Enchanted is a charming fantasy movie

We need less reality in entertainment and more imagination like this to give our brains a rest and a treat.

On the road to recovery...again

It's been some time since I have written. I was busy for awhile making arrangements for another operation. This time it wasn't as serious as in the past but something that needed to be done. I had a split peroneus brevis tendon in my foot and ankle. How it happened, who knows. I have sprained my ankle a couple times in the past, and could have gotten a little tear and then over time of the tendon rubbing and rubbing it tore more and more till it totally split. I have been having a hard time walking for any length of time, especially on store floors. And driving always made it hurt bad, even just driving up to town and back.

I have been complaining about this to doctors for a long, long time. I mentioned it to several doctors during my hospital ordeal in Aug./Sept. 2007. They said it was gout in my ankle. But from what I researched online, it didn't look anything like gout. I know from having several gout attacks what gout looks like. It's hot, red, swollen and the skin is shiny. And it hurts like nothing else. My ankle just ached a lot with use. Then when I didn't use it, it felt better. I showed it to several doctors since last year, including two rheumatologists, and my family doctor who also blew it off as gout ankle. Exhasperated with the ankle pain when walking or driving, I kept complaining to my current rheumatologist. She sent me for an MRI to check for RA degeneration in the foot and ankle. Well, while I do have some degeneration in the toe joints and some in the ankles, the MRI showed an obvious tear in the ligament that was causing all my ankle pain.

So, I went to a surgeon who specializes in foot and leg joints looked at the MRI films in the office and said it would have to be repaired. If I chose not to, it would never get better on its own. So, I said let's do this thing. He got in contact with my rheumatologist and family doctor and started planning for surgery.

Now, you would think that something so clear would be easy to set up and get it over with, wouldn't you? This was Thursday and they said they would call me on Tuesday after Labor Day with the schedule date. Well, he has a real ditz working in his office to schedule these things. First of all, she didn't read my medical history form before scheduling it the first time and scheduled it at a place where they do not have the experts to handle difficult intubation and patients who have problems. So, she had to reschedule.

SO, she called me back and said that it was then going to be scheduled at the same hospital we always go to. I thought, ok...this will work out then. They have my history on file, and we are familiar with them. It was all scheduled and then I get a call that says it is the same name as our hospital but the surgical center, which I thought was weird because it was a different address. They assured me they were part of the same hospital. I was planning for that date, Jon took his vacation for that week, and then a couple days before the surgery the surgical center called and told me "Just want to make sure you know what your portion of the bill will be" and told me it would be $2,000!! I asked why we had to pay that much when I have met my deductible for the year and she said that when we choose to go out of network, that is our cost! I told her why would I want to go out of network when we have perfectly good insurance??? I told her I could not believe I was going to have to reschedule AGAIN. I phoned the doctor's office and was quite upset. I told her I want to get this done so I can recover before the holidays and said I can't believe I would have to reschedule it again! So, she told me she would try to get me in to a hospital on our plan that was 25 miles away. Sheesh!

So, I checked with our insurance and did her job for her and made sure that this hospital was on the plan. They were. It was rush-scheduled for the day that had been planned at the other place. The anesthesia staff was great and they were very careful. I had the whole anesthesia team in there before the operation. They convinced me that a spinal anesthesia was safest for me even though I was afraid of problems since I have had terrible experience with spinals with my three c-sections and have had back surgery and back problems the past decade or so. But it went well this time. They have new methods and new equipment and the needle is very thin like a strand of hair.

I was taken into the operating room, and they gave me something to relax me, and my whole lower half of my body was totally numb. They turned me on my side, put an oxygen mask on me and then started an IV drip of something and I fell asleep. Didn't wake up till after they were done.

The thing about a spinal which is nice is that you don't feel any pain when you go to recovery and the pain of the operation comes on gradually as the anesthesia wears off. They give gradual amounts of pain medicine as the pain increases. It's much more manageable. It took a long time to wear off though. They had to move me to a regular room to wait, gave me dinner and then finally went home in time to go to bed. I woke up in the night in big pain though. The first night and the day after wasn't too fun, but things are getting better each day...though the stitches inside the cast are driving me nuts. And if I move my foot a certain way I go through the roof!

Hopping around on crutches is making my joints sore. But maybe I will get my muscles built up. I am a weakling.

I get the stitches out and this bigass cast off on the 19th, and then a walking cast. Will still have to use crutches again while I am getting used to walking on the foot again. I wonder what kind of therapy I will have to do. Hopefully stuff I can do at home. That would be great.

So...second year in a row I am laid up for my birthday. It was a year ago today that I came home from the hospital after my gallbladder/Lupus fiasco.

I say this after every operation..I hope there will be no more surgeries in the future and will try not to have anymore.

Juno

This is a very sweet movie. It's about a 16-year-old girl who gets pregnant and is mature enough to understand that she is not mature enough to raise a baby. I won't give it away, but she decides to give the baby up for adoption and finds a couple who seem like they would be perfect parents for the new little one. The story takes a surprising turn and not what I expected to happen. But, like I said, I won't give it away. The young actors in this film are quite good, as are the adults. I am not so sure I would be able to stay as rational as the parents of this girl if my daughter at age 16 came and told me that she was pregnant, but the parents in the film were great and very supportive through the whole thing. Good flick.

Luggage deal!

For years we have gone without a set of real luggage. We would just stuff our clothes and belongings in duffel bags or little carry-on type bags, the kind that comes free when you buy $35 worth of Lancome. Jon would just cram all of his stuff into a couple of backpacks. Things we didn't want wrinkled we would just hang on the clothes rack at the back of the van.

Every trip I always say we need to get real luggage, and complain what a pain it is to have to carry dozens of small bags and loose clothes on hangers into our hotel rooms. But after the trip is over, we always say we will get luggage later and never do.

Well, my friend Pam can sniff out a deal like nobody I know. All I have to say to her is I would like to find this or that for cheap and she will find it. When I was over at her house last week, I mentioned that I really need some decent luggage. At least a couple of suitcases to put our clothes in. A couple days later she called me up and asked how a set of 6 pieces of burgundy luggage on wheels for $8 sounded. I said she must be joking and she said nope, it was for real. Her two daughters-in law were having a garage sale and a family member of one of them was selling this luggage set they no longer wanted and let it go for $8. I told Pam of course I wanted it and so now I am the proud owner of a set of like-new luggage for 8 bucks. Now we just have to plan a vacation somewhere now.

It only took six months (snark)

After six long months, hubby finally finished rebuilding the engine in our son's car (pictured here). Jason's car broke down last February and since he was low on funds, Jon decided to repair it himself for him to save him the money of repairs or buying a new one. Well, his intentions were to get it done in a couple of weeks. Then a couple of weeks turned into a couple of months and then three months, four months, five months and six! All the while I didn't have a car to drive because Jon gave Jason his Impala to use in the meantime. So, all this time Jason has had a brand new car to drive, Jon took my van and I had nada. I had to wait for him to come home to go anywhere. This wasn't a big deal while I was having the gout attack and couldn't drive anyway, but now that that is over with I miss my wheels! So, this means that Jon gets his car back, I get my van back and can go out and see people when I want, make doctor appointments when I want without consulting people's schedules, and go out and spend money when I want...which is awesome.

Sears sold us a lemon washing machine

Remember the washing machine we bought that I wrote about here? Well, after three repair visits over a four week period, we turned the thing on two days ago thinking it was all finally fixed, but after doing two loads of laundry, the damn thing leaked water all over the laundry room floor. So it's going back and hopefully they won't try to sell it to some other poor suckers.

I wanted to send it back after the first time it didn't work and demand a new one. But Jon said to let them try to fix it. I wasn't happy about that idea because that's just like having a used one that has been tinkered with. I wanted a nice fresh new one. Well, now that is what I am getting...hopefully.

They called to say they are bringing us a new one and taking this piece of crap away and hopefully to a scrap heap because that is where it belongs. I do like the way it washes, and how it spins everything till it's all practically dry, but if it's not going to keep having problems, then I will just keep the old one.

Lucky we do have the old one here that still works so we have something to use. If I had to drag baskets of clothes back and forth to the laundrymat I would be really pissed. Especially since I don't have a car during the day since hubby hasn't finished with our son's car yet and he still has our other car in the city. (Since February!) If anything gets finished around here, I will be amazed.

"Why does Batman talk like the offspring of Clint Eastwood and a grizzly bear?"

That is a question many film-goers want to know. What's up with the voice?

The voice of Christian Bale's Batman is raspy and almost like a whispery growl. When I heard it first in the last Batman movie I nearly laughed out loud. This time I knew what to expect, but it still sounds rather silly to me.

Here is an interesting article to read about the voice of Batman: Bale's Batman voice too much?

All-in-all, this Batman flick, "The Dark Knight" was excellent, great acting especially by the late Heath Ledger who played Batman's nemesis, The Joker. This Batman was darker than all the rest, and there was an actual plot that could be followed. Despite the voice, Christian Bale's portrayal of Batman is the best to date.

UPDATE: After an anonymous commenter pointed this out, I did some research and found out that Batman's voice is produced by a voice modulator in the cowl of his Batsuit.

How the Batsuit works.
"The microphones in the ears are combined with special earpieces in the cowl that give Batman superior hearing in the field. The microphones can also be used to amplify Batman's voice and broadcast it through a discreet speaker in the suit. This is what gives Batman's voice that distinctive, disembodied and unearthly sound."

But it still sounds funny. Overly evil.

Batter Blaster

I found this great new product...pancake batter in a can and the pancakes turn out really good! I was a bit skeptical, but am a sucker for trying new things. But this is great. It's organic, low in fat, low in sodium and tastes delicious. And there are about 28 pancakes in each can.

August already!

This year has been going by incredibly fast, hasn't it? It seems that not that long ago we were welcoming in a new year and now it's two thirds gone by. Is it just me or does time seem to go by faster and faster with each year we age?

It's hot and humid out today. Typical summer August days. Makes me want to watch the film "A Long Hot Summer" or "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". Maybe I will drive over to the video store and see if they have those.

The picture above is of my favorite collection...House Mouse Designs. They are so cute.

Update on barium/dye crap

Well, this was a crappy weekend. The I.V. dye and barium they gave me (or one or the other) made me really, really sick all weekend. I was up Saturday night with burning joints and diarrhea. and was in so much pain had to take pain medicine to be able to sleep. Then all day yesterday I was sick to my stomach and everything hurt. I phoned into the urgent care center and they say that sometimes happens. The barium can cause a number of reactions including constipation, nausea, cramps, or joint and back pain. No one warned me about that before the test, and I have had this sort of test before, years ago with the drinking of the barium crap.

Anyway, feeling tired but better today. Still having some achiness but am drinking water like a fish trying to flush this stuff out.

When the hell are they ever going to invent a real Star Trek tricorder?

Don't be fooled when they tell you this is just like a milkshake . . . it's not.

I had to go for a CT scan of my left adrenal gland today, and I suspected I would have to drink something nasty when they told me to get there an hour early. I was right. I signed in and filled out the usual medical information forms and a few minutes after I had been sitting there a man comes out with two bottles like the one pictured here and tells me they are barium "smooties" that are "berry flavored." The image on the label is misleading. The label makes it appear as if this concoction is some kind of yogurty-fruity blended drink when it is nothing like that at all. It's still barium. There is simply no disguising it. It tastes just as nasty with a hint of berry flavor . . . barely. I was told to chug one in ten minutes and then about twenty minutes later to chug another bottle. I tried to drink it fast but after three gulps it wanted to come back up. I am not a baby, and have been through lots of medical tests that require drinking of weird crap and things that make you sick, but when they try to disguise this stuff as something else, it just makes it worse. They should have just left it clear like it used to be so it's not so thick.

After I drink it then they tell me it could give me diarrhea. Great. Just what I was looking forward to! Every time I go in for medical tests feeling good, I always come out feeling bad. This day was no exception. On top of the barium cocktail, I also had an I.V. of iodine dye. But that just makes you feel warm for a bit. The barium crap made me feel gross and I had places to stop on the way home. I made several "pit stops" before leaving the medical facility, and since I had had no breakfast and my medicines I take every day requires food with them, I had to stop and get a sandwich even though my stomach was churning away. The place I stopped to get a sandwich was a place that is popular in the area called The Creamery. They sell ice cream and sandwiches. This one was all outdoors but I thought they would have a restroom since their other shop does in another town. Well, it didn't. I ordered my sandwich and ate it as I drove to the grocery store where I had to stop next and knew they had a restroom there. The more I ate, the more my stomach churned. By the time I had finished I felt like I was going to explode.

Doesn't it seem that whenever you really have to "go" that traffic is crawling? I got stuck behind a woman who was driving so slow I could hardly stand it. Stomach churning and then pain starting and the pressure! Eeeghads! I made it there with no "accidents" and took me about two hours to grocery shop and I was in the ladies room longer than I was in the store itself. Then, only thinking about getting out of there I didn't "smart shop" like I usually do and ended up spending $175! I was like those contestants on the shopping game shows where people have a certain amount of time to grab and fill up their carts and get back to the check-out. That's how I was shopping. I just wanted to get it done. I bought way, way too much fruit. Hubby is going to have to give up the Snicker's bars for awhile and help me eat this produce.

So, another fun day. NOT. Test results should be in by Monday or Tuesday.

Hypermiling

Click on cartoon to enlargeSince before gas prices rose above $4.00 a gallon, hubby has been doing as depicted in the cartoon above...hypermiling. I know that we all need to slow down to conserve gas, and people don't need to squeal their tires when the light turns green, nor do they need to race up only to stop at a red light, but it drives me batty when he plays the hypermiling game (pardon the pun).

He accelerates super slow when the light changes from red to green. It takes him nearly a minute to get up to just under the speed limit and he stays under the speed limit no matter how much traffic there is, no matter if we are on the super expressways and tollways where we live. People are whizzing by at about twenty over the speed limit and I feel like we are going to get run over. At least go the speed limit! But no, he wants to save fuel. It does save money, but is risking safety IMO. He also coasts to a stop when he sees a red light or stop sign ahead. He takes his foot off the gas a few blocks way from the intersection, probably driving the people lined up behind him mad. It feels like I am riding with grandpa when I go anywhere with him. When I am doing the driving he calls me "lead foot" or "hot rod" because I am merely driving normal.

I hope if gas prices keep going up that his speed doesn't keep going down.

What a week!

This has been a week of total stress. Our oldest son, Jason who lives in Chicago became very ill with intense abdominal pain early Tuesday morning. I was on the phone with him many times, keeping tabs. The poor guy finally staggered in pain for two and a half city blocks to the UIC Medical center to the ER there. And while there he vomited all over, and was quite sick and in intense pain and what do they do? They gave him two kinds of LAXATIVES and pumped him full of morphine and discharged him, telling him to come back if it got worse. Diagnosis? Constipation.

Now who the hell gets that kind of pain and vomiting from constipation? I have had pretty bad constipation in my life and never a level of pain to make me want to pass out like it did him. He had to walk back home that way (he should have called us), and then was in horrible pain all night long.

The next morning, Wednesday, he phoned me and I then phoned hubby to go and get him (I had no car since Jason has our car still in the city). Jon took him there and got him settled in and then drove home to get me. We stopped by Jason's apartment for my husband to pick up the car and I took the van and drove to the hospital's ER. When I went in I was told that I couldn't park in the ER lot if I wasn't dropping someone off. I told them my son was in the ER and I needed to see him. They said I had one hour to move my van! In the suburbs we can stay parked in the ER lot with no permit as long as the patient is in the ER. Not in the city! The parking situation is awful.

So, I went in to make sure he was being taken care of, and to find out what was going on and then went off to find a damn parking spot. I couldn't park in the hospital garage with the van. The van was too tall. So, the only places to park were by meters and you could only put in enough money for two hours at a time! So, had to keep going back to the van every two hours to feed the meter. While I was sitting there by his bed, he looked sicker and sicker to me and when I touched him he was burning up. I pointed this out to a nurse who said they better check his temperature. (Ya think????) I asked what his temp had been earlier and they said they never took it! Then they took him away for a CAT scan eventually, then later came back and said it looked like it may be appendicitis. I started getting nervous because they were taking so long. When I pointed out the fever though and they finally took it, it was 102. Then they started paying attention.

A surgeon was called in to read the scan results, and then they were scurrying around, but still seemed not to be moving fast enough. They finally took him to surgery around 4:45pm (he got there at 7 a.m.) and the surgery seemed to take forever, too. A doctor was supposed to come out after the operation and tell us how it went and what they did. We sat there and sat there. Two other families were also waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery. Each one called on the phone to see what was up and were told their relatives were either in recovery or in their room already. So, I finally called and they said Jason was still in surgery. Then another hour went by and I called again. They said that he was in recovery and doing well. I asked "isn't someone going to come back and talk to us?" and the person said "no one came back to talk to you?" I said "No..." So she said someone would. And someone didn't. So the nurse called us back to the recovery room and paged a doctor who was involved in his case. The surgeon had left already, never speaking to us. An assistant came to talk to us and tell us what went on, that Jason's appendix was badly infected and nearly ready to burst. Lucky they caught it, yadda yadda. They act like heroes sometimes when they could have saved the patient a lot of suffering by being on the ball better. Jon expressed his displeasure and said he was going to complain to the higher ups. He expected more out of a top university medical center. The assistant apologized.

Jason was taken to his room and after he was settled we went home. We drove both vehicles back to our house, which was not fun to fight Chicago expressway traffic after a hectic and stressful day. The next morning I went to work with Jon at 4 a.m. to eliminate the need to find a place to park that didn't cost $17 a day. He brought me over to the hospital around 11 and had to drive back to work. I stayed with Jason all day and no one ever came in to help him get a bath, no one changed his bedding. His food came late. No one knew anything about when he was going home. Finally after dinner Jason started telling them he was ready to go home, find the doctor. They had to hunt one of them down. He got his discharge papers about 6 but we didn't get out of there till nearly 9 because they didn't leave any discharge instructions for wound care. They never changed his dressing on his puncture opening in his navel where they took his appendix through. A doctor came in and changed his dressing and then we were on our way. We were all pretty crabby. Jon was the crabbiest. He doesn't cope well with medical situation. He hates incompetency especially when it concerns him or his family.

Jason came back to our house for a few days to recover and hopefully will be well enough to start his new job on Monday (These things always happen at the most inopportune times.) But he is now on the road to recovery and glad this little event is nearly over with.

Sears sucks

The Sears guy came back today to fix the washer and guess what? They said the wrong part was bad. Now we have to wait another week! I just want to ship the thing back, but hubby says when the new part comes in he is just going to put it in there even if it might void the lame warranty we have. I just wanted to send it back and get a fresh one somewhere else. It isn't new if it needs this much work already.

Mr and Mrs Mallard make a home in our still covered swimming pool

We've been so busy with other things this year like redoing our basement, keeping up with home maintenance and other things that we have not had a chance to get our pool opened up. Difficult to do everything ourselves, and no help. This is the first year we haven't had our pool open on Memorial Day weekend because we just haven't had time. So, in the meantime the wildlife have found it makes a nice little pond. A pair of mallards have claimed it as their temporary home. Once we get it going and the chlorine in they will wonder what the heck is going on. Hopefully they will find somewhere else and not keep coming back because I don't want to have to be cleaning mallard poo out of there all the time. Yuck!

Here are some photos of the ducks enjoying what we should be enjoying right now...and at the bottom one of the many rabbits that also have found they like the long, long, long grass that we are having trouble keeping mowed. I can't mow the grass because of my bad back and the RA, etc. Hubby has a tremendous amount of stuff to do. I think we might just have to start hiring people before things really get out of control.

New front load washer . . .

. . . doesn't work!

We bought this new washing machine back around Memorial Day along with a fridge and stove. The fridge and stove arrived ok, but they had lost our washer. It took days to find out where it was, and it was delivered finally and we didn't get around to hooking it up until the other day. Jon took his bedding down to try it out for the first time and it wouldn't even give a blink of a digital read-out. Then when he went to open it to get his clothes out, the door wouldn't release. He was trying to get someone on the phone to ask what he was supposed to do now, and could not get ahold of a live person. Only that recording crap with a message that if we want someone to come out and get it there would be a $75 charge.

He went over to the store where we bought it after work one day and they scheduled someone to come look at it for yesterday. The repair guy came, and said it was a broken main control board, so he ordered a new one which should be delivered to us, and he will come back out again next week to replace it. I wanted a NEW washer, and this one seems used if they have to do all this repairing already. Not a good sign.

Stardust by Nat King Cole

My favorite song brings back so many childhood memories:

Kidney stone

Unfortunately for him, hubby had a kidney stone and finally passed it yesterday morning. He has a very high pain tolerance, so this thing was what was probably giving him some persistent back pain for a couple of weeks, then when it finally started to come out he couldn't stand it. He said it felt like someone kicked him in the gonads.

The pain came on suddenly after dinner Monday evening. He ate some leftover Kung Pao Beef and we were thinking that maybe that was it. Then when the pain started to worsen and he started to vomit, then we thought "oh no! not another blockage!" Back in 2000 he had an intestinal blockage caused by a blood clot and had 18 inches of his small intestine removed. I was hoping that was not it.

When he finally agreed to go to the ER he was pretty sick. I had to stop along Rt 6 to let him throw up and thought for a minute I was going to have to call 911 on my cell phone. But we managed to make it to the hospital finally. They took him back while I waited and waited for someone to call me to the desk to take care of paperwork. When no one was calling my name for about twenty minutes I told them I was going back to see how he was doing and to just come and get me when they were ready. I saw them chatting it up behind the desk and it was a quiet night for an ER so they were just taking their sweet time.

When I went back he was hooked up to a BP machine and they were putting an IV in. They said it was one of two things, a blockage or a kidney stone. I hoped that it wasn't the blockage thing again. That would require major surgery and possible loss of even more of his intestine. They whisked him off to get a CAT scan and then came back and said it was indeed a kidney stone. They gave him some morphine and we had to wait till it took effect to be able to go home. They gave him pain meds and they gave him some Flomax to dilate the urinary tract to help the stone pass easier.

Now he is pretty much back to normal. Hopefully he won't get any more of those.

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.