Weekly Check-In Jan 7-13 2006
 

Hi Everyone..I hope everyone had a Happy New Year..I got invited over by some of my AA friends on New Years day..Plenty of good friends and food

I cant believe the weather we are having here in the northeast!..Here it is the first week of January, and its been in the 50's and 60's all week..Unbelievable!

I have been trying to keep busy, but I havent been feeling that good..Tired, fatigued, balance not to good..I have alot of trouble navigating through crowds..I was at an AA meeting last night that is always crowded, and I go so tired of being in somebodys way wherever I was standing, and trying not to trip over anybody or anything that I went home early

Ive been working in the yard a few days a week trying to catch up on all the things that I didnt do before because I was busy fishing..I plan on cleaning out the garage and the cellar, and I have a boat in my yard thats got some rot in the bottom so Im going to cut it up a couple of pieces at a time and get rid of it

So thats my week..How was your week?

Oh how I agree. The weather this winter...did I say winter...is it really winter...hummm. All I know is with all the rain this weekend, we should have about a foot or two of snow on the ground today, with more falling all day today. The shoveling may not be my favorite to do, but I do miss the snow.

Six years ago this past Dec 21st my oldest grandson was born. That week I was caring for his 2 1/2 yrs old sister (9 yrs in a few weeks/Feb). It snowed every single day while he and his mom were in the hospital here in Gettysburg...five days. Plows had a hard time keeping up and I was still a Floridian back then and hadn't driven in snow since we lived in northern Japan. We left there in 1975, so it had been a very long time ago.

I want snow! I want snow! I want snow! Can you hear me pounding on the table...LOL

This is the week I pack. Moving from my beautiful apple orchards countryside into the "city". Not that Gettysburg is huge of anything. The battlefields keep the city limits in check. By the time Steve posts the weekly check in for next week, I will be done moving. While I will sorely miss my countryside, the plus is that I can walk to the market, the post office and the shops on the square. So, I will get more exercise...if I want it...ha ha ha.

Well, off to the shower and babysitting all day at my daughter's house. I do have a rather serious medical test today. I am continuing to assume that it will be negative. I certainly don't need a third incurable disease to deal with...LOL

As my good friend says each morning at the end of you morning mail...I am off to dance through the day. I love that thought. Leaves a beautiful picture in my head.


p.s. Hope my constant graphics don't irritate everyone too much. If so, just holler and I will quit.

Jaye,
 

it's great to see you posting again! I haven't logged on to the other site since Steve emailed me and told me about BT2, so you may have been there.

Steve, I share your discomfort about crowds. Picture this; walking through a crowded, narrow, cobblestone-paved market in the old city of Jerusalem with people moving rapidly shoulder-to-shoulder in both directions. Occasionally, a small tractor pulling a trailer loded with market goods comes along, horn beeping to warn the pedestrian market-goers (and tourists, one of which was a PWP) to move! No, that was not a bad dream, it was yours truly last June. I think that was my least favorite experience on my Middle East trip.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Robert

Healing slowly, but healing.
 

Hip replacement surgery has a long recovery period. I was talking in terms of six to ten months because that's what my surgeon's assistant said, but my physical therapist said no, that a year after surgery would be the soonest people start to feel like themselves. Since the surgeon's assistant is very smart but basically clueless about how patients feel, and the physical therapist is super great and works to understand PD, I'll go with the PT's opinion, since it's borne out by my own experience anyway. Honestly, it takes most of my energy just to be in a state of healing. There was a lot of pain at first, too, but nothing at all approaching the degree and depth of pain I had been living with before the surgery. (Thank you very much to the member of this forum who PM'ed me to console me about the pain shortly after surgery. Your support made a real difference to me.)

Robert, thanks for the greeting; it's good to be back--when I can manage, which I hope will be more often. I have posted in the BT1 forum at need, but haven't even lurked there in a month of Sundays. I belong in a place where my PWP companions and I are treated with respect and dignity. Another way to put it is that I don't want to stay where cs is unwelcome.

I have rashly signed up for the PAN forum next month. Anyone else going?

Jaye

Jaye, its good to hear from you..and I hope you heal up well..You have been in my thoughts lately and certainly in my prayers

I dont know if I will be able to make it or not to the forum..I have to wait untill the 19th of this month to get the results from my brothers prostate biopsy, and then I will know if I can go or not..Monica Billger has e-mailed me and would like to see me be able to make it there this year..So we will see

Steve

Nothing exciting to report from my end. It's about 80 degrees today but we're supposed to get rain over the next few days. Our version of winter. :D

School is finished, so feeling a little bit of a let down. Not sure what direction I'm headed in. I've always known what I was doing and where I was going until now and it's a little frightening. We'll see what happens!

Steve - I hope things work out with your brother and you get to make it to PAN. This is my first trip and it would be great to meet up.

Jaye - Hope you're hanging in there. Looking forward to seeing you again, this time at PAN. I'll need some "veteran" guidance from both you and Steve! I'm looking forward to it.

Have a great week everyone!

Todd
PDTalks.com

Jaye, you might like to know that my husband, who had one hip replaced in 2000 and the other in Jan. 2005, feels that he is still improving. He finally stopped using a cane just a few months ago.

I've decided that leaving my job is a good thing (most of the time, the rest of the time I'm scared!). Now I have to find out how to go on disability. I see my MDS the end of Jan. and I guess the process starts then. I get 66% of my pay, but I have no idea whether benefits continue or not, or anything else about it. I have about 8 months of sick leave and holiday built up, so I suppose that has to be used up first. I'll phone our disability person my next day off with a list of questions.

Right now, my 19 yr. old son is out proving how tough and capable he is. One of our horses on a farm about 7 miles out of town is getting old and frail, and needs to be put in the barn at night. We have had near blizzard conditions for the last two hours, and the roads have been really icy, but off he goes in my van with no four wheel drive and no cell phone. Then I get a phone call from a school bus driver via her headquarters that he's in the ditch. He's had lots of time to walk to the nearest farm, but he hasn't called yet, and no one I've called has seen him. He took lots of warm clothes with him and is probably just fine, but..... Okay, happy ending! He just phoned - got himself unstuck the first time, looked after the horse, then got stuck again coming home and is now safe with some friends who live nearby. When he gets home, I'm going to explain to him that being his mother is way too stressful and I'm going to put him up for adoption!!!!! LOL The worst tremor I've ever had was before I really had any other symptoms - my horse went over backwards on top of him while I watched. I was sure he'd been killed. Then there was the phone call while we were on holiday this summer that he hadn't returned from his canoe trip. Need I say more!

Todd, PD's timing with you was really bad, for sure. There are a lot of trite things a person could say - just hope all goes well, one way or another.

Hi Steve
 

Not much to report here. Winter comes, stays for a day or two and then is replaced by Spring or Fall or what ever you want to call it. The weather has been oscillaing back and forth for the past month or so. I've been working on a few papers but, really, I'm just on hold until we make the move to Maine later this year. Other news is that my youngest daughter is expecting in June.

All the best,

Lloyd

Wendy!
 

My heart goes out to you, what hair raising traumas your brave and fearless son has caused you. I don't know how you even survived the canoe trip long enough to learn that all was well.
I hope he realizes soon that it's not enough that HE knows he's all right, you need to know it too.

birte