Lucy and the Thunder Boomers

Lucy the yawning Boston

Last night Lucy woke me out of a dead sleep because, well, a thunderstorm again. As I have said before that little girl hates thunderstorms. No matter how far away or how slightly muffled the sound, she still hates them. So she woke me up and I listened over her loud panting. Nearly nothing in the way of thunder boomers. She woke me up for that? So I took her outside so she could do whatever. Still muffled thunder. I was looking and the lightning was far off to the west of us so San Antonio was most likely getting hammered. I came back inside with the scaredy cat and turned on my laptop to see the radar. Sure enough, they were getting the shit hammered out of them. So I decided to stay awake because Lucy would surely wake David up and I didn't want that.

Lucy the seal

I made a cup of tea and settled in on the sofa and the princess was already there waiting for me. I watched a bit of a movie, drank my tea and the princess brat was sleeping next to me. So I got up, turned off the TV and lamp and went to go back to the bedroom and Lucy starts her panting again. By this time there was no more storm to warrant staying up any longer. I just looked at her and said it wasn't going to work anymore, the storm has long passed us up, child. But she insisted through her panting that she was still scared. So, I left her in the hallway outside the bedroom door and told her when she calms down I would let her in. Talk about a fast calm. I think she was back to normal in a split second after she realized her mommy wasn't going to play that game anymore. So, I'm going to start forcing her out of the bedroom when she gets this way again. Losing a little sleep over pain is one thing but losing sleep because of a pain is another. 

It's Thursday

I have great news and bad news this morning. First the bad news. There is a fucking cool front sitting right above Seguin and will not move. I was hoping that the front would come through the area last night but it took its time moving. I spent most of last night watching lightning light up the sky and comforting Lucy. I'm not sure but I think I finally went to bed at 3am this morning only to find that the cool front did move only to sit on top of us. The weatherman says the front will eventually move south later this afternoon. So I'm sitting with the heating pad and in so fucking much pain that the Hydrocodone isn't even helping, trying to write this as fast as possible. It's raining too.

The great news is I had my cardiologist appointment yesterday. My doctor sat with me for more than 20 minutes explaining all the tests that I went through and the results. Test after test was proving negative. The one test that I was shitting bricks about was the last one that I went to the hospital to get done. Yeah, the Calcium Score. That gives the doctor the percentage amount of calcium in your arteries that builds up over time and can attribute to the cause of arterial blockages in the future. My score was 6.6. Anything less than 10% is insignificant of coronary artery disease and the pictures of my lungs were clear as a bell. So . . . I am at a very low vascular risk. She noted that not very many women at my age and weight are like this. Also, she said the extra beats are most likely not of any consequence. She noted in my file that the PVCs were most likely caused by two drugs that the doctor that I was seeing for my MCTD had issued me. I stopped taking them after the first incident of PVCs and haven't had that many PVCs since. She also said that everyone has PVCs and doesn't know it or even feel them. She said many people go through life with them and never feels it. She said not to worry. She said that if the flutterings bother me too much she will either try drugs or just go in and zap the area on my heart that is having the flutterings and that would be that. She was about as happy as I was at my overall outcome. She said to keep doing the weight loss and heart smart stuff that I have been doing. She also wrote me a referral so I could get into the hospital gym and pool. You can already get into the gym but they don't like to let people in that have medical conditions like my back and would prefer you go to the Physical Therapy side of the building. So, I have a referral that says I don't need a trainer or a baby sitter as long as I just go for the bike and pool. Then she officially released me from her care. So I'm heart healthy and happy. 

So that's all I have for all y'all today. I'm going to set the heating pad on the bed and do a few exercises in hopes that the heat, as well as the movement, will help stop some of my pain. Y'all have a magical day.

Wet Dog Wednesday

It's Tuesday

We have overcast skies today. Well, at least until the sun decides to wake up and get to work. From what I understand from the NOAA weather site, we are supposed to expect rain off and on for the rest of the week until Monday. That's as far as the forecast goes so I'll have to wait for a couple of days to find out if the sun will shine again.

Anywho, David and I had a very productive weekend even though he wanted to sit in front of the TV and watch Harry Potter movies, I did get him up and doing some work. We tore into his Man Shed first. Took almost everything out of it and put up new shelving and get rid of a bunch of junk. Then we put out mouse bate and put most of the stuff that we wanted to keep back into the shed. I had him set up a large oval tin pot with sand in it and we poured oil into it and mixed it up really well. Then we took garden tools, cleaned and sharpened the ones that needed sharpening and stuck the metal into the oily sand. Then I let him rest for the rest of the day. Saturday, he tried to replace the hose for the steering fluid but couldn't get to it. So he will have to take his truck to the shop down the street and have the guys work on it for him. They were closed this weekend. So, we, yes I said WE, went to Wallyworld, gawd, I hate that place. David wanted a new set of headphones because his old ones kept dying on him. So, yeah, we went there for a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity. Sunday I had him mowing the lawn and trimming around the garden. He actually did a good job without lopping off any flowers. Monday, I let him rest. He wanted to take off today but I shoved him out the door this morning.

While all this was going on, I helped him clean out the sheds and threw a lot of crap away. I gave the puppies baths and clipped their nails. Finished the laundry, only two loads. Baked some bread, froze some bread dough for some other time I need breadsticks. Made cheesecake which for some reason was so much easier now that I know how to make it and it tasted so much better. I precooked three meals in case I don't feel like I can cook because of pain in the future and froze them. I made stew, lasagna, baked chicken breasts with rosemary butter in foil. I cooked a pot of rice and bagged it portion wise and froze that. I had a lot of heavy cream left over from making the cheesecake so I made butter out of that. I found out what to do with leftover cream and there was a tutorial on how to make real butter so I tried it. It was great and so easy to do. When I finished making the butter I mixed some fresh herbs with it and then froze it. I used the whey from the butter to make the bread. Nothing wasted. It was fun doing something new.

Thursday I got a call from my cardiologist's office and they moved up my appointment from Friday to tomorrow morning. That's all good for me. I'm hoping since everything has been negative so far the Calcium Score I had last week will be okay too. But I'm dreading knowing the news for some reason. 

Well, I have a little puppy that is antsy as hell because I promised I would let her run at the dog park this morning. Y'all have a magical day.

Remember

Today many friends and family members will go about their day with a BBQ and pool or block party. To them, today is just another holiday and nothing more. Not to rain on your parade but today is a day of remembrance and honor. There are those that will spend the day remembering family members at grave sites in Arlington and some that will be visiting the beautiful memorials in and around Washington D.C. I advise everyone who can, please spend a few moments at your town or city memorial for fallen soldiers. Honor the brave souls that gave their lives and thank those that have served or are serving in the military. 

Quick Note : Busy Weekend

I'm unable to sleep again. I even dosed myself with 2 sleeping pills. No dice.  

Anywho, my cardiologist's office called yesterday and they set up the appointment for the Calcium Score at 12 noon today. So I'll be going to get that done. David has 4 days off for the weekend so I have him today and Monday. I need to repot my house plants so I'm going to have him swing by Home Desperate for a couple of bags of potting soil while he's waiting for me at the hospital. 

I'm unplugging the whole weekend plus Monday so I won't be posting til Tuesday. We are going to tear the tool shed apart and his manly shed too and put up shelves. So that will keep us busy most of the weekend. Plus, I have 2 climbing roses I want him to relocate to the other side of the house. Also, he has to replace a power steering fluid hose on his truck. Sucker is leaking badly. 

Y'all have a magical day and a great weekend.

It's Thursday

I wish my body would make a choice for once in its life. Either let me sleep the whole night without waking up or let me have pain. Just once. That's all I ask.

On to other stuff and thangs. My cardiologist, bless her heart, called me yesterday and said the second ECHO with contrast was very good. Nothing wrong in my heart. The flow was great no blockages. BUT she says she wants to see if I might have a blockage of some kind in my arteries because - I'm a big woman - and there must be a reason for the off-kilter beats. The fact that my triglycerides and cholesterol are each lower than 100 isn't good enough. The fact that I have a heart murmur and off-kilter beats like since I was a kid and so on and so forth. So she wants me to get a Calcium Score done. It's like an MRI but it's done of the hearts arteries. She said it takes about 4 minutes. I have to wait for them to make the appointment for me so, yeah, I'm waiting and stuff. 

Lucy watching for squirrels

Yesterday I took Lucy to the dog park. There were other dogs there but she was running around checking all the smells. Forget the other 4 dogs, the smells were better. One lady said that her dog did the same thing. Wild animals must have gotten into the area. The park has a fence all around and a gate so it's not that easy but raccoons and cats do get into the place more often that we do. After the smells were all smelled they smelled each other and said hi to each other and then I threw a bunch of tennis balls that I brought. The puppies went wild. When we got home Lucy was tuckered out. She didn't want to go home but I told her we had too because daddy was going to be home for lunch. That girl loves her daddy. The first thing she did when she saw him was attack, telling him where we went and what we did. We went early to the park again today but we didn't stay long. There was nobody for her to run and play with. So Lucy is sleeping next to me on the sofa now. Yeah, she's passed out cold. If I move it won't bother her and she won't follow me if I get up to do something like get another cup of coffee or just to walk. That little girl is dead to the world. 

Today is going to be another boring day so all y'all have a magical day.

Wet Cat Wednesday

It's Tuesday

I had to turn on the lights this morning. It's really dark out because we are expecting thunderstorms in a few minutes. I looked at the weather radar and it's breaking up over San Antonio but we will get a few sprinkles. Northern Texas and Oklahoma are getting slammed right now so I feel for them.

For me, today I'm feeling almost okay. I usually have a butt load of pain after driving to my medical appointments. But today, my painkillers are working quite nicely. Yesterday, I had an appointment at the cardiology clinic to have another ECHO but this time with contrast which was done intravenously. I have to say the ladies who took care of me are awesome. They made sure I was comfortable at all times because of my back pain and the procedure went as swiftly as possible. So, even though we have a front about to fly over us in a few minutes, I feel pretty damned good.

Is it safe to say that Game of Thrones ended on a good note for the Stark family? I trust everyone if not most of you have seen the finale Sunday night. I will let this spoiler out though, No one got the iron throne. That is all I'm saying about what happened. I was happy with how that whole mess turned out and how the loose ends were tied up. The ending is not really cheesy or goofy as with most shows. It was very pleasing. I am sad to see it ended though and I'm wondering if what the rumors say is true that there is a preamble to the Game of Thrones in the works that will show how the White Walkers came to be and who and how the rulers started everything. They are saying that the new show will start with the fight between the Children of the Forest and the First Men. It could be interesting to see the Targarians come into power and the old dragons. I just hope they don't fuck it up and they have better writers.

Today I plan on taking it easy. There isn't much to do since the house is clean and laundry is done. This morning I was planning on going to the library to see what is new to read. I think I've read everything in the New Books stand. It will be nice to get out again and chat with the ladies or go meet David for lunch downtown. I might give him a call to meet me at the park for sandwiches and cookies.

I have minds to warp so y'all have a magical day.

Religion in a Nutshell

It's Friday

Sorry that I'm posting late today. My pain doctor put me back on Hydrocodone 5.0 so I'm moving really slow. Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been off them. But it does help take away my pain for now. It's just a matter of getting used to moving slower than usual. One good thing is that I feel a little better and I'm able to sleep a whole 6 to 8 hours at night. I forgot what it was like to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. The bad thing is that it's an opiate and I was trying to get away from bad drugs like that. So, I'm back at square one again. Monday is my Echo with contrast appointment at the cardiologist. I haven't had any palpitation or fluttering episodes since Wednesday. I wonder if the opiate has calmed them down. I'm also not suffering from anxiety as bad as I did either. The palpitations could have been caused by my pain anxiety and lack of sleep. It is possible and yet it isn't. But I'll have to see what happens when I see the doctor on the 31st and we will talk of many things. Especially my pain anxiety.

Yesterday, I felt sick. I couldn't keep anything down and I was tired as fuck. I think I had another flare episode because I'm a little better today. Just really tired. The tired feeling could be from the opiates too. Even though I felt like shit I had laundry to do. Thursdays are always the start of laundry days which goes all the way into Saturday and sometimes Sunday. I do maybe a load or two depending on my energy level. There are days when I have zero energy and days when I have energy up the wazoo. Yesterday was a low energy day. Today is also slow but I am getting things done only in slow motion. I've been having really bad brain fog too. Forgetting what I was doing or going blank in the middle of a conversation. I hate when that happens. David has told me that sometimes I stop in the middle of telling him something and flat out walk away. I just stop functioning. Weird. 

Well, enough of this shit. Y'all have a magical day.

Wet Dog Wednesday

Trilogy of Books and a TV Show to Boot!

image via Sundance Now

Last night I finished brushing up on The All Souls Trilogy. Yeah, that pain thingy had me up all night so since I wasn't doing anything I decided to finish reading through the trilogy's last book, The Book of Life. I usually don't like to review books that much but if y'all are watching the TV series on AMC on Sunday nights it goes by A Discovery of Witches, which is really based on the first book and introduces us to the world of witches, daemons, and vampires. The daemons have me laughing because of how they are portrayed in the books and that explains a lot about certain members of society today. Yeah, the strange and borderline crazy people just might be daemons. The witches are, well, witches blessed with different powers and the vampires are nothing of what you would expect but maybe a bit more. Also, as far as I know, the TV series has been okayed for a second season and if it all goes according to the books, Shadow of Night will be represented in the second season. 

The books are better because the show leaves out so much that should be available to the nonreaders. But I have to say the trilogy books are a rollicking ride through history and witchcraft and vampirism. I enjoyed reading them the first time when they first came out, I think it was 2008 or 09? I'm not sure and I'm too lazy to go check right now. But the books by Deborah Harkness are really very good and brushing through them again was fun because I forgot about certain things that happened in the storyline. Really, I loved the first and second books more than the last one. But the last book tied all the loose ends together and I hated when it all came to an end . . . but did it. Debrah left the ending on an opening note. So, there could be more books later, who knows. It's been a long time since she finished the series. So, I highly recommend getting her trilogy and reading them. You won't be sorry.

It's Monday

Well, Friday was fruitful. The Nurse Practitioner said I am due for the radiofrequency ablation(Rf.A.) on my lower back. Yeah! I was surprised. I nearly fell out of my chair that she was so on top of that shit. The last one was October of 2016, so, I'm way overdue. But one obstacle, I'll have to wait until after my appointment with my Cardiologist on the 31st to see where we stand with my palpitations and flutters. If everything is fine then it will be a go the first Monday of next month. So now, I have to wait until the drug test. They wanted to get a baseline to make sure I'm not on anything like pot or opiates. It's basically to cover their asses. When the test comes back negative, which it will, then my pain doctor will call my pharmacy and set up some pain killers to hold me over until I go for the Rf.A. But I'm glad that is out of the way. Now it's just a waiting game.

Sunday was fun. I was in the middle of trying to post my usual Religion in a Nutshell post and we lost cable. There was a loud bang and everything went offline. David found out some idiot hit a junction box down the street. So, I'm sorry for the late post but it was in gods hands . . . BWAAHAHAAAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAA!! oh, I think I wet myself. 

Anywho, we finally got back online around noon so that's why I was late posting. Other than that, it was a quiet uneventful weekend. Saturday I finally got David to help me clean the house and he helped out a great deal. I did the dusting, laundry, bathroom, and other cleaning and he swept and mopped the floors and vacuumed the rugs. When I completed the laundry, I decided to wash the puppy's blankets. They get so dirty when the dogs drag them around the house and outside when I'm not looking. So everything is ship-shape for now and I'm happy. Sunday I asked David not to get me anything for Mother's Day and he obliged. I did make his favorite stew with lots of fresh carrots, potatoes, and peas.

Okay, I think the Game of Thrones producers and directors are bent on destroying all the shows sets. Yeah, Westeros was leveled, on fire and Daeny(Daenerys, Mother of Dragons and all that shit) went fucking ape shit crazy with Drogon. So what could possibly be left? Tying up loose ends, maybe.

Last nights episode was nearly 2 hours long. Next Sunday is the last episode and it will be only 1 hour and 20 minutes from what I saw. I really do hope some of the characters that survive will go off into the sunset happy in the end. But someone has to do something about Daeny and Drogon. Like, give Drogon a Diprivan salt lick before they attack, oh, say maybe London.
Well, I have to go let the puppies inside. They have been outside all morning and they are crashed out on the back porch now. Y'all have a magical day.

Religion in a Nutshel

It's Friday

Last night around 9:45 a cold front crashed through our area with rain and lightning. Yeah, I felt that bitch taking it's sweet ass time all day long. I still had to contend with the moisture from the rain storms but it was so nice to be able to get a little rest from most of my pain. When the thunder started, Lucy came running from the bedroom looking for me. Mommy has to save her from the thunder monsters. She hid under her blanket next to me on the sofa and fell asleep after it was all over. I didn't want to disturb her and tried to leave her sleeping and went back to bed around midnight but she felt me get up and she was right behind me, her blanket in tow with a corner of it tightly clenched in her mouth. She slept next to David and I covered her with her blanket. She slept up until 9:30 this morning when I got up. She's such a diva. 

Anywho, it's cold today. This morning I woke up and it was 52 degrees outside. The weather guys say the temps won't be moving out of the 60s all day long. That's nice. It will be a cool day and I won't have to run the A/C. The windows and doors are open right now to let the cool breezes through the house. Poor Lucy, she's bundled herself into her pink camo blanket and fighting me for the heating pad against my back. Spunky has rolled himself into a tight ball under his green camo blanket on David's recliner. I'll have to close the doors soon I guess or I'll end up with iced pupsicles. 

Today I have my appointment with my pain doctor. I really don't see him though. I see his Nurse Practitioner. She's good too. She finds out if you need better pain meds or if you need medical care in the way of injections by the doctor. I'm going to let her know that I might need to talk with him about the radiofrequency ablation. I've been with this pain for almost 20 years and I know when my legs hurt like they want to pop off my body then it's time for something like that.
Well, David will be home for lunch soon and I have to get my ass ready for my appointment. So all y'all have a magical day.

Caution - Pain Rant

I made an emergency appointment this morning for tomorrow to see my pain specialist. I'm losing way too much sleep lately. David says I look like death warmed over. Actually, I feel like it too. The arthritis in a lower back has taken on a life of its own. I'm having difficulty sitting and standing so that leaves lying as the only comfortable thing but that too is becoming a fleeting respite from the pain. I'm just unable to get comfortable. If I sit too long my legs start to hurt. If I stand for three minutes my lower back hurts. If I lie in bed in any position my body protests. WTF!?! All I want is relief and that is what I will let the pain specialist know.

The last radiofrequency oblation on my lower back was done four years ago so I'm due for another one. And yeah they only last from two to four years. So I'm going to talk to my doctor about that.

I also have a second Echocardiogram to go through in two weeks. This time with contrast. The first one wasn't good enough. So why don't they do the contrast echo the first time? It's called insurance. Yeah, the insurance company wants the easy cheap way first or they won't pay up. Same thing with the pain blocks. My pain doctor has to give me the two to three cheap pain block injections, which do not work for me, every two months before the insurance will say okay to the radiofrequency oblation because the pain block is cheaper. Insurance companies are so fucking ignorant. Especially mine. They won't check my history and see that only the radiofrequency does the job. But what can I do? Thems the rules folks.

Sorry. All y'all really didn't want to come in here to see a rant in progress like this. Y'all have a magical day. I'm going to try laying on the floor with my heating pad and see if that helps for a bit.

Wet Cat Wednesday