EYE Exam when on Plaquenil to check for Macular Degeneration, Weather,Bursitis,Lumbar Spine problems, & Spring Weather bringing the insects

Eye Exam, Spring time Weather brings in the "insects", Hip Bursitis, Lumbar Spine causing pain, & the "catch-up" game on Doctor Visits

WELL, I got the EYE EXAM over with..finally yesterday... and no signs of macular degeneration or anything caused from some of my medications, especially the Plaquenil... although my vision had "gotten worse" so I did need new glasses, which I knew I would. And usually I am not thrilled with glasses, BUT I can't wait to get these in and take a pic n them... they are totally "different" in several ways than my last two pair... as far as looks etc... it will be probably 10 days, (I hope less) but with the "prisms" in the for the double vision, they take longer to make. So, I can "check" that one off the LONG LIST of DOCTORS, follow ups, etc...

 I was really past due. I am supposed to have an eye exam for the macular degeneration ANNUALLY! And I know it's been at least 3 years...between Mom passing away, then the hip fractures, and the neck surgeries, and all of the other 100 things in life that goes on for most of us, it took me that long to finally just say "you have to do this" and get it done. So, now I have an Echocardiogram next Tuesday. It's been a couple of years since my last one, and before they put in the pacemaker my Cardiologist wanted it done, which I hate only because you have to lay on one side, and be still at times while the tech takes pics, and so forth.. and it's just not comfortable for e to lay on that side... with my hips especially right now still hurting so badly from the bursitis (and whatever else is going on) I am NOT CONVINCED that "hip bursitis" is the only thing causing so much pain in both hips... MY FEAR honestly is that something has happened again with my lumbar spine... either a compression fracture, due to the osteoporosis, or a disc or two "gone" like in my neck, or something to do with my lower spine causing this much pain for as long as it's gone on now... 

I WANT to continue to BLAME IT on the "weather" and I know that it is part of why the pain is so bad, BUT.. it hurts to stand, to sit, to walk.... even just driving to Waxahachie to the eye doctor yesterday, made my hips and upper legs have such a deep ache... and it is only like 15 miles over there. So, I am not driving for that long. But going to Dallas to the doctor's up there does the same thing... yet if I try to stand in one spot, or at times just walk through Wally World or the market etc... it does the same thing... it is so frustrating... and my pain specialist ordered a CT Scan, I have the order, BUT I have had to see all of the other doctors etc... and besides I know the co-pay on a damned CT Scan is HIGH, besides, I still owe a little to the hospital for the Endoscopy from that CO-pay. The I will owe another one when the pacemaker is placed. Each time I see a specialist my co-pay is 35.00. That does not sound bad at all, 

I know BUT when you go to about 5 or 6 in less than a month, it adds up!!!! Plus I have not been back for my follow up with my Rheumy but I JUST now got the lab work results he wanted. So I knew there was no reason to make a trip until I knew for sure all of those were in and that they sent them to him. I still face also going to my "other" Orthopedic Specialist... the one that did my complete shoulder replacement and both neck surgeries.. once the CT Scan is done.. again though until I have that scan and the results there is no reason to make a trip to see him. That is why my pain doctor ordered the CT Scan.

He knew that it would be the 1st thing that my Ortho. Doc want of my lumbar spine. 
AND so goes, it's going to be so muddy, and now it shows we have a possibility after a beautiful weekend, of then from next Tuesday for at least 10 DAYS of THUNDERSTORMS everyday!!!! So, if I don't get some of this stuff done in the yard over the weekend, I may be having weeds taller than me in places... plus my I am overtaken by ANTS! Several kinds but I have put down everything and they keep "moving" .. these worry me because they are n the outside of at least half my house, I bought some "ant block" that is made to put around the foundation of the house... although I have already put down even the "Bayer" one all over the yard twice and they still are giving me the blues... OLO! they hate coffee grounds though...they are in one of the brick columns on my front porch, and it has enough space on it, I can spread the coffee grounds all around it, and it drives them nuts, they won't cross it so then of course they MOVE and find another way dammit.... but after almost "no winter weather" then ALL of the rains for so long... and an early spring I fear just like weeds and pollen we are going to be covered up in all kinds of "bugs".... here come the fire ants... I've already had a couple of beds of those... 

So, if it's not ONE thing, then it's something else... I know I am "griping" but I also realize I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON with all this mess going on in life... so I feel for all of you also... then the news talks about how "stressed" as a nation we are... well no wonder.....

Pacemaker Placement, Hip Bursitis both hips severe, shoulder surgery & fear of brachial plexus issues (after reverse shoulder surgery about 5 years ago)

I had my consultation yesterday with my Cardiologist about the Holter Monitor and the low heart rate about 17 hours a day... we DID decide to go ahead with the pacemaker... everyone and everything I've read, talked to etc... even a couple of my other doctors feel it's a good idea, and "may help" some of the fatigue, the weakness in my legs, even the spider veins in my ankles, plus give me back more energy that I seem to be "losing" in the past year or so... I just can't seem to be able to keep up with the house, going to the market, and just days in general. Even though I am up and around, I seem to just be so "slow" and feel like I run out of energy much sooner that things to do... 

NOW I KNOW that some of that is the RA, the Lupus, "age" of course, the chronic pain and so forth, and there are no "guarantees" how much the pacemaker will help, but I feel it will give me back some of what I seem to have lost as far as stamina, especially outside doing my yard, flowers, and I so love being outside when the weather is nice (by the way I drove through the Cemetery yesterday and those HUGE OAK trees that looked like they just completely died that are in a row of about 10 where my Mom and Dad's graves are, THEY ARE COMING BACK OUT!!! 

I was so thrilled to see them leafing out..I think when they were building all of the new apartments right next to there, they must have "sprayed" something or did something to really knock them down hard, so when I saw each one slowly but surely with the new growth on them, I knew my Dad was happy... that is why they picked that site... Dad always loved trees, lawn work, gardening and so forth... anyway, I think wrote that I got the left hip injected Monday, and even though I have to wait (this Orthopedic doctor) won't inject them at the same time and then he makes me wait three weeks before I have the right one done... which sucks... it would be better for me to have it closer together to SO HIPS are better at the same time. But I know due to injecting the joints with corticosteroids they like to be cautious.... 

I go to the eye doctor tomorrow, I am really "past due" since I take Plaquenil, and it can cause Macular Degeneration... & I usually go yearly and I've missed I think almost 2 years..jus due to everything else, it seems I never can find the time plus I can "check them at home and do frequently with a special chart I look at. But the double vision and my vision in general has also changed again... so I "may" need new lens and HOPE NOT! All of these doctor co-pays, and then the Outpatient charge for anything I have done like the Endoscopy and now the Pacemaker, have a larger co-pay now... and of course the hospital always wants is ALL up front.... and hell my glasses if I need new lenses, the "prism" in the for the double vision makes them cost even more...plus I got ready to make the eye appt and found out my "usual" eye doctor retired! 

Luckily, I had been to another one last time, and I really liked him... and he is close, just over in Waxahachie, so at least it's not Dallas. But, I went to make the Endocrinologist appt that my PCP wanted me to see, and SHE CAN'T SEE MY TILL LIKE THE END OF JULY!!! So, I found a couple that take my insurance and they are closer to me, although still in Dallas not as far as this other woman... but I've got to get everything else "caught up"... I have to see my other Orthopedic Surgeon since we think my lumbar spine is causing a lot of my severe pain also in my hips and down my legs, plus the shoulder he replaced... it's not been "the same" and feels almost like that "brachial plexus" ball of nerves, are on fire...I can't stand to "touch my right shoulder" in many places..it was never "the greatest" but was so much better after the replacement BUT after that 2nd cervical neck surgery, (I know they had to have me lying in a very odd position) they must have had that shoulder in a position, that ever since, something is just wrong.... so he is the one that does the spinal surgeries, the shoulder replacement and so forth...

Fourth of July Already here, Time flies by too quickly, Cervical neck ongoing getting well over surgery, lumbat/sacral surgery, osteoporosis,bursitis.RA,osteoarthritis, and living....

SUNDAY ALREADY! SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE HOW THE DAYS, WEEKS AND MONTHS ARE FLYING BY SO QUICKLY. I am so "bored" with everything. I did put up my window "cling" that looks like stained glass. I love it, found it when I first moved into this house and put it on my front windows. It has been there about 10 years or really I guess more like 11 years, and it still looks awesome. So, I decided to put it on more windows, especially those that face where the sun comes in especially in the evenings. It looks wonderful and comes off easily, never fades, and does look like stained glass. I have 3 brand new mini blinds, that I've had for weeks for the office. One of mine was just about to come to pieces so I ordered all three new, so they would be the same. The others were old and getting to where even trying to wash them would be nuts. 

The less expensive ones are much to difficult to try and wash, and it is less hassle and cheaper to just buy new ones, since these have probably also been here 10 years or more. Right now after the rain from day before, and the cloudy weather over the past several days everything is so wet, between rain and dew, it's hard to get outside. I thought about going over to the walkway the city built buy one of the small lakes, not far from me... I broke down and bought new athletic shoes, Sketchers, a couple of weeks ago to walk in. I have some but they were really not enough support to walk very far in, so I broke down and bought better ones since I really need to be walking as much as possible. But, my street is so damned bumpy, and narrow, it's difficult to walk down it, and not get ran over. 

People run the stop sign right here at my corner one house down from me, and it's a wonder someone has not killed someone as fast as they drive down this street, especially with the kids out of school and the ones on their bikes, that are too young to really be riding out there with no parent supervision, but I see it all the time. A week or go, I looked outside and one little girl, about maybe 8 to 10 was riding right down the middle of my front lawn!!!! I was so pissed, and stepped out and told her I had better not see her, nor any of her friends riding through my lawn again! Parents don't watch and don't care, they just let them do as they please. It was so rude, and I told her, don't you know it's rude to go through someone's yard without permission? She just stared at me, and finally rode off. 

Anyway, I am not sure about the whole hip and thigh pain. I am thinking now since "both" hips have pain in them, and almost in the same spot, my left one I can trace the pain in it... and I think I may have either bursitis in both of them (which I have had before I broke the right hip) and have had them injected before, a couple of times. In fact about 4 years ago, I did have severe pain with both of them, and my orthopedic surgeon at that time, did inject the both of them at the same time. A bit later, my new Orthopedic surgeon, who does my neck, and did my right shoulder replacement told me it is my lower back making my hips hurt, and L-5 and S-1 and bursitis may or may not be the problem. I surely don't look forward to any other spinal surgery, especially lower spinal surgery, since so many horror stories come out of back surgery. 

But they have improved their process, the way the do the surgery, and what they have including "artificial discs" they can put in place of discs that have ruptured. That is what they did with my neck in the first surgery. One of the levels, he put a disc in place. The other are "fused" with cage and chips of bone from the bone spurs I had, rather than using artificial materials, or donor bone, they try and use your own, even if they remove it from a hip. I read they can do that, but with me having such severe osteoporosis, I imagine they don't take a chance of getting bone from any place else on me. Of course after the fracture to the right one, they would not touch it, but my issue is after reading, I am wondering down the line if I may have to have a total hip replacement, where he repaired it with the gamma nail and screws. I've read and that maybe what is already happening, that hip is developing arthritis in it, after the fractures and repair. 

So, between bursitis, which can even be "infectious" where they have to drain it, and probable arthritis, that could be what is causing pain in the right one, and my left one maybe effected by either osteoarthritis, or even the RA, which is what my 1st cousin had, RA that caused him to have finally both hips totally replaced. I've been trying to keep up and keep busy, but when you cannot or should not do things where you have to hold anything over your head heavy, etc, it's difficult to find things to do.... after having my neck in the brace for so long, I have come to realize how much you do that effects you having to move your neck up, down, sideways, and every which way, from driving, to putting up these blinds, to even sitting at the computer, potting plants, and even laundry, cooking, cleaning... you name it, even taking a shower, or like me wanting to have my hair cut, she usually has to have me bend my head forward to get it short and cropped in the back, but I need it cut so badly, so I may have to have her improvise, cut it and just do as much as she can without me having to bend my head forward etc... I don't think I can go another week with it as crappy as it looks. 

Honestly, I've almost thought about "razoring" the top and sides myself. I do usually when it is cut very short, and she razors it. So, I've thought about using mine and just get the horrible ends off of it, until I can see her. I just don't want to "chop" on it too much and then she can't cut it like I want. I let it grow out again longer, but now with it so hot, I like it really cut short... where I can put my "goo" on it, spike it up and go... no brushing, hardly no blow drying it, by the time I wash it, towel it off, and run my fingers through it, it's dry and I can put my "goo" in it and go.... no fuss no muss... I love it that way, and the way it is now, I am really better off doing it like that, especially if I am having more surgery in the next few months... I am really not sure what the hell I will do about my lower back... when it gives me so much hell, and I am in so much pain, I want to sit in the floor and scream, cry, and feel as if I am going insane, I want it "fixed"... but the idea of a lower brace, probably much more "time healing, and getting it well enough to do things," then I want to "back off" no pun intended, and say I will just put up with it... but I also know it won't get better over time... it will just get worse....