Monday, April 17, 2006
This time, it's ME that's crashing....
Ack. As hard as i tried not to overdo it while Dan was gone, I still crashed big time today when he got back. Major headache, back ache, exhaustion, muddled mind. It's like the minute I relax I fall apart.
Part of it might be the new medication. The sleep specialist prescribed something called Baclofen, which is a muscle relaxant prescribed for people with MS. The hope was that it would stop my twitches from periodic limb movement disorder. It didn't at first, but now seems to. It also gets rid of the stiffness and tightness I get in my muscles, and as a result, I hurt less, at least I do until it wears off. Unfortunately, it also upsets my stomach, and at the recently increased dose, I'm also experiencing dizziness, incredibly slow thinking and daytime sedation. No vomiting, though, so I'm sticking with it for a three week trial period like I promised I would. I didn't realize that the stuff was actually impairing me, though, until this morning when I got a phone call from someone doing a Neilsen rating survey and I couldn't understand her. At first I though she was just talking too fast. I asked her to repeat something and still could barely comprehend her words. Then it dawned on me that it wasn't the caller talking too fast, it was me thinking too SLOWLY. Yikes. I finally had to mutter to the lady that this was not a good time for me to participate in a survey as she had awakened me, and I hung up. It was already going on 10am, eight and a half hours after I went to bed. I decided I was far too impaired to drive myself to aquacise and lay back down, hoping the bed spins would stop. What really upset me, though, was the thought that in another month or so, a realtor might be calling me at that hour wanting to show the house. How am I gonna manage something like that, especially if Dan has started a new job and I'm stuck by myself waiting for the house to sell? Obviously, I'm gonna have to re-think my meds if I end up in that situation. Finally, the Baclofen wore off about two hours later, just in time for me to get ready to pick Dan up from the airport.
Dan the Man news: while he was gone, he got one interview, took one test (building a brochure on the computer), got one call back, and dropped off lots of resumes at any possible company that might hire a graphic artist/graphic designer. He did happen upon two places that had openings that hadn't been offically posted yet. He also found out that the cable company is looking for Mac techs. He doesn't know anything technical about computers, but if they're willing to train him, it would be a stable job and valuable knowledge to have. He also gathered up every available publication on homes for sale. He has decided we're definitely moving, while I still believe we could stay here if he finds a suitable job. Problem is, he's convinced he won't find one here and hasn't applied for any of the openings I've pointed out lately. Yeah, I know, finding a job that pays well enough for us to stay here is about as likely as finding a needle in a hay barn, but I REALLLLLLY don't wanna move.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous this past week, and I soooo wanted to get outside and tidy up the yard, but I don't dare. This is pretty ridiculous, but I've been warned not to do any yard work at all, especially while my long-term disability insurance company is still deciding on my claim. Even though I told them I was capable of up to 30 minutes of weed pulling, the company has a history of videotaping claimants whenever they set foot outside their home and using whatever you do as "evidence" that you can work. I don't see how pulling a few dandilions means I can complete a 40 hour workweek, but I'm not taking any chances. So this year, poor Dan is going to have to thatch, mow, fertilize AND weed the yard all by himself. And in case we do need to put the house on the market, he'll also have to do things we don't much care about, like edging and maybe even trimming the bushes out front. We have these "dwarf" burning bushes that are now touching the overhang on the roof. I've never trimmed a plant in my life and haven't the foggiest notion of how to do it.
I did try to do something to earn my keep while Dan was gone. I FINALLY got around to some of that spring cleaning I've been promising to do for over a month. I went through the medicine cabinets, cabinets under the bathroom sinks, and the drawers in the master bath. I tossed out anything expired and anything I used to use on my long hair that can't be used on short hair (old ponytail holders, clips, barrettes, etc.). I actually filled up an entire kitchen bag of stuff to throw out! Guess maybe I should clean out the bathroom cabinets a little more often than once every eight years??? And I wiped everything down while I was at it. In the master bath medicine cabinet, some unknown substance had spilled in there and made a godawful mess. It absolutely would not come off unless I scraped it, and when scraped it, the paint came off too! Ewwww! So now if we need to sell the house, we'll have to re-paint the inside of that cabinet. I also re-arranged the DVDs with the notion that if we need to prep the house to sell, one of the DVD cabinets is gonna get dismantled and the DVDs packed away to reduce clutter. So I picked out the DVDs that would go in the cabinet we will keep in the house. Most of Dan's horror movies and movies that aren't, um, family friendly material are in the "to be packed" pile.
I also did some research during the few moments I could keep the computer running. I looked up mortgage rates, learned about points and whether I should consider paying them, found some recommended companies to do touch up work on the house, read up on tips for prepping a house for sale and printed out checklists for selling, buying another house and moving. I figure even if I don't need this info right away, I might need it a year from now, or maybe sometime after that. Better to have some vague notion ahead of time of how to go about this than to panic because I'm trying to do it all at the last minute.
Other projects I should work on regardless of whether we move are: cleaning out the non-clothing portions of the master bedroom closet (I already sorted through the clothes last fall), wiping down the kitchen cabinets, sorting through all the cleaning products under the kitchen sink, cleaning out the food pantry, sorting through the video tapes and maybe going through the coat closet. If I can get this stuff taken care of before Dan gets laid off, there will be slightly less to do if we do have to sell the house.
There's more I want to say, but I've already too much time on this. Will be glad when I can go back to typing an entry at one sitting without saving repeatedly in case the computer bombs.
Right now, I think I'm the bomb. And not in a good way.
Part of it might be the new medication. The sleep specialist prescribed something called Baclofen, which is a muscle relaxant prescribed for people with MS. The hope was that it would stop my twitches from periodic limb movement disorder. It didn't at first, but now seems to. It also gets rid of the stiffness and tightness I get in my muscles, and as a result, I hurt less, at least I do until it wears off. Unfortunately, it also upsets my stomach, and at the recently increased dose, I'm also experiencing dizziness, incredibly slow thinking and daytime sedation. No vomiting, though, so I'm sticking with it for a three week trial period like I promised I would. I didn't realize that the stuff was actually impairing me, though, until this morning when I got a phone call from someone doing a Neilsen rating survey and I couldn't understand her. At first I though she was just talking too fast. I asked her to repeat something and still could barely comprehend her words. Then it dawned on me that it wasn't the caller talking too fast, it was me thinking too SLOWLY. Yikes. I finally had to mutter to the lady that this was not a good time for me to participate in a survey as she had awakened me, and I hung up. It was already going on 10am, eight and a half hours after I went to bed. I decided I was far too impaired to drive myself to aquacise and lay back down, hoping the bed spins would stop. What really upset me, though, was the thought that in another month or so, a realtor might be calling me at that hour wanting to show the house. How am I gonna manage something like that, especially if Dan has started a new job and I'm stuck by myself waiting for the house to sell? Obviously, I'm gonna have to re-think my meds if I end up in that situation. Finally, the Baclofen wore off about two hours later, just in time for me to get ready to pick Dan up from the airport.
Dan the Man news: while he was gone, he got one interview, took one test (building a brochure on the computer), got one call back, and dropped off lots of resumes at any possible company that might hire a graphic artist/graphic designer. He did happen upon two places that had openings that hadn't been offically posted yet. He also found out that the cable company is looking for Mac techs. He doesn't know anything technical about computers, but if they're willing to train him, it would be a stable job and valuable knowledge to have. He also gathered up every available publication on homes for sale. He has decided we're definitely moving, while I still believe we could stay here if he finds a suitable job. Problem is, he's convinced he won't find one here and hasn't applied for any of the openings I've pointed out lately. Yeah, I know, finding a job that pays well enough for us to stay here is about as likely as finding a needle in a hay barn, but I REALLLLLLY don't wanna move.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous this past week, and I soooo wanted to get outside and tidy up the yard, but I don't dare. This is pretty ridiculous, but I've been warned not to do any yard work at all, especially while my long-term disability insurance company is still deciding on my claim. Even though I told them I was capable of up to 30 minutes of weed pulling, the company has a history of videotaping claimants whenever they set foot outside their home and using whatever you do as "evidence" that you can work. I don't see how pulling a few dandilions means I can complete a 40 hour workweek, but I'm not taking any chances. So this year, poor Dan is going to have to thatch, mow, fertilize AND weed the yard all by himself. And in case we do need to put the house on the market, he'll also have to do things we don't much care about, like edging and maybe even trimming the bushes out front. We have these "dwarf" burning bushes that are now touching the overhang on the roof. I've never trimmed a plant in my life and haven't the foggiest notion of how to do it.
I did try to do something to earn my keep while Dan was gone. I FINALLY got around to some of that spring cleaning I've been promising to do for over a month. I went through the medicine cabinets, cabinets under the bathroom sinks, and the drawers in the master bath. I tossed out anything expired and anything I used to use on my long hair that can't be used on short hair (old ponytail holders, clips, barrettes, etc.). I actually filled up an entire kitchen bag of stuff to throw out! Guess maybe I should clean out the bathroom cabinets a little more often than once every eight years??? And I wiped everything down while I was at it. In the master bath medicine cabinet, some unknown substance had spilled in there and made a godawful mess. It absolutely would not come off unless I scraped it, and when scraped it, the paint came off too! Ewwww! So now if we need to sell the house, we'll have to re-paint the inside of that cabinet. I also re-arranged the DVDs with the notion that if we need to prep the house to sell, one of the DVD cabinets is gonna get dismantled and the DVDs packed away to reduce clutter. So I picked out the DVDs that would go in the cabinet we will keep in the house. Most of Dan's horror movies and movies that aren't, um, family friendly material are in the "to be packed" pile.
I also did some research during the few moments I could keep the computer running. I looked up mortgage rates, learned about points and whether I should consider paying them, found some recommended companies to do touch up work on the house, read up on tips for prepping a house for sale and printed out checklists for selling, buying another house and moving. I figure even if I don't need this info right away, I might need it a year from now, or maybe sometime after that. Better to have some vague notion ahead of time of how to go about this than to panic because I'm trying to do it all at the last minute.
Other projects I should work on regardless of whether we move are: cleaning out the non-clothing portions of the master bedroom closet (I already sorted through the clothes last fall), wiping down the kitchen cabinets, sorting through all the cleaning products under the kitchen sink, cleaning out the food pantry, sorting through the video tapes and maybe going through the coat closet. If I can get this stuff taken care of before Dan gets laid off, there will be slightly less to do if we do have to sell the house.
There's more I want to say, but I've already too much time on this. Will be glad when I can go back to typing an entry at one sitting without saving repeatedly in case the computer bombs.
Right now, I think I'm the bomb. And not in a good way.
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