Where I have been

I am sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted. Life got real hectic and depressing. In July my adopted father passed away. So my DH and I traveled to Massachusetts for the funeral. I did not think my back would hold up very well, but my back handled it okay. I made it through the wake, the funeral mass, and the graveside service before my leg finally decided it had had enough. It was a real hard few days both emotionally and physically. After I got home things were made a tad worse when I received a phone call after I arrived home that was extremely hurtful and totally unexpected. This caused me to become very depressed. It took me a few weeks to pull myself out of it.

After I returned to FL I got to start the waiting game and the arguing with the doctor game about getting the radio frequency re-done for my back. This is a procedure that helps me a great deal by lowering my overall pain level so that my medications (at their current dosing) are more effective. My doctor insisted, at first, that I did not need this procedure despite the fact that I had gone through it 3 times before. He then argued with me over which side of my back/pelvis needed this procedure despite the fact that past experimentation had proven that I get the best results by having the procedure done on both sides of my lower back/pelvis. Because of all the disagreement I ended up with 6 weeks of extreme pain because the prior RF procedure had completely worn off. I was then told that I could not possibly be in that much pain and a diagnostic would have to be done to decide whether or not RF would be feasible. I went through the diagnostic, which proved RF to be feasible, and returned to the doctor. He then wanted me to wait an additional 2 months before doing the RF itself. He had no real reason for wanting this other than his belief that I couldn't be in that much pain. I cried on my way home from that appointment. Finally the RF was completed, but only on the left side, on August 5th. The doctor then decided that I did not need it done on the right side at all, despite the many entries in my chart that clearly showed I needed both sides done within 2 weeks of each other for maximum benefit. That was the final straw for me; I chose to stop seeing this particular doctor and switched to another doctor in the same office. It is my belief that a doctor should listen to their patients and actually read the patient's chart before they start deciding what works and what doesn't work.

Because of the length of time between the left side being done and the possibility of the right side getting done, I chose to not do the right side this time. The reason for this is because they can not repeat the procedure until a minimum of 6 months have passed from the last RF procedure. This would leave me with 2 months of extreme pain on the left before the time limit was reached for the right side. Then it would take at least another month to get the procedure scheduled (if not longer, depending on whether or not the yearly diagnostic needs to be repeated). That amount of pain is excruciating and leaves me unable to do anything at all (no walking, no house work, no cooking, nothing) except suffer. To prevent that, I chose to not do the right side this time so that in February I will be 6 months out from the last RF on the left and can schedule to have it done again without having to wait for the other side to wear off. (It is the left side that hurts the most as that is the side that has the compound fracture of the SI joint in it.)

Needless to say I have done no stitching these last few months and because of that I did not post here. I picked my needle back up last week as it gives me something to do to keep my fingers busy while I work on quitting smoking (so far so good!). I have completed all the stitching on the Crescent Dreams baby sampler for my niece. It is now being washed and then I will add the beads and the silk ribbon to it and prepare it for framing.

On Sept. 4th we celebrated Bridgette's second birthday! We had a blast and she loved ripping open the presents and playing with her new toys. I can't believe she is already 2 years old! Where did the time go?!?! She is so cute though!

Hopefully I will have pictures to post tomorrow!