Getting Back to It
A lot happened late last year, which you would have some idea of if you’ve been following this blog. Here’s a quick recap: I had surgery on my right foot to remove a bone spur and it took two to three months to recover from it so I could walk again. Not long after I recovered from the surgery, Dad had a small stroke right before Thanksgiving. The doctors at the hospital said it was past time to put Dad in a long-term care facility due to his worsening dementia with fits of violent aggravation. So, Mom and I had to stress out about finding a place for him while dealing with a lot of family drama. The entire time, I was overeating due to all of the stress and gained about 20 pounds in two months. This put more stress on my already arthritic knees and lower back with various problems of its own. Mom’s sugar has been out of control and causing her to be physically ill. We’re still not sure if her weakness is due to her sugar levels or blood-iron level which she also has trouble with and occasionally needs iron infusions… which she hasn’t had in a while. I think I got you all caught up now.
I am now trying to get several things started so I can eventually get them done. The first thing is my health. My foot is healed, that’s one good thing, but the scar healed incorrectly into a sensitive hypertrophic scar. To deal with that, my podiatrist prescribed some sort of scar reducing cream from a special “compound pharmacy”. Well, they wanted $60 per month, and I would have to use it for several months, so I said no to that. I’ll try something over the counter that’s much cheaper. I happen to know that silicone patches do work as I have used them in the past successfully. I also have several problems in my lower back including sciatica and degenerative disk disease. I can’t walk around for more than about five minutes at a time before the pain in my lower back becomes unbearable. Carrying in groceries from a Walmart delivery nearly kills me so we have to make small orders at a time. I would not be able to go to the store myself and then carry stuff in, that would cripple me. Yes, it’s really that bad. The pain gets so severe at times that I start crying. Luckily, I start Physical Therapy for my back next week. I really, really hope it helps. I know it won’t make the pain go away all at once, it’s going to take work.
Since my back more or less gave out and Mom has been feeling so weak, the house is an out-of-control mess. I need to get the living room cleaned up so Mom can get a new powered recliner. (Her current recliner is not powered, and it is broken beyond repair. She can barely get up out of it as it is now.) At the moment, they wouldn’t be able to bring it in or take the old one out. I’m doing the best I can, as much as I can before my back starts to hurt too severely. It’s just a little at a time, but it adds up. Mom says that once we (I) get the living room cleaned up, we will get the carpet shampooed. Abbey is really good about using her pee pads. Pixie is not. Hopefully we can fix that with some work.
Once I get the downstairs living room all cleaned up, I will start work on the upstairs. It’s not terrible up there because I’ve been living downstairs ever since my foot surgery back in July of last year. I need to mostly just dust my desk off up there then start the task of taking my computer and all its peripherals back upstairs. I’ll probably need to do that while I’m still cleaning the downstairs because it’s right behind Mom’s old chair and I don’t want to risk the furniture delivery guys hitting my precious computer. I also, because the old one is broken and too small, ordered a new PC tower case. It looks awesome and I got it on sale at a really good price. I also have a new office chair that we bought last year but I never got around to putting together. The box is very heavy, so I’ll probably have to open it up and then carry the chair up in pieces and then assemble it up there. My old gaming chair broke even worse than the gaming chair I had before. So, this time I got a comfy office chair instead. Here’s hoping it stands the test of time and my ass!
