Quick Check In

My apologies for the lack of updates.  I saw my new doctor on Thursday.  She was great.  She's calm and reasonable, but with a nice sense of humor.  And, although she's a few years younger than I am, it turns out we lived in the same dorm at the University of Michigan.  Obviously, our doctor-patient relationship was meant to be.  She officially diagnosed me with ulnar neuropathy.  Doesn't that sound impressive?  Basically it means that nerve from my elbow into my hand is irritated.  It shows its displeasure by sending tingling sensations into my forearm, hand, and fingers.  I've been taking Aleve twice a day and doing my best to rest it.  (Did I mention it's my left arm?  Did I mention I'm left-handed?)  My elbow still hurts, but the tingling seems limited to when I'm in a sitting position.  Say, like, at the computer.  My mother thinks it may have something to do with the fact that I type with a grand total of three fingers.  She feels this unorthodox typing style may have something to do with my problem.  I think if she were any kind of a mother, she would offer to stand behind me massaging my shoulder and arm while I type. 

Heh

You know the little Paper Clip Guy who gives you helpful tips on Microsoft Word?  Today he told me "If you run with scissors, you could get hurt."

A Poetry Interlude

Today's update:

1.  Took off a big chunk of my fingernail with a butter knife.  Sweet God in Heaven, a butter knife.  Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe me.

2.  Found out it will cost $635 to fix the damage on the van.  <sigh>

3.  I made an appointment today with a new doctor.  She can see me tomorrow morning.  I like her already.

*****
Last night during dinner, Juliana managed to spill her burrito all over herself.  (Where does she get that?) We'd been going around the table having each person share the best and worst parts of the day.  Juliana's worst part was "having burrito lap".  Her messy state inspired her to write a poem: 



Isn't she awesome?  For those of you who aren't fluent in 7 year old, here's what it says:

Whether I'm Clean
Whether I'm clean or
not as you've always
seen I'll lay on
yellow deedee and dream

Yellow deedee is a crocheted yellow, green, and white blanket that her grandmother made for her before she was born.  She's used it every day of her life and loves it more than anything else in the world.  If her love for deedee were an SAT question it would read like this:   Transitional Object is to Yellow Deedee as Marijuana is to Crystal Meth.  You can see how she represented deedee in the picture, the circles being the holes made by crocheting. 

I love the illustration she drew.  I love the blissful smile on her face and the closed, dreamy eyes.  I love the thinking bubble above her head.  I love how she's imagining herself as a princess with a crown.  I love how my husband (who has known her just as long as I have, it turns out) looked at the picture and asked, "Why are you dreaming about a chicken?"

A Couple More Things

First of all, thank you for all the feedback on the bedding.  Although, I must say you people are ever so slightly maddening.

Me:  Which do you like best? A or B?
You All:  C!  D!  E!  F!  G!

I'm guessing you don't do well on True or False tests.

However, I think Tina may be on to something with the following link:  Simply Wild.
Target seems to have the same bedding, but the Sears link shows it in purple as well.  This is a compromise I may be willing to make. 

*****
As you know, I am terrible about making phone calls.  But I've had this pain in my left shoulder/arm/elbow/wrist/hand for about three weeks now.  Sometimes I'll wear my splint and that helps, sometimes it doesn't.  Sometimes I'll spend 3 or 4 days taking Aleve and that helps.  Sometimes is seems like it's coming from my neck, sometimes it feels like it's a repetitive stress sort of thing because typing aggravates it.  Sometimes it involves really dramatic tingling in my fingers.  It took me a while to make the connection that this may be the cause of it all.  I discounted that idea because I'd fallen on my right side and all the pain was on my left.   Turns out both sides are connected.  Der.  Today I finally put in a call to my doctor.  We had the following conversation:

Me:  I'd like to make an appointment with Dr. So-and-So.
Receptionist:  Oh, she isn't at this office any longer.
Me:  Where is she now?
Receptionist:  We don't know.  We're waiting to hear from her.
Me: You mean you lost her?
Receptionist: She hasn't been with us since February 1st.

They offered me an appointment with a Physician's Assistant that I politely declined.  I don't have a problem with Physician's Assistants.  I have a problem with doctors who disappear and leave their patients in the dark about it.  This was the first primary care doctor I've had in years.  With all the moving we've done, I went maybe 7 years with only having  OB/GYNs.  That combined with a physician husband who could sneak me into the Emergency Department as needed worked for awhile, but I was thrilled to have a doctor of my own. 

Looks like I'm starting from scratch again. I'd really like to bitch some more about this whole thing, but my fingers are starting to tingle.....

Juliana's Words Of Wisdom

"I know how to get a burp out.  If you have a bathrobe with a tie, take it, put it on, and pull the tie really tight and it will squeeze the burp out."

This Blog Is Accident Free For 2 Days!

Good news!  I did no damage to myself or others today. 

Now, a little of this and little of that:

In our master bathroom we have a big ol' jetted tub.  As far as I can tell, the jets don't work.  Nobody in our family takes baths on a regular basis so our tub's job is mainly ornamental.  Since no one uses it, I sometimes forget that it needs to be cleaned.  I'm guessing it's a sign you've waited too long when the act of cleaning it actually makes it dirtier.  Turns out that when you add liquid of any kind--even a cleaning liquid--to a totally dusty tub, it makes mud.  Well, mud and giant wet lint balls.  Then you have to let it dry until eventually you can kind of sweep it clean.  I guess I really should just vacuum the damn thing in the first place.  Do other people vacuum their bathtubs?  Does Mr. Clean make a vacuum?

*****

Ritu and I went out to lunch the other day and as we were walking across the parking lot, I grabbed his arm and said, "Make it stop!"  He followed my gaze and saw the source of my horror.  There was a woman wearing a flouncy knee length denim skirt over--shudder--fishnet leggings.  Let that sink in for a moment.  They were a wide fishnet pattern and there was a band of solid black around her ankles.  They looked like this.  I can't begin to describe how wrong it was.  Especially given the fact that this woman had to be as old as I am.  We're talking Autumn Chicken here, people.  The Fug Girls would've lost their shit had they seen it.  Sure, I know I'm supposed to celebrate the fact that she didn't care what other people thought, but--no.  Just NO.

*****
I'm thinking of buying some new bedding for Juliana. Which of these two do you like best:  Cats or Dreamsicles?  She just turned 7 if that helps with your decision making.  My mother (Hi Mom!) saw the cat one and said it might be too "young" for her.  Juliana likes this one, but I think it's both too grown up and too ugly.

Today's Score

1.  While cleaning the kids' bathroom, I straightened up and hit my head on the underside of the towel bar.

2.  While backing out of my garage this afternoon, I swung wide to get by Ritu's car which was parked in the driveway and scraped the front left side of my van on the edge of the garage opening.  In addition to the scrapes, something in the wheel well looks cracked and the driver's side door now makes a funny rubbing side when you open it.  Did I mention that the van had spent the entire morning at the shop having the brakes and power steering repaired?

<sigh>