Feeling Better - But how did you take your own picture?

I had to print out the email of the post to have it in front of me so I could be sure I addressed everything you wrote....

I took another look at the picture and deduced that you took your own picture in a mirror. See, Tessa told you Gammin was smart!!!

You surely said it straight when you said we don't realize how much we use our backs and take it for granted until it hurts. I knew the way to get rid of a cramp in my toes, or foot or leg...you stand on it and stretch it out and it hurts for a few seconds and then the cramp releases. But I was stumped for how accomplish a similar feat for my back. I don't think my doctor understood the severity of the issue, and I guess I can't blame him because I didn't either until the day after I saw him.

I had to call him on the Tuesday after I had seen him on Monday and say, "Yes, I guess I do need the stronger pain medicine." He prescribed hydrocodone, one tablet every 6 hours. I didn't get the Rx until late in the afternoon and then had to call him the next day and tell him that I didn't think that was often enough because I could hardly stand up and walk because the spasms were so bad. Lying down wasn't so bad, but... Anyway, he said I could increase the frequency to every 4 hours!!!

So, I did what every conscientious, obedient patient does...I started taking two tablets eery four hours instead of one. I think it was that and the fact that I finally came up with a sort of way to stretch my back muscles while in bed. That and the heating pad and I think it was on Friday that I was finally able to experiment and get out of bed without my back going into spasms. I would be lying in bed and actually thought I could feel the muscles relaxing and it would feel good and I would think it was going to be fine, and then just the movement of sitting up on the side of the bed would put them back into spasm.

So on the 4th I was definitely on the mend and possibly could have gone to the 4th of July event, though I glad I didn't push it. But Sunday I was definitely well on the road to recovery and even managed to take a bus to Kapolei to get my nails done!! And to go shopping at Long's. I was having a "Shopping Sister's" flashback.

All I know is the relief came just in time because I had only three of the pain pills left and he had given me 30, so I was trying to figure out how I was going to justify using all those pills and needing more. I still have two left.

So, I went back to work on Monday, still moving cautiously, more concerned about what riding on the bus would be like...you know, the forward and back, and stop, start, etc. I'm still a little tentative when getting up from a sitting position because sitting, particularly for extended periods seems to be what causes the most "stiffness" now.

I heard about the explosion you are talking about online on Fox News. I think I told you, maybe not, that we don't have T.V. anymore because we can't get Road Runner in this complex and so rather than signing up with the "other" company we just went without cable. It has been good. I was really addicted to T.V. so it was good to go cold turkey!

Sometimes I think the Fox News website is just as bad. It almost seems like they have soft porn from time to time, all in the name of "news"...I have emailed them a couple of times that they look more like a tabloid than a news agency. They really feed on the "sensational." It gets worse and worse. Probaly time to go cold turkey on that too...can't say it contributes anything positive.

I can't wait to see some of your artwork. And, MY DAUGHTER THE MODEL!!! How cool.

I will continue to do the photo thing. It is a really slow process on my computer though. I think it is a computer issue...just really slow. I still have to figure out picasa myself. I don't get the web album thing. The blog site seems to indicate I could post an album of pictures from picasa but I haven't figured out how to do that...yet.

Gotta run...we are going to the pet store and then to Home Depot but the pet store closes at 8 p.m. and it is now 7:20 p.m.

I'll definitely try to do some more pics over the weekend.

Love you,

Mom