Assorted Stuff.......

After a long hiatus I am back on Celebrex. So nice to be pain free again. I can still feel my hipbones pop with every step. They can be heard popping several feet away. It is like having my own rhythm section every time I walk. The right knee still hyperextends and buckles. It feels so good to not hurt.

Good week so far. Still adjusting to the Celebrex, so I'm using my energy reserves carefully. Lately when I have a good day or two, I overdo things and then am down for several. The view from the sofa has gotten old, very old. Had some rough side effects the first few days, foggy, extremely emotional with several major meltdowns including a solid 3 days of continuous crying, and exhaustion, but only able to sleep a couple of hours here and there. I almost quit taking it, but, remembering how well it had worked in the past I stuck it out. I'm so glad I did. Now that it has settled in my system, I am pain free again.

Ordered the newest iPad last night. I would love to wait for the new 13 inch that is supposed to come out in '14. With a broken screen and a rear camera with low resolution, I need a better one than i have now.

I researched all of the available tablets and their apps to see which would work best for low vision. The iPad iOS had the most hands down. Others had the bigger screen, but I would be severely limited in usage with them. So, when the 13 inch iPad comes out, I will get it.

Hilarious..... The 7.5 iPad is called the mini pad, and the 13 is already being referred to as the maxi pad. Who comes up with this stuff?

The rear camera is used by various apps to identify colors, magnify so I can read labels and menus, use as a CCTV, identify denominations of paper money, etc. Who knew that just that one part of the tablet would be so useful? A larger resolution will be so welcome. Things magnified will be so much clearer and easier to make out. As it is, I have to use magnifying glasses with the magnifiers, and there are still web pages and things that I cannot see, like the kindle and adobe menus. The menus take 2-3 magnifiers to make out. At least I still can.

With that improvement as well as Siri, I will be able to function more comfortably at stores and restaurants, as well as be able to read printed books again.

Once the new one arrives, I will reset the old (current) one to the factory settings and then get the screen replaced. I may just keep it for music here at home or pass it on to a friend or relative who would use and enjoy it.

I'm really looking forward to the new one getting here.

Feeling better, I made a trip to the local thrift store yesterday. Just to get out of the house as well as seeing how well I would do at the grocery store later this week. It felt really good, came home not totally wiped out and having to sleep. The grocery store with even a short list takes 3-4 hours. Not just the problem of finding things, but also reading labels, etc. with the magnifiers.

Anyway, back to the thrift store. I found a gorgeous laptop bag (Diane Von Furstenberg, did I spell that right?) 3 leather purses, a black vest, 4 tops (J Jill and Ann Taylor) and 3 dresses. All for $50.04. Not bad at all. The clothes are in the washing machine, and I will clean the bags with saddle soap later today.

Big news, hair loss has slowed down! Almost down to the amount that people normally lose each day. I'm ready for it to start growing back in again. My scalp isn't something I enjoy seeing in the mirror. Had the methotrexate worked, it would have been worth it. The left eye got worse while on it, and the exhaustion just was not worth it. Not when I've been off the drug for 6 weeks and am just starting to get back to normal. At least a few days weekly of what passes for normal. I'm ready to do things without being wiped out for days afterword. Still enjoying the weight loss, though, great side effect.

Enough for now.....

Bathroom Remodel Progress

We have a new bathroom floor. New reinforcements in the foundations, an inch and a half of new sub flooring, new tile laid perfectly. We have new sewer lines, a new shower head and drain. Tomorrow, we will purchase a new toilet and new knobs and faucet for the shower.

It's been a long time project. When I moved in there were brown and turquoise tile walls four feet up, patterned tiles on the floor, and appalling floral wallpaper. It was a nightmare of patterns, hugely magnified by giant mirrors. The cupboards, drawers, and ceiling had not been painted since the home was built 60 years ago.

The tiles, mirrors and basic bones of the room are charming and work with the age and style of the home. 

The bathroom is now painted three shades of turquoise, lighting replaced along with the bathroom faucet. All metal in the room is now brushed nickel. Linens and curtains are turquoise and browns. 

In the shower above the tile walls are original oil paintings of beach scenes and sunsets. It's one of those truly unexpected touches that no one ever fails to remark upon.

The other artwork includes oils of a shack in the swamp, a young girl wearing a turquoise dress and flip flops, a coastal town scene.

A gargoyle lives above the medicine cabinet, there are seashells scattered around the room. Mouthwash is kept in a crystal liquor decanter and a couple of jigger size crystal shotglasses are next to it. A clock with an ocean scene in the background completes the room.

The bottom cupboard is kept cracked open. The interior is painted and wallpapered with artwork of cats hanging inside. That is where Layla's litter box is kept. No one sees it except her, and of course, me when I clean it. Still, it's a perfect tiny room just for her.

I'm so pleased with the way that the room has turned out.

When the rest of my sight is gone I will remember just how beautiful the bathroom is.

Enough for now.....

Minor Setback and Company

Minor setback over the last few days. Just the arthritis monster attacking every bone I've ever broken as well as the joints severely damaged when I took a flying lesson from a '78 Impala. Did the airborne portion beautifully, failed the landing. Have had few pain free days since May of 2001. It awakens me several times nightly. Advil and Tylenol are a joke, not even taking the edge off most days. So, now I'm worn out, but hurt too much to sleep. 

Once again, I have cancelled everything for the time being. The body needs rest and very gentle exercise. I'm off the treadmill until I feel better. My exercise now consists of using the exercise ball and a pair of hand weight. That will be the least amount of stress for now.

The sun felt like an ice pick stabbing behind my left eyeball when we went out earlier. That's with a pair of blackout glasses and a wide brimmed hat on. 

My youngest stepson arrived here from California today. It's always so good to see him. He is the kind of young man that anyone would proud to be the parent of. He welcomed me into the family and made me part of his life. 

Darling Husband and I raised great children. We are really blessed to have them. I am honored to have them in my life.

Enough for now......

Cooking and Bathroom Progress

Each day brings improved health. I'm enjoying being able to do things again, it even feels great to feel like wanting to do things.

Thanks to my occupational therapy lady I'm able to cook again. Still sticking with fairly simple things, but I am more confident than I have been in a long time.

Tonight I made meatballs in brown gravy, buttered potatoes, and French style green beans seasoned with bacon, butter and onions. I heated breadsticks that I had in the freezer. It turned out very well, and I'm so pleased to have learned new skills which give me back the ability to cook again.

The new pipes for the bathrooms are laying in the hallway. The main bathroom's floor is completely gone. The master bath can be replumbed without tearing up the floor. The work on that part can all be accessed from the main bath crawl space.

I'm using travel size shampoos and soaps. I forgot to grab the full sized ones from the main bath while the floor was still in place. The printing is too small to make out even with a magnifying glass, so I have to guess which is shampoo and which is conditioner.

Hoping the bathrooms will be done by the weekend. I'd love to soak in the tub..... Part of being female, having bubbles, music, candles and a drink in the tub. There is something to decadent about lounging in the tub for an hour or two.

When my daughter was working two jobs she would soak in the tub with a good book until the water got cool, then she would get out and freshen her drink while refilling the tub and get back in for another hour or so. It was her favorite time of day.

Enough for now......

Dad and a new week

New day, more progress and I'm happy. Still feeling better by the day.

The bathroom floor is gone. That is the last part of finishing the main bathroom remodel. We're also replumbing the sink in the master bath. So now we use the toilet in the master bath and wash our hands in the kitchen and shower in the guest apartment.  Hopefully the new floor is done in a day or so.

The front room has been painted and just needs the trim painted. Changing from aqua and teals to leaf and mossy greens has made a complete 180 on the way that the room looks and feels. There are white bookcases, an antique settee and a lovely rocking chair in there. It looks the way that the room was meant to look, if that makes any sense. Just outside one of the windows is a weeping willow tree, and the breeze moves the fronds back and forth just past the drapes. It's like a moving piece of artwork.

Yesterday was my adopted Dad's 83rd birthday. We got on the phone and talked for about 45 minutes. I miss living near him, the last time we did was in the mid 80's. He's a wonderful Dad, and we truly like each other. We spent countless hours fishing when I was growing up, tooling around rivers and lakes in his little boat hunting out the best places to catch fish. We did the whole catch and release thing, neither of us into cooking and cleaning the fish. We were just spending time together. 

He lives down on the south Texas coast, far from the cold winters that he loved when he was younger. The temperature changes bother him a lot now. He's given up tooling around on the Ducati for a pickup truck, and traveling frequently for the baseball package on cable.

He's the one family member who most understands what this eye disease is doing to me. He has Macular Degeneration, and has been undergoing treatments for the past couple of years. I do not know how he can stand getting injections in his eye, I'm so squeamish about needles. It's helping him now that they changed the drug that is treating him. Within weeks of his last injection he could see much better, and I'm so happy for him.

I sure wish my eye disease had an effective treatment. Dad is so lucky that his does.

Another busy week is starting, and I'm ready to get out and have some fun in the gardens. The weeds are choking out the flowers.

Enough for now.......

More Progress

This week is passing quickly. I'm tackling a variety of projects, trying to get caught up from the past few months of not being up to it.

The wardrobe project is nearing it's end. I'm down to figuring out a system to match slips to skirts and dresses, coordinating purses and footwear. Another thing is trying on all of my slacks and jeans and marking which are to worn with flats and which with heels. I've weeded out even more clothes, and in some parts of the closet, have space between the clothes hangers.

The ceiling is painted in the front room, a lovely leaf green. Painting the walls and trim is next. Turquoise and teal just did not work with the northern light coming through the window. I believe the room will feel more welcoming with the color change.

I learned to navigate sidewalks and cross streets at four way stops this week. My O&M is really knowledgeable when it comes to safety. Also, my OT taught me new methods of knife handling. I celebrated my newly acquired skill by slicing and frying potatoes for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow I hope to finally get out on the etrike. Since I've gotten better I really have a bad case of cabin fever. I need to just get out, buy and enjoy a soda under the shade of a tree, and be somewhere that is not here. Even if it's only for an hour or two, it will still be good for me.

So far, so good

More progress today, still feeling great. Hopefully the last of the methotrexate is out of my system. Still losing a lot of hair, about a quarter of it has fallen out. I'm counting on that stopping soon and having new hair growing in.

Got on the treadmill this morning. My knee screamed at the one mile mark so I wrapped it up. Even at the very flattest level there is still a bit of an incline on that machine, not much, but enough to hurt it. The knee hyperextends and collapses from time to time so that doesn't help. Still it is safer than walking on 50th street. Tomorrow, I'll try for a mile and a half.

Got most of the week's cleaning done today. The laundry is caught up, folded and put away. Feels great to feel good enough to do those things.

Now that I'm feeling better my schedule is rapidly filling up. Tomorrow is White Cane Training. Wednesday is Occupational Therapy, followed by the Annual Boob Squash aka the Yearly Mammogram. Thursday is the first visit with my Shrink in quite awhile. Hey, at least some of that gets me out of the house for awhile.

Speaking of getting out of the house, there are more weeds than flowers in my gardens. I need to get those pulled and feed some MiracleGro to the plants that are supposed to be there.

My butterfly orchid bloomed yesterday and there are two more buds ready to open. Very pretty, and I am excited to see it flourish. After having it for almost a year I had pretty much given up on it ever blooming. Once the fig and key lime trees are large enough, I'd like to grow orchids on them. The vanilla orchids are lovely and provide vanilla bean pods. They are on my list of plants that I'd like to grow as well as a cinnamon tree.

So far it's a terrific week and I'm truly enjoying myself.

Sunday

Today is wonderful, and it's still before 1 pm. Sleeping in until 8, waking up feeling terrific, just enjoying a lovely day. We went to Braum's for an ice cream cone this afternoon, and I can still taste orange sherbet. Demeter, of course, got the empty cone.

I've done a couple of loads of laundry, read a couple of stories, listened to a golf tournament, and spent time curled up in a huge chair planning my upcoming week.

Later I may cook dinner. There is leftover red beans and rice along with a pot of homemade chili. Perhaps I'll just make a pan of cornbread and we can just heat up what we want.

I'm looking forward to a week where I feel healthy and happy.

This has been the first weekend that I've felt good in such a long time. I finally grocery shopped for the first time since mid-June. I was just too ill to attempt it. And yes, it did wear me out but in a good way. Still it feels great to be out shopping. The fridge and cupboards are stocked. That frees me up to concentrate on other things. This week I will once again see my occupational therapist, learning new ways to maneuver around the kitchen. Also, I will see my shrink for the first time in over a month this week. I miss getting her take on things.

This year has been so hard. My sight is worse, I've been ill for quite awhile. Mom and Dad died 13 weeks apart. The crap goes on and on. I haven't mourned, it's just too hard with everything going on. At some point it will knock me on my butt, I already know that. Something else to deal with when it happens.

Enough for now.....

Much Better and Eye Doctor Visit

Yet another good, and by good I mean great day! Feeling healthy, my energy is back, spirits good. It feels like I'm Me again.

Still mostly blind, still dizzy when my head turns left or when things move quickly in front of me. But otherwise I feel great.

We went out to celebrate at Charleston's restaurant. I brought home some key lime pie, one of my favorite desserts.

Tomorrow morning is a return visit with my eye specialist. Another failed treatment, that's 2 so far. So, what next? Really not good treatments and those are pretty much the least harmful. 

......

Okay, saw the eye specialist this morning, did the OCT, rescheduled next appt for November. There is more vision loss in the left eye, but I knew that. Unless something new, wonderful and effective is discovered, we are just monitoring sight loss. I won't touch the class of drugs that I have already tried again. I'm very interested in the microchip implant. As far as I know it is still only for Retinitis Pigmentosa patients. I hope that it will be available to people with other eye diseases soon.

So now I am just focusing on adjusting more to having less sight. Adapting methods of doing things so I can keep living this life that I enjoy so much.

Being back to healthy has made a universe of difference for me. Today I made a huge pot of chili and homemade biscuits with butter and honey for supper. It even feels good just to feel like cooking.

Enough for now.....