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.

Working out

I've been on a search for a workout regime that worked with my RSD.  I have to admit this has been rather difficult for me.  I was looking for something low impact that I could do at home, and that wouldn't hurt either my leg or my back (because of the SCS).

I'm happy to report  I had simply been looking in all the wrong places.  I didn't need something I could do at home, on account of my laziness.  What I needed was a friend to push me to go work out with her, and who I would do the same for.  Said friend and I have started swimming together.  It's been years since I've been in the pool for anything other than fun, so this required a little pushing.

We've only swam together twice so far (yesterday and the day before), but I already feel better about myself!  We're going swimming again tonight and I can't wait.  There might be something wrong with me.  I might be sick.  I can't ever remember being excited to exercise.  What is going on up in that head of mine?  I don't know, but I'll take it.

My husband suggested I come up with a goal to help keep myself on track and we decided a good goal was to swim 1,600 miles (the shortest distance across the Atlantic Ocean).  If you want to track my progress check out the link to my other blog above.

So how does swimming affect the RSD?  It certainly does have en effect.  If I kick too hard my leg is in a lot of pain afterward, but the great thing about swimming is that when I feel like I'm overdoing it I can stop kicking altogether and just pull with my arms.  After a few days my leg hurts no more than  I did before starting swimming.

Okay I'll stop now.  Like I said I'm way too excited about exercise.

On the other hand, I bought some new clothes this past weekend and wore high heels for the first time in.... oh... almost ever.  That is not so good for the ankle.  I'll have to keep heel wearing to a minimum.