Hoping a better 2018! Lupus flare, RA flare, Flu virus, Chronic Pain severity, epidemic, wishing for a better year than since 2014 wanting to get back to writing, blogging and advocacy work

Putting "hopefully" my writing, posting, advocacy and writing areas of my life back in the forefront. The past two years, really more like since late 2014, seem to have been a nightmare. 

I've had good things happen, but losing two of my fur-babies, my Mom getting ill so quickly and passing away in 6 months, losing my Mom's "baby" sister, losing my marriage and not sure why yet, having a pain pump replaced, having a fractured hip and spending Christmas 2016 in the hospital and inpatient rehab, the a very complicated neck surgery in April 2017 that took me months to just get out of a hard collar with, and now my Lupus and RA are really giving me heck... much more but those are a few of the "highlights" that really put my several years previously in a spot where I felt I would NEVER be able to get back to my advocacy, activism, writing, blogging, posting... and the things I want and love to do... And I am still going through stuff health wise, my neck is really hurting again, and has been, but my shoulder as I say below, that has already had a complicated replacement began acting up, right after the last neck surgery. We have changed RA medications trying to get the RA flares under control, and my lower back and legs really beginning to bother me again...

I am not sure if the ridiculous weather we are having is a huge factor, but generally the WEATHER has always had a huge impact on me, when it comes to chronic pain, and migraines.... way before I could ever get a physician to "agree" with me, I KNEW the weather effected my severe migraines when they were so bad for over 20 years of my early life. 

Now all doctors and health professionals agree that the weather, temperature, humidity, erratic weather, cold one day, hot the next, all of those things and the barametric pressure have sometimes severe effects on many illnesses, especially chronic pain...

I ASK that each of you the "follow me" here, on my daily newspaper, through Facebook, Twitter or wherever to keep me in your thoughts and prayers as the year progresses. I REALLY want to get back to those things such as my writing and blogging... more on the advocacy side, but even sitting here at the computer puts me in such pain at times, there are days it hurts to sit, stand, walk, lie, no matter what I do, it is severe on some days, and here lately MORE days than not....

BELOW is a POST from my Facebook page, where I had been commenting to a friend of mine who is going though some frightening issues with her liver, and her Diabetes. So, as I posted this, I wanted to "add" it here also... my numbers honestly here on my blog have fallen so much, and I know the holidays effects that, but also me not able to post as much, put up as much relevant information as I usually do... I desperately need to update the look and feel... I know it's getting outdated, and it is a matter of having the time to do those things, and those are what I really want to be able to work on....

I APPRECIATE those like yourself, that give back the feeling that "I matter"... I try my best to let others know I do appreciate each one of you that take time to even give a "thumbs up" I realize not all of us have time, or feel like Posting, but I always know someone "cares" by just a heart, a thumbs up, or a "face".... you too I realize have been through so much. I have to "say something" about a "comment" I read the other day. Some one made a comment that Facebook is NOT THE PLACE to "post your personal problems"????? WHY would we "want to connect here at all" if we were not looking for others either like ourselves that "need that extra push up" every once in a while, or to "see" we are NOT alone in this come and when I "post" personal issues, which health is very personal I think, 

I am NOT looking for an answer or someone to totally agree with me, or what, it is MY way, like my blogging and writing (partially)... the social media is a way to connect for many reasons, but since I have "no really close family or friends physically that I can "see" ) my son and daughter are about the only "close family" I have left, and my daughter is 8 hours away and we talk probably at least 3 or 4 times a week, but she cannot just "drop her kids, family and husband" to run 8 hours up here, and although my son lives close by, he has his own things also, he has been fighting with "FM" now for a long while, so he is trying to re-educate himself, by some short classes, where he can do certain jobs, that the ones he used to do, due to the FM he no longer can do, lots of very hard physical labor... even though he is 37, age as many of us know with some of these horrid illnesses, syndromes, chronic pain issues and so forth, AGE has nothing to do with it.... so he sends me messages, and if I NEED him, he could be with me quickly, and we keep up with each other, 

BUT he also knows ME, I really 'don't want" the feeling that I have to have someone doing everything for me. I LIKE doing all that I CAN DO myself... and it is hard for me to even ask for help, because all the years I did everything, from hanging ceiling fans, to painting, any kind of home improvement just about, the lawn, and so many things I've loved to do, I KNOW that even since my cervical neck surgery last April, I have "overdone" some stuff. I PRAY my neck is not messed up again, or my right shoulder, that ever since the neck surgery, it is the RIGHT ONE that has already been totally replaced by a "reverse total shoulder replacement" about 6 years ago, I think, but it has given me hell ever since the last neck surgery... of course I realize 'some things" I had been doing I've had to "stop" and either let my son do it, or my neighbors help some, or I just let it go, knowing it can wait, other than an emergency thing at the house, some things that I just could NOT stand to "let go" I've had to and I am STILL learning to "let them go"... but being alone with the pups now, I do as many things as I feel like, or that I can do, if possible.... yet trying to learn to say "no" I can't, or sit down and say I just hurt too badly today, etc... those are very hard things for many of us to do... not in our "genetic makeup" :)

After "many" strange" symptoms, DO I ADD yet "another diagnosis" to me endless list of crap wrong with me??? "CPRS"????

I finally made a trip to Urgent Care with what I feel is a very bad Lupus and RA flare, but there are several "symptoms" strange that add into the mix of it all... I was telling my friends on Facebook about the ordeal and one lady mentioned that I should be seen by a Neurologist who specializes in "CPRS"???? Complex Regional Pain Syndrome! I look it up and guess what, MANY of my weird symptoms "fit the bill" - I am just about ready to scream and run, I am so fed up with health problems and the "list" is endless.....


 I had not even thought about that. could it be caused by a very severe sprain? Actually I've had three sprains in that right ankle. The 1st one when I was 40... I had just gotten home after my 1st heart attack, and went toget out of the bed. That foot was "so asleep" I didn't realize it, so when I stepped up I twisted the hell out of it, and it was bad. In fact I had to make a trip to the ER thinking it may have been fractured. Then about 5 years later I stepped crooked on it, when the wind blew me out of a car door at a store here. I was dressed for work, and had went into a store at lunch. The wind was terrible, and when I opened the car door, the wind caught the door and made me twist it again. 

Then in 2016, the day before Mom's funeral in June, I stepped off my front porch, talking on the phone to my daughter, and my neighbor had called to me, and the grass was so wet with dew, both feet came out from under me, and I sprained both, but the right one was bad again. It was so swollen it looked like I had a softball on it. I had to wait, and that Monday after her funeral, went to have it X-rayed at Urgent Care. It was not fractured, but I pulled it again so badly, for 6 months it continued to swell. It was really after I fell fractured the right hip, and then early last year, I went to a foot specialist. He put an injection of corticosteroid in it, and I went for PT about 3 weeks. It went down and "seemed" fine, after that injection. Then last week, I went to the market, and when I got home I noticed my sock I had a bad indention in that foot and ankle.

 I didn't think much of it until then I noticed this week every time I am up on it, or sit at the computer, with it down, it swells terribly again. And I've noticed it hurting now, yesterday it was huge again when I went to Urgent Care about the Lupus and RA flares. I hoped the injection of corticosteroid for those would help reduce the inflammation, thinking that the Lupus, RA and just the very bitter cold weather, that was swelling my fingers and other joints may have caused it again to swell after it being so injured. 

But it never dawned on me, other than I was fearful my "heart" may be causing it to swell. When I had my 1st heart attack, for about 8 weeks before I had it, every day my ankles both of them would swell horribly. That was when I was in "great shape" watched my weight, exercised daily, and never thought I would have a heart attack, yet I did on Jan 8th 2001! So anytime unless I've sprained them etc it worries me that my heart could be acting up, but I've just had an echocardiogram, and a check up with my heart doctor about 3 months ago or less... 

so between knowing it is so damaged from the sprains, and the RA and Lupus, it will swell and hurt, especially with such very cold weather... my fingers, and every joint feels "swollen" and stiff and hurt like hell. So, last night I took one of the Metoprolol's that is for the "extra beat" of my heart. I had slacked down taking them daily because my doctor felt that they were causing me to have a very slow heart rate. In fact we talked about putting a pacemaker in, so I could take the medication and not have to worry over the heart rate problems. Then I will be damned I had one of the damned very cold, wet night sweats!!! Those are the reason I had cut down on the Metoprolol anyway. 

IF my heart rate gets too low at night, we feel my body compensates, by one of those horrid, cold, drenching night sweats, I was wrapped up all night in a heavy robe, and blanket, because then I get so cold after that sweat, I shiver all night, and I feel so bad, I can't even get up to change my clothes, I am just so cold, it just almost hurts to get up and have to change... I swear I thought 2018 would be "better" and it sure has not started off very well for me... I think I am just freaking cursed....


Strange enough, when I look it up, much of those symptoms are true... for one my "OTHER LEG" from the knee down has hurt now for about 10 days, it wakes me up at night, but it is in the other leg from the knee down into that ankle! Also, it looks so purple, but I thought it was spider veins, I suddenly have them in both ankles, and I've asked before because up until I sprained them, I didn't have those terrible ugly looking things, but that ankle and foot looks purple especially when it swells or I have problems with it... 

it has been injured badly twice... and it will even give way with me at times if I am not very careful with it... the "sudden" swelling was strange to me... unless it has just been swelling due to the Lupus and RA... 

so I guess even my Rheumatologist may not really be able to tell me, nor really the foot and ankle specialist... that does seems and I've heard of it of course due to Barby Ingle and many others that have the problem, I just didn't put two and two together thinking that could be what is going on with the ankle in itself... but now that you have said something, and I read the "symptoms" I am wondering if it may be something else like that  and I will definitely check on it. I see my PCP who was the one who diagnosed my Lupus and RA. He really knows a great deal about "other problems" such as something like this... he is a younger doctor and he is very well educated in other illnesses, syndromes, and things that some PCP may not know much about. Plus if I talk to him, he will know of a Neurologist who could look at me and see.

What is even stranger about this, is that suddenly also i about the past two weeks, I've had severe problems with my left arm, from the elbow down to my wrist and fingers. It wakes me up every night, swollen, and throbbing and like it's "asleep" with that pins and needles type of pain. It did it again last night, along with everything else, needless to say I was up since about 2AM, between everything hurting, the night sweat mess, and such I got up and turned on the television again, and said to heck with it... 

and of course I also have the "autoimmune issues" which I knew often go along with "CPRS" again I guess out of everything, I never put this together with the other problems and symptoms. Of course my first thought it dammit, I DON"T NEED ANYMORE FREAKING HEALTH ISSUES!!!! So, if this is the case then I just "chalk up" one more to the never ending damned list of crap wrong with me... again I feel totally "cursed"!!!!!!!


And here is one link talking about CPRS....  https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Complex-Regional-Pain-Syndrome-Fact-Sheet

When a very "Special" Opportunity Arrives be sure to take the steps to help someone....

Happy New Year and the beginning of a very COLD 2018 to MOST of the nation!

I had an amazing opportunity this week. One that I never expected to happen, but the way it did, and how it did, brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Many of you know, that I am divorced. Albeit, WE thought we would be "old and rocking" together in a swing on our front porch, for many reasons, some I feel are senseless and we should still be together, but it takes TWO.

Anyway, my ex husband has a daughter. He has not seen or even known where she was for over 30 years. The last time he saw her, she was about 2 years old. He was young, the Mom was young, and it was just not meant to be at the time. But, things happened, that really should never have, and the Mom caused a great harm to a Dad and daughter, that I hope after all these years, that some of those precious days can be gained back.

I got a private message on Facebook in fact on Tuesday. I "immediately" recognized the name. In fact I had helped "search for her" for years, trying to help him get in touch with her. Once she was over 18 years old, he felt she "may" want to know him, or maybe not. But, he definitely wanted a chance for them to find one another, and see how the other felt. All the while recently she had been doing the same, but it never "aligned" until it so happened that "my name" associated with his, and some of my friends on Facebook were her friends also.

I got the message asking me if I was married to this man. I said that "yes" we were married for almost 10 years and together almost 13. But, things changed and he is now back in the Seattle area. Of course I already knew who she was, but I did ask. It still blows me away how people's paths can cross, when you least expect it.

For one, I will admit, he left, and I honestly never understood, WHY, he didn't stay because he still was in love with me, and him I.. yet he battles with thinking that if a couple "has a disagreement" then something is wrong with the relationship. He came from a very "not just broken" but completely "battlefield" of a home, where the Father was an abuser, and the Mother either mentally unstable, or caught up in some really horrid things and people. In fact she died when he was only about 9 years old. His Dad had been dead for 3 YEARS before he found out! Like I said this was a battlefield of a wrecked home.

Here is the main "scoop" to my post.....

I have a wonderful story to tell and this was just incredible for this to happen right at the brand New Year! Someone reached out to me, that thought I "may know" from the searches the person done online. They found my name along with someone's name and reached out to me on private messenger here yesterday. I KNEW immediately who this person was, and that actually who they was looking for had been searching a very long time to find them also.

So, I of course said yes I know them, and yes I can contact them. I told them that they had been searching for a long while and in fact several years ago, I helped someone search for this exact person. So, I made a couple of phone calls, and the two that had not been in contact with one another for something like 30 years almost, "connected" yesterday. Both had been so concerned that the other would not want anything to do with them, but it was just the opposite, they both had been looking for each other. 

So, I got a beautiful message from them yesterday evening, telling me that they were so very appreciative of me finding out and helping to get them together after all these years. It is "close family" so when anyone is searching for a very close family member that they had "lost touch" with and had been searching, hoping and wishing it would someday happen, yesterday that miracle unfolded right in front of me. So, even if "my New Year" sucks, what happened yesterday was the BEST New Years blessing I could ever hope for. I realize all too often now, some get so caught up in their own situation, that they may not take the time and effort to do something like this, but of course it was never in my nature to not reach out and try to help. I am so totally blessed, and I now also "found" another person who I also was wanting to find for a long time also....

"2018!" HOPE for better health, less pain, yet it's not beginning very well, Lupus, RA flares possible & weather is literally I believe reeking havoc with me!

Praying for RELIEF, from Lupus, RA, Chronic Pain, and trying to remain hopeful that being in pain does NOT keep me from doing the things I want to do for 2018

The weather here like many places has been down right bitter cold! We were in the teens' night before and last night, at 17 this morning when I first got up. Fortunately, so far there has been no falling precipitation, or it may have been really bad here. I know I've heard the ambulances etc going out off and on now for days, I am sure many people ill, or get too cold etc. I am having a very difficult time "coping" with everything. I've so wanted 2018 to begin with new things to do, to accomplish, and pray that pain and illness don't plague me. Yet, I've been suffering with a severe headache off and on now for really 2 weeks, and when the weather got so cold, I believe every bone in my body hurts. I "may have a Lupus and/or RA" flare.

I feel like after they took me off the Methotrexate, that keeps the other medications from working as well. We did it due to me having infections so much back a good while ago, and now that seems to be somewhat "better" BUT the pain has been so horrible, almost unbearable, and for me to say that, and I am talking about over and above all of my medications, the pain pump and so forth. I FEAR going to the doctor's, one fear is that my neck could be messed up again. If I were to go to Urgent Care they could give me an injection of a corticosteroid along with a 14 day supply of a huge dose of prednisone, and if it is the Lupus and/or RA, then that would definitely help the pain, stiffness and inflammation.

Then I've had hell with my left elbow for a long while. In fact the Orthopedic Surgeon who did my knee replacements etc, told me several years ago that my left elbow really needed another surgery on it. Well, he injected it and it went a long while without giving me hell. But in the summer when I was doing all of the windows, getting them open (the old windows that someone painted shut inside) so I could open windows when the days were nice, plus I can clean them better, and be able to paint them etc... and it took a couple of weeks, but I got all but about 3 in the house that so far I've not been able to get open. One of them has a crack in it, so I didn't want to be messing with it, I JUST put in the one glass pane that the hail broke out, 2 or 3 years ago!

But, I have a couple more than NOW since I know I can actually do them myself, when the weather warms up I want to replace any that are cracked. Many of them have the initial glass that was put in them in 1950 when the house was built, so the glass is very brittle, after so many years... anyway, I had surgery on the left elbow in about 1998 or so. In fact, Dr. Roye who had just began practicing in Waxahachie, did the surgery. He fixed the elbow and had also done work on my left shoulder. But, the elbow has kind of like pins or screws in it, and they have always "poked" out so you can see them.

But, they had been right "above" the upper part of my elbow, and I accidentally was working on one of those windows and it was very loose, rather than so tight as most of them. I knew I had to prop it open in order to do what I needed to do, so it would not come crashing down on my fingers... I had placed a piece of board under it, but I was trying to get a screen in where that storm window had been used for an A/C unit. When it went out and I got the new one I moved it out of that window and wanted to put the screen back in it... but it is harder to do than you think, the way that screen has to go high up, then slide down into that window is difficult when you are having to go under the old inside window. Well, I started to put the screen in and try to get it up high enough to go into the window, but you also have to push on the outside of the storm window in order to get the screen to go in correctly. So, I knocked that darned board down and down went that heavy wooden window right down on that elbow where those screws are...

once that happened I was in so much pain, plus the screws actually MOVED down towards the bottom of my elbow than where they had been... well of course the hip fracture, then the neck surgery etc. and although the elbow pops now and then, it really has not hurt that much. Up until the past about 4 or 5 nights... it wakes me up every morning about 2AM from my elbow down to my fingers "numb" yet "on fire".... like it has fallen asleep so badly, and now as it "wakes" up that PAIN that comes with it! At first I thought it was my wrist because I have carpal tunnel, and I had the right hand fixed, but other things came up so I left the left one alone.... but I know it is not "just" my wrist down, and actually starts right above the elbow and radiates down into my thumbs and two sometimes 3 fingers on the thumb side. I believe I have Cubital tunnel syndrome which it what I think I had when it was repaired in the late 90's....

and after hitting those screws and it was already giving me problems, I feel that really did a number on it.... BUT, then for 2 nights beside HORRIBLE NIGHTMARES. I am woke up by my left LEG from my knee down with a very deep terrible ache! Bad enough it woke me up again last night. I got up took some meds and laid back down, but by 4AM I was up with the both of them hurting again.... What truly irks me about all of it, is that I've prayed and prayed to just have "time" to not be in so much pain, to not have horrible health issues, so I CAN BLOG, WRITE, AND DO SOME THINGS I WANT TO DO! IF between not sleeping due to severe pain, and then the weather really making it worse, and maybe some type of a flare, I hate to being griping but I pray the rest of 2018 is not like the 1st couple of days have been. I am almost embarrassed to "whine" about these things but damned it's just so hard to live with and not be able to talk to anyone about it....

May The New Year of 2018, bring a renewed peace, better health, less stress, added hope, and a feeling of "life worth living" to all....

My hopes are that everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday, and everyone got to where they needed to be both going and coming, without delays from weather, illness or anything else...
I also bid you a very Precious and Special 2018! My heart has hope, that we find Tranquility, A Faith to withstand and to triumph over evil and those who wish harm upon others. May there be a LIGHT that adds warmth to your soul, and may we all find the beauty in all things....

I realize that MANY of us had yet again, a "terrible" 2017, whether it be family, loss, health, jobs, finances, or "harm" from others, most of us will try and find that renewal of faith come midnight 2017/2018...

Wishing each and every one of you a SAFE, HAPPY, and GRAND New Year! My hopes and prayers are that WE as a person, as families, as friends, as workers, and as a state and nation find more hope, more peace, less stress, and a brand new outlook on our lives. 

I "try" to always find "hope" deep down inside this time of year. I am not "one" to have a "New Years Resolution" list, but a I usually have a "few things" down that I might like to "try" if I haven't done it before, "OR" change an old habit, find a new friend, or a new hobby, pray that my health gets no worse, and wish for peace most of all, in these times of trials, tribulations and suffering we see or hear about almost daily... May we be blessed with a New Outlook...

Wishing you much in blessings, hope, strength, better health, family, friends, jobs and so much more....

Wishing You and Yours a Beautiful, Peace filled, loving, and blessed Christmas, and May 2018 bring much needed "good events" to us all!!!

I realize MANY MANY of us have been "touched" by severe weather, threats from those who wish to harm us, Mother Nature's wrath, from fires, to hurricanes to tornado's... people that "abuse" others, and just now after MANY years they have the "courage and voice" to speak out...
So, as you gather around friends, family, the table, food, trees, gifts and more... Remember to keep "HOPE" Alive and burning brightly in your heart, say a prayer for those less fortunate, even though many of us are on that "list" of misfortunes also... hold your head high, and don't allow others to take over your life... PRAY that somehow the WORLD finds "PEACE" and always hold onto those you love and let them know everyday that you do...

Many blessings I wish for all of you and again hoping that the New Year of 2018, brings much goodness to us all!!!! Below is a "montage of photo's of myself, my daughter and her family, my 3 Grandkids, and my 2 Fur-Babies Bella Doxie and Peanut!

Several New Clinical Trials Our by "Cure Click"...RA, Diabetes, Fibroids, Lupus, Memory Problems and more...

There are several new Clinical Trials out sponsored by Cure Click... I've been so busy tied up with things around the house especially outside before the cold weather gets here, that I hope after the holidays, I am "back on tract" with my blog, writing, Social Media, book, and activism..,


I've tried to post what is most important, and then I also had "browser" issues. I have decided finally to "switch" to another browser, but I am still not thrilled with it. I guess I was so comfortable and familiar with the other one, after many years, that I've found it difficult when I really have not had the time to learn more about it to feel good about using it.

But the other one, which all of them are memory hogs, was just ridiculous... it was getting to where it was locking up every other moment, and I was having to force quit it and restart it all the time. It was SO SLOW... also... and I have plenty of "memory" as far as that goes, but all of the "items" that browsers "keep", and of course some "cookies" you find are helpful, but the cache is ridiculous at times...

Plus I believe after the last "update" they did, they had some type of virus. It was never as bad until about a month ago, and I got just fed up....

Anyway, I wanted to give you a heads up on these Clinical Trials, many of you maybe interested in them...

There aer still others that are in clinical trial phase also, and the graphics and links are on the sides of my blog... so be sure to check those out also... I will get these up also, as soon as time allows!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MAY YOU HAVE A BLESSED UPCOMING 2018!

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As Always, "Shi*" Happens, and it if will happen it will be me... 3 strikes are enough for sure, home repair, chronic illness, expenses rise, and benefits fall....

Well of course when it "rains it pours with me"... first it was the ceiling fan in the living room, of which is still sitting in my back bedroom not put up yet, then the dryer goes out and I STILL do NOT have MY new washer and dryer... they were going to bring them yesterday BUT I've felt like heck now for about 3 or 4 days, a BAD, BAD HEADACHE, a very, very nauseated stomach, and I've just not felt well at all. I STILL did not sleep last night, and I woke up with my head still hurting and my fingers are so bad with the eczema or whatever is wrong with them, that they are bleeding cracked, and then at night they swell, and throb so badly it wakes me up...

they really got bad after the colder weather hit... anyway, I just about got our decorations all on the tree, in fact I took pics but I don't think I even put them up here yet., so yesterday I was getting out of my HUGE HONKIN TUB as I call it, in fact I will post a pic of it, I found one just exactly like it a bit ago... anyway, I looked up at one of the side panels and thought I saw a "crack" in it! I was like it can't be... there is no "strain" on the 3 back panels, and I am the only one in it, unless I give the pups a bath, and then when I got to looking there were 2 in one panel and then on the other side I saw a crack in it! Now I bought that tub in 2006, several months after we moved in. When we did all of the remodeling, made the bathroom larger, put in new plumbing, electrical and lots of other work to the house, I ordered that tub... and it came in in about 5 huge crates, and we actually put it in ourselves. 

So, I got to thinking about it, and the 

ONLY thing I could come up 

with is that the panes of glass that enclose it are HEAVY!!! There are the two that slide, but then on each side, there is also panes... so that is a great deal of weight on those two panels over the years, especially with the two sliding back and forth to open and close it, and then like I said they are very heavy. Other than that I could see if it was in a bottom, or bottom side of the tub itself but it just does not make sense for cracks to be on those side panels... Anyway, I am going to silicone them for now, because about 3 months ago,

I began to notice the closets, and one of them opens into the back of that shower, and we have it where we can take a piece of the back of the closet down and see all the plumbing and electrical for the shower, I began to notice some kind of "odor"... well I know due to the humidity here in TX anyway, then the heat of the summer especially, it can get kind of a musty smell, and I keep stuff in the closets to absorb moisture, and change it frequently due to the moisture from the tub also... and I have to wonder now, if those small cracks are beginning to cause a bit of a seep from them, and that maybe causing that musty smell, if so, I don't know of a thing to do, but take out that shower, and put a smaller, just walk in shower with a bench for me...

I knew someday it may come to me having to do something else, because of the hip fractures, all of my joint surgeries and so forth, it can be a bit slippery now getting in and out of this particular type of shower, sauna/tub ... I pray it waits though after the mess with NOT getting the guy to finish my house outside, and taking all of that money, now the washer and dryer, the ceiling fan, and last night dammit, I was washing my crock pot and it slipped and knocked a piece out of the handle of it... It is not inside anywhere and I glued the piece back on, but I doubt it holds long, and my crock pot is one of my most used items in my kitchen almost! So, when it rains it pours as I said... I HOPE "Murphy's Law" leaves me alone for a while, I am going broke with things BREAKING! Below is the exact one I have...

An Herbal Green Tea - Matcha that I found very interesting as well as "tastes" good to me also, antioxidants, concentration benefits, help with immunity and so forth...

I usually am not one to "push" a product... but a couple of days ago I was in the market, and looking for some "herbal tea" to drink hot during the winter. I have tried all kinds and some of them are just not "tasty" for me... so I found this "Matcha" tea, and this happened to be Lipton Brand but I am sure buying some of the other brands that deal in the herbal tea's may be "better"... but this one is a "green tea" that is grown a very certain way and the "monks" used it and I am sure many still do... it is supposed to create "focus" and concentration, and it is really interesting... 

when I read just what bit was on the box, and then came home to look it up, I am really kind of "anxious" to see if it has some of the qualities that I've read about... it has MAJOR antioxidants, and I am including a page, out of many I found through just a search about some of those qualities. Now whether buying the "loose tea leaves" would be better, I have no clue, but I tried it this morning and I also really LIKED the taste of it... 

so that is a plus for me, and I am NOT a huge coffee drinker, and after about a cup if that much, I am really unable to drink much coffee... so this really helps to give me another choice that is "warm" during the cold months, PLUS if it gives more FOCUS, I NEED TO DRINK GALLON OF IT A DAY! :)

AND then the other "health benefits" are really many... so it is called "Matcha Green Tea" and I hope you find the story about it as interesting as I did....

https://www.healthline.com/nutriti…/7-benefits-of-matcha-tea

https://www.eater.com/…/everything-you-need-to-know-about-m…

*by the way the 1st one I posted was of course also "selling" it, so I've tried to find a couple of places that talk about the "tea" rather than trying to sell it to you....

I am NOT "pushing" any "one" brand, I just happened to have found it locally by Lipton, so that is what I bought. I wanted to find out more before I decided to feel like I needed it form some type of opinion and decide how I liked the taste before seeing if a "more expensive" or different brand would be any better. 

Is there a way to "combine" all of "Life & Stresses" & also "stay somewhat healthy, especially with chronic health issues and chronic pain problems

I've been it seems almost "lost" this entire year of 2017. It seems the "less" I think I may have to do and take care of, the MORE I find is "hitting me" in my pocket book, with my health, and in my trials of getting back to the basics. Which for me is my blog, my social media in some ways, and in my writing...


My blog, as well as my writing, and posts in Facebook, Twitter, my daily newspaper, and so forth are "crucial" I feel to keep myself "out there" working somehow on them, yet between doctor's visits, tests, health problems that arise suddenly, trying to recover from an extremely complicated cervical neck surgery from last April, I feel as if I am "drowning" and treading water to keep afloat.

After last year about this time, the tragedy of my fall that led to 2 fractures of my right hip, a total of 31 days of surgery and inpatient physical therapy to be able to walk on it, and then months of recuperating at home, I felt like most of my year has been taken over once again by my own health issues.

In 2016, when Mom became suddenly so ill, with Lewy Bodies Dementia, and I spent all of that year taking care of her, then her passing away a year ago in July, that things although never being the same may "calm" down somewhat where I could get more quality time in to my own projects, from this blog, to more advocacy work, to getting down to truly finishing and having my 3rd book published. Once again I feel as if I have "failed" myself, and in many ways failed my readers.

It was a great loss of my Mom, and then after I fell and spent so much time as an inpatient, and the loss of my dear sweet "Bub's" loss, because he "mourned" himself to death because of me not able to be home.

I swore that night he laid in my bed with my at the rehab hospital never again would I allow anything to "part me" from my fur babies. They will be able to come and see my as they should if again I cannot be home with them.

I am so fortunate to have Peanut, who was so little at the time, and now my sweet, sweet Bella Doxie, who just turned 4 months old on the 2nd of this month and the both of them are the LIGHTS in my heart and life that give me the courage to get up each morning and try to "seize" the day ahead. Yet I have now such a fear of losing one of them, or something happening to me, that I am in fear on some days, just leaving to run errands or pick up things from the market.

I've been fighting my own battle about this ordeal over the Opioid Issues. I was in a "meeting" online and on the phone last night with one of my advocacy groups about that subject. The thing I found interesting is that there were many questions being added to the list as we listened to the speaker, yet one of my POST QUESTIONS was the very 1st that was brought up.

How do you "try and avoid Opioid therapy" for a person who has "multiple health problems"? For instance, take my example. I have osteoarthritis, RA, Lupus, Osteoporosis, Chronic issues of degeneration in my neck and lumbar spine. I've had 2 heart attacks, MULTIPLE SURGERIES especially JOINT surgeries, & I STILL have chronic pain daily. Now of course, I try to do other things to help the pain, that is why the surgeries rather than allowing joints to become totally incapacitating, but hernia surgery, bladder surgery, my neck that now is so "eaten away" by osteoporosis that I face a "total fusion" with "equipment" IF the GRAFTS do not Heal and harden the way they should,

I have to be diligent in taking my other medications for some of the health problems, for my heart, for the Lupus, for the RA, for the osteoporosis, then there are meds for the other health related problems I have. YET, due to "some" of my health issues, I am NOT able to take NAIDS for instance. I have severe GERD plus after a heart attack, you should not use NSAIDS.

I do my exercises, I am NOT one to sit around and cry, whine, and be "still" just because I hurt. But, I do also know that some of the "other forms of ways to help chronic pain" would cause  me to have further problems, and/or pain

I've tried just about any and every other type of "chronic pain" alternatives there are. I've been through injections into my spine and joints, I've had one hand repaired my carpal tunnel, many of the surgeries were to "repair" issues that were causing me pain. But PT, (Physical Therapy) has really never worked much for me, other than with the hip fracture, always made me hurt worse, than before I had the PT. I've had my occipital nerves in my neck injected for migraines.  And I have to say, Yoga, Tai Chi, Chiropractic techniques, other forms of stretching, exercises, swimming, and acupuncture WORK for some people!

But, when you have a "complicated complex patient" that has several different problems that can cause severe daily chronic pain, most of us do have to have some type of Opioid medication in order for us to "live our lives with some kind of quality"..

I've used that phrase often since I began my quest for answers about chronic pain, "quality of life".... and when I look back to just not that many years ago, even when I was in my teen's... and as far back as I can recall... Even "Adults" in my family and surroundings in my home town were not "plagued" with the severe illnesses and chronic severity of pain, that so MANY of us NOW have to live with!

I've questioned that now for a long while... "Why"?? is it that many of the horrible illnesses we see now, just were extremely "rare"... you didn't hear of so many with Lupus, RA, or the other number of autoimmune illnesses. Fibromyalgia is yet another that was very rare.

What was it about their lives back then that either kept them "healthier", or led them to "not endure pain" like many these days'.. was it diet, was it because they did work harder physically and less sitting around and enduring the mental hardships of computers, and complicated times we live in now? Is it because they grew much of their own food, they ate many things that we would consider "bad" for us today, they grew their own "animals", most of their grains, or bought them locally from a small grocer, they had milk from their own cows, that they made cottage cheese, or other milk products with, they had "fresh" eggs, and then chickens that were not full of hormones or other things to cause them to "produce or grow quicker".... everything was more of a natural stance. From the clothing they made from flour sacks, to the corn, cotton, plums, peaches, tomatoes, and other vegetables they grew. They had hogs they killed and cows... nothing or very little came from a "store" or from "mass production".., and the LAND at that time was not COVERED IN CONCRETE AND GLASS... plastic was probably very rare... there were few "cars" and they walked to the town, or doctor if there was one, or the doctor made a house call if he could. Medications were not all that "manufactured" but they used natural things, what we now call "home remedies" or old "folk remedies"... well those remedies kept them living, and not experiencing the cancers, and afflictions we see in this day and age.

As I sum this post up, I would call it a time that life was more simple, not complex, you had what you had, and were happy with it.... you didn't try to life "above and beyond" their means, and the neighbors a mile or two away, were good neighbors, that helped in the fields, helped build barns, and houses.... and when you had an orange, apple, and a small toy in your stocking for Christmas morning, life was GOOD!!!!!!