The Chronicles of a Raving Lunatic

I'm REALLY beginning to dislike shots. Got MTX shot #9 today. Also, they gave me the H1N1 shot. I swear, I think I'm keeping the hypodermic needle industry in business all by myself. In the last 2 1/2 months I've gotten a dozen shots and blood drawn a couple times.

I think I'll update a little later. Meanwhile, i have a couple things to do elsewhere online and have some lunch.

Let's do this one a little differently and see how it works out...



Okay, let's see. I've read 50/64 of the V.C. Andrews books. 2-3 weeks of books left to read and about a month and a half left of the year. I think I made pretty good time. And speaking of books, I am dingy. When I went to my appointment, I took the last two books I had just finished so I could take them back and pick up the next 9. I got there and turned off the car and then realized, "It's noon and there are only 2 cars here... *facepalm* It's Veteran's Day! They're closed today." So I had to drive around the block to drop the books in the after-hours drop box.


Like I said before, the Dr. doubled my MTX from 6.25mg to 12.5mg. It was such a small dose before I really didn't feel it, but this time It really stung and actually kind of hurt for a few minutes. It's so thick, too. I am definitely NOT looking forward to getting these shots now every week. *meep* With the increase, he's hoping I see some improvement quicker. Haven't seen any yet. Most people seem to say it takes about 12 weeks to see any real results, so I'm about halfway there.
Also, since I got back on my Prednisone (didn't have the money to get it for a couple weeks), I feel a little better. Pain has already gone down a tiny bit. Hopefully in a few more days it will be even better. I need to get a refill as soon as dad gets paid, though.


Also, as I said before, Corie has Mono. Still can't figure out where she got it, but she does. So, I'll be here a few days to help out until the fatigue starts wearing off a bit and she feels up to it. The kids seem like they should be okay. They haven't been too bad lately. We'll see after a few days.


As I said in my mini!post, I've been around (quite a bit, actually), but I just haven't really felt up to posting. There have been so many things I've wanted to say/rant about, but I just didn't feel it. I've been reading and commenting when I had something to say, so I haven't been ignoring you all. Just been kind of blah lately. I think I've been mostly tired.




I wish I had steady internet access/a reliable computer. I kind of wish I was taking part in NaNo. Can you believe I've never NaNo'd? Oh, well. One of these years, I guess. I just want to work on something. I have a couple things I need to finish (anyone remember me mentioning a certain George/Ringo Slash I wanted to write? Well I started it shortly after that, but then got quite stuck. A few weeks ago, I nearly doubled it in length, but it needs more. I just need to figure out a couple transitions and details and I should be able to finish it. Plus, that Kirill-Hans story I mentioned forever and a half ago over at VFB. I have that thing a little over half done and need to finish it, as well. AND I need to finish that Karl/Anita story. *headdesk* So much to write, but not quite enough muse to go around. And nowhere to keep it all in one place. And, and, and...


Okay. I think I'm done for now. Let's see how this post looks when it's posted. Just wanted to do something a little different.

Had my second shot of methotrexate on Tuesday. No side effects, which is good, but also no results yet. Of course, I didn't expect any yet. The Dr. is keeping me on the steroids until the MTX starts showing some results. He said it would be a while. Especially since I'm starting on only 6.25mg. Now, I just need to remind dad to go pick up the rest of my Rx. Been off it for a bit b/c he lost his medical expense card and didn't have the cash. He just got his replacement card the other day. From most accounts, it looks like you commonly see results in the first 12 weeks, so...

Also had to get some antibiotics b/c my toe is infected again.

Ugh. I've been trying to avoid it, but i think I may have to give in. Especially after the last couple days. I think I may have to start using a cane. man, the other day in the store... I actually had to use one of those electric carts. I've tried to avoid those since the pain started. Plus before that for about a week, anytime I was in the store I could only go a couple aisles before hurting so bad I had to stop and sit on a bench or lean on something.

OH. And my 10 year High School reunion tonight. Only a couple people have said they will be there, but some are trying. I guess I'll have to see tonight. Only problem is, it's at a local cafe/bar and I have no money for drinks. I can't drink alcohol on the MTX, but I'll need some pop at least. I need to come up with maybe $5. Even at that expensive place, that should be enough for a couple pops. I'll ask dad, I guess. I wish Neal would just give me the $15-$20 he owes me.

Night before last, I had a weird dream. I worked at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital. Well, Cuddy had triplets, but they were...liquid... I totally don't know, but the "liquid" babies looked weird. Almost like egg whites with little bits in it that started collecting and then other stuff started showing up and started turning into a baby. Well, two of them developed into babies, the other didn't. I was given the task of telling her. I kept wondering why I had to tell her and not Cameron, as she'd be better at that sort of thing. I was floundering, trying to figure out a way to tell her. Well, House keeps telling me to just say it, but I wanted to be nice about it. Well, I finally decided that I was going to have to tell her, so I went to her room. House came in while I was trying to find my words and just blurted it out. Like, "One of your babies didn't form." Everything was all quiet while she and I stared at him. A few other things happened, but nothing real significant, or "House" related. or weird. Just me calling someone and walking over there from the hospital.

Only got a couple more books read for my little challenge. But I had to wait a while to go pick up my books and got most of the way through that Poe collection. About 3/4 done.

I think there was more I wanted to say, but I can't remember what it was. I have to go take a shower soon so I can get ready to go to my reunion anyway. I didn't bring all my clothes, so I'm gonna have to go home and get dressed first.

Rel quick before I leave after Connor's party (that ended 8 hours ago...), I forgot to mention that since I started the steroids about 3 months ago, I've gained about 25 pounds. I can't wait to get off these things.

*waves* Hello. I know it's been a while and I said I was going to be here last Thursday to check in since I had a Dr. appointment on Friday, but I ended up going to my aunts b/c it was closer to home and dad didn't have the gas to drive all the way out here. Now, how to update... I guess chronologically would be best. If I can keep it that way. lol I'll probably start out chronologically and end up categorizing it instead. And/or switching back and forth.

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I went home on the 15th, right? Well, the power was still on, but I knew, with my luck, it would be off the next day, so I made the chocolate cake we had that night before I went to bed, since I knew it wouldn't need refrigerated, just covered. Dad decided to call it "survival cake". And it has been. Nearly everyday I've eaten a piece or two to keep myself fed. There are still a couple pieces left, though they're starting to get dry. I would have had it gone by now, but Neal brought over ANOTHER cake that needed eaten and I had a few pieces of that, though dad ate more than half of it. I just didn't like the frosting. It was way too sweet for me.

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Okay, so last Friday I had an appointment with the Podiatrist about my toe. He hadn't made it, but my Primary Care Physician wanted me to do a follow up and they're basically through the same office in the clinic. Like my Dr.'s name is on both doors. So I went and told him my toe was mostly healed but it was starting to hurt again. It had been infected once since I had the nail cut out. He looked at it and said that it looked like the skin was just irritated so he trimmed it again. This time without anesthetic. It hurt a bit, as you can imagine. A couple days later it stopped hurting so much. It's still a little tender, but it's alright. Healing up alright for now.

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Pretty much all that weekend and this past week were spent reading. I've been averaging about one book a day. In fact, last Friday and on...Tuesday, I read TWO whole books a day. A few days I read a little more than one a day. So, as you can see I've got 20/64 books read. I have 5 more waiting for me and I've requested 10 more for now. At the rate I'm going, I may be able to get all of them done by the beginning of December. That would be cool. We'll see.

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Oh, and I had sent out my application for Cash assistance/Food Stamps/Medicaid on the 15th or so. I had an appointment for that yesterday. Took in the little bit of paperwork I had that they wanted/needed. She said cash assistance and medicaid were both dependent on my getting SSI. Which doesn't really make any sense to me, but...whatever. She also said the medical would take a while and I need some papers filled out by my Dr., which I'm getting next Friday at my appointment. But I DID get Food Stamps. I got approved for $200/month! That's WAY more than I expected. That will be nice. Right now, we have now power still, but dad's gonna find one of our coolers (or buy a cheap foam on) to clean out and getting some ice so we can at least keep things for a couple of days. Anyway... So, she told me that if/when I get approved for SSI, my balance will change (it'll probably go down to about $100), but that would be totally fine, because I'd have some money to put toward food. She signed the papers and said I qualified for expedited food stamps, so I'd get the card in 7-10 business days. Well, this morning before we were getting ready to leave for here, there was a knock on the door. I went to answer it and no one was there. I thought Neal had maybe knocked on the door and run off, so I was going to step out and see if he was out there, but I looked down and saw a large envelope in front of the door. I picked it up and showed it to dad who asked who it was for. I finally looked at it and saw it was for me. I opened it and found a regular business sized envelope. It was my card. They ended up overnighting it to me. Apparently, I was more serious a case than I thought. lol I called and set it up and I have $306 available to me right now. I can't wait to go get some food. I'm making brother take me to the store so I can grab a few things tomorrow. I really shouldn't be this excited about buying food.

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On the electric front, we couldn't get it turned on like we wanted because it would have cost even more. So, dad is trying to find ways to make money. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with it in a few weeks. Especially since Neal plans on moving into the upstairs bedroom sometime soon. He's supposed to help come up with some of the money.

Also, dad couldn't find the old camp stove, so he had to go buy another one. He picked it up last night, so when I buy food, I can at least buy real food sometimes. It'll mostly been soup and canned pastas like ravioli/spaghetti-o's. But I know that sometime next week I'm going to buy some big, fat, juicy steaks and some onions and mushrooms and...something for the side. Because I want steak for my birthday. There I go again with the food. lol

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Speaking of being fat... I really need to tell the Dr. that I've been having pain again. And I've been having slight headaches for the last week or so. I might leave out the headaches because they're a common side effect, but the pain is getting on my nerves. My back and knees and ankles are just in so much pain lately.

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I know there was more, but I can't think of it right now. I'll be here tomorrow too, so if I think of it, I'll post it.

Stupid internet keeps going out all day today and yesterday.

Anyway, yesterday I had an appointment with the Dr. of Pharmacy at the Dr.s office. It was just so she could ask me questions to see if I was a good candidate. She said she'd look over my charts again and talk with the Dr. and tell him what she thought. If they decide I should be on it, which he sounds pretty certain of, I'll go back in and we'll talk about it in more detail. I have an appointment with the Dr. on October 2nd (Birthday!appointment) when is probably when I'll find out what's going on. I'm sure I'll get my appointment with her shortly after that. So I'll probably start the shots sometime in October.

On the V.C. Andrews Book Challenge front. I've read 9 out of the 64 books. I've got a running tally over here. I'll update it probably once or twice a week, as I finish books. I thought I was going to fall behind the other day because I took, like 4-5 days to read Dark Angel. But then I went and read Fallen Hearts in just a little over 24 hours. Got myself back on track. In a few days I'll have no TV or internet to distract me, so I'll be able to read most of the books in about a day or two. I just may be able to do this. *fingers crossed*

Ugh. This whole electricity thing is just starting to annoy me. I called the electric company to see if, like the gas and phone companies, they'd take the deposit in installments. I was told they don't do that, but they do have a thing where, if you get someone that qualifies to sign as your guarantor, you don't need a deposit. In order for the person to qualify they have to have had electric service with the company for at least 2 years at a different address with no more than 1 late payment. I could only think of 2 people I know that fit that description. My Grandma & Uncle and my Grandpa. Well, my Uncle was out of work for a while and since my Grandma only works part time, things are still a little tight for them. Plus, she would never sign as Guarantor anyway. So I called my Grandpa. Well, I'd talked to my cousin who "warned" me that he's got a power-of-attorney. Well, he's under the false impression that for anything that's connected to anything financial he has to get their permission first. That's not how it works, but, whatever. So he said he'd talk to them (won't tell anyone who it is, but I think it's one of his old boss' "lady friends". For some reason he always thinks very highly of them, even though most of them are, excuse the harsh word, scum. I just get the feeling that it's someone that doesn't know anyone in the family.) and let me know, but to expect a 'no'. He called this morning and confirmed the 'no'. The thing is, I think he wanted to, because he sounded really sorry and kept asking me not to be mad at him. I understand where he's coming from and I'm not mad. I wasn't counting on it and figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I told him all that. But now, I don't know what we're going to do. And the power gets shut off on Monday sometime. I guess we're buying some batteries for the one flashlight/lantern and my CD player, some candles so I can have light at night, a cheap foam cooler for a few food items. And digging out those kerosene lamps and the camp stove. [sarcasm]Indoor camping! Woo![/sarcasm]

But at least, even if we still have no power when it gets cold, we have a propane heater that's strong enough to heat the whole house that wed won't need power for. So, even though we'll be in the dark, we'll be warm. :)

That's all I can think of right this second.

(Appropriate icon is appropriate.)

I swear, pretty soon here, I'm going to really start hating needles. Had another Drs appointment today. Just a follow-up from last time. My iron was alright on the last blood test. The low number before was obviously just a fluke low. He did say my B12 was borderline, so that called for a B12 shot. Also, the stupid Prednisone lowered my immunity and made me get an infection in my toe. Luckily for me, Keflex is one of the free antibiotics at Meijer. Stopped and got that on my way home. Since I couldn't get in to see the Pharmacy PhD until September 8th, he wants me to continue the Prednisone until I can start the Methetrexate. As much as he doesn't want me to be on steroids very long, I need SOMETHING to keep the inflammation down. And I do need it. I feel 10x better since being on the Prednisone.

He also told me to call the Disability person and have them send another request for my records since there's new stuff in my file since last time. I need to call her tomorrow. I've only been seeing him for 2 months and he's already fed up with Disability. He basically wants to swamp them with my records until they give. LOL Have I said how much I like this guy lately. :)

Aaaaaaand... Last night I got about an hour of sleep. Maybe an hour and a half. I could not fall asleep and was just starting to drift off about 6:30 when the power went out. This woke up Ryan who needs music playing when he sleeps and he started crying. After it came back on a couple minutes later and they finally went back to sleep I finally fell asleep about 6:45-7:00. Then at a little after 8:00 I was woken up to Ryan screaming. I have no idea what the other two were doing to him, but he screamed again later and then Connor started being obnoxiously loud. Like, he was rattling all the windows in the house, loud. No matter how much I asked/told/screamed at them to be quiet, they wouldn't. So I'm pretty tired. I think I'll try to zonk out right after Conan tonight. We'll see.

Now, I have about ten minutes until I have to start working on my potpies and dumplings. Mmmmmmm.

Got my toe taken care of this morning. Woot! \o/ The podiatrist cut off both sides and part of the top. Man, that needle with the numbing stuff in it HURT! That was the worst part. He bandaged it up with lots of padding. Says I should be down to normal band-aids after tomorrow. Luckily I have some Darvocet because when the numbness went away, it started to hurt. It's okay right now, just a slight stinging pain. I really need to get off it and rest it though. He said walking on it would make it bleed. After I finish up with this, I'll go lie down and put it up a little.

Just getting a chance to stop in here now. Dad had a job interview after my appointment. It seemed to go well. He's hoping to hear about a second interview soon. Hopefully he gets it because if/when brother moves out, we're going to need the money. Speaking of...they went to the bank yesterday and a loan for this one house looks good. They're going for a Rural Development loan because it's a house out in the country. Hopefully they'll get approved.

That's it for now. I need to go get my foot up.

So, on Monday I had an appointment with my Dr. He looked me over and asked me how things were going. When he saw Sulu on my t-shirt, we proceeded to geek out over Star Trek. Not a lot, just a tad. We talked a little about the new movie. I really like this guy. XD Anyway, he gave me an antibiotic shot and ordered some x-rays and blood tests to see if he could confirm the arthritis I have. Like that I have it and/or what kind(s) I have. Also several blood tests for...I can't remember all of them. I remember CBC w/diff, CBC w/o diff, Cholesterol, Arthritis panel and I can't remember the rest. I had to go down the hall to get them done. I ended up giving 5 vials of blood and 10 x-rays on my rt knee, rt wrist and my lumbar spine. I have another appointment with him to discuss the results on the 27th. He also told me that if I felt I need another antibiotic shot before the Podiatrist just call and they'll set one up.

On Tuesday, I had my appointment with the Disability Dr. We discussed how the asthma, arthritis and psoriasis affect me. He had me doing range of motion things. I peeked at the paper a couple times and it did not look good. When he had me squat, he wrote down 30%. When he looked at my hands, he wrote down -10. Maybe I actually will get this.

After I got home Tuesday I saw that the Dr had called me and said about my x-rays coming in. I called them back and the nurse said that they had the x-rays and that the Dr thought the disability people should see them. Sounds to me like he found lots of problems. I told them I had already had my appointment, but I was calling my adjuster and I would let her know about the test and see if she wanted them to fax them to her. She wasn't in so I left a message. She didn't call me back today. :( I'm going to have to try her again tomorrow.

With the way both Drs were sounding, I'm hoping I can actually get this SSI. I really need some help here. I could get food stamps and buy my own food and get Medicaid so I can afford to go to the Dr more often.

OH! And I see the Podiatrist about my toe on the 17th! YAY!

Last time I posted, I forgot to mention that I went to a different hospital than my usual one about my toe. Well, they took some x-rays because he didn't like the way it looked. He said that if he looked closely, it looked like the tip of the bone was starting to get infected. He gave me some antibiotics (though not quite enough). They didn't really do anything else. Well, this hospital has a clinic. The ER gave me the number and told me to tell them I had been in that ER and they would work me in and figure something out for me.

When I got home, I called and they set me up an appointment for the 17th. One week and I'll actually be on the road to recovery. For real this time, I hope.