My Screwball Life

2010-06-16

2010-06-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

Flowers are doing very well this year!

2010-05-23

2010-05-23T19:11:00.000-05:00

2010-05-21

2010-05-23T19:10:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Glazebrook Sentenced to Life in Prison

2009-11-10T14:19:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey Glazebrook Sentenced to Life in Prison

Contortionist Kitty

2008-11-30T09:05:00.001-06:00

We Have Wheels Again

2008-11-24T18:43:00.002-06:00

A good friend of mine sold us a car for $3 last week. Unless you have been without a car for a number of years, you cannot begin to imagine how this will impact our lives. Just a few days before we received the car we had to find a ride to the ER on a Sunday afternoon because buses don't run on Sundays. I hope God richly blesses this friend for what she has done for us.

Queue for the Litter Box

2008-11-02T13:07:00.001-06:00

Tom caught Gradie waiting patiently while
Gordie finishes his business in the kitty box. Usually, they just barge in on each other, but that practice will surely end when they cannot both fit in the box at the same time. (Although, knowing how cats like to squeeze themselves into places that are obviously too small for them . . .

Gradie, Always the Entertainer

2008-10-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

My legs suddenly began to swell this week so I was elevating them for a bit. Gradie decided he should entertain me with a yarn toy. I managed to get this between his acrobatics from my legs, bouncing off the top of the sofa, rolling to the floor, and grabing at the dangling wrist strap on the camera.

Two kitties in a blanket

2008-10-24T18:07:00.000-05:00

I've been TPed!

2008-09-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

Safe and Restful, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

2008-08-18T10:13:00.007-05:00

If you're a Baby Boomer, you probably remember the old Sominex commercials. There were versions from cartoons to video of people sleeping with smiles on their faces. However, if you've ever had sleep problems, you know it's not as easy as popping a pill, drinking warm milk (yuck!), wearing sleep shades, counting sheep, taking a warm bath, or countless other suggestions.

If you've ever had trouble falling or staying asleep, you may want to test your Sleep IQ at the National Center for Sleep Disorders web site. For more information on sleep disorders, the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute has PDFs of brochures and information you can download and/or print.

Last Friday I spent the night at a local hospital in their sleep lab for a sleep study. Recently my husband has been complaining that I was snoring in spite of my using my CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It has been over five years since my last study so, it was necessary for me to undergo another sleep study, before the air pressure of my CPAP machine could be adjusted.

My appointment was scheduled for 9:30 p.m. and I called ahead to pre-register with the hospital. Because the last bus going near the hospital left downtown at 6:10 p.m., I was three hours early for my appointment. I took along a book I'd been reading, several magazines, and a crossword puzzle book. These fit into the carry-on with my pajamas, toiletries, and CPAP headgear and hose.

I reached the hospital and, headed to the cafeteria, hoped to get something to eat and drink. Naturally, the cafeteria is located in the bowels of the hospital basement. Following signs through a labyrinth of hallways, I arrived at the double doors of the cafeteria to find they closed three minutes before I arrived. A bevy of vending machines was in a little room just down the hall. Juggling my purse and bag, I dug out the one and five dollar bill in my wallet. My instructions from the hospital did not allow any caffeine after noon and I don't like sugared drinks. Not finding Diet 7-UP or Diet Sprite, I settled on Sierra Mist. A small bag of nacho cheese Doritos and a Salted Nut Roll rounded out my evening meal.

Armed with my vending machine junk food, drink, a ton of change, my bag, my purse, and an aching back, I wound my way back to the elevators and up to the floor where the Sleep Lab was located. A sign at the reception desk directed after-hours patients to use the desk telephone to call the operator to notify the sleep lab personnel that you had arrived. Following these directions, I learned employees would arrive around 8 p.m. and told to wait about an hour before calling again.

Settling into a loveseat in the waiting area, I dug out my book, drink, and junk food dinner, settling in for a good read. Within minutes a steady stream of hospital employees of all sorts began trickling through the hallway, nearby elevators, and doors. I felt very conspicuous eating my "dinner" with all those medical people walking around. I changed seats so I wasn't facing folks as they walked through.

About 8:30 p.m. someone called my name from behind; it was a staff member of the sleep lab with an older gentleman carrying an overnight bag. We were ushered to separate rooms. There was a double bed, a chair, a recliner, private bath, several lamps, and a photograph of a dark blue night sky with clouds on the wall. I took my things into the bathroom, changed into my pajamas, washed my face, and sat in the recliner to continue reading.

Eventually, someone came to the room to go through more paper work to be signed, questions asked, and, finally, the process of attaching all the wires to my skull and body. A pen is used to mark the spot for the electrode, a gooey adhesive is applied, and the wires attached. By the time I was "wired" and ready to stand up, I felt like a marionette. I was given some Diet Sprite (apparently this is only available to patients) and I took my night-time meds.

Snuggling back into the recliner, I began reading once again. Before long, my eyes became heavy and I caught myself having to re-read the same paragraph. Nodding off again, someone came back into the room and asked if I was ready to get into bed. After getting all settled in, the next step was for them to ask me, via an intercom in the ceiling over my head, to make different movements with my eyes and extremities. Once they had established what my movements looked like on their equipment, I drifted off to sleep, only to wake once during the night at my usual 3 p.m. I think this is more due to body pain than anything else. Someone came in and unplugged me so I could use the bathroom and then helped me settle back into bed. I went back to sleep in about 20 minutes.

About 7 a.m. I awoke and within a few minutes someone was there to ask me if I was ready to get up. Before I was allowed out of bed, we went through the eye and body movements again. After being unplugged, I shuffled to the bathroom to clean up my hair and face. When I emerged, there was juice and yogurt breakfast bars on my tray. I took my morning meds, ate, and called my husband.

I thought I was taking the same bus home I took to the hospital the evening before. I hadn't noticed the Saturday route doesn't come near the hospital. So Tom looked up the schedules and found one that came fairly close on Saturdays. I could just about make it if I left right away.

I grabbed all my stuff and headed out, noticing I was the last patient to leave the sleep lab area. They must have all gotten up super early or they didn't hang around to clean up, which had me pondering if the other patients in the lab were all men. I was cutting across the parking lot of the supermarket next door when I saw the bus drive through the corner intersection on its way downtown.

Dang!

I trudged on to the bus shelter at the corner and called my husband to find out when the next bus came by. One hour. Guess I had time to finish my book. I did finish the book, and moved on to a crossword puzzle. About 10 minutes before the bus was due, an older lady sat down in the shelter with me. We visited until the bus arrived. Once dontown, I had a 45 minute wait until the next bus home, so I kept working on my crossword puzzle.

My bus finally arrived and I settled into the first seat I came to and looked out the window all the way home. It was weird to get off the bus at nearly 11 a.m. and be getting home since the previous afternoon. After letting myself into the apartment, I found my husband and the cat still fast asleep in the bedroom.

Just like the Sominex commercial: "...sleep, sleep, sleep."

How Hot Is It?

2008-08-03T15:10:00.006-05:00

It's 101F at the Lincoln Municipal Airport, according to Inter Linc (although their icon on my desktop says it is 1ooF). Maybe it's so hot they aren't updating the data they send out to subscribers?

The humidity is "only" 37% which puts the heat index at 108F. I already knew the humidity was low and I hadn't even stepped outdoors since yesterday evening. Why? Because I am now the proud owner of a body that is a walking, breathing, eating, sleeping barometer. My pain levels (Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia) have been down the last couple days, so I know the humidity must be down as well.

It's so hot, neither my husband nor I want to water the vegetables and flowers. Intellectually, we know they need water even more when it is this hot, but watering means either lugging a 2 gallon watering can back and forth from the bathtub faucet to the pots outside or hooking up the hose to the washing machine cold water hookup. Meanwhile, our peppers, tomatoes, and flowers are looking rather wilted.

It's so hot, neither my husband nor I want to walk to the mailboxes at the front of the apartment complex.

It's so hot, going swimming doesn't even sound good because we'd have to walk the same distance to the pool as to the mailboxes. (The swimsuit I bought isn't here yet so this is purely hypothetical.)

It's so hot, neither of us wants to walk to the shopping mall next to our complex and have a late lunch or early dinner at CiCi's Pizza (our favorite place for salad bar), but our stomachs are talking to us.

However, procrastination has won out and my husband took care of the watering of the potted plants and he's getting ready for our walk to the pizza buffet. We'll pick up the mail along the way.

That's cool.

Stinger of a Week

2008-07-30T09:25:00.004-05:00

Writing was immediately hindered this week by yet another Windows Vista problem. I doubt anyone wants to know what happened so I won't drag it out in long-winded detail, but I will tell you I had to spend the rest of Monday (after the doctor appointment) and most of Tuesday fiddling around with my computer just so I could log onto the Internet.

The visit to the pulmonologist's office went smoothly and I'm scheduled for a new sleep study on Monday the 4th of August. Now that we are using the Handi-Van, I can schedule a ride that evening to the hospital rather than taking the last bus there and waiting four hours. After hours, Handi-Van contracts with Transport Plus and, while you can't use your bus pass, it's only $2 each way, which isn't horrible. I also learned I was eligible for a new C-PAP machine which would be nice. Mine is rather old and the new models have added features that I'd like to try. Apparently, Medicare will allow for a new one every five years.

Monday evening, while my computer was inaccessible due to a virus program running, I decided to do some much-needed watering of the flowers, shrubs, and vegetables. Because mosquitoes and flies seem to crave my blood, I sprayed myself liberally with some good-smelling repellent before venturing into the yard.

After watering, I thought I'd take care of another task I'd been avoiding, so I dragged the last bag of cedar mulch around the yard and filled in around the most recently planted flowers. While I was under the crab apple tree with the mulch I suddenly felt a sharp stinging pain on my upper left arm on the underside. I assumed it was a sliver from a piece of mulch. The stinging wasn't going away, so I finished and went inside to wash up. Looking in the mirror at my arm I could see it was becoming a dime-sized red welt. There wasn't a sliver (or a stinger) to be found, so I cleaned it, and put on an anti-itch lotion. After about half an hour, it was still stinging so I took another look at it; it had quadrupled in size! Tom suggested I take a Benedryl, which I did, and within an hour it was starting to calm down and by morning it wasn't as angry-looking, although you could still tell the location of the swelling. Tom asked me if it was any consolation that the bee died stinging me. I had to admit that yes, it was (they have short lives anyway).

The next afternoon I decided to put into the ground three plants a neighbor had given me. I selected my spots out under the crab apple tree and went to work with the shovel. As I was finishing up with the last plant, I reached over to the privacy fence that runs along the side of the yard to keep my balance. I immediately felt a stinging sensation that was now familiar to me. I quickly took my hand off the fence and looked up and saw a wasp crawling around where my hand had just been. Yipes! That was no bee! Wasps don't die when they sting you and this one had been trying to land on me the entire time I was putting out those plants. Based on the fact they felt and responded the same, I upgraded the previous day's incident to a wasp sting.

Back into the apartment I went; this time I knew the routine. Wash up, anti-itch lotion, Benedryl. Within an hour or so it didn't even hurt any longer.

Anyone want to take bets on who took care of watering last night? I hated to ask Tom as it was his birthday and I wanted to give him a day-off from nagging (I know, I'm just an old softy), but I really, really didn't want to tangle with another wasp. For some reason, insects don't enjoy Tom nearly as much as they do me.

Obviously, my insect repellent is good for flies and mosquitoes, but doesn't seem to cover stinging insects. Maybe I need to get a beekeeper's outfit for gardening.

Doesn't that sound comfortable?

I didn't think so, either.

First Day

2008-07-27T16:35:00.004-05:00

Wouldn't you know, I wrote a rather wordy "first post" and then promptly lost it! I don't want to recreate the entire thing, so this will have to suffice.

I'll try and write more tomorrow after my appointment with the pulmonologist at Bryan-LGH West. I need a new sleep study in order to have my C-PAP adjusted due to re-gaining my weight.

At least I won't have to spend hours waiting for and riding the bus. We have been approved to use the Handi-Van, which we had to resort to because of the changes made to the bus routes in June. What used to be a 20 minute ride from the front of Waterbrook Apartments to People's Clinic is now 1.5 hours!

Until next time . . .