Feeling Blessed....

Quote for the Day:

"Without health, life is not life; 

it is only a state of languor and suffering - an image of death."

~Buddha

Over the past week, I've been cleaning out the flower beds, preparing them for Spring...raking, weeding, trimming rose bushes, collecting/cleaning containers for my container garden, etc.  During this bustle of warm-weather work, I found myself amazed at the difference in my life now compared to where I've been and what I've been through.

Two short years ago I was not even able to walk out into our back yard because the unevenness of the ground would cause my back pain to flare up after just 5 minutes....and that didn't even include actually DOING any work!   At that point in my life, I truly just thought my health was going to continue the downhill slide.  I hoped to find something that would relieve my pain, but never even thought that now...2 years later...I would be in the best health that I've been in in YEARS!

With my dietary changes, continuing chiropractic care, and ongoing use of essential oils, I am now completely off of THREE medications that I had been on for years.  In two weeks, I will be getting some blood work done that will tell us if I can reduce/eliminate two more medications.   I go weeks, sometimes months, without needing any pain medicine.

I can now picture myself living many more decades...something I couldn't picture myself doing just a few short months ago.  (Part of this perception comes from losing my father when he was only 59 and mother at the age of 68.)

In the meantime, I'm able to enjoy many physical activities that I had thought were a thing of the past.   I have a list of things that I plan to get done around the house...things that have been put off for years because of my health.  And we won't even mention the list of quilts that I want to make in this lifetime!  

I'm loving every minute of my new life and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me!

Loretta

Here It Is!!!!

Quote for the Day:

"To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not

 be able to keep our mind strong and clear."

~Buddha

Many of you know that I have just spent the last three years living with debilitating chronic pain due to arthritis, herniated discs, and spinal stenosis.  

In October of 2013 I found a new chiropractor who has CHANGED MY LIFE!!!  

He asked me to do a taped testimonial, which we worked on last week and this week.  Jason, the cinematographer, did an EXCELLENT job and it was a pure joy to work with him!

So now, without further ado, here is the finished product...





Loretta

Bright Lights, Big (???) City...

Quote for the Day:

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes"

~Andy Warhol

Today my dining room was turned into an interview set and day one of filming is now in the bag!!!

My chiropractor hired a professional cinematographer to make a videotaped "testimonial" of the amazing changes in my life since I started getting treatment.

Dr. Leonette first asked me around Christmastime if I would do this.  I readily agreed but no definitive date was set.  The subject came up last week and suddenly we decided to get it done this week.  I've been fretting over this ever since I found out we were doing it this week.  

Today was the interview portion as well as some "B-roll" footage.  The interview portion was obviously the hardest part and I'm glad that portion is over.  I'm not comfortable having my voice recorded and, for obvious reasons, it is hard to talk about this very difficult time in my life.  Tomorrow we are filming some more "B-roll" footage and then Jason will edit it into something that is, hopefully, worth watching!

In other words, I'm hoping Jason can turn this "sow's ear into a silk purse"!  :)

Loretta

Quilted Pillow...

Last Sunday I whipped up this pillow to put between my knees when I sleep to relieve the stress on my back and left hip while sleeping.  My chiropractor recommended that I use a pillow for my left hip pain that has been waking me up at night.  I found that a pillow helped, but I didn't like all the room in the bed that a full-sized bed pillow took up.  I decided to take some extra quilt blocks that I had laying around and then add a piece of fabric to the back.  I then took the scraps of polyester batting that I trim off when squaring up quilts and used them to stuff the pillow.  

It turned out great!  It is as long as a bed pillow but is about 1/2 the width so it doesn't take up much room, since we only have a queen-sized bed. 

I actually did this LAST Sunday, but forgot to blog about it.  My bad.  :)

Yesterday I went to our local Loose Ends Fiber Arts monthly meeting.  We are a group of people who enjoy working with fiber and with our hands.  We have knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and yes, quilters!  We bring projects to work on and to share.  We share ideas and information...and then we have a pot-luck lunch and share food, too!

While I was at the meeting, unfortunately, my lower back started hurting for no apparent reason, so I had to leave early.  

It seems I've had a flare-up of my back issues.  I've been on heavy duty pain medications since yesterday's meeting and unable to stand or walk for more than a few seconds at a time.  The only comfortable positions are sitting down, or lying on my back (which is unusual because usually lying on my back hurts my back.  Go figure.)  Therefore, today has been spent sitting and quilting or cruising the internet for lack of being able to do anything else.  :(

I'm going to call my chiropractor first thing in the morning and get into his office as soon as possible.  I hope he is able to correct whatever is going on and hopefully get me back upright soon!

Loretta

What's Going On In My World...

Quote for the Day:

"There aren't enough days in the weekend."  

~Rod Schmidt

What do you do with a slightly-too-ripe banana?

Add a serving of Greek yogurt and a cup of frozen berries...in this case, frozen blackberries from my backyard bushes this summer...and blend well...

MMMMMMMMMM!!  Better than any purchased smoothie!  Ever!

I've been working on my customer's sailboat quilt and this is a glimpse at some of the stitching close-up!

Last week, I started a new type of chiropractic treatment for my back.  It's called Atlas Orthogonal Treatment.  I've been in chiropractic care for 26 years now and I'm certain that it is the only thing that has kept me upright and working all these years.  It's also the only thing that has ever relieved the daily headaches I had before starting treatment.  

But with the severe arthritis in my back now, I can no longer take the hand's-on adjustments and the crunching and popping movements of traditional chiropractic.  A friend told me about the new technique and her doctor that does it.  I started going last week and am more hopeful about my future than I have ever been in the last 3 years.  If you live in the area, I highly recommend Dr. Lionette and his team at Enliven Chiropractic!  They treat with a holistic method that treats the PATIENT and not just the "condition".  

To help with my treatments, I've taken to drinking LOTS of water, watching my sugar intake, and have lightened up my purse from 10+ bag of "everything but the kitchen sink" to a little 2.5 pound
"only the basics" clutch-type bag.  

I put our phone in front of it for size-comparison purposes.  My old purse could have been used as a lethal weapon, but this new one...not so much.  :)

I have also purchased an exercise ball chair to use at my computer.  This helps strengthen the core muscles.

What I've really noticed with the new chiropractic care is the difference it makes in my right knee pain and stiffness.  Up till the day I started treatment with Dr. Leonette, I was using a cane to assist me in going up and down the stairs in my house.  Since my first adjustment with him, I no longer need it!  

With regards to my back and leg radiculitis, I'm not "pain free", but I do have long periods of time with no pain...sometimes up to 48 hours in one stretch, but most of the time it is in 4-6 hour periods.  

Now you can see why I'm feeling more hopeful now than at I have in a long time! 

Loretta

A Horrible, Awful, No-Good Day...

Those of you who are my regular blog readers know that I have back pain issues, ie, advanced arthritis in all three levels, cervical, thoracic, and lumbar, and herniated discs in multiple levels in the neck and lumbar areas causing spinal stenosis.  I have been suffering with this for the last 3 years and things have deteriorated over those 3 years.  

I had an appointment with a neurosurgeon last month, but he says I'm not yet to the point for surgical intervention, and even when I am, he is more concerned about the cervical/neck issues more so than the lower back.  Since being put a medicine for nerve pain, the neck and arm pain has been relieved.  However, the lower back pain is what bothers me from day to day and what concerns me most and limits my activity the most.

Starting in March of 2012, I started getting lumbar epidural injections for the pain and they really helped.  They basically gave me my "life" back.  I was able to clean house, garden, and walk long distances again.  The injections were lasting about 4 months and then it would be time to get another one.

That is...until this past April when I got an injection that only lasted 1 week.  :(  At that point, I was sent for updated MRI's and then sent to the neurosurgeon, which I already mentioned.  

Today I was scheduled for another lumbar injection.  In preparation for the injections, I have to go off of all anti-inflammatory drugs for the 5 days before the injection.  The anti-inflammatory drugs help decrease my pain by about 60-75%, I would say, so going off of them brings on about 4 days of pure HELLISH PAIN.  Basically, for the last 2 days before the injection, I drug myself with every narcotic I have in the house, trying desperately to relieve enough pain to even be able to walk around the house and get a decent night's sleep.  

I go through this hell because I know that within minutes of getting that epidural injection, I will be essentially pain-free.  

That is the plan, anyway, and has worked in the past.

Until today.

The doctor tried to get the needle into 3 different levels of my lumbar spine to deliver the epidural medicine.  He was not able to get into ANY of them due to bony prominences (bone spurs), and overly-toughened ligaments due to the degenerative processes going on in my spine.  

What should have been a 15 minute procedure, turned into a 1.5 hour procedure...all to no avail.  That was 3 injections of local to numb the skin...OUCH!!!...and 1.5 hours of me laying on my front trying to lay as still as possible...no moving at all.  

First off, people with back pain DON'T lay on their stomachs because it causes too much back pain, and secondly, people with back pain are in constant motion because staying in one place for more than a couple minutes causes pain.  I tell people that I am the "queen of movement"...always changing positions, trying to relieve pain from the previous position and trying to find a new, comfortable one.

To then find that all of this was in vain was truly more than I could handle.  I left the procedure room in tears and didn't stop crying till I was home and finally just fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

The doctor seems to think that there are other alternative treatments that we can try, but I was too upset and he was too behind on his other patients to really discuss them today.  I have a follow-up with him on Monday to go into these in more depth.  

I'm not particularly hopeful because over the last 3 years we have tried a variety of medications and treatments, but the injections were really the thing that gave me back any semblance of "normalcy" to my life.

Needless to say, I am quite upset and worried about how all of this is going to affect my life, work, activities of daily living, etc.  I am WAY too young to feel this old or be dealing with these kinds of life changes.

If you've made it all the way through this post, then thanks for letting me vent...

Loretta

One Day at A Time...

Quote for the Day:

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
 ~Linda Grayson 

I've been out of commission for the last couple of days.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I was having enough break-through back pain that it was time for another epidural injection.  Unfortunately, they make you go off of any NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) that you are on for 5 days before the injection because they can cause/prolong bleeding.

Last Saturday was my last day of my NSAID's.  Sunday was fine.  We went to an auction and I got a cute little vintage typing table on wheels to use in my sewing room.  

I paid the grand sum of $2.00 for it!   It has a couple of scratches near the front edge that you can see in the picture, but otherwise is in great condition.  I'm thinking of spray painting it bright cherry red to coordinate with this cart that I recently got from Ikea for my sewing room.

I actually went to the auction to bid on a Singer Featherweight sewing machine, but it went too high...$310.  I never even got a chance to bid, and by the time the bidding slowed enough for me to bid, it was more than I wanted to pay.  Bidding had been very slow and low on items up till then, but it was like piranhas on a piece of meat when the Featherweight came up for bid!  LOL

That was Sunday.  Monday was a totally different story.  It was my second day without my NSAID and I was in pain of 10 out of 10 from the moment I climbed out of bed.  :(  I took my non-narcotic pain pill and went to work anyway.  I got through 9 hours of my 12 hour shift before I had to leave.  The pain was too great, never going below a 5 out of 10.  (In the USA we use a pain scale of 0-10 and ask patients to rate their level of pain based on that scale.  It is more accurate than "a little pain" or "some pain" or "a lot of pain".)

Tuesday was more of the same, but since I stayed home from work I was able to medicate with a narcotic pain pill that worked better on my pain.  I was feeling horrible and out-of-sorts, when a friend came by and brought me some flowers.

That was so thoughtful of her and I appreciated it so much!  I smile every time I walk past them!  Who wouldn't smile seeing them?  :)


About the only thing I've been able to do is take my pain pills, watch TV, and work a little on this...

 ...crocheting on a baby gift I'm working on. 

My epidural injection is scheduled for tomorrow morning and I am counting down the hours.  I know that when I leave that hospital, I will be virtually pain-free, if everything works the way it has in the past....which I am counting on.  In the beginning, when I first started getting these injections a year ago, I was scared and nervous.  But now I know how much better I will feel almost immediately, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's injection. 

Say a prayer for me that all goes well, and I'll be back with more quilting news soon...when I'm having less pain and can work on my quilting again.


Until then, I'll leave you with this picture of Ginger that I took last night...

Maybe it's time for a bigger dog bed!  LOL



Loretta

Saving Money is Always MY Style...

Quote for the Day:

"A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that "individuality" is the key to success." 

~ Robert Orben

I've blogged on here before about my chronic arthritic back pain that I've been living with/suffering from for almost 2 years now.

Well...I have an update with some good news!!!

On Friday (2 days ago), I had an epidural injection for pain control.  Leading up to the procedure, I tried not to get my hopes up too high and expect any miracles.  

On Saturday the pain wasn't too bad, but there was still pain.  However, it was not severe enough to keep me from being a whirling dervish when it came to cleaning  the house and preparing for an upcoming trip.  I was able to get a great amount of work done (a great amount for me, anyway, considering that I have spent the last 1 3/4 years only able to do the barest minimum of housework because of the pain.)

This morning when I woke up I noticed that I didn't have any pain.  I've gone shopping today (something that has KILLED my back in the past) and I have only had a rare twinge of pain every now and then.  

Right now...today...I have about 97% pain relief from my normal levels of pain!!!  How exciting is that?  All from a procedure that took about 1 minute to perform.  Heck...getting me positioned and applying the antiseptic took longer than the actual procedure!  :)

I feel like a "normal" member of society again!  :O   Instead of having "pain" when I do something, I will sometimes get a sensation of "tightness" or "pulling" in the area that would have hurt from the same motion just a few short days ago.  

I thank God for Dr. Mahmood, my pain management doctor!  What a blessing his skill and knowledge is for people like myself dealing with chronic pain!!

I have also started doing some simple yoga for arthritis, so I'll keep that up and see if we can't extend the intervals between future injections, too!  :)


I haven't done any couponing since late December.  (I find that I don't like to deal with it during the winter months...weather and all, ya know.)  Since December we have been using from the stash of supplies, toiletries, etc., that I had built-up.  About 2 weeks ago, I resumed my couponing again, although for now I'm only going to Walgreens since Rite Aid hasn't had any really fantastic deals the last couple of weeks.  Today I went to Walgreens and got some great deals that I thought I'd share with you.

Missing from the picture is the Sunday paper that I picked up there, too.  After coupons, I spent $20.18 out of pocket and got $15 back in Register Rewards, making the net cost $5.18 for all of the above items!  Not too shabby!  You'd spend more than that at the dollar store!


And now....I have a Public Service Announcement for you...
Have you heard of Biscoff Spread, yet?  

I had heard about it from co-workers so when I saw it at Walmart today I decided to pick up a jar of it.  (There was a $1.00 off coupon on the side of the jar!)

Let me just warn you DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!!!  It is THE DEVIL!!!

OMG...it is DELICIOUS!!!  You will thank me for warning you to not buy it!!!  Trust me on this!   I think this link says it all!!! 

You have been warned!!!  I can not be held accountable if you choose to ignore this warning.


Loretta

The Face of Chronic Pain...

Quote for the Day:

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.” 

— Albert Camus

About a year ago I started to have back pain that became more and more severe.  I went to my chiropractor and massage therapist, but without relief...even after several visits.  After about 6 weeks of suffering and the pain getting worse and worse, I finally went to my medical doctor.  After x-rays and an MRI, I was diagnosed with 2 "small" disc herniations and arthritis in my back.  I was started on physical therapy, NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), pain medicine, a round of steroids, and was taken off of work for what ended up being 5 weeks.

With rest and PT, the pain got "better", but never totally disappeared, probably because of the arthritis.  I finally got to a point where things had "leveled off"...and we decided that PT had done all it could for me at the time.  By this time, I had returned to my job and, for the most part, unless I overdid it, my pain was fairly well under control.  It was during this time that I learned what I could and could not do without causing pain.  I learned that leaning forward causes great pain, so when transporting a patient, I had to take the foot end of the gurney and "steer" rather than push the gurney.  I learned to "lunge" with the left leg when reaching into the fridge for the milk on the bottom shelf, etc.

In other words, many routine things in my life needed to be relearned or not done at all.

I have still been seeing my medical doctor for follow-ups every 2 months, as well as continuing to go to the chiropractor and massage therapist.  Over the course of the last 8 months or so, the pain has started to worsen again to the point where I am in pain.  Everyday.  Pretty much all day long.  And now the pain frequently radiates down my left leg to behind the knee.  Sitting and laying down hurt the most, but even standing can hurt, too.

I am still on high doses of NSAIDS and use pain meds when the pain gets "unbearable".  I have issues with pain meds, including most of them make me nauseated...the only one that doesn't make me nauseated has been taken off the market since my back injury.  Fortunately, I still have some left from when they were ordered for me last October, and I guard them carefully...taking them only when absolutely necessary.  Since I am dealing with a chronic issue (arthritis) that will presumably only get worse in the future, I am also afraid of raising my tolerance to pain meds by taking too many now.  Though I've never had an addiction to drugs or alcohol, my fear of developing a dependence on pain meds and raising my tolerance to pain meds keeps me from taking them until the pain is severe and unbearable, often with me ending up in tears while I wait for the meds to take effect.

I have only missed one day of work due to my back pain since returning to work last November, and I rarely mention that I am in pain because I know that people tune you out after a while.  So even though I may be doing my usual duties or laughing and joking and carrying on as normal, I am still in pain.  All. The. Time.

Pain makes sleep difficult.  Pain makes work difficult.  Pain makes "life" difficult.

As a nurse, how do you extend comfort and caring to patients when they tell you they are in pain when you are in pain, too...possibly as much or more than the patient?  It's a challenge, to say the least.

I have an appointment with my medical doctor next week, and since things have gotten significantly worse since the last visit, I'm going to sit down with her and thoroughly discuss options and see what plan of care we can come up with, since the current one isn't working anymore.   Maybe I need another MRI since the pain has started going down my leg?  Epidural Injections?  Another round of steroids?  

I don't know...but I hope we can come up with something that won't require additional pain meds.  I wish there was a way to "fix" the problem rather than just treating the pain with medications.

Most people around me, including those close to me, don't know what I am dealing with right now and how severe the pain is much of the time.  But the chronic pain, and how it is affecting my life, is starting to wear on me.

The "take-away" from all of this?  I guess it is that we need to be mindful that each of us is fighting some kind of battle...whether it is apparent externally, or not.


Loretta