI of lumbar spine and gave me a medrol dose pak. The dose pak sure cleared up the leg pain. Although he could not see any cord compression on my MRi he was going to go over it with a neuro-radiologist. He had also ordered steroid injections . Things got better so i cancelled the epidurals.
Then i had some episodes of fecal incontinence. Brought me back to my surgeon's office . He tested all my reflexes and they were all hyper. So that i think indicates a neuro problem so then i went for MRi of my thoracic and cervical areas. ON those the tech got me so comfortable, i didn't believe it could happen. My first MRIs had been postponed as the first tech did not have the experience to deal with all my metal in my spine. I was lucky to get the tech i did who they said had the most experience.
Well now my leg pain is coming back once again. My surgeon is going to go over all my MRI's and i am set up once again for steroid injections in a few weeks.
This body gets way too challenging for me. Another symptom i have which certainly may be unrelated, but i am exhausted and falling asleep all the time. A nap after waking up and again early afternoon is quite normal , even though i try not too. then by 6 i am ready for bed again. I had polymyalgia rheumatica once before and i sure hope i do not have a relapse. It is possible and a bad disease. Inflammation in muscles and causes extreme tiredmess.
so a trip to my primary to discuss this tomorrow.
Hope everyone is well or getting better
judy

[Maria]

Judy,
sorry to read that you're having so much trouble again w/pain and some other probs. When do you have the neuro appt?

I just realized I need to make an appt. w/my PTP in Long Beach since I have been having some pain tho it's higher up. It's not there all the time tho often enough and usually instead of where it used to be. I wonder about the status of my facets.

No radiation of pain or neuropathies, ridiculopathies or anything.

I do need to get my regular labwork done for this year which I've just been really lax about.

Ok gotta get off this computer chair. Can't stand to sit hardly at all first thing in the morning.

Hope you like your new place. Hope your PCP can figure out what's causing the tiredness. take care~
Maria