That would be me. I am lucky for a million reasons, today I would like to highlight just a few…

• I got to sleep in today snuggling with Mr. Snugglebunny who decided he woke up too late to go to preschool
• Over the weekend I retained my title as Queen of the Universe, decided in a wrestling match with Mr. Skinny (he has never pinned me for a count of 3) in which I cheated by giving him a wedgie
• I have wonderful friends who support me in my craziness (you know who you are – even if you told me I’m in big trouble)
• My children are healthy, I thank the powers that be for this blessing, they may be cooky but they’re healthy
• I have health insurance that saves me over one thousand dollars a month for prescription medication
• I have the privilege and good fortune to be starting my own business as a birth doula, postpartum doula and hypnotherapist
• I was able to afford a 10 month training for Clinical Hypnotherapy that gave me skills to add to my toolbox
• Mr. Bubba puts up with my craziness – in all the different ways it shows up
• I am able to express myself in many different ways – through words, movement, song, art
• I have the freedom to choose how I want to express my spirituality and combine aspects of beliefs and traditions in order to do so
• I have the freedom to express myself about the injustices that I see without fear of consequences such as death or imprisonment
• I have enough abundance to share with others
• Even though I deal with RA and fibromyalgia, I am doing okay overall – I’m not in a wheelchair, I can do most of what I want even though I may have to modify somewhat
• I know myself well enough to know when depression is rearing its ugly head and know ways to deal with it
• I also know when to shut up – that would be now… LOL
• PS – I can laugh at myself too and will often make fun of myself before someone else gets a chance to

Since when are thrift stores for charity so damn picky???

Ok, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. A little background, Mr. Bubba and I decided we had had enough and that we were going to rearrange our home office, once and for all. This has been a long process, the office had become the dump room, for everyone. A friend of ours gave us a wonderful desk that is nearly perfect for Mr. Bubba. It holds the monitor up, has a large work surface with a keyboard tray underneath. As a teacher, it has irritated him that he can never find a computer desk where he could have ample work space, something has always been in the way. Receiving this desk spurred a huge re-vamp of our home office which included me waking up at 2 am to draw out our new layout. I dream of strange things I know…

We started moving stuff around on Tuesday, we’ve been shredding and recycling paper like the Amazon forest will be saved if we do. We have a 65 gallon recycle bin from the county. Trash went out on Monday and by Wednesday we had about 2 inches left at the top of it. We have found all sorts of old, useless paperwork that needed to evacuate the premises. For example, a lease from two homes ago, we moved in in 1994 and moved out in 2004. Mr. Bubba got rid of notes from classes he took for his BA (he graduated in 2000).

Today we decided that we had a few things we wanted to donate to charity: a desk, a computer cart, and an office chair to begin with. It was easier to load up the Mom-Mobile than to call a charity truck so we loaded up the van with Mr. Skinny’s help and proceeded to drive to the St. Vincent de Paul store a few blocks from our house.

The employee there was rude. He didn’t acknowledge me besides nodding his head at me, signifying “What?” I gave him a blank stare, as if I didn’t understand, it helps to play dumb sometimes. He said “Donation?” I said yes, he looked in the Mom-Mobile and said “I won’t take any of it. We don’t take toys, no one will buy that desk, that one is particle board, maybe I’ll take the TV but nothing else.” I looked at him, we got back in the car and left. Are you serious??? Since when does a rude thrift store employee get so picky???

I can understand the toys, some places won’t take baby stuff or toys for safety reasons, recalls and stuff like that. But a perfectly good desk, only because the desk was white and the drawer fronts were yellow??? A solid wood desk at that…

We then drove to the nearest Goodwill. Guess what? They couldn’t take it because they are a small Goodwill store and they can’t accept furniture, only the large stores take those kinds of donations. Strike 2.

Finally, we drove to a neighborhood thrift store. They had no qualms about taking 98% of our stuff. We dropped off a desk, an office chair, 3 bags of kids videos, a box of books, a complete dish set that was brand new (a wedding gift), a multi-cooker/deep fryer (another wedding gift), a 12 cup coffeemaker (yet again, a wedding gift – we don’t drink coffee), a bag of assorted stuff, a couple of toddler toys, a TV. Maybe something else too, I was just grabbing stuff from the garage since the Mom-Mobile AKA Big Bertha still had space and it was stuff we needed to get rid of.

The third time is the charm, but you have got to be kidding me! I should be reimbursed for the gas I wasted for trying to do the right thing and not have all this stuff end up in a land fill. Go figure!

One of the goals I had this summer was to teach Mr. Skinny to clean a bathroom. He turned 13 in June and hasn’t had any chores around the house. It has always been such a struggle to get him to finish homework that chores always seemed like too much to fight about.

This year we decided that enough is enough – he will eventually move away (I can’t stand the thought right now) and he will have to know how to clean a toilet and a bathroom sink. We started with the basics in a nice sequential order.

1. Remove the bathroom rugs.
2. Sweep the floor.
3. Scrub the toilet.
4. Wash the sink.
5. Clean the mirror.
6. Sweep again for anything that may have fallen or may have missed first time around.
7. Mop.
8. Put rugs back.

I directed him on the steps and just watched over him. He did a great job! And even though he grumbled about it and wanted summer school to last until the first day of eighth grade so he wouldn’t have to learn how to do it.

His review: “It’s not that bad.” We’ll see if he says that the next time that I ask him to clean the bathroom.

Next step: Washing dishes!

Photo from stock.xchng

We went to the Orthopedic Surgeons today and everything checked out fine so far. She has to continue wearing a sling for the next 4 weeks, outdoors only. And has to modify her activities so that she does not dislocate her shoulder again. She will have another appointment at the Ortho clinic in one month and they’ll do x-rays to make sure everything is healing well. The doctor said that sometimes when shoulders dislocate they can tear the tendon, so they will check for that next month.

Mrs. Unstoppable is relieved to hear that things are better and that she can take the sling off. And most of all she is relieved that she can return to work, even if it is modified, for now.

I’m relieved that she’s much better, no more pain and that she’s going to feel better emotionally knowing she can return to work.

image from stock.xchng

The past seven days have been quite difficult. My mom, Mrs. Unstoppable, fell last Tuesday. She was in excruciating pain and willingly let me take her to the Urgent Care Clinic. You have to know this bit of background information, she never goes to the doctor if she’s hurt herself. She always says she’s ok and she’ll be fine. Even the time she had fractured her hand. So, I knew something was wrong.

We were at Urgent Care on Tuesday evening until 10 pm. They requested x-rays of the left humerus and the left elbow. Nothing was broken they sent her home with Vicodin, take 2 every 6-8 hours and “you’ll be fine”. She didn’t sleep Tuesday night, she didn’t work on Wednesday (she never misses work, for anything!). Wednesday she was still in extreme pain, no sleep Wednesday night. She stayed home from work again on Thursday – a very odd occurrence.

Thursday I convinced her to go back to Urgent Care. We got there at 4:30 pm, we waited for a long time, we saw the same doctor we saw on Tuesday. She was confused because the Vicodin wasn’t helping. They gave my mom a shot of morphine and told her to take Flexeril, a muscle relaxant that would help with a badly bruised muscle injury. We were told to follow up at the Primary Care Clinic if she didn’t get better.

Friday morning I called the Primary Care Clinic because morphine didn’t do anything to relieve the pain. They gave us a 1:30 pm appointment. We saw a doctor who requested shoulder x-rays. We went to x-ray, the first x-ray showed an undoubtedly dislocated shoulder. The technician took 3 x-rays. We went back to the Primary Care Clinic, where we waited again. At about 4 pm they told us the Orthopedic Surgeons said to go to the Emergency Room where they would be able to put the shoulder back.

The Emergency Room was crowded, we started out with my mom on a gurney in the hallway. We finally moved over to a room, the doctors decided they would try to put it back giving my mom Fentanyl. She felt the whole thing, I think she nearly whacked the doctor with her good arm. They thought it went back in. We were told she needed another x-ray, but it was going to take a long time because three shooting victims had just come in. We waited a long time, by this time it was 8 o’clock pm.

We were taken over to x-ray, it turns out it didn’t work. We were sent back to the Emergency Room, back to the hallway. Shifts changed and we had a different nurse and a different doctor. The head doctor saw us in the hallway and was disappointed for me to tell her it hadn’t gone back. They gave my mom Morphine in her IV lead, and this time it took effect. She saw the room spinning so I told her to close her eyes and take a nap.

The doctors decided to move us to one of the trauma rooms, the big ones with built in x-ray machines and that can turn into an operating room if needed. They decided they were going to have to try again but this time under conscious sedation. By this time it was about 9:30 or so, I finally got a chair to sit in when we went over to the trauma room. By 10 pm, consent forms were signed for the sedation, the orthopedic surgeons had been called and Mrs. Unstoppable was all prepped. They gave her Brevetol, a fast acting sedative that is used for conscious sedation. She could hear the doctors talking off in the distance, but she couldn’t feel anything and afterwards she couldn’t remember anything. It took them two tries, over thirty minutes but they thought they got it in. Then she was awakened and had to wait for x-rays again.

Success! The third time was the charm. It went back. They said if it hadn’t gone in, she would have been admitted to the hospital and would have likely had to have surgery. She was finally discharged just past midnight.

All in all, the back and forth to the hospital, not knowing why she was having excruciating pain and the medications not working was exhausting. It made for a very long week.

She’s better now, no more extreme pain, she is still sore from all the manipulation. Mrs. Unstoppable was slowed down by a dislocated shoulder. Unfortunately, it took something that serious for her to slow down to share some time with Mr. Skinny who is off from school and Mr. Snugglebunny who has been coming home from preschool early.

I need some rest…

Today is the day to celebrate that since I’ve been participating in the Summer of Me Challenge hosted by Baby Tea Leaves I’ve lost 5.2 pounds. I had been disappointed that the scale was not reflecting what I was feeling in my body or my clothes. So now the scale is catching up. I’m hoping to continue losing some more weight… my goal is 10 pounds. I don’t know that I will accomplish that with only one week left in the challenge.

On another note, another of the challenges this week was to write a post based on a prompt, I chose to write the following:

If I were a superhero, I’d be Wonder Woman. Now those who know me know that I am a HUGE Wonder Woman fan. I would love to own a Golden Lasso of Truth, that would help a lot with the “Are you done with your homework?” question. I also would love to have an invisible jet, I would be able to get everywhere much faster without any speeding tickets. Using Wonder Woman’s resources would make mommy life easier, don’t you think? Being able to balance life easily, having tools at my disposal to make many things easier, not to mention being an Amazon princess… how HOT would that be?

Ok, I’m off to find Wonder Woman gear to wear today, and my keys on my Wonder Woman keychain. I can’t forget my current knitting project in my Wonder Woman tote bag. Maybe tonight we’ll have a Wonder Woman marathon and watch Season 1 on DVD.

I’m off to save the world… well my little piece of the world, anyway.

I like to engage in all sorts of physical activities and hobbies. One of the hardest aspects of having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and fibromyalgia for me has been adjusting my activities due to the limitations that these conditions can create.

One of the activities that I miss the most is not being able to dance. Part of my spiritual practice is to dance, I can still participate in other aspects of our cultural/spiritual traditions but the physical aspect of dancing can be very difficult for me. I’ve had to deal with limiting how much I can dance and having to modify how I dance.

I recently learned how to knit, I’ve been interested in knitting for a long time. I was scared to try it because I was afraid of how knitting would affect my hands. I love knitting! I have learned to manage my time knitting, if I knit too much the joints in my hands will definitely hurt. I also know that it is better for me to knit with bamboo needles and with a larger needle. The thinner needles make me use my hands differently so not only do my joints hurt but different muscles in my hands are sore.

I also like to create beaded items. The difficulty with beading is gripping the different tools, the different types of pliers or needles. I enjoy the process of laying out a design so often times I’ll do that and wait for my hands to feel ok in order to complete the work of putting a piece together.

I also enjoy reading, and this is an activity that thankfully is not affected too much by either the RA or the fibromyalgia. There are other activities that I enjoy that I am still working out how to modify and adjust so that I can continue to participate in them.

I find it very important to prepare for a doctor’s appointment since it can be easy to become overwhelmed or feel rushed once in the exam room with a physician. I have begun to write questions or concerns down in a page set aside in a notebook that I always carry with me so that when I think of something I can write it down immediately. This has been very helpful for me to make sure that I ask all of the questions that I have thought of since the last appointment.

I also keep track in calendar of things such as medications taken, especially when it’s a medication that the dosage needs to be changed at different intervals. For example, at one point my doctor prescribed prednisone to help manage a flare. He said to take 2 pills for 2 weeks and then take 1 pill for 1 week and to call him to let him know how things were going. It was helpful for me to write down in my calendar how much prednisone I had taken each day for me keep track of how many days it had been and to know exactly when I needed to call him.

I had an appointment with my doctor just last week. I had kept a log of my pain patterns, where I had been having pain, what helped it, what aggravated it, the intensity and quality of the pain. By quality of pain I mean things like a sharp pain, or a dull pain, a constant pain or pain with certain movement or at certain times of the day. I had also written down other symptoms that I had noticed, questions that I had regarding lab work, questions about other treatments I had read about or heard about. Needless to say I had quite a list of items to discuss with my doctor.

I truly feel more empowered when I am prepared for an appointment like this. It also gives me a place to write down the answers to my questions so that I won’t forget after I leave or have to call later to verify information such as dosage of a medication, how often I should go to the lab or any other information like that.

I also find it helpful to bring my husband with me. Sometimes he hears things differently than I do, he has the opportunity to ask questions as well, he can answer some questions also if I’m not sure. For example, he can also tell the doctor about a particular pain or concern especially if I’m minimizing it. I rarely exaggerate to a doctor, I sometimes minimize, mainly because I’m trying to convince myself of something not being as bad or serious. Like earlier this month when I had pneumonia, I had a fever of at least 103 degrees and I kept saying that it must be because I was wearing layers. No, not really I had a high fever, I just didn’t want to have to go to the doctor.

What other ways might be helpful in preparing for a doctor’s appointments? Are there any systems or processes that you’ve put in place that are helpful?

I attempted to have two separate blogs, this one for pretty much everything that goes on in my family’s life and one for chronicling my life as an active mom with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and fibromyalgia. It wasn’t working… I wasn’t able to blog at both places and keep the two topics completely separate. The RA and fibromyalgia are part of our lives, it is one of the normal aspects of our life as a family. I brought over a couple of posts from that blog and added them here. Ultimately, it didn’t make sense to try to separate that part of my life and compartmentalize it to another blog. Thanks for understanding!

Today we had what I call a lazy day. We stayed home and rested after yesterday’s very thorough cleaning of our bedroom and kitchen. More about that in another post. So today’s dinner needed to be quick and easy. The meal tonight… Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce, we used Italian Sausage in the sauce.

You’ll need Mild Italian Sausage, this time I used breakfast sized links, a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce and two packages of Potato Gnocchi, I bought ours at Trader Joe’s. The sausage links were frozen, that was fine because they were easier to cut into small pieces when frozen. I dropped those into a non-stick wok-style pan over medium heat. I let them sit in there while I filled my big pasta pot with water and a pinch of salt. I put the water to boil. Then I stirred the sausage, as they defrost in the pan, they release water and they start cooking. No need for oil to cook these up. These will take a little while to cook down. After they are cooked through, drain the fat they have released. Then the sausage will brown in the non-stick pan. Once browned to your liking, add a jar of Spaghetti Sauce, I used Classico Tomato & Basil, and salt to taste. This just needs to warm. By this time the water for the gnocchi should be boiling. Put the gnocchi in the water and stand by as these only take about 2 minutes to be ready. The nice thing about gnocchi is that you know they are done when they float up to the top.

Once the gnocchi are ready, toss together with the warmed sauce and it’s ready to serve. I didn’t get a picture of this meal because the guys ate it all up. Mr. Snugglebunny doesn’t like pesto sauce, I prefer to have gnocchi with pesto.