Thursday, November 26, 2009

Rain Rain go away

I am sitting here eating my breakfast and decided instead of whining about the fact that we have had solid rain for 21 days in a row I would come up with positive reasons... so here are my reasons why it is a good thing that we need all this rain..

now don't interrupt me.. I'm thinking..hmmm nope nothing yet

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Holiday Season

Hard to believe it's barely a month left before Christmas!!Life is getting busier then usual in the Haysom household. We finally got our village all done a few days ago. We have a new addition to it this year, Keith's great grandfather's train set. You will see it in the pictures below as the train on the higher level. We also took away a section only because of my health Keith has had enough on his plate so I told him to not put up the ski slope with the tram rides etc. He also is starting a 2nd job starting the 1st which I am even less happy about so am minimizing his to-do list.

All we have left to get ready for Christmas is to put up the outside lights (have to wait till it stops raining first ugh) and chop the tree down then decorate it but I can take care of that area. Keith just has to chop it down and get it home. I have been working on the gifts and making a very small dent in my list. Most of mine is homemade so it is just a matter of finishing what I started. I got the tree up and decorated at work this weekend so that's done and have started my baking although I will do the bulk of it closer to Christmas to keep temptations away.

On Saturday Lareta and I went to Super Saturday and made chocolates and some word plaques (see pic below as well). They were pretty basic beginner classes which I am way past that stage but it was time spent with my daughter so that is always a good thing. So will just have to make my regular chocolates closer to Christmas ..out of sight out of mind.. Keith will be working from 6am to 4pm at his regular job and 4pm till midnight at the other one so will have lots of extra time to make things when he isn't home to snitch :)

I went and saw the specialist this week and if I wasn't hurting before I was there I sure was by the time he was done. He had to check out each and every vertebrae, every joint every muscle group to try and localize where the pain was originating from. When he finished he said I had the worse back he had ever seen.. no ... really? I thought I was here for fun!! He did say I was a candidate for the prolotherapy but warned me I would go through a lot worse before I could get better. He suggested I continue with the acupuncture and that I might want to go with a more aggressive form of acupuncture called aggressive Neuro acupuncture. I have to say about 5 minutes after he started talking to me, my brain shut itself off. It was just way too disheartening to keep listening. He said my muscles were in one large spasm, that although most of the muscle groups were in chronic pain there were several areas in acute pain. Again.. no.. really?

So when I went to the front desk to book my first treatment I made sure that I made it late enough in the day so that Keith would be there and then he can remember everything. In the meantime I will just keep doing what I can when I can how I can. My motto is if I can fool myself into thinking I am doing great I AM doing great :) That's my story and I am sticking with it!!

Saturday night we had a progressive dinner out with friends.. it was A LOT of fun!! In case you have never heard of these.. this is how it works. You gather up your friends, and everyone moves to one house for appetizers, then everyone goes to the next house for soup, then to someone else for salad then the next for main course then the last house for dessert! I was so stuffed by the time we got back home.. oh man I will be lucky if I am hungry by Tuesday lol. It was very enjoyable and was glad for the evening out :)

So am off for now and going to go work on my next present.. enjoy the pictures :)Oh I knew I had something else to say :) Of course when don't I hehehe. I started 2 other blogs.. one is almost done so will post that address when it is more complete but have one ready for viewing.. I would love your opinions and comments :)


http://sallysyourgirl.blogspot.com/



Thursday, November 12, 2009

Too early for Christmas

Our local radio station posted on their Facebook page a question on whether or not their listeners thought it was too early to begin decorating for Christmas particularly if you thought stores should not have their merchandise out until at least December 1st. It has become quite a hot bed of replies let me tell you. Then someone said I was not very Christian because I happen to post why should I be punished by not being able to check out stores for ideas for my home for decorating because parents don't want to listen to their children whining about "gimme gimmme". Are you kidding me?

It takes us several weeks to get our villages and train sets set up. We have to start in November otherwise it gets too crazy in December. I LOVE everything about Christmas. I think we have a very healthy blend of the true meaning of Christmas and the fun of Santa.

What do you think? When do you start decorating your home? When is it too early for stores to display their Christmas merchandise? Costco has had their stuff out since September and I have commented several times that it needs to wait until AFTER Halloween but yet I always have to go through the displays to check out their new stuff :-D

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Update on Medical Air Miles

So I decided today that BC Medical should develop some sort of a frequent flyer plan for those of us that seem to be in one office or another on a regular basis. I finally was able to see my family doctor this morning in regards to getting a req for upper back xrays after I saw the other specialist a couple of weeks ago for my lower back when he discovered my right rib cage had slipped forward.

I took advantage of being in her office to go over a few things that had come up since my last visit:

1. Upper back: she said she could see the difference just looking at me sitting on a chair, that my right shoulder was quite a bit lower then my left one. She gave me the req and said it could be either a compressed fracture or due to the sheer number of surgeries I had in my chest in the last 2 years that the muscles just are in constant spasms pulling on the shoulder forward causing the problem. I told her that the acupuncture had helped tremendously for my lower back that I had had at the other office, and that the only time my lower back burned now was when I forgot and bended at the waist to pick something up. She said to see if I can find a local acupuncturist and see them as often as needed. She also said Keith should go take a course on acupuncture so he could give me the injections. Uh. No.

2. H1N1: I told her that other people I knew that had cancer were being told to get the shot but that I had not planned on getting it and wanted to get her feedback. She said she is telling all her patients they need to make that decision on their own. If they wanted to have it she would arrange for them to get it. I knew that was a diplomatic answer so asked her if SHE was getting it. She said no she was not and she was not getting her family vaccinated either. She said the vaccine is just too new without enough information. She said she would not subject her family to it when there was so little info on long term effects. Good enough for me.

3. Sleep Study: I asked if she had gotten the report yet and she said yes. She kind of smiled at me and said she bet that the diagnosis of depression went over well with me :) I told her about my thoughts and how annoyed I was the doctor had not even been willing to discuss any other possibilities. So my doc and I spent about 15 mins going over choices etc. We agreed that I would increase one of my medications I am already on so that I am taking it throughout the day instead of just the night and that should help. We also agreed to start using Melatonin which is a natural sleep aid taking one that is quick acting and another that is long lasting so that I can fall asleep at a normal time and stay asleep for longer then 30 minutes at a time. Much better outlook then depression and anti-depressants. Although when I told Keith about this part he said he was going to have to have a chat with her. I said buddy when it comes to my health I trust her more then I trust you :)

4. Prolotherapy: I told her the specialist a couple of weeks ago had found a doctor that did prolotherapy so we went over that. She said to expect my pain levels to greatly increase. She said the solutions that are in the injections will actually inflame the area that is being injected. The idea is that inflammation is your body's natural way of healing itself but because of different health issues lately my body isn't able to heal itself. Gee.. thanks..

Now you understand why I think BC Medical should invest in a frequent flyer plan :)

Monday, November 09, 2009

New Project for Monday

I have been working on three HUGE projects this past summer, one was writing a family history book, another was doing a family reunion for my dad's side of the family and lastly a huge family history seminar where literally hundreds of patrons gather for an all day seminar of about 30 odds classes. It has been an exhaustive last year, add to that 5 surgeries and recuperation time in there to boot.

But we did it with a great team but today I went to get something in my office, went onto my online day timer and put only 1 thing on my daytimer for my todo list for tomorrow. CLEAN MY OFFICE. Now I have done many many times in the years but it will be the first time that I will clean and sort it without bending at the waist, don't bend to get anything , don't lift, don't wash walls, don't vacuum, don't take garbage out.. but where there is s will I will find a way. You can't stop me.


These are all the storage boxes that have gotten pulled out because someone needed something and they never got put back.



there is a spot from floor to ceiling beside the cabinet that the boxes are SUPPOSED to stored


THis is supposed to be my sewing area. And with Christmas coming I have projects to get completed



My poor dining room table would be so happy to get this cleared off and back onto my own desk so we can eat at the table again.


I'm not sure what scrapbooking projects I could work on here!! Bad bad bad



I have spools of ribbon that people have been using and most of the spools are unwound and all have to be fixed as well as things put away in drawers etc



And all the scrap papers and card stock now needs to be reorganized and sorted out, plus sort out and pout away kids play dohs and paints. But once all done I will be abl eto rest.. well until something else gets me going!

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Mammograms

Tomorrow I have to go for my mammogram. I have been going for them since I was in my early 30's so basically 20 years. They have never bothered me. I could never understand why some women made such a big deal about it ...took 30 seconds per side, was never painful..piece of cake. I was very lucky to have doctors on my side that believed in letting women get them done before 50 when there was a strong family rate of breast cancer.

But this one tomorrow is scaring me to hell and back. First, it is the first one I have to have since my mastectomies. Secondly with all the surgeries I have to had these last 2 years I worry that something will split inside or tear or start bleeding... something to go wrong.

But I will be there, I will go through it because it is important to my family and important to me. So why am I telling you this? Because you can support me by getting yours done. If you have been putting yours off till "tomorrow" or next week, or later..don't. Just do it. Ignoring something does not make it go away. If I can go for mine tomorrow with everything I have been through in the last 22 months, you can go for yours. Please. Then let me know that you did it and I will smile and hug you and cheer you from my rooftop.