Back on the meds

Well, it's been a while.  I know some still read this blog and for that I am grateful.  When I realize so much time has passed since my last post I'm left wondering if it's even worth keeping up with.  Seeing that people are still reading gives me encouragement.

We had a long, cold, awful winter here.  It was so bad I spent most of it using my cane.  Oh how I hate that contraption.  My doctor has told me before there is nothing else they could do for me so I admit to being terrified when I called him a few months ago to see if there was anything he could do.  I'm back on some medications :(  They have been helping, though, so they are probably worth it.

My sleep has been suffering from the meds.  They make me drowsy and keep me awake all at the same time.  How is that even possible?  But again, I keep reminding myself they are helping.  I'm walking without the cane again, and am doing pretty well at hiding my pain from the world again.  I wean off them soon but the doctor has assured me that I can stay on them long term if I need to.  I suppose I'll see how I feel when I start weaning.

For all the cold we dealt with this winter we've had some crazy weather this spring.... I suppose you could say Spring and Summer now.  It's been a mixture of unseasonably hot, unseasonably cold, and stormy here.  None of this does much to help with the pain, which is really why I'm even considering staying on the medications.

All of that having been said, life goes on.  My husband and I have been getting a lot of work done around the house lately.  We had some problems because of the weird winter, so we're dealing with all of those.  My house is soon to become a construction zone.  I'm not looking forward to it,. but hopefully this past winter will finally be put behind us soon.

Although I have been swimming a lot this past week, it has done nothing for my pain.  If anything it has made it worse.  I will not let that deter me, however.  I plan to keep swimming and keep hoping that it will help.

Long time no post. We bought a house!

I realize it has been over 2 years since my last post.  I'm sorry for not updating sooner.  Life got crazy for a while in there.  About a year and a half ago my husband and I ran into some very stressful housing issues.  We had to move out on fairly short notice and decided we were done renting.  Instead we started house hunting!

My father in law was kind enough to let us stay with him while we searched.  It took us about 2 months to find a house we loved that was also within our budget and put in an offer that night.  The sellers accepted and we were off!  We thought that would be the end of the stress, but boy were we wrong.  It was really just the beginning.

While we were getting our approval from the bank for our loan the government shut down!  They couldn't process any of our paperwork.  It was a complete nightmare.  Eventually the government re-opened, we signed our closing papers and the second move in just a few months began.  Only this time, instead of putting all our stuff into storage we were moving it into our house!

So we bought a house, and it's wonderful, but I had no idea it would be so much work.  We got a ton of snow just a few months after we moved in here.  Shoveling heavy snow is hard work, let me tell you.  My husband was not pleased with me for even trying.  In fact, I've been banned from doing so this year.  So the upkeep here can be a bit of work sometimes but I am so glad we did this.  It's been well worth it.

Unfortunately, with increased work, comes increased pain.  I'm still doing much better than I was before I got my stimulator.  I still am thankful every day I chose to have it implanted, but I admit the pain levels have gone up a bit since we moved in here.  I had to use my cane for about 3 weeks recently (Oh!  That's another new thing!  I had to buy a cane earlier this year to help me get around when my CRPS starts flaring really badly.  I hate using it but thankfully I haven't had to use it much.  I really feel for those of you out there that need that or more on a regular or constant basis).

And that's a brief overview of what's been going on in my life.

Chillingly hot

I said in my last post it seemed summer might be coming to an end.  Well lately it seems like it.  It's been cold here at night and hot during the day.  This week we were in the 50s (F) every night but today, for example, it was in the mid 90s during the day.

These dynamic temperatures make it hard to determine how to dress in the morning.  Do I dress for the 50 degrees outside when I leave the house, or the 90 degree when I leave work?  It's nearly impossible to decide.  I usually opt for dressing to the heat and wrapping a blanket around my ankle when I'm in the office.

On top of the weather there's been a bit of stress in my life the lat few days.  Swimming last night helped me release some of the stress, but my ankle is still bothering me a bit.  I'm trying to relax right now (I'm sitting back with a glass of Pinot Noir and watching my favorite movie- The Princess Bride).  Hopefully after a good night's rest my ankle will be more cooperative.

Summer's almost over

Pardon me while I pour one out for summer.  I love you, summer.  I loved you more when I was young and had vacation when you were around, but I still love you as an adult.  You just don't bring me the unexplainable joy of being completely lazy for two and a half months anymore.

I being up the impending end of summer because as summer comes to a close the weather begins to cool.  However, my office doesn't turn off their air conditioning for months.  It was 50 degrees F the other morning and my office was freezing.  I'm so glad I have a space heater that I can put right behind my chair and a blanket to wrap around my leg.  I also brought soup to help keep me warm.  The next day it was warm again in the morning.

As much as I'll miss summer until next year I'm excited for Autumn.  I love the fall.  Unlike the summer, I love you more as time passes.  When I was younger you signified the end of laziness and the beginning of classes again.  Now you mostly stand for all the fun things I loved about you as a kid.  The leaves turn beautiful colors, the apples are ready for picking, the haunted hay rides start, and of course there's the beer festivals in my area.  All of that means walking.  It's almost walking season again.

I think it might be helping

I really do think swimming might be helping my ankle.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still in pain, but I find the smallest things aren't exacerbating it as much.

I got the idea that I needed to start working my ankle out more when my husband told me about his friend who has CRPS.  She plays guitar to help stave off the symptoms (and oh boy can she play guitar!), and it really seems to work for her.  I decided I had to start doing something and see if that made a difference in my pain levels.

But what?  I always liked to run, and that's definitely out.  There's working out and then there's being downright dumb and in my case, running would be downright dumb.  That's when the cards fell into place and my swimming buddy asked me to start swimming with her.  I had been on the varsity team in high school, despite suffering from undiagnosed CRPS, so why can't I swim now that I have my SCS?

I'm so grateful everything came together like this.  Swimming makes me feel better in so many ways.

I forgot to turn on my stimulator!

And boy did it make a difference.  We went swimming last night.  At first I could tell something was off but I wasn't sure what.  It wasn't until about 15 minutes in that I noticed I didn't feel that comforting buzzing in my back and legs.

Within minutes I couldn't kick with my right leg anymore and even dragging it behind my body, water rushing by, was very painful.  I knew then I was doomed.

HOW COULD I FORGET?!?  I need the stimulation to carry on even close to a normal life.  It should be second nature to me by now, but of course it's not.

I ended up swimming for only 40 minutes or so and then I had to get out.  It hurt too much and I was beginning to see some swelling.  My very understanding friend understood why I had to leave, and I got out, took some Aleve and headed home.  I could barely even stand in the shower.

The pain has started to calm now.  I'm looking forward to swimming again tonight.  I do think it helps with the strength and the pain related to the CRPS.

Swimming again!

I'm going swimming tonight.  NO EXCUSES!  But let me tell you something.  My leg hurts.  I'm not sure what it is.  I was sitting at my desk today when all of a sudden it started hurting a lot more than it has since I got the stimulator.  I did everything I could think to do to get it to stop but nothing helped.  I'm hoping getting into the water tonight will help.

Hopefully there aren't too many people there tonight.  I think that might be part of the reason it hurts. I had to kick my legs a lot harder lats night to keep myself going in a straight line last night because of all the people, which means there was more pressure on my ankle.  Hopefully some Aleve and a nice slow night will do the trick.  If not I'll have to bow out early.

I was going to wear one of my dresses today, which would have meant heels.  I'm glad now I opted out of it and them.  I was also supposed to work on the wine I'm making with my family.  Thankfully it's not quite ready for the next step yet.  Things worked out pretty well for me today.  Hopefully by the time the wine is ready my ankle will be feeling better and will be able to stand as long as I'm needed.