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I’ve probably mentioned my back pain in the past, probably even more than once. A little over a month ago I missed almost an entire week of work due to back pain. It was so excruciating, that I couldn’t take more than a couple of tiny steps without having to hold on to something. When your pain is that debilitating, it often leads to depression. I struggled that week and it was honestly one of the most difficult times in my life. No one should ever be in that much pain.

So I decided to go to my doctor to try to start treating this awful thing that has plagued me. I was diagnosed approximately six years ago. They said Degenerative Disc Disease and I cried. I went to Physical Torture for quite a while and I even had an epidural to help with the pain. I had a horrendous experience with the epidural and never went back. I eventually stopped going to therapy because my pain got better and I began to slack off on it.

Now I am back to square one. I had an MRI done a few weeks ago that showed a “bulging disc” so I went to a specialist yesterday morning to talk about my issues. He explained that my L5 is degenerative and that I need to start going to Physical Torture. He showed me all of my brightly colored discs in my spine and then pointed out the L5 (very lower back) that was 100% black :( I know my eyes got teary several times throughout that visit. Mostly because it isn’t one of those things that you’ll eventually get over. It’s something that I’m going to live with, for the rest of my life.

Most of my pain is in my lower, left back. When I sit for too long, I have shooting pain in my left buttock. Sometimes it even shoots down my left leg. When I walk too long, I have shooting pain and numbess in my left leg. And if I do too much physical activity (cleaning, lifting, bending over, walking) I will pay for it, severely, the next day. It is so difficult because I am a pretty active person and I like to be on the go. I think the thought of this stupid thing holding me back from doing things in my life is what scares me the most.

I’m going to try to be good this time and actually go to therapy. I need to call my insurance to see if they are going to work with me on this. I still owe SO much money to the surgeon, physical therapist and hospital from my knee surgery that piling up more medical bills for my back makes me want to burst into tears. So far my experience with “growing up” has been awful and I am totally up for a do-over :/

Candy :: Aug.29.2007 :: Growing Up, Health :: Comments Off

I can’t believe I’ve stayed awake this long. It is almost 1 AM and I feel absolutely exhausted. We didn’t do a whole lot today. The pest control people came this morning and we all left around 12:45 because they sprayed the house with some aerosol stuff. Took the pups to Petsmart for Astro to get his nails done (he was a very good boy!) and then to the park so they could drink some water from the pond. Shared some ice cream at Sonic and then headed home after our “2 hour re-entry time” had expired. Sat on the couch and snoozed for quite some time. Got up around 6 PM and we headed out. Went to Sam’s to grab some stuff and then out to eat.

We stopped by my work on the way home to print out directions to Tulsa for tomorrow and now I am about to head to bed. My plan was to take a shower tonight but I think I’m going to do that in the morning. I am really exhausted right now and feel like as soon as my head hits the pillow I will be out.

Candy :: Aug.26.2007 :: Daily, Home Owners :: Comments Off

I lost some entries. Probably a handful. My host lost the server that I was previously on and the most recent backup they had was from a few weeks ago. Hmph :( I am now going to start backing up my WP database after every single post I write. I don’t write that many but I’d like to eventually start writing more again.

Have I mentioned how busy life has been? If not.. You could step into my house for about 10 minuets and you would see exactly HOW crazy it has been around here. This place is a MESS! It’s not TOO horrible but it isn’t pretty, that is for sure. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I seem to be working 7 to 7:30 AM to somewhere beween 6 and 8 PM every day. I’m definitely learning what it is to work 12 hour shifts again!

My personal goal for next week is to make dinner every night, go to the gym at least 3 nights and get home from work by 6 PM at least 3 nights. I gotta start small, lol. But I need to de-stress right now. Despite what people might think, I can handle the position.. I just have to learn how to handle it efficiently. I am doing a LOT in there. As was anyone else that was ever in that position. But the main key is organization. I don’t have the greatest memory ever and you can tell when you walk into my office and see a ridiculous amount of brightly colored post-its all over the place. Stuck to everything. I was really thinking about writing 3M and letting them know about how many Post-its I use on a regular basis. Maybe they would like to help out? Because honestly.. Post-its are pricey.

I need to hurry this up. I have plenty of stuff to keep me busy. Tomorrow morning we are scheduled with the Pest Control guy to spray the inside and outside of our house. We have a ridiculous spider problem and after my Fiddleback Bite episode, I am a little paranoid of the spiders. The Orkin people came to our door and tried to sucker us into a 1 year contract. I told my boss and he gave me the name and number of his pest guy. The guy is super cheap and really friendly, so I look forward to him helping us rid our home of the pests. The only downside is that I planned it tomorrow morning so we could take the dogs to the dog park because we are not allowed in the home 2 hours after the treatment. Well guess what, it rained today. Poured, actually. Had a ginormous 20 minute thunderstorm.  So the dog park will be flooded and I am not taking my dogs anywhere near mud. Oh no, they would like that WAY too much. I’m thinkin’ of taking them back to Petsmart to get Astro’s nails trimmed again.

I didn’t mention that but I did take him to Petsmart last weekend to get his nails trimmed. The first time he’s EVER had them trimmed, actually. But they were SO long and starting to hurt us when he stepped on our feet. They did a great job. He was FREAKED out big time but he got better. I’m hoping he’ll get used to it. I plan on taking him this weekend and next weekend. She said to bring him once a week until they get his nails down to a decent length. I feel bad.. Been such a bad mommy :(

Anyway I gotta go.. We need to move furniture away from the walls and pick up as much as we can. We’re hoping to meet my Aunt/Uncle halfway and go to the Zoo or Aquarium (depending on weather) so that we can at least see them and my cousins. They live in the Chicago area and we don’t get to see them too often anymore :(

Candy :: Aug.24.2007 :: Daily :: Comments Off