Green Jello - Three Little Pigs

Grunge style...this is great!

Prednisone can cause high blood pressure

I had been on Prednisone for the past couple of months, and it really helped me get over my last gout attack. While I am on it all my Lupus/RA joint pain practically disappears, BUT when I am on it too long I get a persistent irregular heartbeat and my BP skyrockets. Before this last round of Prednisone treatment my BP was 120/80 or around there. But it's been gradually increasing. Three weeks ago I was at my RA doctor's for a check-up and my BP was 143/89. She still told me to stay on the Prednisone for the next six weeks even though the gout attack had abated. A couple days later I went to see my regular doctor and it was 148/93 there. He wrote me a prescription for Cozaar, a blood pressure medicine. I asked him if that was a good idea to take more medicine when I am on so much already. He said that it " shouldn't" hurt me. I asked him why would my BP be so normal for so long then jump up like that. He said just to fill the prescription, that it would help. I was skeptical so didn't fill the prescription.

My blood pressure kept climbing, all the way up to 165/102! I knew something had to be causing it, and wasn't housebuilding. I have put up with more stressful things in the recent past and didn't have a blood pressure reading even near that. So, after getting fed up of feeling crappy I decided to taper myself off. Since I have been off my BP has ranged from 129/79 to 131/83 (once it was actually 107/79).

So, if I have another gout attack or flare of RA I am going to take the Prednisone for ten days then taper off. I don't like being on it, and don't need any more problems because of medicines.

I've been a little busy lately

I haven't posted in awhile because we have been quite busy remodeling our basement and adding rooms because our son and daughter-in-law moved in with us and will be living with us for the next year or two while he goes to finish his accounting degree.

We have been wanting to get the basement finished for years but lacked motivation to do it. Now we have a reason and it's coming along nicely but is A LOT of work, and it's sort of hard for me with all the medical crap I have been dealing with. BUT I am doing it, and getting back a lot of my strength in the process. I just need to be careful not to overdo it and know when I need to stop.

But we have the bathroom almost done down there and so we now have a three bathroom, four-bedroom house...and soon to have a second full kitchen complete with side-by-side fridge, full range, dishwasher, and lots of cabinets. The laundry room has cabinets and we just need to finish the walls in there...but first things first. Finish the bathroom, then the kitchen...then the laundry room walls, then the exercise room walls and then finish the dropped ceiling and it's like we have two houses in one! I am so excited about this. And it should increase the value of our house quite a bit since it is related living now.

It hasn't been easy for hubby either. He was a lot younger when we first built this house. We proudly can say that we built this house ourselves, all except for the concrete basement foundation, even did the sewer pipes and plumping underneath the basement floor before they concreted it. We did the electric, plumbing, drywall, cabinets, trim...everything. Took us 4 1/2 months only. But we worked long hours, had three kids who were so good to go though all of this. I made them a little corner of the basement for themselves to watch television and play while Jon and I were busy. At the time they were only 8, 7 and 5 years-old. We were going back and forth from our other house which was half an hour away and had to come here to take them to school and then after school we would bring them here and work till their bedtime or later.

All of this remodeling brings back memories...and we are also remembering how hard it was. And now we can't bend so well anymore, and tire easily. But we are doing it....again. Hopefully it will be done soon so we can enjoy the new projection tv that he just bought. The screen is HUGE...108 in. diagonal!

A Pet Peeve of Mine - Savers Cards

Click on cartoon to enlarge







Why can't stores simply put stuff on sale instead of making people carry around these little idiotic plastic cards to be presented to get the sale price? And what is even more senseless is that if we say we don't have the card they just use the "in-store manager's" card. So what's the point? And it's hard to find a grocery store that has old-fashioned sale prices where everyone can take advantage without having to present a card to get the deals.

It's not only grocery stores anymore. I was in Hallmark a couple weeks ago and they talked me into getting a Gold Crown card to save up points so I can get money off on my umpteenth purchase or something. I filled it out to get the little bit of a discount that day, but chucked it when I got home because I don't go there very often enough to ever get the points to get the "deals". Ace Hardware in our town now has the savers card, so does PetSmart, Borders, CVS drugs, and a couple other places I have been asked if I want to sign up for "the card".

Now I understand why the old people long for the olden days when life was simpler because I am becoming one of them.

Wonderful short animation

This is a short work in progress by Wes Ball

There is no title yet, but I will call it Bear Makes Friends