For anyone who has noticed that I have not been keeping up with my blog lately, this is to let you know that I really haven’t been doing much of anything. Shortly after my little stint with my sinus infection and COPD, my right ear started to hurt. This was about three weeks ago. In fact, I felt so crummy that I stayed home from church and just wanted to sleep. I decided to take a couple of Motrin and go back to bed about 8 o’clock that morning. When I woke up at 10:30, the entire right side of my face was paralyzed. I thought it was just a bad reaction to the Motrin (I’m usually more of an aspirin user), but when I went to the doctor the next day, I found out that I have Bell ’s palsy. I had never even heard of it, but apparently it’s a viral infection that gets into some nerve endings located just behind your ear (that explains the ear ache) and it can lay dormant for quite some time. Until it decides to wake up one day. Surprise!
I took my antiviral medication, but unfortunately I am told that it just takes time to recover. It’s funny that I had never heard of Bell’s palsy before, but now that I have it, just about everyone I know has a friend or relative who has had it. I have heard stories of recovery that took as little as two weeks, while others took almost six months to recover. I think I can live with the facial paralysis if my head will just stop “shorting out”. You know that sensation that you sometimes get when you are first falling asleep, and you feel like you are falling and you jerk real fast and wake yourself up? That’s what I feel like when I’m awake. Once about every 3-4 minutes. Even when I’m walking. It’s very disconcerting and makes it hard to get anything done. It also makes it hard to read more than a couple of paragraphs of anything at a time, and I LOVE reading. I am looking forward to having this part of this condition pass, and I know that it will. I just have to learn patience, and it’s probably a lesson that I could use. Robert’s sister just found out that she has cancer for the second time, and when I watch her, I am so inspired! It’s hard to feel sorry for myself when I know all that she is going to have to go through.
So there you go – this is what I have been up to and why I have been so lazy on the posting. I can’t wait until I’m able to show you pictures of the newly remodeled room. And of course, a day without pictures of Pod is like a day without sunshine…or water…or air! Hopefully, I’ll be up to speed soon, with lots of posts and lots of pictures.
Until then, I am grateful for friends and family who take the time to call me, and patiently listen as I try to talk like a normal person. I am grateful to my husband, who lies through his teeth and tells me he loves me just like I am (Really? Someone who looks like a comic book character? Well, aren’t you freaky?) . I’m especially thankful for my mother. I had wanted to have her live with us so that I could take care of her, but she has ended up taking care of me, instead. I know she feels bad, too, but she has been doing all of the cooking and cleaning and shopping. And she is doing it cheerfully! I am going to owe her so BIG for this one!
Showing posts with label Illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illness. Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Still Here
Assuming that anyone actually reads my blog, they might have been wondering if I fell into a hole somewhere. Well, yes, sort of. I fell into the hole that is my son’s room as I have tried to remodel before he comes home next month (he’s been working at Yellowstone this summer). I figured it would be easier to do it while he is gone, and I actually had hoped to do it long before now, but I’m a “performs best under pressure” kind of girl.
The last incarnation of his room had been inspired by a picture I had seen in a magazine. THAT room had red walls and an Asian-themed décor. It was vibrant and sophisticated, just what an out-of-high-school guy needed. Somewhere along the way, what had looked so put together and classy somehow morphed into a room that we later laughingly called “The Bordello of Blood”. Add the habits of a young adult male, plus the whirlwind activities of packing and leaving for Yellowstone, and here is what I faced when I opened his door:
So Robert and I have been remodeling. I have done a LOT of painting: ceiling, walls, and trim. Robert has been working on putting down a laminate floor (whoever thought that nailing a textile to the floor and then walking all over it was a great idea had to have been crazy!). The floor is down, and Robert is putting the baseboards back a little at a time after he gets home from work each night. This means more touch-up painting for me as he finishes each side.
I also have pulled everything out of Alan’s room – it is sitting in various rooms throughout the house, cluttering up everything. I am going through all of the various plastic carts and plastic boxes that he had, sorting through things and putting things into categories. Young adult males will put things in boxes that should NOT be grouped together. For example, the results of a cosmetology licensing exam, pictures of friends, bank statements, debit card receipts from Subway, and an old comic book from childhood will be all together in one tub (with 500 OTHER things). Middle-aged women who are obsessed with organization will categorize and divide these things and give them separate storage facilities. It takes even longer than painting!
Making things even more exciting is the fact that halfway through this process, my COPD kicked in and I once again developed bronchitis. I have to say that I am a little ticked off about the emphysema thing. If I had been diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes, well, let’s just say that I have eaten enough chocolate and drank enough soda to have earned one of those. But, no…it had to be chronic breathing problems for the girl who never smoked. Anyway, the whole bronchitis thing put me about three or four days behind, but I am finally back in the saddle.
If we ever finish this room, I will happily blog about it and post pictures of this major accomplishment. I will be glad when it IS done, because I have been so busy (or sick) that I have been missing out on some major Pod time. Luckily for me, her mother has been good about posting pictures so that I can at least see her. Pod is doing well, and even putting on some weight. The big problems are that she wants to eat ALL the time (especially at night) and she seems to have her days and nights mixed up. Apparently she becomes wide awake at 11 p.m. and keeps her parents awake until 2 in the morning.
Here is what she looks like late at night:
Here is what she looks like at various times during the day:
I just can’t wait until she is big enough to help me paint!
The last incarnation of his room had been inspired by a picture I had seen in a magazine. THAT room had red walls and an Asian-themed décor. It was vibrant and sophisticated, just what an out-of-high-school guy needed. Somewhere along the way, what had looked so put together and classy somehow morphed into a room that we later laughingly called “The Bordello of Blood”. Add the habits of a young adult male, plus the whirlwind activities of packing and leaving for Yellowstone, and here is what I faced when I opened his door:
So Robert and I have been remodeling. I have done a LOT of painting: ceiling, walls, and trim. Robert has been working on putting down a laminate floor (whoever thought that nailing a textile to the floor and then walking all over it was a great idea had to have been crazy!). The floor is down, and Robert is putting the baseboards back a little at a time after he gets home from work each night. This means more touch-up painting for me as he finishes each side.
I also have pulled everything out of Alan’s room – it is sitting in various rooms throughout the house, cluttering up everything. I am going through all of the various plastic carts and plastic boxes that he had, sorting through things and putting things into categories. Young adult males will put things in boxes that should NOT be grouped together. For example, the results of a cosmetology licensing exam, pictures of friends, bank statements, debit card receipts from Subway, and an old comic book from childhood will be all together in one tub (with 500 OTHER things). Middle-aged women who are obsessed with organization will categorize and divide these things and give them separate storage facilities. It takes even longer than painting!
Making things even more exciting is the fact that halfway through this process, my COPD kicked in and I once again developed bronchitis. I have to say that I am a little ticked off about the emphysema thing. If I had been diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes, well, let’s just say that I have eaten enough chocolate and drank enough soda to have earned one of those. But, no…it had to be chronic breathing problems for the girl who never smoked. Anyway, the whole bronchitis thing put me about three or four days behind, but I am finally back in the saddle.
If we ever finish this room, I will happily blog about it and post pictures of this major accomplishment. I will be glad when it IS done, because I have been so busy (or sick) that I have been missing out on some major Pod time. Luckily for me, her mother has been good about posting pictures so that I can at least see her. Pod is doing well, and even putting on some weight. The big problems are that she wants to eat ALL the time (especially at night) and she seems to have her days and nights mixed up. Apparently she becomes wide awake at 11 p.m. and keeps her parents awake until 2 in the morning.
Here is what she looks like late at night:
Here is what she looks like at various times during the day:
I just can’t wait until she is big enough to help me paint!
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