Birthday Greetings To Our Dear Daughter & HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

SIL and daughter

Dear Readers,

Thought I'd take a break from the usual Parkinson's related topics and wish our daughter a 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY   

with love from Mom, Dad, and Mario

 We are very proud of the person she has grown into.   Apparently her father and I did something right through the years.  Being an only child she did NOT get everything she wanted, but she was spoiled in that she did not have to share our attention with a sibling of the human kind  anyway.  (She would tell you she did have to share with the dog and cat!)   I remember many weekend trips to grandma and grandpa's house where I'd hear "Fritz - move over - you are hogging my half of the seat!"  "Mom - Make Fritz move over - he has his paws on me."  It was funny and makes me laugh when I think about it.

She grew up, married a wonderful man (our son-in-law) and they are happy with two cats and two gerbils in their life.   They are all very special to us.

Amos, age 17

Keiko, Age 17

We had a wonderful family Birthday celebration yesterday with our SIL'S brother and wife, SIL's parents, and of course the birthday girl, SIL, and Don and I.  We are fortunate in that our extended families are all small, thus for birthdays and some holidays we can all enjoy them together.

Take a look at that cake!  It was every bit as good as it looks.   It came from a new Guatamalen Bakery that had recently opened in their city.   I think it might become a new family favorite.

What a great day we had.

HAPPY EASTER or PASSOVER EVERYONE

Mary

Senility Versus Drugs

Dear Readers,

Well, I did it again - screwed up on an appointment.  ha ha - I showed up at the dentist's office a week early for a fitting of a new partial plate.   I was just in there last Thursday (5 days ago - yes friends, only 5 days ago).  One of the office girls even opened the door for me because I was using the walker, and it's a chore and a half to struggle with doors that swing out when using a walker.

I went in, thanked her for opening the door for me,  took my coat off, started flipping through a magazine when another office girl came discretely over by me and showed me a print out of upcoming appointments.   Today's date was NOT on that list. ha ha!   April Fool's Joke On Me  to me!  The sad part is they gave me that same printout when I left there last Thursday.  I could swear I remembered seeing "Dentist" on my calendar! for today.,

I mumbled something about "oh, sorry - I know it's the Parkinson's Drugs messing with my brain again."   The gal said "well at least you can blame it on something that makes sense!   (She was patting her 6-months' pregnant belly) and said I blame it on the mommy-to-be factor myself."

For the record, I checked the calendar when I got home and there is NOTHING WRITTEN ON IT FOR TODAY!    Since I can carry on a conversation rather well yet, I'm sure it's the Parkinson's Drug (Sinemet) that I'm taking.   (1/2 table 2 x a day - I'm not even up to a whole tablet twice a day yet).  Now I have to remember to go next week on the correct day.   I'm thinking of the old string around the finger bit -  will this do it?  

Apparently I can't be trusted with a calendar anymore!

What's your vote - Drugs or Senility?

Until next time.

Mary

FInally Catching Up On News

Countryside on the way to Rome, Italy October 2008

Dear Readers,

My apologies for taking so long to update.     My only excuse is that our involvement with Twitter/#nipclub can keep us pretty busy at certain times if a party is planned.

Two weeks ago I had the RFA (Radio  Frequency Abulation) procedure done.  It's taken about 2 weeks to really kick in, but it has helped greatly with the pain in the Sacroiliac.   I still have other pain - arthritis and fibromyalga in different areas - so I'm still on Tramadol for the pain, but I do cut back on it on days that I can. I'm so happy to report that the RFA was successful.  YAY!

Yesterday I was supposed to go to Milwaukee to meet with a Parkinson's specialist.   Wouldn't you know it - SNOW!   (Darn Groundhog needs to be replaced - we're supposed to have spring now).   It started snowing yestgerday  around noon, giving us 5 inches of wet, heavy, slippery snow by last night.   I heard the weather forecast predicting this storm on Saturday so decided to call and cancel the appointment.     Our son-in-law said driving in snow didn't bother him,  but it would have really bothered me.   I would have been sitting on pins and needles the entire trip.   While I'm anxious to meet with the PD specialist, I didn't feel it was worth the risk and hazardous roads to do so.   My appointment is now re-scheduled for April 17th.   I hope it  doesn't snow then, but it could!!   

Now I need to find a ride for the April trip so son-in-law doesn't have to take another day of vacation.  Daughter is like me - she doesn't want to drive in Milwaukee either.  It's a concrete jungle down there with 3 major freeways merging downtown and cars going 80 MPH.   You need to be really sharp in the brain, which Don and I aren't at this age.   If we knew where we were going and knew where the interchanges were, it would not be so bad - but you don't become familiar and comfortable with that when you only travel down there once in every 3-4 years.

Stay tuned.

Hope it's spring where you live!   It's going to  be a long while a-coming around here!

Mary

What a GREAT Day!

Hi Friends,

What a great day this has been.  First of all it's Valentines Day - So Happy Valentines Day.  Mario got into the act too by giving all the ladycats in the Blogosphere and on Twitter smooches this morning - after he gave Don and I one first.  He does know who is in charge of Kibble.

Today is also our 54th Anniversary!  Of course we were married in elementary school.  ha ha  Where did those years go?   You know I would not change even one year of that time.   When you both start having health problems, you know it's "true love" that carries you thru.

Today I also received a phone call from my health clinic stating the insurance has approved the Radio Frequency Abalation treatment, which I hope will take care of the pain I'm always having because of the lower back and SSI joint.,   They will be going in to  freeze or burn the nerve ending, thereby blocking the pain.   Unfortunately, they don't have an opening in their schedule until March 6th.  But, I've waited this long, I can hang in there for another 3 weeks.  Now we'll have to hope it does what they think it should do - get rid of pain.  Apparently most people that have it done absolutely rave about it.    I'm amazed and thankful that Medicare and the supplemental insurance approved it.  

Next week I'll give you an update on the Parkinson's issue too.  So stay tuned.

As you can see - it's been a great day!  Hope your's is equally as wonderful.

Mary

Oil Painting of Mario and Taming Of The Dragon

Dear Readers,

Isn't that a gorgeous oil painting of Mairo.  It was done by a Twitter/Blog friend - @MaxTheQuiltCat's mom, Lou Belcher, Artist and Writer.  Lou is going to run a special on her 6" x 6" cat portraits for the month of February for $40 + shipping.  She isn't gong to do the one-a-day challenge this time and only wants to do cats presently.   If you have a special kitty living with you and would like to have his/her portrait done, see her kitty's blog for details:   http://www.maxthequiltcat.com/  She does beautiful work and at $40 + shipping, this is a real bargain that you'll probably never find again.  Just look at the attention to detail - even little hair on the edge of his ears!


Taaadaaa!  This post is coming to you via Dragon. Woo hoo I think we are finally getting there.

Dragon and I are getting along quite well. Last week I had about five different calls to their help Center to the point where I'm sure each help person was thinking – quote "Oh no, not her again."   But I did learn a lot and hopefully I won't make stupid mistakes so I get into trouble anymore. I don't know why but the user profile and I just do not get along – I guess I just don't understand it. But the help Center walked through it with me so now I hope I'm on the right path.

I do find dictation is easier as long as I try to think ahead about what I want to say. I do have to do better job on  punctuation however.  And I'm still a long ways away from using the commands with the microphone instead of my hands to make corrections. I guess I'll have to copy down all of the commands and keep them in front of me if I want to go that route. In the meantime I'm stable enough with my shaking that I can use a combination of microphone and typing.  So for now Dragon is a keeper.

Hope all of you are staying away from all the many viruses that are out there and staying healthy.

Until next time,

Mary

Technology - Will I Ever Learn?

Hi Friends,

Well, here I go again.   This will be my 3rd try at the Dragon Program - the program that will type for me if I ever learn to use it well.     I flunked the first two versions.   Yup - FAILED!   In fact about 4 months ago I gave up using it because I was out of help minutes.  You are allowed 90  days of help from the date you install the program.   

This is Version 12 and supposed to be new and very improved., or so the salesman said when he called.  What sold me was that I get 90 days of help again and this one will type in Twitter, TweetDeck, Gmail. without having to use that stupid drop-down box first then telling the program to paste it into whatever program I'm using.  Now if only it won't give me problems with the computer.

Because of my past history of not learning it well, I'm locking myself in my office from this coming Monday morning until the following Saturday or Sunday, depending on my progress.   Last time around I gave everything else priority and gave learning Dragon left over time.   This time it is going to take priority over everything except doctor appointments or other scheduled appointments.  That means I can't read blogs, can't get on Twitter, Can't help Mario with his blog or help him read his blogs either.   I'm determined this has to be given priority.

I hope you will understand why I am not visiting.  I will resume everything on Monday January 28 - back to normal.  Hopefully by that time I'll have ironed out all the bugs between Dragon and my computer, and learned to use the program better than the last two times.   I simply have to make this work for me as many days typing is extremely difficult and time consuming with making corrections or letting all the errors go through because my hands are tired from being at the keyboard.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you come back again in a week or two when hopefully I'll be dictating the blog!

Mary

It Never Pays To Get Too Excited.

Alaskan Cruise  - 2010

Hi Friends,

Recently a good friend and I were talking about our local football team (Packers) and how she was so excited for the playoff game about to happen in our city.  She said "aren't you excited?"   In reality, I don't usually get very excited about anything because if I do, that special thing ends up not happening or I'm disappointed.   So, I guess that ever since I was a kid, I've learned to dampen my enthusiasm about things so I won't be in for a big letdown.   That system has worked well for me through the years, but every now and then I slip and get excited about something.

Case in point.  Yesterday I saw the Pain Specialist at the clinic.  She told me I might  be a candidate for the Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) treatment.  If it works, it could get rid of my back pain and sacroiliac pain for up to 6 months.   I immediately got excited about it, and when  I got home I called one of my friends and told her about it.

This morning my hopes were knocked out from under me when I called the clinic to schedule the start of the process.   That's when I found out that it's a very slow moving process.  They will first give me another shot in the sacroiliac of a shorter acting medicine, which will tell them if I am even a  candidate for the  RFA.   Then they will write to my insurance to see if they will cover the procedure.   Nothing is firm yet - too much has to still be decided.  So my being on top of the world yesterday, to be able to finally get rid of the constant pain,  came crashing to the floor once again.   Yesterday I even told a friend on Twitter that I had good news and would post about it - wrong! 

Stay tuned friends.  This is obviously going to be another ongoing, long saga - if it ever happens at all.   In the meantime I'll just keep taking the pain pills and taking naps with an ice pack and go back to being my calm, non-excitable self.  It just doesn't pay to get too excited!

I was really looking forward to becoming radioactive.  Daughter was teasing me about glowing in the dark and how I might need blinders to sleep at night.  he he! Love her sense of humor - she keeps me laughing anyway.

Until next time - we'll just shuffle along.

Mary