Last night while sending an e-mail to Jennifer, I typed the word disclaimer. Well, I meant to type that, but I missed a key or something and it ended up all wrong. Spell check caught it for me though. It wanted to change it for me. Change it to read:
disco maimer
Yep, that’s me. The Disco Maimer.
I went through my comments in moderation because WP has been moderating everything again. I need to fix that – but meanwhile, I want to thank everyone for your well wishes. I truly appreciate it.
While going through the comments, I almost approved all the ones for “Lunesta” – I’m in the middle of reading Harry Potter, and I thought it was someone’s name at first. Until I realized I had about 250 comments from her. Then I remembered it is a drug.
I was zapped, poked and prodded yesterday. Literally. I had an Electromyography (EMG) and Nerve Conduction Study. Needles in my arm to record the muscle activity. Electrical pulse being applied to the skin forcing my hand and fingers to twitch. It was like a torture scene from a movie. (Ok, it wasn’t that bad – but that was what it reminded me of.)
The result is that I do have carpal tunnel syndrome. The doctor informed me that I have mild to moderate nerve damage, and he is writing up a report to send to my doctor. Funny thing is, my wrist doesn’t hurt anymore since the shot last Friday. Sure, my fingers get tingly still after awhile, but it still seems to be linked a lot more to my shoulder, which the neurologist said is a joint issue. I start physical therapy next week for that, so hopefully it will help.
Lunesta. Not the same as Luna. But now I feel Harry Potter calling for me. 200 pages left to go…
Links for Carpal Tunnel related issues:
:: What is Carpal Tunnel?
:: Typing Rarely Cause of Carpal Tunnel
:: Preventing Carpal Tunnel
:: Physical Exam for Carpal Tunnel (My Phalen’s sign test results are dramatically improved from last week.)
My doctor’s appointment on Friday lead to a cortisone shot in the shoulder. It was supposed to help my pain – and it did, my right hand doesn’t hurt and isn’t numb most of the time like it was – but as a trade off I can barely lift my right arm. Today is the first day I have much motion in it at all. Really ironic that I just got new and more annoying pain as a trade-off for what I had.
As a result, typing – along with a lot of other more critical activities such as driving and cooking – just haven’t been too feasible until today. Even now it is at a minimum, as the doctor ordered.
Today is the neurological test on my right arm to try and find where the problem is in my shoulder and just what is causing it. The fun never ends…
I am on a very emotional edge right now. I have no idea what is causing it, but just about anything can make me cry today. It was like this yesterday too. Ugh. My dentist was questioning me about why we were redoing the crown that didn’t feel right (causing me to grind my teeth and giving me headaches), and I couldn’t take it. It made me cry. Which of course made him feel really bad, apologizing over and over again and doing the work on the crown that I needed to have done. I also have a few teeth that are not going to hold their crowns much longer so I have to go to another dentist for that. My dentist said he knows a good one that does dental implants Marco Island is where his practice is at. I think I want to cry again because just thinking about that drive puts me in tears.
At least I got what I wanted, but really? Do I have to be such an emotional mess right now?
On top of that, my cell phone won’t work. It shows the little boot-up screen, and that is it. It won’t go past that. Nada. Nothing. I’ve tried everything to fix it, so I guess the next step is to take it into the shop. I really, really, really don’t want to have to get a new cell phone.
Now I’m bitter and angry on top of being annoyed. Someone left a comment on my previous post with two key pieces of information about the Harry Potter book. You know, the one I haven’t read yet? The one I don’t want to have spoiled for me? Thanks, spineless anonymous person. I really needed that today.
I think I need to go back to my knitting. At least I only have 6 rows left on my Charlotte’s Web. Maybe that will help.
Random things because Flickr is being slow about letting me add my photos to all the Pools I’ve joined:
We got a dog. She is 3 year old Bichon Frise, and we named her Chloe. I posted her photo on Flickr some time ago, but didn’t mention her here. I’m not sure why. Anyways, the background story is that I have a friend that is involved with Bichon Rescue. She discovered that another local rescue group in Houston had a 3 year old female Bichon that needed a home. I went to pick her up for my friend to add to the Bichon system, and by the time we arrived at her house we had decided we wanted to keep her. However, we have two cats. And neither Mike nor I have ever owned a dog. (We babysat my friend Chelsey’s two Bichons last fall and fell in love with the breed, and had decided then that we wanted an adult female.) So it was suggested that we “foster” her for a week, decide how it was working out, and from there determine if we wanted to keep her or not.
She gets along pretty well with Murphy. Mona has stopped hissing at her, but they are not going to be friends any time soon. Considering Mona hasn’t taken to Murphy, and we’ve owned him for 5 years now, I wasn’t really expecting much there. She is potty trained (no accidents! Yeah!) and crate trained. We think she was “debarked” (where they remove part of the dog’s barking system – very sad) so she has a mini-bark.
She was owned by a breeder and was part of a breeding pair, but wasn’t putting out enough so she was dumped. She is now spayed, so her puppy days are over. She needs some socialization work, and some general training, but we’re working on that. I’m just happy that she is trained to potty outside and walks well on a leash.
We’re feeding her a raw diet. (Or as some call it, the BARF diet. But “BARF” is so … well, barf.) It is definitely helping the tear-staining and face staining that dogs can get from the color in some dog foods. She loooooves her raw food.
I haven’t knit anything for her yet, although she does own an adorable pink “jacket“. Matter of fact, I haven’t knit anything in weeks. I think the last time I picked up the needles was when we were in Kentucky. I was *zooming* along on my Charlotte’s Web shawl, and then – bam! – it was like I hit a wall and I stopped. I only have 8 rows left. They are on the long end of the shawl, so they are looooong rows, but still. No excuse when 4 are pattern rows and 4 are just purling rows. I hope to finish it this weekend.
Last weekend we went to the Frio River. I’ve lived in Texas for 20 years now (for the most part) and I had never been to the rivers out west to go tubing. It just wasn’t appealing to me. I hate to go in rivers and lakes. I can’t stand it when I can’t see what is in the water. (Galveston, I’m fine – but no rivers or lakes.) No one bothered to tell me that the Frio is CLEAR! A clear river. One that I could see the bottom of for the most part. It was amazing. I’ll post photos as soon as I find my card reader and get through the rest of the honeymoon photos.
Another amazing thing about the Frio? We had no TV out there. No internet access. No phones. Chelsey & Doug both commented that they thought Mike & I would be twitching without those things. Ironic, because I didn’t miss them at all. I knew I wouldn’t. I have been boycotting the computer a good portion of the summer. I get online, check the Helpdesk, read 3-4 blogs, and get offline. Sometimes I check my personal e-mail, but really only 2-3 times a week. (I owe some of you responses, and they are coming, I promise.) My days of being online 24/7 are long over. Because of work, I did go to the local Internet cafe and get online, but it was quick and then I was off again.
Being at the river reminded me just how much I really, really, really want a digital SLR. Really bad. So I can take really cool photos. My “wishlist” for my birthday and Christmas this year is cash to add to my digital SLR fund.
Instead of knitting, and when I haven’t been taking pictures or floating down the river, I’ve been reading. I just finished reading Ahab’s Wife. It was good, but not great. I really liked it to a point, but the ending – well, it just started to feel rushed and a bit too contrived. I don’t know. I will say that there is definitely some beautiful and strong imagery created by the words in the book, and I enjoyed that. It painted a good picture.
Oh, and one last random Chloe tidbit… when I couldn’t think of a name for days, I started a brainstorming list. I read sites with dog names. I thought of shows that we watch on TV. Then it came to me. Mike & I always talked about the cuteness factor of Chloe, Josie’s daugher, on Starting Over. So when I saw “Chloe” on one of the pet name lists, I knew. It was the perfect name. As soon as I can get her over being camera shy, I’ll share photos of her. Meantime, watch Starting Over. Good stuff.
Now I need to start reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before someone in blogland spoils it for me. I already know one fact more than I would like to know. I hate it when that happens.