Back to Square One

After five nights of burning legs and muscle spasms, we've decided not to try any more of the Pool Therapy.  These are the same leg issues I experience if I've gone anywhere without my walker, done any exercise as in riding my bike, or enjoyed a whirlpool tub.  Since the whirlpool tub isn't using any muscles it really points to nerve stimulation.  This leads us back to peripheral neuropathy which is the term for damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system.  Common symptoms are muscle weakness, cramps, and spasms. Loss of balance and coordination may also occur.  So we're back to Square One...and we'll keep looking for help, or a painless way to get to Square Two!

Blogged Brain

I spent two hours taking advantage of a new option here yesterday....adding pages.  You will notice on the left, under HOME, there are more pages you can click onto.  This is very similar to my old website at SimpleSite, and a great new feature.  It's unreal how much brain power it uses up just to do that simple task....left me quite useless for the rest of the day.  That's OK.....we have a new day, and I'll see if I can't find some more interesting stuff to work on! 

Pool Therapy

Spring has Sprung on our Patio. I love my plastic flowers from
the Dollar Store. 
We went to Kingston today where I enjoyed an hour of Pool Therapy at St. Marys of the Lake Hospital.  The pool was lovely and warm, and the instructor gave 14 of us a fantastic workout.  I used some muscles I'd forgotten I had! I found it a whole lot of input to my brain, and by times I would forget what we were supposed to be doing.  Fortunately it was soon time to change to the next set of exercises, and I'd be good for a few more minutes.  If I don't end up with burning legs all night, I'm going to do this once a week for the next month, and see if I have less balance problems. 
 

Great News

Just got a call from the doctors office.  They have the results back from the stress test, and there is no indication of any coronary artery disease!!!!
So my warranty has been extended, and I can just keep on motoring! 

Slow Week

No results back from stress test yet.....no news is good news, right?  Ralph and family came for a lovely visit on Thursday, and Jim and I went yesterday to visit his mommy in Ottawa.
Jim is so innovative.  Realizing that a lot of the time I can't handle the noise from the TV, he has installed two headsets, one for each of us.  The TV is set on Mute, but whoever wants to watch TV can wear their headset with their own volume control.  This means I can sit quietly doing my own thing, while Jim is enjoying TV.  And since I have a hearing problem, I can wear mine at a level I can enjoy, without blasting Jim out of the room.  I love gadgets that make life easier!

Stress Test

I've just finished the two day stress test.  It was quite a different type of testing....I could eat breakfast, but then fast until 1pm, when I went to the hospital, and they injected a dye into my arm.  Then I could go eat lunch, and return after an hour.  A machine then took twenty minutes to circle my chest, taking sixteen pictures.  Today was the same, except first they injected a drug that made my heart think it was running on a treadmill.  Then they injected the dye, we went and ate lunch, and came back for another sixteen pictures.  Now we wait to hear from our doctor to see if there is any problems.  I guess the worst part of the two days was no coffee at all.  (Poor Jim!)

 

Daylight Savings

I got this in my email this morning!  My thoughts exactly! tee hee

We had put our names on the Seniors Housing List in Ottawa a couple of years ago, and actually got a phone call on Friday that they have an apartment available for us.  It is in the building right next door to my sister June, within walking distance of my brother Dave, and a half hour drive to our son Ralph.  My first instinct was to yell YES, we'll take it....but then I thought better of it, considering it is just a one bedroom apartment.  So now we have to send the doctor's certificate stating we require a two bedroom apartment to Ottawa, and go back on the waiting list.
Tomorrow we're off to Belleville for my myocardial perfusion test, or stress test.  Since I have some breathing problems, instead of the tread mill, they use a drug to make my heart think its working hard.  hmmmmmm   I'll keep you posted on that experience!

Decisions...decisions....yikes

I’ve mentioned before the problems I sometimes experience with decision making. This morning is a great example. I got the egg from the fridge for my breakfast. Now what would I like to add to that to make a yummy breakfast? Oh yes, there is a container with some leftover mashed potato/sweet potato mixture, and one lonely little cod fillet. So I got the little mini fry pan out, cracked the egg into it, and added the fish and potatoes. Oops…the mini fry pan looked too small, so I got out the larger fry pan, and dumped it into that. Nope…now the frypan is too large. OK…dump it all into a large mug and microwave it! Yep…that worked! Now look at all the dishes I had to wash up, just because of my inability to make a decision!

Scrambled Brain

It's day three after our lovely weekend adventure, and I'm still trying to get my head together.  I feel like the picture...all the blocks haven't quite gotten back onto their proper shelves.  Yesterday I wandered down to the common room and visited with a neighbour but left after about five minutes.  I struggled with every sentence, stuttering as I tried to grab the right words out of the jumble.  So I'll just remain in my cozy corner of the living room, enjoying my quiet space until the blocks get settled.

Our Mini Adventure

Jim and I thoroughly enjoyed our train trip to Ottawa this weekend.  Wait...is that me waving out the window! lol  


We had lots of visiting with our families, and of course ate way too much delicious food.  Jim quite enjoyed the hassle free mode of travel, and wondered why it has taken me thirty years to convince him to try train travel!  Now I'm saving up all my Loonies and Toonies to try a longer trip to Nova Scotia to visit son Dave, and then BC to visit sons Lane and Gene!

Am I getting forgetful?

We went to Kingston today to get our train tickets for our trip to Ottawa on Saturday, and to make sure we knew where we could park our car for the weekend.  We were delighted to discover that since we have a Handicapped Sticker for our vehicle, our parking will be free....a savings of about $10.  We headed over to the Bulk Food Store, and were pleased to see that today was 10% off for Seniors!  Of course, by the time we were ready to cash out, both of us had forgotten we needed to tell the cashier we were seniors...so missed saving about $2.50.  We had to do our Chinese Buffet of course....and there again, the staff didn't give us our Senior's discount!!!  So I've decided I need to wear this button on my forehead whenever I go shopping!!!

Visit with our family doctor

We're just back from Picton, and seeing our family doctor.  He is now referring me to the Respiratory Clinic in Kingston for more testing and where I'll also learn some breathing exercises.  He's also referring me to the Belleville hospital for a myocardial perfusion scan, which is a nuclear medicine procedure that illustrates the function of the heart muscle.  

Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to convince him to start Jim on the medications for alzheimers.  He still wants to wait six months and do the testing again.  This makes me so totally frustrated.  Jim's short term memory is so bad.  Everything I read says how important it is to get on the meds early.  Our doctor says you can't believe everything you read!