Monday, May 09, 2005

mid-afternoon

The Solution to Cricket’s Separation Anxiety - Could it Be True?

Farnam Comfort Zone Plug-in for Dogs
Since Cricket’s last knee surgery, she’s been excessively needy.  We’re home on an average of 23 hours a day, every day.  She isn’t left alone, she’s left with calm and sleepy Phoenix to keep her company.  I figured it was time to see I could get her to stop acting nuts every single time I showered and dared to put clothes on.  Because, sometimes, I’m even so bold as to put SHOES on...and leave the house.  I plugged the ionizer in the wall in her room (aka the master bedroom) last night, to get a jumpstart on the morning.  Today, I showered, got dressed, put my shoes on and walked to the babygate (in normal houses, it’s referred to as the doorway) and nary a yelp or whine or bark.  She followed me, but silently.  I’m not prepared to think she’s cured after one day, but she was watching me put my shoes on, the biggest betrayal of any decent pet parent.  We’ll see how it goes when I leave, but I think she’s already looking good for today.  Tomorrow we need to test her with both Leigh-Ann and I leaving at the same time.  Two people showering, getting dressed and putting their ghastly house leaving shoes on.

Stayed tuned for tomorrow’s eipsode of “As Cricket Monster Drops a Moniker” - we hope.  If it works, I’m going to buy one of these for the cats in the other room who don’t like Frank Enstein, the stray we’re fostering.  Wouldn’t it be great if they all ended up cuddling?  And then we could get it for Eli, so she wouldn’t be afraid of fireworks and thunderstorms.  If so, then I want to make bold highly-paid statements on informercials about this product - Farnam Comfort Zone Plug-in for Dogs

Sunday, May 08, 2005

evening

Aches, Pains, Trials & Tribulations aka TMI For Family Members

I’ve finally finished reading All In My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache by Paula Kamen—it’s been a fascinating journey.  In one sense. I’m grateful that I don’t have her headache pain behind her eye; in another, I’m sad that my aches and pains add up to a probably more difficult to diagnose problem.  It’s nice to read that I’m not alone in having headaches almost every single day.  I also have wrist/hand pain every day and lower back pain every day.  Paula Kamen has been able to try almost all of the medications that would had my insurance company cancelling my policy, so it’s interesting to read about all her, ultimately, unsuccessful treatments.  I have tried Phrenilin, which is Acetaminophen, Butalbital, Caffeine and Codeine.  So far, that’s the only medication that has never failed to get rid of a headache for me.  None of the migraine meds work at all - it’s like I’m taking placebos or something because I feel absolutely no different.  Little things work in small ways sometimes - wearing a Seattle Seahawks visor, where the pressure over my forehead helps a bit.  Trigger Point therapy - sometimes works.  Advil/Aleve only work on the most mild of headaches.  Caffeinne helps sometimes too, especially since I cut caffeine out of my daily life, so now I can use it as medication.  Ice packs also help marginally.  So far though, the only sure cure for me has been Phrenilin, which I haven’t had in a couple of years, since my doctor’s office went bankrupt and I have crappy insurance.

Another more serious problem (and seriously, family members, if you’re reading here, you might want to stop) with my back and bladder.  I’m assuming they’re related.  I’ve had back problems since a car accident in 1991.  My bladder problem started way after, about five years ago with a really bad bladder infection, my first UTI ever.  Bad, but weird.  I was working at Williams-Sonoma at the time (a job I actually liked, go figure) and I got the weirdest infection.  It wasn’t the slightest bit painful, but I had to pee ALL THE TIME.  I was in training classes and I once counted the number of times I had to leave class for the bathroom—it was in the sixties.  I just couldn’t sit for any period of time.  Hey, but even with all the distractions and spending most of my day in the bathroom, I passed my classes with flying colors.  Still, I was having problems, so I went to a urologist for an exam.  He looked and didn’t see anything wrong with me physically, but gave me that horrible orange stuff (most women will know what I’m talking about), but this time with a barbituate added.  The drug actually worked!  Yay!  The only problem, I couldn’t drive or really function while on the drug.  I actually had to quit my job because of it.  I didn’t even get to use my Williams-Sonoma/Pottery Barn employee discount before I left.  Truly, truly sad.

Flashforward years—I’m still have the non-bladder infection bladder problem.  It’s weird stuff - I’m fine if I’m laying down.  I’m tortured with the urge to pee when I’m sitting.  It doesn’t make going places very fun for me.  Also, a weird addition to this is that it gets a lot worse right after I take a shower.  I can’t sit normally for an hour or two after that.  Has anyone else had this weird back/bladder problem?

Speaking of my back problem, in and of itself - last year I tried to pull some weeds in the back yard and almost immediately got shooting pains in my butt.  Like right dead center, on each side.  It’s some form of sciatica, but it doesn’t travel up and down, but just straight and shockingly in.  I couldn’t even lift our 14lb dog.  I’m afraid to do any sort of physical labor for fear of getting that pain back, which took maybe six months to go away.  The back pain never really completely goes away.  I generally wake up with and go to bed with it.  I’m still thinking that my back and bladder problems are somehow related.  I HATE HATE HATE that I can’t sit anywhere for any length of time.  Everywhere I go, I have to be on the lookout for a bathroom.  It’s stressful.

Okay, my last complaint, I think - all of those tender points for diagnosing fibromyalgia.  I have them.  I have them all and then some.  I don’t know what’s happened to my body in the last ten years or so, but all it seems capable of is weird pains and the bladder urge problems.  It sucks.  I’m too young for this.  I’m not even sure what kind of doctor to see.  The urologist said everything inside was fine.  I was at a gyn after that and he didn’t find any problems.  I had a chiropractor work on my sciatica (which HURT) and it got better, but the bladder problem still remained.  So, if you don’t see me somewhere...I didn’t make it because my Aztek doesn’t have a bathroom.

Oh no, I lied.  I have another complaint.  My finger and toenails have become really strange.  The toenails are thick (not grossly discolored) and my fingernails are flat, but with wavyish ends if you look at the nails straight on.

What the heck is wrong with me?  Oh, and my memory sucks too.  Sometimes I can’t remember what
Leigh-Ann tells me thirty minutes ago.  Am I not paying attention or is my brain not functioning properly either?

But I really need to get this bladder/back problem fixed.  I don’t understand why my hot shower worsens my bladder.  Or why sitting is torture, yet standing is complete relief.  It’s all giving me one of those headaches I get constantly.  But after reading the book, I know that I’m not the only one.  I’ve had headaches since I was a kid, as well as some sort of carpal tunnel, even before I ever saw my first computer.  I didn’t know what it was though.  It was just this pain/weakness I got in my hands every once in a while.  It didn’t become constant until I worked for an online travel company.

Anyway, I need advice.  If you find this entry through a search engine, please speak up.  If you even know someone who knows someone who has the back/bladder issue, let me know.  I can’t continue to live like this, only going a few miles away from home.  Someday I’d like to be able to travel.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

early evening

Idiot of the Day - Me or Tropicana?

We were shopping at Von’s yesterday and saw a new product - Tropicana Sugar-Free OrangeAde.  If you know me well, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for new products.  If it’s not beer or diapers, then I’ll probably notice it when something new is added to the shelves at our local grocery store.  What can I say, I’m the ultimate consumer.  Plus, I get bored with the same ol’ same ol’.  So, back to the “OrangeAde”.  It tastes fine, much like Tang, but a little more flavorful.  What galls me though...the big ol’ claim of “real fruit juice”.  Seriously, it’s 1%.  ONE PERCENT.  My saliva probably has more fruit juice in it after today’s trip to Smoothie King, where I got my delicious Blueberry Heaven smoothie.

Clearly, I’m never going to be the head of the FDA, but if I was, ONE PERCENT fruit juice would not count as being made from “real fruit juice”.  I think for anything to count as “real fruit juice”, it ought to have at least 51% fruit juice.

I should really make another entry for stuff that I like, but what the heck, I’ll be audacious and put this into two categories.  If my blog was a beverage, it would still count as me writing about “real fruit juice”, as the entry will be more than 1% about Tropicana OrangeAde.  Anyway, as I was saying...here’s some new stuff I like:  the new bottled Starbucks Mint Mocha Frappuccino.  Apparently it’s a limited offering for summer.  Since it’s bottled, surely we should be able to have it year ‘round.  After all, we take our groceries home, right?  Are we only allowed to have ice-cream in the summer too?  Well, I was bold, it’s still spring here and I got Ben & Jerry’s Marsha Marsha Marshmallow (Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks & Toasted Marshmallow & Graham Cracker Swirls) - for one, what a great name; for another, yum!  You’re going to get tired of this, but yet another tasty Starbucks creation - frappuccinos (the in-store kind, not the bottled ones) made affogato style, which means they make the frappuccino, then drizzle either chocolate or caramel over it, then add an espresso shot.  I highly recommend a tall (the larger sizes don’t have the intense flavor of the smaller ones) caramel mocha frappuccino with caramel.

Monday, May 02, 2005

evening

Girls, Girls, Girls

What’s a dog mom to do?  Cricket enjoys it, Phoenix ignores it.  I make Cricket stop, but I admit, I find it slightly amusing, if a tad sick.  Or is it just sick that I took the picture?

late afternoon

The Last Yard Picture - For A While

Here’s how it looks with the two added palm trees, one on each side of the gate.  All that’s left to add is some color and perhaps some slate up the middle.  An aside, doesn’t the sky look like a painting?  What a perfect day.