Bridal Shower Planning

Daughter and I are in the depths of getting her bridal shower planned.

Games: She picked out a real cute game called "Write the Bridal Vows". We found it on theknot*com. The idea: Help the bride and groom write their vows. Here is how it is played:

Tell the group that they’re going to help the bride write the couple’s vows, but each person gets to write only one sentence. Start circulating 2 clipboards, one with the header “I [Bride’s name] take you [Groom’s name] and promise to” and the other with the reverse. Give each clipboard to one guest and instruct her to write a vow phrase under the header: I promise to ... not roll my eyes when you yell at sports on TV. The first guest must now fold down the first line so that it’s hidden underneath and pass to the second player to add her sentiment. After both his and her versions have made it through the group, read the vows aloud for all to hear.

The other game was a riot too. Every 5th person to walk into the shower is handed a gift and told not to open it. Instructions are given once the shower starts that everytime the holder of the gift says a certain word (in our case we are using the bride's name and groom's name), they have to give up their present and the one who caught them gets it. At the end of the bridal gift opening, whoever is left with a present gets it.

We are also planning on door prizes - one per table. The party favors we think will be all pink related - pink emery boards and pink hand and body lotion.

So between daughter and I we have done this all. We should be getting the invitation pieces tomorrow so we can put the invites together. We have settled on the menu at our favorite Italian Cucina, ordered the flowers, and are planning on making the table decorations the last weekend of Jan when hubs will be in CA for a seminar. Now it is just the fine points.

I am so glad I only have one daughter. I keep repeating to myself: some day I will look back on this as a bonding Kodak moment....I am betting it might be a while for that to happen.

Physical Therapy

That was me today trying to work up the courage to go to therapy. I have been sans cast for 9 days and this past week started physical therapy.

1st visit no problemo. Showed them what I could do and what I couldn't do. Plan was made.

2nd visit they brought out the electrical stimulation, deep massage, exercises, and anything else they could find to torture me. That visit I went 1st thing in the am, thinking my ankle is less swollen so it would be easiest. WRONG! I made the mistake later that day of taking off my shoe and could never get it back on.

3rd visit was today. Appointment was this afternoon after daughter and I had gone wedding shopping. Another wrong time. Ankle was sore from the shopping then the therapists just made it worse. I have learned to carry the surgical shoe around with me.

I understand I have been in a cast for 4 and a half months and that for every week you are in a cast it takes 2 weeks to rehab. Logically I spew that info to our patients. Emotionally it's a load of crap especially when it is happening to you. I like it better the other way around.

I learned to walk as an infant. Suddenly lessons I thought I had mastered a way long time ago are long forgotten and each and every step is like the first one. It's like counting while learning to dance.....heel to toe... foot straight...no putting more weight on one side or the other...and no rolling.....and limping isn't allowed. I think a turtle or snail could beat me. I have a test on Monday to see if I have mastered that. A cinch you say? Well, then how about you take it for me? :)

OMG Who knew the foot and ankle were human barometers? I can predict when a storm will hit the area within one hour. I get notice 24 hours prior. And here I thought that was just old people spewing that to have something to say.

Then just when I think I have got it done pat....I go to bed all proud of myself. The problem with this is.....I have to get up the next morning and redo everything all over again. The foot and ankle don't remember a danged thing they were taught the day before.

**sigh**

Insurance Company Rant

Warning: This is a rant.

I HATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doctors have gotten a bad rap over the years (although I will admit some totally deserve it) but....when have you ever seen a doctor in the top Fortune 500? None! But you can be sure insurance companies are there along with their CEO's who get megabucks.

Where do your premiums go? Not to pay claims but to the CEO's and the shareholders.

I have over 250 health care claims into my insurance company since I fell in August. Do you think they might pay ONE????????????? Nope......they are constantly denied for various reasons:
1. Do you have any other health insurance?
2. Is there someone else responsible for this injury?
3. They manually change the subscriber (insured person) from my husband's name to mine so they can then say I don't have insurance.
4. We need medical notes for every date of service.

Oh wait.....they "paid" the ones that went to my $5000.00 deductible. Those didn't seem to need any of the above.

Ok I have seen the charges going in. I yelled at my doctor many times for undercharging me. Those charges are not outrageous. Thank goodness my husband is on staff at the hospital where I had the surgery or I would be in collections right now to the tune of $30,000 just for the hospital bill which the insurance company has not paid yet, not any other bill since I fell.

I have reported my own insurance company to our state Department of Insurance, to URAC, and to the Better Business Bureau. I have spoken to supervisors of supervisors. I have written letters to the CEO. I thought 2 weeks ago I had everything solved.

WRONG! I received a phone call today asking me why I haven't responded to the 8 requests asking me if I have any other insurance. Now that was the first denial on all the claims. I had already advanced to the medical record denial. Now I am starting at the beginning.......

Grrrr..........then to top the morning off: I started physical therapy today to learn how to walk again on horse parts. Now that is a whole 'nother post......I have Attilla the Hun doing my therapy....lucky me.

"Start every day with a smile and get it over with"

Ever get the feeling you should just stay in bed? I have actually been having that feeling for 2 days.

The universe is schizo. Chicago weather has gone from tornadoes to snow within a 24 hour period. Patients we haven't seen and hoped they never would come back came in today. I was told it was a new moon today. Dunno....I like the schizo thought!

For Christmas one of my dear friends sent me this book: "The 2,548 Best Things Anyone Ever Said". I have been trying to read one page a day. Today's page only had one quote: "Start every day with a smile and get it over with" (WC Fields) And that folks, pretty well sums up today and the last couple of days. I think they only time I have smiled in the past 2 days was when I got up. I have to stop that.....the smiling or the getting up or both.....going to bed to figure it out......

Wedding Diet Progression

Well, my husband said I couldn't do it with a cast on. I showed him! I wasn't sure exactly how much I lost because I always had a cast on. Monday the cast came off (my New Year's present). But....I couldn't balance on the scale so couldn't see exactly how much I had lost.

I knew I had been losing since my once tight size 22 clothes were so loose on my waist they were falling off me and the sleeves on my scrubs became 3/4 length sleeves.

Since I got the cast off I have been practicing balancing and relearning how to walk and to accept this foot with horse parts and lots of metal and wires as a part of my body. Today I could stand on the scale.....and total weight loss to date is 32 pounds! Not bad for being non-weight bearing for 4 months.

I think having to balance on the scooter, lugging a 5 pound weight on one leg, and hopping on the other was aerobic exercise. I had also started using 5 pound weights on my upper arms and using them in my situps so I could have the strength for crutches. I am officially down 2-3 sizes (can't tell cuz I can't drive yet so can't shop) but clothes I have not been able to wear in 10 years now fit. I don't even give a diddlysquat that they are out of date. Today I rejoice just that I lost.

Chicago's Ever Changing Weather

In Chicago, there are 2 seasons.....cold and road repairs and a lot of the times they run together. There is one thing you can always count on about Chicago's weather.....wait and it will change.

We have been in a deep freeze since New Year's Eve. Yes, even Ms Queen of Hot Flashes, had to get out a fleece jacket when the temps dipped to double digit negatives. But.....by the weekend temps will be in the....drumroll......50's!

If you live in or around Chicago you know what that means........the pothole appears!
Pothole season is when you spend a lot of time focusing on the road trying to avoid the dreaded pothole instead of watching for other cars. So if you see someone swerve....be prepared to swerve too because they aren't avoiding another car.....they are avoiding a pothole. We even have pothole websites to report on them and a special cell phone number for state roads and for local roads. Every newscast will point them out to you and measure them. They get primetime status.

For those of you who have no clue as to what a pothole is....water gets under the roads and then freezes.....when it freezes it expands....when it thaws....there is a void....and in most cases.......a very large void.....make sure to carry spare tires in your car.

Happy New Year!

One of my friends sent this pic to me...yummy! Besides my hubs, there is only 2 other men I consider totally sexy...George is one...the other is Richard Gere.

Someone asked me if I was going to make any resolutions this year. Umm...yeah I will get on that one year. My biggest challenge at the end of 2007 was to get the cast off which amazingly enough happened yesterday...what a way to end the year! Today I spent 30 minutes in the whirlpool with both legs and me all naked...it was amazing. Now to toughen up the skin so I can shave the leg hairs that appeared out of nowhere while in the cast....and to learn how to walk again. My leg is all rubberylike. I will start physical therapy in 2 weeks. I have been on what I call 'the wedding diet' even with not being able to walk so I was really curious to see what I really weighed now....amazingly enough I have lost almost 30 pounds in 6 months! Starting to exercise the legs should make it come off faster.

Things planned for 2008....(actually these are planned for the 1st 5 months of the year): finish remodeling the interior of the house (finish pulling up carpeting and quarry tile on the 1st floor and laying wood flooring; redesigning the living room to incorporate my office with the baby grand piano; redesigning the formal dining room to now become the formal dining room instead of being my office; putting in granite countertops in the kitchen and 3 bathrooms; putting in my new GE cooktop we bought in December thanks to my daughter's hefty discount; buying a new king size mattress for our bedroom and outfitting daughter's old room into a guest room, then updating our bedroom to a new look)......then we have daughter's 2 bridal showers, rehearsal dinner, and topping it with the wedding May 3rd.

For the rest of 2008, hubs and I will be going to Hawaii in July for a meeting, first stopping on Oahu then going on to the big island Hawaii for another meeting. I somehow think we will need it after the wedding. The end of the year will bring the other surgery to finish repairing the damage from my fall on Philadelphia's fantastic sidewalks. **insert major eyeroll**

So what are your plans for the coming year? Any resolutions?