I Just Want Some Sleep

I keep getting these awful muscle cramps. They have gotten more and more prevalent over the past few months. Sometimes the little tiny muscles on the side of my pinky finger start to go into spasm.... they may be tiny but they can cause a lot of pain. Other times its my hamstrings - both at once (just for added fun), or the front of my calf, or the bottom of my heel. Whenever it is, I stop doing whatever it was I was doing (sleeping, reading, walking, etc) and be in pain until it decides to loosen up. I often try moving around and a little massage. Sometimes I am still achy wherever it hurt for a while longer.

I asked my pain management doctor and he said its when muscles are overworked they can go into spasm. So what was I doing when I was sleeping that was overworking my calf?

I asked my rheumatologist about this and she asked me about how much water I drink (lots), how much fresh fruit and vegetables (at least one banana a day), and more. She said it could be some kind of imbalance but did have me get my iron levels checked (they were normal). I see my primary care in about a month so it will be a bigger discussion then.

All I know is I have enough problems getting a good night's sleep without waking up two or three times with muscle cramps. Grrr.... grrr.... grrr....

I'm Aggravated

I have decided I am very aggravated with my health. It drives me crazy. I would be lying if I didn't say that.

I would be much happier if I didn't have so many issues. I would be happier if I wasn't in pain. I would be happier if I was able to sleep better. I would be happier if I could do everything that I used to be able to do. I would be happier if I had never had cancer, twice. Or RA or fibromyalgia.

Did you know having any one of these cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, can cause depression along with everything else? Many people who have a single one of these diseases get diagnosed with depression. So yes, I can say also that I am treated for depression on top of everything else.

So what do I do? How do I cope? People say to me 'I don't know how you do it'. I think 'do what?'. I don't do anything special. I get up every morning and deal with my life. I can't do anything else. There is nothing else. What do you think I should do? This is also aggravating.

Basically I put one foot in front of the other each day. I may be aggravated but I am still here despite my health. Life could be easier but it isn't. I have to cope with the hand I have been dealt in life.

Aggravations

My little world is feeling very aggravated this morning. First of all my damn laptop is having way too many technical issues. I have been working on it for days. It keeps running too slow. It is running a little faster but still has hiccups. I need to pull some more tricks out of my sleeve to fix it.

Also, my damn prescriptions are aggravating me. A few weeks ago, I had prescription issues when it took weeks to get one filled. Last Tuesday I called in another prescription and today I had to call again... I have 1, yes ONE, pill left. Which means I have until tomorrow at about 6 pm before I completely run out. Just damn aggravating.

Then I read in this morning's paper (yes I read the paper newspaper every day - the comics are better in the paper than online, and if you don't read the comics, life would be too boring) about how many unvaccinated children there are these days.

Who knew that most children do not get their vaccinations before their second birthday? Vaccinations are one of the greatest advances in modern medicine and people don't get their kids vaccinated. I don't get this. People who stop eating fast food to be healthier but then don't get their kids vaccinated? They would have their children's best interest at heart if they got the shots.

I just don't understand this. Its the same for people who go macrobiotic and skip going to the doctor. Maybe I'm just good and aggravated already before I read the paper

Technical Difficulties

I hate technical difficulties. One of my main responsibilities at work is IT support for the company. I troubleshoot, set up computers, install software, and more. I also help friends with their computers as well. Therefore I hate it when I have technical difficulties.

Right now my laptop is in ICU at the local computer store. The preliminary diagnosis is that the plug where the power cord from the wall outlet plugs in has died. The laptop didn't recognize the AC adapter so I couldn't charge the battery, and if you moved it a tiny bit (or not at all), it would lose contact with the AC adapter and shut down. Not fun and basically made the computer unusable.

I will know in a couple of days if its an affordable, sensible, repair. The laptop is 3 years old so it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on it. And I really do not want buy a new computer right now. Nor is it backed up (which is a cardinal rule in the IT world).

In the meantime, I am using my phone and tablet for technology. Its okay but not great. Yes I can access the internet and my email but the on screen keyboard is a PITA. And all my files are on the laptop so I can't take care of some volunteer work. Nor do I have all computer programs that I use regularly.

But its not health related and it is aggravating. Grrrr.

I need to whine!

I'll just say that the best part of my day yesterday was calling my brother at 730 am and finding out he was on the west coast and it was 430 am. Sibling rivalry lives.

 This was my day yesterday:

Monday afternoon my phone would not work. I figured it has a dead battery (not an unusual situation for me) and I'll let it charge overnight and it will be fine. Tuesday morning it would not boot up. I tried everything. Finally I resorted to Google and found I could download a utility which would help me reset my phone (and since it was backed up, it didn't matter). But it took 45 minutes to download and install. Then I got a fail message. So I said GRRR (and WTF) and figured I would deal with it later. I unplugged my phone and it worked.

I got to work. We are about to get new paint, cubes, desks, and carpeting so everything is a bit chaotic. I carefully had packed up my office and desk and marked four boxes as being needed for my desk during all the chaos. There were only three boxes. And after some looking and research, it turns out my boss threw out my most important box (even though it was labeled). He did help me look through the recycling dumpster and we found about half of what I needed.

Then I couldn't connect to the f****ng internet. I tried everything I could and gave up and called our outside IT guy. He said he would be there in an hour and it then took about 30 seconds to fix it. (Why he couldn't walk me through that on the phone I have no idea.)

So finally I could get online and to the server, but I couldn't print. Because the person who was supposed to order toner for the main office printer a month ago, didn't because (a) she doesn't care, she has her own printer; and (b) see above. She apologized and said I could email her anything I needed printed. Half an hour later, I asked again and she hadn't even looked at her email because she (just found out she needed to pack her office and) had been busy packing up her desk. But the toner was due to arrive today and then she got an email saying it was back ordered so I guess she will be printing for all of us again tomorrow. And no I don't care if we all piss her off because she didn't order the damn toner a month ago.

Then I get to sit at my desk and get some work done. My boss stopped by and said he would see me next week. I said no I will be here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because I have way too much to do. He was surprised because apparently its a slow work week and he didn't think I would have much to do. My work level does not correlate to how busy or slow sales are. I'm marketing and IT so I always have something to do.

And then the cats pulled a dead mouse out of the kitchen cabinets. It was in a trap and my husband hasn't been checking them as often as he should. I did not need to see a dead mouse when trying to cook dinner.

My plan is that today will be a better day. I will not have to put on my cranky pants and be a b***h to everyone again. I also think that my health recently has not been cooperative so that I tend to over react to everything. I also do really like my job and my boss. Usually he is very nice and understanding. Yesterday it was just too damn much!

Deep breath. It will be better. And I can always claim too much pain from something and need to leave work for the day.

Pharmacies decide when you can get your prescriptions

Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up two refills for me and get my husband's prescription filled. No such luck. I got one prescription refilled. The other one is too soon according to the pharmacist. And my husband's was also too soon. As I was actually speaking with the pharmacist who I have spoken with several times in the past (because I am a frequent flyer at the local pharmacy), I decided to ask more questions.

I found out that most national chain pharmacies make their own rules as to when you can pick up a prescription. At Walgreen's, where I was, and at CVS, you can only pick up some prescriptions, of medications subject to abuse, the day before or the day they are needed. Rite Aid, I was told, allow you to pick it up two days prior. You can't pick them up sooner. And if you are going on vacation and want to pick up a prescription early you need to show a plane ticket or something. This isn't a law or anything this is a rule the chains have developed.

Really? How non-customer focused! This is a huge example of poor customer service. From the store's point of view, the customer has to come back to the store for each prescription (unless they can be perfectly timed to be picked up together) and potentially purchase other items.

But from the customer's point of view, with poor health probably, multiple store visits at the company's convenience are not so good. I have options here. I can switch my prescriptions to mail order where they are more lenient on prescription dates as they have to allow for shipping time.

I completely understand the issue of substance abuse, fake prescriptions and all that. But this is a bit too strict in my eyes. I can understand if its a new prescription or a new customer should be made to wait. An existing customer who gets their prescriptions filled regularly should not have to deal with this.

I have always believed that it was the insurance companies and laws that were the basis for determining when you could pick up your prescription. Not stupid company policies. Sorry I am not a fan of these. Maybe its time to write to the corporate offices to complain.

Brainless people

I strongly believe that everyone's brains disintegrated when faced with two feet or more of snow. I had to run a bunch of errands yesterday and numerous times, people just came to a stop in the middle of the road. No turn indicators, nothing. Just a complete stop.

Now that the streets are a bit on the skinny side, there is no where to go but wait behind them. Until a fire truck comes blazing away in the opposite direction when we all drove into the snow banks.

I have no idea why this happened but it did. Several times. Enough to drive me crazy. I had a lovely day otherwise. I got a crown finished at the dentist and was told I have oral sloughing where the inside of your mouth is slowly disintegrating. The dentist thought it was due to some ingredient in my dental care products. But not for me.

A little Webmd search lead me to believe it could be caused my my RA treatment. Later I ended up at my rheumatologist where we talked about my feet and my lungs. My hands and feet are better in the terms of less active disease.

But we talked about the weird sloughing which lead to increased folic acid which led to new prescriptions which led to not being refilled which led to 20 minutes on the phone with the specialty pharmacy to find out it will now cost $35 for a one month supply and then $95 for a three month supply for 3 pills a week. It used to cost less than $5 for a four month supply. I love health insurance. It is clearly run by brainless people.

But I digress. There was an extreme lack of brain usage on the part of many people during our recent blizzard. The headline is the 61 year old woman who attacked her neighbor with a snow blower and is out on bail. Apparently all her neighbors have restraining orders against her.

I finished my day and was exhausted. I got up this morning and immediately went back to bed. I rolled out of bed at 11am. Obviously I was exhausted after dealing with brainless people all day.

How the hell did that happen?

I have a very responsible system for my medical bills. Every couple of months I call and say I want to pay all balances over 30 days old and put them on a credit card that I pay off regularly. I used to pay bills each month as they came in. Then I would get refunds from the hospital all the time. So I gave up on that system.

For the record this week when I went to the doctor they said I didn't need to pay my co-pay because I had a credit balance.

So to my surprise, yesterday I got a statement showing a balance going back to February which had a note that it would go to collections if not paid asap. So I called this morning and paid three outstanding bills, one each from January, February, and March. The January one had just gone to collections. I asked about that since I knew it took about six months until the insurance company decided what they would pay. I was told basically they look at the visit date and not the date it was actually billed before deciding to send things to collections.

How helpful. I have never had anything in collections before. How mortifying. And why couldn't I pay all these bills last time I called in October?

Do you ever have one of those days?

Yesterday I blogged about how it was supposed to be the worst day for the year because of the time change. I was right, it did end up being a really aggravating day but it had nothing to do with lack of sleep.

First it started with we couldn't get the (damn) car started. Its my Saturn that I bought new in September 1999 so it is a bit old. It has a paltry 156,000 miles on it and I thought it should go for a few more years. It needs an ignition cylinder because the (damn) key won't turn on a regular basis. We are sick of pouring money in it so it is time to move on. But its my favorite car. I am not ready to give it up but its time.

I had to jump out of bed and throw on some clothes to drive my husband to work without thirty seconds notice. I wore my pajamas with a sweatshirt and jeans, boots with no socks, and didn't brush my teeth or hair. I got back home at 8 am and had to be at the hospital for a 9am EMG. That meant I had approximately 30 minutes to shower, dress, eat, brush my teeth, pack my little bag of stuff to take, and my gym bag for later.

I rushed to the hospital, got there in the nick of time, after getting stuck behind three (damn) school buses.

Have you ever had an EMG? They suck. Yes that is the only word to describe it. They send jolts in your hands and then they stick needles in you and grind away tensing muscles that really hurts. Definitely not a fun test.

After all that the answer was inconclusive for carpal tunnel, no real idea why I have tingling in my hands, and off to see a neurologist. I hate inconclusive test results, especially when they are nasty ones. Then I went to the gym to work off some of my aggravation.

Does anyone want to buy a car?