This site is on hold

After all these years, I am in a holding pattern.  On Disability and maintaining well on Copaxone, I rarely have anything new to add.  Occasionally I post to Pat's Pond and you can look for Ms stuff there, too.

patspond.blogspot.com/

Anything new happens, I will start up here again.

Love to All

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Little Pond

Broken heart, Aging body

On a brightly sunny morning, Ellie and I returned to her favorite shore near the Gateway of the Chemung River. Her ashes were scattered to the wind and onto the water, right where she loved to swim. We were watched only by a lone eagle and three inquisitive gulls, who checked to see if anything good was being offered.

The Chemung will never feel the same for me. And I am no longer the River Hag with her familiar, a little brindle digger-dog, hunter-dog, RiverDog.

Birders and Hikers: don't give your heart to a faithful four-footed follower.

She'll break your heart too soon, for sure. Far too soon.

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Little Pond

Rest in Peace, Ellie

June 1, 2002 - November 24, 2012

My Huggamutt Cuddlebum

See you in the morning, Little One.

Love GrammaDog

The Snowball Effect

Ok, so we go to the ER.

ER sends me to my Neuro.

Neuro now wants to send me for an MRI.

She also wants me to get new glasses.

Ambulance, ER, MRI, new glasses.

It's going to be a lean Christmas this year.

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Little Pond

Whoooopieeeee!

Got my first ride in an ambulance Saturday night.

It'd been coming on for over a month, and I just didn't recognize the signs.

First, I had been light-headed for brief spells.  Mental note:  tell family doctor to adjust blood pressure medicine.  Only thing was, my blood pressure was fine.  Even during a spell.  I actually had Husband RJ take it once right between two spells.  Normal as hell.

115 over 80.  My personal best.

Then (Squeemish, look away!) my catheters began to sting.  Well, I reuse them and have done for almost a decade.  But my new Neuro decided that that was WRONG.  I patiently explained that I wash them and dry them thoroughly after each use.

Well, she raised Holy Hell, and I finally decided that, Hey, maybe she's right.  I began to dip them in alcohol after washing them.

DOH!  I thought the stinging was the alcohol.  Wrong.  I also did not catch on to the terrible pain in my back, left side.  I thought it was the sprain acting up again.

Well the light-headed thing finally got out of hand.  Happened only when at rest or just standing around, doing nothing. 

Saturday night, while watching Celebrity Ghost Stories, the sound was pulsating in my head, and the room was swaying.  Total confusion set in and I collapsed on the couch.  RJ tried to take my blood pressure, but my arm kept flopping away from him.

"Call 911.  I need an ambulance."  He grabbed the phone and began to dial.  Then he had an idea: why can't he just drive me?   This was a huge mistake, because it takes no time to dial 911.  He had already gotten through when he hung up.

911 called back.  RJ said I was unwell, but he would take me to the ER.

911 wasn't having any of it.  In a few minutes a police car showed up, and my dear, sweet HuggaMutt attacked the nice young cops, who just wanted to help.  They took a minute to assess the situation and called an ambulance.

It took God-Awful Forever for the ambulance to arrive.  By then I couldn't keep my eyes open.

(It was only the next day that it occurred to me that neither the cops not the EMTs believed RJ's story.  I wasn't much help because I couldn't focus, visually or mentally.)

I was finally lofted onto a gurney and carted out to the Erway van.  Then the interrogation began in earnest.  To his credit, the EMT was still monitoring my pulse, pb and taking blood samples.  Pretty soon, he stated, "Your blood pressure is high, and you are hyper-ventilating.  We will proceed to the ER."  He kept calling me "Dear" during the whole interrogation and followup.

For a Saturday night, the ER was fairly quiet.  Guess the party doesn't start until after Midnight.  We did the usual waiting in the curtain-shrouded room.  I was stuck all over with monitor thingies. (What a pain:  I hadn't shaved my legs all week.  I don't shave my legs all winter.  My bikini area is another story.)

The final verdict:  U.T.I.  What the hell?  Also, it would be a very good idea to go to the Neuro as soon as possible for the lightheadedness.  They gave me stuff for the soaring blood pressure, a smack on the butt, and sent me home.  The next morning my blood pressure went so low, I couldn't leave the house.

It is nearly a week later and the UTI is somewhat better, but the light headedness is not.

Punch line:  Neuro can't see me until the middle of December!  She's stacked up and I am going on a waiting list for a possible opening.  In the meantime, I am living as usual, with antibiotics and those orange pills that dye EVERYTHING orange. 

I am light headed as I type this post.

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Little Pond

Remission. Not!

Just went one round with the dentist recently.  He wants to crown a broken molar, and I want to let it go.  My teeth are finally beginning to crack, and will all need some work soon, too.

 

I figure I'm good for only about another 10 years at best.  They say that the average age of death for MSers is about 62-65.  The dentist said I was in remission, right?  Wrong.  I'm exhausted/weepy all the time, and my legs are numb to the knees, the hands to the wrists.  My face is numb on the left side and my vision is deteriorating.

 

No doubt, some of that is old age, but remission it is not.  The only reason I don't beg for Solumedrol, is that I hate the mess it makes of me, and I am still living with the side effects of the last dose two years ago.  Tinnitus anyone?  Both ears.  Sounds like the refridgerator is running in over drive.  When I am outside, it sounds like we live in a factory town.  I know, because I grew up near a factory and worked in them for years while going to college.

 

But I digress.  Back to the oral deterioration.

 

At the same time, Husband RJ broke a front tooth.  As Mr. Commisioner, he sometimes has to be on television, so he will need a temporary for the gap and a bridge afterwards.

 

So I was telling the dentist that I didn't want to be bothered, but he talked me into it when he promised to finance it a few months.  I, too, will get a temporary crown, but all told we are talking only 850.00.  RJ's work will probably require a loan!

 

Yeah.  THAT kind of expensive.  After all, it requires an extraction, a temporary, and a bridge.

 

He won't go without a temporary, even though it's a bottom tooth.  Gotta let him go for the whole package, because it will be murder to even get him to do THAT.

 

He already has a mouth full of bridges.  One bridge was the experimental Maryland Bonded Bridge, back in the early 1980's before bonding was mainstream.  It has lasted all these years, and is a beauty.  Four front uppers.  They would still be shiny and bright if he didn't smoke so much.

 

My teeth look good, but hurt most of the time.  I am a grinder, or at least a clencher, at night.  I keep forgetting to ask the dentist for an appliance.  Maybe I'll just pick up something from Walmart.

 

Seriously.  They seem to have everything else there.

 

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Little Pond

 

 

We got a bumper crop of the tiniest pumpkins ever grown in RJ's garden.  We gave away a few, mostly for cooking.  Then we kept the rest on the back stoop and stairs to get them out of the heat.

 

Finally, after the Labor Day weekend, we set them out on our front porch for display.

 

Here's a picture before the local rapscallions get their hands on them.  We expect to find them either smashed in the road, or chewed by the squirrels.  In the meantime, we are enjoying them.

 

 I am still walking Ellie, when she is healthy enough, by the river.  Her illness has made her lazy, and she prefers the well-worn paths on the levees to the scruffy grasses and plants by the banks of the Chemung.

On the way, we captured this prize pumpkin in the back yard of a neighbor's lot.  Somehow this wound up outside his fencing.  Makes us wonder if the darned thing planted itself from last year!

 

Hardy bugger, eh?

 

For an update on one of our pets, go here.

 

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Little Pond