Post Injection(s)

What a great morning. So far it's 10 a.m. and I've had no pain. At all...just a little achiness once in a while. I even took a shower and washed my hair with no pain. Are you listening? Whoop, whoop, whoop! Not since July 17th could I say that. So I'm clean and shiny and happy. And I'm planning to follow Dr. In-Jecto's advice and do nothing today and tomorrow. Monday should be a lot of fun.

Sharon sent great pictures of Kevin's wedding - everybody looked so happy. I can't do the picture part of my blog yet - my upstairs computer chair is bad for my back, and I can't upload the pictures on my laptop down here in the recliner - but next week I'll be able to put the pictures on the blog, and I'm excited.

On the more serious side of life, we heard yesterday that Tim and Susie have lost Tim's Mother, Shirley Swedine of Owosso. She has suffered ill health for quite a while - but it's always heartbreaking to lose your Mom, as a lot of you already know. Our sincere condolences to the whole family.

On the lighter side of life, Michigan held on long enough to beat Minnesota tonight. Minnesota made several serious but fruitless threats, and Michigan went home with the Little Brown Jug. This from mgoblue.com:

Henne Tosses Three TD Passes as Football Claims Jug
Chad Henne made sure the Little Brown Jug's stay in Minnesota lasted just one year as he threw three touchdown passes in the first half to help the No. 6-ranked Michigan football team to a 28-14 win Saturday night, Sept. 30, in Minneapolis. Henne connected with Adrian Arrington on scoring passes of 16 and 37 yards for a 14-0 Wolverines lead and later found Mario Manningham for a 41-yard hookup and a 21-7 halftime edge. Mike Hart rushed 31 times for 195 yards, and Kevin Grady added a short TD run.

Heavily favored MSU was beaten by hapless Illinois with a last second field goal in the rain on homecoming day. We are well acquainted with that feeling.

Dr. In-Jecto

Double your pleasure. Not one, but two lovely spinal injections. Dr. In-Jecto found the sciatic nerve all right - 3 times. What a thrill that was -3 times. It felt like being struck by lightning. OK, mild lightning, but still not at all pleasant. The second injection was not bad at all, except that I couldn't relax waiting for a repeat of injection #1. Oh well, it's over. The Doc says that by Monday I could try out for the Lions. I'm shopping for a uniform. I think I could be on special teams and keep the ball out of the end zone. How hard could that be?

Dick brought me roses yesterday -gorgeous yellow and pink roses. Best ever. Right now he's out geo-caching.

Sorry for the Blog-Lag

A couple of our wedding outfits if we had gone to the wedding. On the left you see our glorious evening casual ensembles. On the right is obviously the daytime casual. Can you tell that Jana is holding me up?
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The poor blog has gone to pieces It doesn't react well to my pain meds. Maybe later, I'll fix it up. Maybe not.

Bye Bye Jay Bird

Jana's flight took off around noon. I'm so glad she came - we had a good time and she helped Dick take care of the crip (me).

Jan and Eileen stopped in shortly after. Jan brought the cutest plant in the cutest pot and I'm really enjoying it. It was great to see her and catch up on all of the news from California. It was fun to see Eileen - I always forget what a dynamo she is. She keeps things hoppin'.

Dick is still the world's best caretaker. Mother and I are trying to help him slow down a bit and just enjoy life. I'm as comfy as anybody could be, and so well taken care of and loved like Marmee in Little Women - remember?

Kevin's Wedding Day

Laurie, Dylan and Tom called from San Diego this morning. They were eating eggs for breakfast and getting ready to go to the San Diego Zoo. Kevin and Amy's wedding is later on this afternoon (see link above). More Later.

Meanwhile, back in Michigan:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 6-ranked University of Michigan football team claimed a 27-13 victory in its Big Ten Conference opener against the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday (Sept. 23) in front of 111,058 fans at Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines defense held the Badgers to six straight three-and-outs to begin the second half, and Michigan tallied four sacks and held the Big Ten's leading rusher, P.J. Hill, to 54 yards rushing on 20 carries.



Meanwhile, MSU looked terrific for most of their game. State had it won by the time I went to bed. I could have fainted the next morning when I saw that the final score was Notre Dame 40, MSU 37. Unbelievable.

I Know What Day It Is!

It's Wednesday! Aha! I'm on top of things now!

When I taught school every classroom was responsible for putting on a program each semester about something we were studying. One year it just so happened that we had the names of the days of the week for spelling words so off we went to do some pretty heavy duty second grade research on Freya, Woden, Thor,etc.

We divided into groups, made costumes, wrote poems and music, made signs
and came up with a pretty good show.

The point of all this is that the other day in some office I saw the secretaty write out an appt. for Wen., Sept. 21. Any one of those 2nd graders would have bopped her with Thor's hammer.

Dick and Galadriel pulled in around 9 p.m. complete with a big celebratory presentation box of champagne (checked, of course). Dick fixed some supper while I dozed in my chair. Wonderful to see her. She traveled in her morning brunch outfit (daytime casual), so she's one up on me and we haven't even started yet.

We both loved her business plan....sh..white collar spies are everywhere.

Dick is for Real

Monday - at least I know what day this is. Have to be proud of something. I'm proud of Dick, anyway. He went to the Agency first thing and helped people all morning, and then came home and helped me all afternoon.

What Day is This?

Dick went out to do errands this morning and accomplished a lot.

I'm feeling like somebody else today - can't seem to keep things straight in my head. Mom says I never called her yesterday. Some daughter she wound up with! I just feel like sleeping all the time.

Talked to Laurie this morning. They're excited about going to LegoLand with Tom on Friday. (see link above).

We're all wishing we could be together this weekend. I'm wishing I could visit Mom. Maybe roller skating to California would work. I'm wishing I could remember what day this is.
A couple of Dick's errands this morning involved office supplies for the upstairs computer room. When I finally get strong enough to visit Mother, I want to take her pictures from the terrific half of our summer. I was preparing the digital photo printer and picking out the pictures, ding ding ding ding - the picture printer ran out of paper. No paper in this drawer, that drawer, or the other drawer either. So I might as well begin working on a different project - Jana's birthday present. Computer is all warmed up, Epson is up and running. I finish a page and press Print. Holy moly, that's a strange noise. It appears that all of the inks have run out.

Labor Day Weekend

My pain meds were running low, so on Friday at 9 a.m. I ordered refills online. It didn't work - the pharmacy never got the order. It has worked before, but not this time.

I did have some meds. I have tons of darvocet, which makes me physically ill. I'm having a bit of a bad tummy anyway - last thing I want is more of that! I have tons of regular Tylenol. The recommended dosage doesn't come anywhere near what I need.

The pharmacy heard nothing on Friday or Sat. and of course the clinic is closed for the holiday weekend. So like the drowning man who clutches at the straw, I stupidly tried ordering refills online again, knowing full well that no human eyes would see it until Tuesday morning.

I have totally lost my appetite, but desparate for some darvocet (which must be taken with food) I asked Dick to fix me toast and eggs for breakfast. I took the darvocet, kept it down, and noticed some pain relief. I think I took a second dose after proper preparation, and again I had good results. But, I'm sorry to say, I just can't eat meals - makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

Dick found a bottle of tylenol 3 with codeine dated March, 1999. I'll admit to taking 2 of those, and they do seem to make me more relaxed. I'm keeping them around for times when sleep seems the best optiom.

Sat., Sun., Mon. with no pain meds. Hey, come on - we contribute to Doctors Without Borders! Where are they when we need them???

Hooray it's Tues! I'll have meds before noon! I called the clinic. I spoke to an actual person who asked all the right questions, and she promised to give my order ro Dr. Burke's nurse. Heavy sigh of relief. Right? This always works, right? We've never had a failure between the clinic and Rite Aid, right?

Well, we waited a proper length of time, and phoned the pharmacy to make sure that the prescriptions had been called in. No luck. So we waited another proper length of time and repeated the process. Rite Aid hasn't heard a thing.

We went for a little ride, with me stretched out in the back seat in my one comfortable position (which isn't as comfortable as it used to be way back when I had some vicodin.) We just happened to be in the vicinity of Rite Aid, so we went to
the drive-thru pharmacy pick-up. Even eye to eye, the man said he had nothing for us.

Back at home, I called the clinic to set up a consultation with Dr. Burke concerning my inability to get medication for my sciatica. They gave me an appt. for THURSDAY MORNING. (Pardon me for shouting.) Dick called the clinic at 3:51 p.m. to speak with Dr. Burke or his nurse, and was told that they had both left for the day.

So I was facing another night with no meds, plus I was really feeling sick with flu-like symptoms. It was not a good night. So I asked myself, WWLIWD? (What Would Laura Ingalls Wilder Do?)

This morning (Wed) Dick called the clinic at 8 a.m. to order the refills (4th time). He's really on the job now. He's planning to call someone every hour, either clinic or pharmacy, whoever's turn it is. So I have a good possibility of getting some pain relief today, right? Today's the day, right? I can't hear you..

As of 10 a.m., I have my meds, I have my meds, I have my meds, I have my meds. Nothing looks better than Dick walking into the room with a pill bottle in each hand!!

Dr. Burke put refills on each bottle - I'm so grateful. He is now the world's 5th best doctor. He'll just have to work his way back up to first.

I have my meds. Thanks, Dick

The Pizza Cart

There have been some wild and crazy drug induced dreams in the past month,believe me. They are so realistic that even after I wake up I think it's still going on.

I just woke up from a hotel pizza dream - I heard the announcement in our room (It was the Van Something Hotel) - very posh. "Steigers, your pizza is ready. Call such and such for delivery when you're ready". I was barely awake, so I just assumed that Dick would call.

I have no idea how much time passed, but eventually I realized that nothing was happening, so I began to wake up. As I looked around the hotel room, I saw that the list of hotel amenities was beautifully and skillfully woven into the lovely rug on the floor. It had phone numbers, shuttle buses, menus, etc. One of the pictures on the rug was a cute little pizza delivery cart.

I waited for Dick to do something, and it seemed to me that I was awake in real life at that point. Still nothing was happening, so I actually said out loud, "Dick, did you hear that?" No response. OK, by now I really was waking up, although I could still see the black and white rug. I said a little more quietly this tme, "Dick, are you in here?"

Well of course he wasn't - I think he's outside somewhere. I'm in here alone with my powerful pain relievers. Luckily, I'm not hungry, and the pizza would be cold by now anyway.
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