Anxiety/Panic Attacks

I am sure I am not the only one who has ever felt anxious. As a parent we feel anxiety as soon as our child is born. We worry about our kids every minute of their lives. If you are a new parent and think that worry will lessen as they age....you can't be more wrong. It increases with driving, dating, moving away, etc.

Lately, I have been having anxiety attacks. I don't mean the kind where we dream we run out of the house without any clothes on...or worry we are going to get into a test and forget everything we ever learned.....or worry about a big dinner or party we are putting on and worry you are going to poison your guests or the souffle will fall or your timing would be off on your things you are making or will forget to get something you made out of the frig....or worry if a family event will turn out ok and you say what you really felt to some members of said family you can't stand.....or worry you forgot to turn off the stove or coffeepot or lock the dooots.....or you forget who you are in front of a crowd of people and worry you won't be able to utter a sound or sound intelligent. I have had those all my life. I remember once someone told me to think of the audience naked. Ok that never worked on me. Instead of remembering why I was there I saw the audience naked in my mind and all I could do was bust out laughing.

I digress. When you get one of those attacks, they are full blown heart pounding, butterflies in your stomach, thoughts that overwhelm you so much that it is the only thing you can think of. And if yours are like mine, they are usually blown out of proportion to what is really going on.

Yesterday I had a major one. It all started when I was at the hairdresser and without glasses or facing the TV (this is important). I was listening to a news program. The salon I go to was busy and there was a lot of chatter going on. I was listening to the news. There was a story about a woman missing in a town. Now normally that wouldn't faze me at all. This story did. I have a friend whose first name was the same as the missing woman. They both lived/worked in the same town. The police were actually interviewing the husband of the missing woman as a suspect. In my mind, I instantly thought it was my friend. I started thinking (which sometimes is a bad thing with me). I couldn't stop thinking about it.

My husband picked me up at the salon and took me to the chiropractor. I scooted in to see them with this still weighing on my mind. I was trying to remember when I last saw her post and for the life of me couldn't remember. I started worrying big time about her. I put into my mind that this missing woman was my friend. By the time my husband came back to pick me up, I was a basket case. Immediately I got on my cell and in a panic, called another friend to get the last name of the woman who was missing. I could have waited the 15 minutes to get back home to do it myself. But no, I just had to know right then and there. I had already been worrying for over 2 hours. I was not waiting 10 more minutes.

Thank goodness for my friend. She calmly looked the story up and we found out it wasn't our mutual friend. Let me tell you, the feeling of peace and life was ok again so totally overwhelmed me that I swear I could have fallen asleep. I didn't realize how worked up I had gotten until that moment.

I blame them on my inability to live and function as I used to and the daily frustrations I experience just getting around. It does not get better after even 7 weeks and I have 5 more months to go.

High Maintenance - Ankle - Cast - Bridesmaid Dresses

I promised you a picture of how my employees decorated the scooter for me and here it is. My dear husband took away my horn and put it in an area I can't get to even with the crutches. I wonder if I was using it a bit too much? *hehehe*


This is a picture of my purple cast. My employees want to paint my toenails tomorrow...one says she has the perfect polish for me. I dunno....I rarely paint my toenails...just too much hassle and I rarely wear sandals. I just have other things to do with my time.


Baby shower went fine yesterday. I am glad I can't have anymore because I swear something was in the water around here. Out of the 75 women who were at the shower, there were 30 of them pregnant. There were only 10 of us who either didn't have a kid under the age of 7 there or wasn't pregnant. It was chaotic but fun and a nice diversion for me.

Things are progressing with my new client. There has been continued drama from the people who were let go or job definitions changed plus someone she had hired before and let her down tried to step back into the picture promising her the world yet didn't produce the things she was told to bring to the meeting.

As for me, hubs got his new computer in a week or so ago but I haven't had time to transfer his documents nor put his programs onto his new computer (mainly his EMR program), etc. I have been working on doing that since Friday along with getting the new database done for the client so I can start billing for her and getting her some cash flow. I have gotten hubs new computer all done and his documents and programs off his old computer. I have transferred my programs from my old laptop to hubs old laptop but am still working on getting the rest of the files transferred. Then I will delete my files off my old laptop and give it to my daughter. I have a few more hours to finish and should get that done.

Wedding plan update: invitations, programs, place cards, announcements, menu for reception, thank you cards, invitations for bridal shower all picked out and ordered. My daughter chose to scrapbook all the above so guess I will learn to scrapbook. We have 4 months before we have to mail them but only 2 months for the shower invites to be finished and mailed. Hopefully that will be enough time to get them done. There might not be a Christmas letter this year.

Bridesmaid dresses picked out...here is a pic but it will be in a light pink. Groomsmen will wear a black tux with silver vest. Groom will wear a black tux and white vest. Daughter will use shades of pink in the bouquets and pull in the silver into the ribbons. Still so much to do.

New toy

I consulted a surgeon on Monday and he recommended a non-weight bearing cast for another 2 weeks and then we will see when surgery will be. I can't stand on my ankle at all without either the cast or a brace on and even with them it is really painful. I still have my wheelchair but I still needed the crutches for small areas which killed my left hand (still in splint/cast) and my left knee (still in splint). Being non-weight bearing is a pain. Well today I am taking delivery of this gorgeous scooter. I can't wait. It is lightweight so I can drag it upstairs with me when I go up on my rear. It is smaller so it will go in the bathroom. Plus it will let me be a bit more mobile. Granted I am getting a lot accomplished sitting on my rear but said rear is spreading. I need it exercised. I tried scooting across the floor on my rear but that gets tiring let alone I have rug burn butt now. Crawling is out of the picture because of the left knee and cast on the right foot. I am so excited! Great inventions!

Cast colors are all the rage! In the past 5 weeks I have worn a red cast, a Chicago Bears cast, and a green cast. This time I have a neon purple cast. Now I am 53. My leg hair doesn't grow much anymore or I should say it didn't used to. Seems the cast has miracle grow in it. Those leg hairs are at least an inch long now. AND I CAN'T SHAVE THEM. The leg has been in the cast so long, the skin is softer. If I shaved, I would remove a layer or 2 of skin. The cast itches enough without razor burn under there too. So instead before I let them put the new cast on Monday, I gooped up the leg with zinc oxide and it made it feel much better or at least so far.

Monday's appointment was a one stop shop. I had the hand doctor see me about the hand. I then saw the knee doctor for the knee, then the podiatrist for my ankle. All in the same office. They came to me. 3 copays though...one for each doctor.

It is also official. I now have a handicapped tag for the car. I had resisted getting one but it is hard for people who take me places to let me off along with my equipment then go park the car, then walk back and reverse that to put me back in the car. It's only a temporary one for 3 months. Let's pray that is all it is. I want to walk down the aisle for my daughter's wedding.

By the way, I will love the basket on the scooter. I was becoming a bag lady carting things around in a plastic bag. Also there is a bell like those on bicycles. I can't wait to play with that one although I was getting handy with the crutches and using them to get people's attention (mainly my husband). I can propel the crutch much in the same way track kids do the javelin.

My 2 days of Managerial Consulting

I wrote this in my journal about the consulting job I did this past week. Thought I would give you an insight into what I did and because I can't think of anything else to blog about and I don't want to talk about my foot and ankle.


Wednesday: Right now I am sitting in a hotel room getting ready to do that consultant work on a doctor's office starting tomorrow. I had a full day already today with the officer manager's meeting I did from 8am to 1:30pm then went to the L office and worked there until 7pm when L picked me up to come up here. We made it up here in less time than I anticipated. We elected to have separate rooms mainly because I needed a handicapped room and those only offer 1 queen sized bed in them. Sharing a bed with another female especially one who is your employee is not good for me. I have the splint on the knee, the splint on the hand, and the cast on the ankle plus I am used to sleeping in a king sized bed and tend to do the snuggle thang. Not good if I am in a smaller bed and with an employee. Wonder if that would fall under employer sexual harrassment? Anyway, I am sitting here drinking a glass of milk going over my game plan. I can't get on the internet because the secure wireless connection wasn't working. My brain is still wired from today's activities and I can't concentrate on the book I brought to read. Called hubs and we talked for a while. The doctor called and we set up the time we were meeting for breakfast so guess I better get to bed since it is now 11pm and the alarm will go off at 5am.

Thursday: Met with the doctor for breakfast then over to the office. Met all the employees. Within the 1st 15 minutes I had a headache from the chaos of the office dynamics. So game plan changed and I decided to change what I did when. I started with handing each employee an unlined piece of paper. I then gave them the instructions that they were to write on one side what they did and on the back what they thought each other employee did. After collecting those, I spent 30 minutes with each girl and then had L do the same, taking notes all the time. That took up the entire morning. Lunch was takeout from a local burger place (and yes although I hate hamburgers, I snarfed it down because I didn't know when my next meal was going to be). Then it was time for patients. I reobserved how the patient and paperwork flow was and took notes to compare that to what it was like without patients. I thought it was chaotic before...OMG it became psychotic. It was really hard to keep myself focused when everyone around me was so disorganized and the whole flow was so disruptive. I am actually surprised they had a practice at all. I then 'became a patient' and went around experiencing what they were seeing and doing, how long wait times were, seeing what they were seeing as far as room decor, cleanliness, etc. Around 4pm I started in learning their software system and after seeing that no one really knew what reports the software they were using could produce, I called their software management people and got trained fast. I ran reports and compiled them for anaylsis later. I looked up and it was 8pm so we took off with everything and went to dinner with the doctor and office manager. Really nice place....called a supper club and decorated 50's style.....great food though and fantastic view of Lake Michigan. Right now I just got finished analyzing the data and reports which were off the wall. AR (accounts receivable) was off in outer space with most of their AR in the 120+ days. Interesting was the fact that there was no AR for the 0-30, 30-60, or 60-90. That meant that NO billing has been done for at least 3 months at all. I found this one report called the unsubmitted report which means the charges were entered into the computer but not submitted to the insurance company. Normally there should be zippo unsubmitted. The report was 22 pages long and included charges dating back to 2005. What I found most interesting though was what I had the employees do (the job description of themselves and each other employee). I found there only to be 2 employees who knew what the others were doing. The others instead of listing the names of the employees listed them instead by department letting me know they didn't even know their names. Also interesting was how they followed directions. One employee got lined paper to write hers on totally going against the instructions. Then I analyzed their handwriting which told me what I had already found out that day. Interesting things you find in handwriting analysis. I complied my observations and plan to go over with the doctor tomorrow at breakfast again at 7am. Before we left the office the doctor got an email from one of the employees...calling me a bitch and interfering and that if the doctor was going to listen to me then she was quitting. Interestingly enough she was the one who didn't follow directions and also the one who couldn't produce what she was working on and contracts the doctor was credentialed with. She just gave me excuses. Note she is paid 40 hours to do nothing but credentialing and contract negotiations yet couldn't produce one thing she was currently working on.

Friday: L and I met with the doctor this morning at 7am giving her my thoughts and proposals. I got full approval to implement all changes and firings. Yep we fired people and the one who couldn't follow directions was the 1st to go. I set up a credentialing application online that goes out to a lot of insurance companies (one stop place) and downloaded the master form into Microsoft Word and filled it out (that took me all of 30 minutes to do). All they have to do to keep it up is update the info and then I trained an underutilized girl on that. The dear doctor I am doing all this for arranged for me to get an MRI of my ankle today free of charge! She is a peach and people are just walking all over her. So I found out today what I did to my ankle. Just loverly. Now I have to work another surgery into my schedule. Anyway, mostly what I found in the ones I fired were lazy people who were taking total advantage of the doctor who had retired but had to come out of retirement when the doctors who had bought her practice ran up huge bills and then declared bankruptcy. Since she was a cosigner on the loan given to them, she had to repay the money. She currently has a lawsuit against them. She came back out of retirement and is trying to keep the practice going and believe me, it is a great practice just zippo cash flow. I have already been doing her surgery center billing and she trusts me (the prior biller brought in only 1/25th of what I made for her this past year because of stupidity and not appealing denied claims). As for the billing department: the doctor is keeping the biller but it has to be done inhouse now so her hours can be accounted for. She is only to work on the AR in her system. All new billing is coming to me. I set up the new software application then L and I trained the girls on it. It is a much easier system than the one she has and the girls were really excited about it. For right now I will do the billing but I plan on training one of the girls I really liked to do it. She was so underutilized before. I had each girl redefine their jobs with everyone. They were all introduced to each other and complimented on what they do. As for the 2 other billing girls: one was working 20+ hours a week and her only job was inputting new charges...she was fired (she has been paid 20 hours per week since May and no charges were entered into the system since May so what was she doing? Heaven only knows!); and the other was paid for 20+ hours a week to do nothing but send out statements (yet interesting enough not one dime was collected on any of those statements) and it takes my office only 2 hours a week to do the same job. I will be going through day by day their entire schedule for the past year to see what else was never even billed into their system. As I said I found the things from May that not even billed let alone the files I found that were unsubmitted. I can only imagine what else I will find for the entire year. There was another redundant employee whose only job was to clean the rooms after a patient was in it. Yeah right for $25.00 per hour for 40 hours a week to do nothing but clean rooms. That one went too. There were 2 nurses and 2 certified medical assistants there. Their new jobs are to clean the rooms themselves. Total of who lost their jobs: 5. I retrained the front office girls who have more brains than what they were doing. They are taking over some things and lessening what the OM was doing. I put them into a proactive mode rather than a reactice chaotic mode. By today when I left, there were pleases and thank yous and good employees left and a pride in the office and a comfort level that they are going to make it and not end up closing their doors. I plan on going back up within a month hopefully depending on my ankle to follow up and start some more teaching on the new software, etc so they can take billing and credentialing back in their own office. We finally left there around 4:30pm.....not a good time to drive back to Chicago right into the midst of rush hour and bumper to bumper traffic. It took us an hour and half to go up there and 3 hours to drive home. Hubs got home about an hour after me so it was me and one of my granddoggies. I decompressed, exhausted from the past 2 days, then looked for something in the frig/freezer for dinner. I scanned the mail (nothing but bills which can wait for another day). Did get the proposal though for the new roof which was about what I expected. Threw frozen marinara into a pan to thaw for dinner. Called son and had him pick up a loaf of bread to make garlic bread on his way home from work. Made mostaccoli with marinara for dinner with garlic bread and salad. Gave hubs the MRI x-rays and the report from the radiologist who read them. Then unpacked and went to bed. I am so happy I have 2 days to decompress before going back to work on Monday although I know I will be doing work for this doctor over the weekend. Just knowing though that I can do it in my robe without makeup makes me happy. Just have to convince the surgeon for my ankle to postpone it until next week so I can get things rearranged workwise to be off a week.

Ankle Update

There are 3 different kinds of ankle sprains. The severity of the ankle sprain depends on how much you turned your foot in or out. The forces put on the ligaments to turn it in or out cause the ligaments to stretch beyond their normal limits. If the force is too strong, the ligaments can tear.

The amount of force determines the grade of the sprain.
Grade 1 sprain: Slight stretching and some damage to the fibers (fibrils) of the ligament. You would have minimal swelling and tenderness. It doesn't impair your activities much. Treatment would be RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and usually you are fine within a week or 2.

Grade 2 sprain: Partial tearing of the ligament. If the ankle joint is examined and moved in certain ways, abnormal looseness (called laxity) of the ankle joint occurs. You will have moderate swelling and tenderness and won't be able to move your ankle very well. You might be moderately impaired (crutches, removable or soft cast, etc). Usually you are find within a month.

Grade 3 sprain: Complete tear of the ligament. If the examiner pulls or pushes on the ankle joint in certain movements, major instability occurs. There is a lot of swelling and tenderness and you might be totally unable to stand on your foot at all. Treatment consists of total immobilization (walking cast) for up to 6 weeks then gradual physical therapy to strengthen the ligaments.

There is actually one worse than Grade 3 - they call these the high ankle sprains and tend not to heal as well. If the injury seems stable, then a non-weight bearing cast for 6 weeks followed by more testing for healing and stability then physical therapy. If the ankle is unstable treatment is again treated in a non-weight bearing cast for 6 weeks. If it remains unstable, then a 'syndesmotic screw' has to be placed between the tibia and fibula to hold the bones in proper position while the syndesmotic ligaments heal. You are placed in a non-weight bearing cast for 3 months. If you walk on the leg/foot at all, the screw will break. At 3 months, another MRI will determine if the screws can be removed. If they can, then you go into a weight bearing cast for another 6-8 weeks then intensive physical therapy to relearn how to walk.


I had the MRI yesterday. I have an unstable grade 3 sprain high ankle sprain along with a complete rupture of most of the major ligaments in the foot and ankle which allows one to be able to stand and walk. So I will need surgery and lucky me to get screwed not once but twice (2 screws) along with suturing or repairing the ends of the ruptured ligaments together then reinforcing them with what is called a GraftJacket. At the end of the 3 months I get to go for another surgery if the MRI says I have healed I get to be unscrewed. I might be able to walk with a cane by the time of my daughter's wedding in May. If the MRI doesn't show any healing of the syndesmotic tears I will have to have my ankle fused together and that takes 6 months of non-weight bearing to heal and I will never be able to move my ankle again.

Not a happy camper right now.

Tagged again - this time on quirks

I got tagged again via email. I am to list six quirks about myself.

1. I hate the sound of dog whistles, fingernails across a blackboard, knives across a plate, soprano opera singers, rubbing balloons till they make that squeaking noise. All the above drive me up the wall and will drive me from a room.

2. My kitchen has to be clean before I can go to sleep. There can be a zillion things on the floor and cabinets and it won't bother me. Dishes in the sink or countertops do.

3. Words used by kids: wazzup, the word like....as in like everyone like does that, she goes instead of she states or says, double negatives in the same sentence.

4. I have to have everything organized before I can work on anything. My work has to be in piles by importance before I will touch them.

5. I am a list girl. I make lists on things to do that day, things to get at the grocery store (and they are listed in the exact rows where they can be found in the store), and short term and long term goals. I used to be post-it queen but would lose my post-its or leave them in pockets and wash them so I went to yellow legal tablets.

6. I have a routine for morning when I get up and evening when I go to bed. Deviating off said routine pisses me off. I like quiet when I get ready for bed. I decompress. I hate it when hubs becomes 'Mr Chatty' at bedtime and get pissed and I hate getting pissed before bed. I can't sleep then.

Back to whirlwind week

Back but have a whirlwind week coming up so don't know how much blogging I will get in. Tired and exhausted. Great band for the inaugural reception last night. Wanted to dance so bad but was a good girl and stayed in my wheelchair. My x-rays were passed around and the consensus of opinion supports my husband's - remain non-weight bearing in cast on right ankle then retake ultrasound and x-ray. If ligaments still hasn't repaired themselves and the talus fracture hasn't healed, I am off for surgery on the ankle. Knee and hand orthopedic doctor are on hold too for the 6 week mark. Root canals on the 2 teeth on hold till I have a driver to take me there (can't drive) but will be trying to get that scheduled this coming week for next week. It will be 4 weeks this coming Tuesday that I fell and there is no lessening of the pain although I am only on anti-inflammatories.

Great seminar. Learned a few things. Taught 4 classes. Was asked back. Life is good!

Off Again

Well, after office hours today hubs and I leave again for another seminar. Thankfully not that far away so no plane involved. I am still in the wheelchair. My rear still hurts but I transfer out of the chair as much as possible. Sure wish they made a seat cushion that was comfortable. You all be good!

Things you learn and get done

Yesterday when we lost power once again for who knows why, I got on the phone to the township offices and complained once again about the number of trees on top of power lines in the utility easement (their property) and that are laying on power lines. We have yet another storm coming in (thankfully which will take temps back down to the 70's and get rid of this humidity) and I was worried that we would lose power once again and those lines would break, causing us to lose power again for days. I have called ComEd and they said it was the township's responsibility and when I called the township they said it was ComEd's problem. Almost 2 weeks and nada got done as they were too busy passing the job off on each other.

So I took pics. I emailed them to both ComEd and to the township. I stated in that email that in 12 hours, the next email would be to the newspaper if this still had not been taken care of.

Why it was amazing......within 2 hours, there was both ComEd and a township truck (first I had seen of either in the 2 week aftermath of cleanup). What is more amazing that by the time I got home after 12 hours of work, it was all cleaned up and the branches left out in nice neat stacks by the street. This morning I woke to the sound of the tree branch muncher and we had a nice pile of wood chips left for our flower beds. So within 24 hours everything was done and we are starting the road back to being a nice looking neighborhood.

I have the air conditioning service here at the house right now assessing the damage to the furnace and air conditioner (there is some corrosion on the some kind of board that regulates them...pardon my not understanding what these thingamingies are called). He said we also need a new flue so I need to go research what that is so I sound intelligent. Hopefully hubs will be home soon!

In Need of a Karmic Cleansing

Any ideas anyone? I am beginning to believe Mira that I have this black cloud hanging over me. I need it gone. Vamboosed.

Today started at 6am when hubs got up and decided that everyone in the house needed to be awake too. He had just left for a hospital surgery and I had fallen back to sleep when the phone rang. It was the hospital telling me the patient hadn't showed up yet and what did I want to do. Me: "Well, let's see now. How about we use our heads and realize that the doctor just might already be there changing into scrubs and on the hospital pager system so why don't you just page him?" Not so bright nurse says..."this is his pager". I say, "well you are correct but you called his office pager not the hospital pager. Did you try that pager?" She hung up on me. Since I was already awake I just got up and did some work that I still had to finish up from last night. Hubs came home and said: "Like the patient never showed so I cancelled the surgery". My response: "Like good idea.....helps to have the patient when you are doing surgery on her". So because of said surgery we had later office hours. He decides to do some more painting on the house to try and finish it up. I decide to just go ahead and go and take my shower since it takes me awhile to get ready.

In the shower and the power goes out. Now I am thinking ok...blew a fuse. Will handle it when I get out. Hubs comes in as I was finishing and says, "we don't have power".
I said, "what gave you that clue?"
He said, "like my radio went out".
I said, "did you check the fuses?"
He said, "the whole street is out".
I say did you call ComEd?
He says no where's the number.

Now I am a very organized person. I have this huge list next to the phone of important phone numbers. I said did you look there? He proceeds to go downstairs to get the number and call. Then I hear him yelling up at me....where on the page is the number. My response was that it was on the sheet under utilities (yes I am anal and I categorized the important numbers). So he finally finds the number and calls it. He comes back upstairs and says well that was a waste. I say why. He said....well it was in Spanish. **major eyeroll** I said well, did you push the button for it to speak to you in English? He said no he should not have to - we lived in America. I said bring me the number.

So I call ComEd. Yet another power outage in our area. I said, "would you please tell me what act of who did this one?" Mame (when did I become a mame?)...."your power should be restored by 12:15PM". By golly it was. 12:15 on the nose. Wonder how they knew that?

Come to the main office to find our surgical room flooded again by the restaurant next door. Right now we are in a claim from last week from them. Seems the repair their plumber made didn't work so their main sink/dishwasher area is springing a leak with grease, water, chile peppers, etc onto the floor in our surgical room. Not good. The cabinets are already involved and the entire floor has to come out. We took out just a small portion of the wall and there was 2 inches thick of grease.

Wonder what time I will get out tonight? I just want to go back to bed. And please send me some good juju beans or something.

This and That

Seems all of you have lots of better things to do than I do. We were planning on going to our village's fest this afternoon. It actually has been going on since Saturday but it's a bit hard still for me to get around. Today though is the Taste where local restaurants put on their wares and charity groups run them and get the profits (we used to work them in the past when the kids were younger). Today's lineup that we wanted to see is Eddie Diamond in a 'Blast from the Past' then a Bon Jovi Tribute called 'Bad Medicine' then Christopher Cross followed by fireworks. We have decided not to go until later because today's weather is to get to 88 with 60% humidity and a dew point of 63 which means hot sticky midwest weather and way too hot for me with 3 casts on and for hubs to push me around. His words but how can one argue with the person who pushes you around (in the good way)?

Hubs and I did sort out the 5 photo albums that had gotten flooded in our basement (did I mention we had water to our 2nd step when our power was out last weekend?) We were able to save quite a few pictures. I haven't been down in the basement yet as I can't negotiate those stairs with my casts but I saw what we lost as I had to catalogue it when the people I had hired to do the cleanup brought it to me. Most of what we lost we were planning on throwing away anyway as we had already been sorting and cleaning the other rooms for the wedding and getting rid of things we don't need anymore. I had stored it in the basement until I rented a dumpster to take it. But I guesstimate that we lost around $5000.00 not including the carpeting and half of the walls and insulation but we aren't going to claim it on our homeowner's policy. I don't know about homeowner's insurance policies around you but here if you make more than 3 claims within a certain amount of time, you are cancelled. I am not taking that chance with a minor claim. My freezer, water pump, furnace, water softner and hot water heater were all up on cinder blocks so they were all ok. We will wait now to redo the basement this winter.

I have gotten a lot of work done for my clients this weekend along with the laundry and end of month invoicing and bill paying. Hubs set me up on the breakfast room table with a printer, computer, and internet cable so I can stay with my legs elevated. I did have to have surgery to remove the bone chips in my left knee and left palm as they were going to cause a problem but to me it was a minor surgery and just incisions to heal. Stitches come out next week. The knee they did arthroscopically which was good. The hand has more stitches in it than the knee. The right ankle is still in a cast and we won't be able to tell if I need the ligaments surgically repaired until 6-8 weeks when the cast comes off and we find they haven't healed on their own. Thinking positive here......

Guess I am feeling the frustration of not being able to do much. I miss cooking and I miss being able to take a shower without wrapping myself up like a mummy just to feel water on my head. These are what I use (one on my left hand to my elbow, one on my left leg from my foot to the thigh, and one on my right leg from the foot to the ankle. I have the use of my right hand to wash myself. The first few times were interesting (hubs had to help me) but now I actually do pretty much of it myself. Here is the fantastic invention:

As you can see they have different sizes for the legs and arms. I will attest that they do keep the water out! This is one of the reasons why it takes me 2 hours to take a shower, put on makeup, do my hair, and get dressed when it used to take me 30 - 45 minutes max.

Hubs still hasn't passed his drivers license for the wheelchair. He still does 50 in a 10mph zone and still bottoms out on ramps. He gets his chuckle and I get a roller coaster ride.

Happy Labor Day all!

Approving Blog Comments

Blogspot gives the owner of the blog the right to moderate comments on their blog. I understand that it is needed at times (bad language, spammers, heated discussions, etc). What happens if you commented on someone's blog but it was never accepted and there wasn't a thing wrong with it? Reminds me of high school. I think if you use the comment approval choice, you need to make sure you keep up with blogger comments and either approve them and let them post or reject them and let the commenter know why. I chose not to moderate comments here. Why? I guess it comes down to the old thing called social acceptance.

Social acceptance is a large part of how we learn to accept and love ourselves. Children and teenagers do many things to gain the acceptance of their peers. By growing up, we learn how to love and accept ourselves for who and what we are, regardless of what others think. We learn to either follow our own beliefs of what is right and wrong and to either follow what we know deep down in our hearts is right or to follow the crowd. But it still hurts even as an adult when you are not accepted. I had a few days of self pity then decided that if they didn't like me, it was their loss not mine. I won't be visiting their blog ever again.

Guess I will always be the rebel. I follow what I know is right, and God's Word. I actually really don't care what others think of me. I refuse to bend my ideals and beliefs to another. I am who I am and proud of who I am. I write what I want and I allow others to say what they want whether or not they disapprove or not.