The miracle massage

I woke up just before my alarm went off. I brushed my teeth, took the first supplements, then swished. I tried to che e-mail, but Yahoo was really slow. So I moved it to another browser. That seemed to speed it up, at least for awhile. I wondered if I should take a sewing machine to Renegades on Sunday. I was still having light twinges and they had me worried. So I tested the weight of the machine in the case, and the featherweight. I didn't sense much difference. But there was a sewing project in there from the last Renegades meeting. I opened it up, intending to add borders, but discovered that some (most) of the seams weren't quite right, and practically nil in two spots. So I took a bunch of stitches out and pinned the edges together correctly.
I research supplements and prices, needing to replace a supplement that is running out. I did some tapping for feeling of wax stuck to my teeth. I keep wanting to clamp down on it and squeeze it down to size, but that would probably break my temporary crown.
I listened to the next episodes of the tapping summit. I made and ate breakfast. I discovered that there was a bonus interview, so I listened to that and sent a message to Nell so she wouldn't miss it. I watched two ABC's of supplementation videos while I sewed the pinned strips and pressed them.
I took a short walk because it was too cold to take a longer one. The temp wasn't horrible, but the wind chill made it much worse. After the walk, I went to the post office to pick up mail. There was nothing important.
From there, I went to see my massage therapist. I brought a book in case I had to wait, but she took me right away. We stood around talking for about 45 minutes, mostly about the coronavirus. Then she left while I undressed and laid face down on the table. When she came back, she started on my right side, pushing into my back with one finger. She really gave it a workout. I kept thinking the muscle was going to give warning twinges, but it didn't. She spent most of the hour working on my back, covering it with magnesium cream. After the massage, there were no twinges, much to my surprise. I went to her office to pay her. She said next time I have an episode, I should call her. If she has time, she will come to my house and release the muscles that are forcing the disks to pinch the nerve. Wow!
On the way home, I stopped at the little Asian store for coconuts, mushrooms and a pummelo. When I got home, I put on an interview from the summit, and ate the pommelo. It was a lot like a grapefruit. I also had some seed crackers and a handful of nuts. I was tired of chicken. For some reason, he made three baking dishes full of chicken and chorizo. And he's not here to eat it.
After supper, I checked e-mail again. I continued to look for the best price on an equivalent product that I needed to order. The next day of the tapping summit was posted and I started listening. I paused it to watch two episodes of Royal Pains. Then I wrote my blog post, took supplements and got ready for bed.
* I think it needs black borders. What do you think? *

Alone and busy

I woke up with my alarm. It woke Chris, too, and he was frisky. But my back was sending warning signals so I declined.
I got up to do the usual morning stuff, listening to the summit. Chris ate, showered, and packed his duffle bag and hung the costume in his car. Then he headed to St. Louis. I took supplements on schedule, got dressed, and went to the chiropractor. I thought I had brought a book, but what I had was a kit Mom had started. I brought it in with me. I was put on the back-stretching machine right away. She turned down the pressure for me. The stim felt really good, though. Afterward, I sat in the hall and stitched. Then he put me in Exam room 2 and I stitched some more. When it was my turn, he came in and I handed him a jar of fermented sweet potato and coconut milk. As he examined my neck, I told him about the car accident two weeks ago. He adjusted my neck and various places along my spine. He said no twisting and told me to come back next week, which is my normal appointment anyway. I stopped at the front desk, then went home.
I quickly made and ate breakfast. Then it was time to go quilting. I hadn't asked the chiropractor about lifting my machine, but I could guess the answer. I took the little sewing kit and found a seat by Leanne. We talked until Carol arrived. Then Carol talked about ...something. Anyway, at 2, I packed up my work on the patchwork ball and went home.
I got ready for my phone call with the health practitioner. I told him I was leery of supplements that had a proprietary blend, which most of his do. He said I could choose something else, but that the ones he sells have been really effective for patients in the past. After the call I went for a walk. It was cold but sunny. When I got back, I made up a week's worth of practitioner supplements.
I listened to the rest of the Supplements Revealed summit, and the tapping summit. I checked out the options to own the information. For the highest price, you get 4 bottles of supplements. But I could not find a GMP stamp anywhere on the label.
I had a piece of chicken with kimchi for supper, plus the rest of the sad-looking arugula. I lit the anti-mold candle in the master bathroom and shut the door. I soaked the head of the spray nozzle at the sink in a cut of vinegar. I did tapping with Nell for almost 2 hours on her issue. Then I watched Day 1 of the summit which was on Youtube. Afterward, I used my massage ball and watched one episode of Royal Pains. I wondered what Netflix offering Chris was watching.
I blew out the candle, and took the second-to-last set of supplements. I wrote my blog post, then got ready for bed.
* There is Chris' costume. I hope to have a pic of him in it one of these days. *

No house cleaning today

I got up around 7:30. My mouth was too sore to brush, but I swished with the usual tooth powder and homemade mouth wash. I tweaked and printed out my supplement regimen. I did a modified version of my exercises and made coffee. I started the meditation and tapping. Then it occurred to me that I should be proactive because Chris is leaving town. So I called the chiropractor and the receptionist told me to come right in.
I drank my protein mix and drove over there. She put me right into an exam room. The doctor came in soon after. He said he'd asked her to check up on me. (and here I thought he didn't remember me.) I told him my plantar fasciitis was all gone, and I didn't know if it was due to the meds or being off of my feet for 24 hours. He tested my legs and said it was a nerve between L4 and L5. He didn't think it was time to cut it. He adjusted my neck and back with the thumper, and told me to come back in a day or two. I went to the front desk and she scheduled me for tomorrow morning.
When I got back, I took vitamin C. I made pre-breakfast mixes and breakfast itself. I blended a sweet potato with coconut cream and put a capsule of probiotic in it. I took a shower, and got dressed. Then I listened to Supplements Revealed.
At 1:50, I went to the Korean clinic. They had a loan snafu where the money they sent was sent back and they were being charged late fees. I tried calling the bank, but they wouldn't talk to me. So we did our best workaround on that. Then he gave me a detox foot bath. But at 4 I cut it short. We had a discussion of what Ash Wednesday meant. He said they are 7th Day Adventists and don't celebrate Christmas or Easter. She asked about the kimchi and I said there was still some left. She said the two of them eat that much in two days.
When I got home, Chris was there. He'd brought in a small package. My neighbor texted me that it was left on her doorstep. I put on the remaining interview and sewed trim on the sleeves of the costume. Chris called the credit card company to activate my card, but the automated system would not do it. So he had to talk to a representative. It got interesting, but finally straightened out. When the interview was over, I put on the Tapping summit. I got out my glue box and tried to resurrect a bottle. Finally I had to dip it out with a toothpick. I glued tassels to ends of a rope braid for a belt.
I made a salad for supper and then had some chicken. Last year I had bought a baby toothbrush, which just fits on the end of my finger. I used it to brush my temporary crowns and gums but it didn't feel good. I asked Chris to put gas in my car because it was so cold and dark outside.
I was still listening to the summit when it stopped abruptly at 7. I found a bin in the garage and filled it with recycling, and emptied it outside, twice. I rolled the big bin to the curb. My massage therapist called, having an empty slot on Friday afternoon.
I added a bit of bling to the hat as an afterthought. Then Chris cued up Netflix while I made magnesium water for sipping. We watched two episodes of Call the Midwife. He went to bed while I swished with glutathione. But my gums didn't like that either. I wrote my blog post and put some ozone cream on my gums, then got ready for bed.
* This is my best effort with the tassel. I hope no one notices it. *

Crowned x 2

I got up a little before the alarm went off. I had little trouble getting out of bed. I took a packet of
Vitamin C, then brushed and swished. I put ingredients in the bread machine for Chris. Then I made and ate breakfast. I packed my back medicine, a lidocaine patch and vitamin C, and went to the dentist.
I had barely sat down when I was called back. The assistant left me to get a knee pillow. There was a blue rinse in a cup for me. Usually I only pretend to use it, but because my first crown got infected, I swished with the rinse. Then she got me settled in the chair. However, I asked for a Conebeam x-ray, rather than the usual ones, so I had to get up and go to that machine. I held my breath so it would get a good picture. Then I took a packet of vitamin C.
The assistant was getting me ready with nitrous when the dentist came in. She said she'd looked at the conebeam slide by slide and could find nothing wrong with my bone structure. She was pleased to see how healthy and dense it was. There were no cavitations or absesses. She gave me two shots in the back corner of my mouth, then left. I did some tapping while we waited for it to take effect. But when she came back, my tongue was numb but my lips weren't, so she gave me another shot. Again, the assistant and I waited. Then the dentist gave me a 4th shot, but in a different location. She said 10% of people have their nerve in the other location. She left again. When I thought my lips were numb, the dentist came back. She started drilling, but I was flinching from the pain. So she tried to convince me to reschedule for a session with twilight sedation. But having come so far, I did not want to start over. I insisted on finishing up, especially since she estimated the drilling at only 20 minutes. So she injected anesthesia into the gum beside tooth. She didn't think it would work because my jaw bone is so dense, but it did. She was able to trim down that tooth and I felt nothing. She started on the next one. It hurt but I could handle it just long enough for her to finish it.
After that she left, and the assistant made an impression, and then a temporary crown that covered two teeth. She kept fitting it and grinding it until I said it was ok. But I couldn't really tell because of all the numbness in my mouth. Finally, it was in and she walked me to the front desk where I paid by credit card. It was after noon when I left for home.
(I remembered a dentist years ago, drilling away at my back tooth and telling me that it didn't hurt, even though I insisted that it did. I guess he didn't know I was one of the 10%."
When I got home, I put the lidocaine patch that was on my back, on the side of my face. I had to put on a surgical mask to keep it there. I put some ozone gel on the soft tissues around the two teeth. I made my protein drink and had some bone broth. It was a lovely day, so I took a slow walk around the circle. Then I went to church to take care of the offering.
It was an easy day of counting. Afterward, I shredded half a bag of paper. Then I took the money to the bank for deposit. The teller was talking about having an infected tooth, so I told her how I cured one for myself.
When I got home, there was a package on the porch. I picked it up, and opened it. It was our new credit card. I put on Day 1 of the tapping summit and worked on the gold trim of his costume. Chris came home with packages from the post office. I finished sewing on trim, then opened the packages. They were both supplements. I had a can of organic soup for supper as well as a chicken leg. It was hard to eat because my mouth didn't want to open very wide. I was afraid to brush my teeth afterward.
One of my e-mails said my data would be deleted from the cloud a year after my last use. I checked that day in my blog, but it was missing. So I have no idea what information I stored in the cloud, or why I would have put it there. It was a Thursday, but there is no record of it, or pictures with that date. From reading the posts before and after, I concluded that I had an appointment with the chiropractor in the morning and probably did not go quilting.
I listened to Day 7 of Supplements Revealed. It ended abruptly at 8, when the next episode went live. I mixed up some vitamin water and some magnesium water and some salt water. The idea was to swish with each off and on while we watched Call the Midwife. None of them seemed to help, and the salt made it worse if comfort was the goal.
After two episodes, I took some supplements. Chris went to bed. I wrote my blog post and got myself ready, then took the last of the supplements. I decided to take it easy on the usual stretches. I brushed very lightly, then went to bed.
* I didn't take any pics today, so here is another one from the modern quilt guild meeting. *

Back on my feet

I could not sleep last night. If I relaxed the cramping muscle, the other muscles tightened up, and vice versa. Plus I had to keep changing my leg position at least every minute. No time to sleep. Around 3(?) they gave me Robaxin. That increased the time I could spend in one position so I could sleep a few minutes at a time.
Breakfast came at 7. The lady who brought it asked for my lunch and supper order. I ate most of the scrambled eggs, but they were softly scrambled and did not set too well. I ate one piece of bacon, the oatmeal and the orange sections. I kept the biscuit and second piece of bacon for Chris, who was coming at 8. He could have had the rest of the eggs and the coffee, but the lunch lady took them away with the tray. When Chris did not show up at 8, I called the number Chris wrote on the white board, but some lady answered. I had the CNA dial the number and got an answering machine. Finally at 9:30, Chris came in with my knee pillow, and phone. I was so glad to see my phone since I haven't memorized the numbers of people I wanted to talk or text to. He hadn't gotten my message. I had messages on my phone, and one was from a cc company flagging a suspicious charge. Chris called the company to dispute the charges because they were on a card we canceled a week ago. He had to ask to speak to a manager. The manager ended up thanking him for bringing this to his attention. I called the dental office to say I might not be there tomorrow if I am still in the hospital.
A bunch of doctors and med students came by to ask me questions about my condition. Hearing that the Percocet didn't help, but the Robaxin did a little, he prescribed more Robaxin, a lidocaine patch and a steroid drip. The nurse put the patch on first, then hooked up the IV, and finally found a pump to make it work.
Lunch came at 11. I ate the chicken salad wrap and vegetable soup and grapes. Someone came to take blood. Apparently my white cell count was slightly high, so she came back for more blood for a lactate test. She planned to repeat it every three hours.
My back started feeling better. I was able to lie in one position for 10 minutes or more. I tried to sleep, but that eluded me. Painstakingly, I scooted to the edge of the bed, rolled to the left, and crept out with my feet to a chair that Chris had placed there. But that was as far as I could go. So I laid down on my back again and lowered the bed. I tried again, and finally got my feet on the floor and enjoyed sitting up for a few minutes. Then I stood up. I alternated sitting and standing for awhile. Then I used the bathroom like a normal person. Chris had to clean me up because of all the loose movements. Chris called the nurse and I was able to show her that I could walk. A physical therapist came to check me out. I stood up for him, walked forward and backward. He checked my leg strength and listened to my explanation that walking was never a problem, only getting to an upright position. Andrew was happy with my condition and said I could tell the checkout people that I would rather stand than sit and that he said so.
I read my book until the nurse came back to give me papers to sign and tell us we could leave. The lactate tests were canceled. As was the x-ray. She also gave me one more dose of Robaxin, saying it as the largest dose she'd ever seen. It made me feel loopy. I asked if it promoted loose stools and not feeling good in the gut. She said no, that would be the hospital food. The eggs are made from powder. I preferred to walk, so we walked down to the first floor. We did not know where to check out or even if we needed to. Chris said they'd send us a bill, so we just went to the parking lot to get in his car. The Robaxin made the ride home easier. Chris followed the GPS home and it did not avoid pot holes.
Chris heated up chicken while I sat in the bathroom trying to get rid of the hospital food. I read a book until I couldn't sit anymore. I put the book away, and went to the kitchen for supper. The chicken was excellent. I also had my daily handful of nuts, plus some sauerkraut. I listened to part of Supplements Revealed. But at 8pm it promptly shut down because the next episode was out.
We put on Call the Midwife. Then Faye called. Her evening wasn't as good as she'd planned. Then we finished the Netflix show. Chris went to bed and I stayed up to write two blog posts, hoping I didn't forget anything important.
* This is the white board in the internal medicine ward. *

Back issues

I woke up with the alarm at 7:30, but did not get up right away. When I did, I brushed. I swished while taking a shower. I was putting on pantyhose, getting ready for church, when, without warning, my back cramped. I tried to call Chris, but my mouth was full of swishing. I dropped to the floor, with my head in the closet on a pair of shoes. I had to spit on a plastic bag so I could call out to Chris. He brought me meds from the head of the bed. I also drank lots of magnesium citrate water and took multiple packets of Vitamin C and Glutathione. But it was not enough to keep the spasms at bay long enough for me to get up. I laid there until 3 or so. Chris brought me some sweet potato mixed with fermented coconut milk. I wiggled out of my pantyhose and dress and put on my long nightshirt for comfort. Poor Chris had to deal with the effects of the magnesium on my gut. But he was a trooper, cleaning up whatever came out.
I got the shakes and that increased the spasming or cramping. Chris called an ambulance. I took some last minute vitamin C. I scooted my butt around to the side of the bed to give them more room. I didn't realize I could move that well. I had Chris put a brief and socks on me before the drivers came. A man and woman came carrying a small tarp with handles. They rolled it under me then hoisted me up and carried me to the stretcher. The transfer hurt. They rolled me to the ambulance. She offered to put the head of the bed up. That made me think I might be able to stand with that kind of help. But we'd already committed to going to Huntsville Hospital to find out what was really wrong. The trip was bumpy to the hospital, but I weathered it easier than the trip to Crestwood Hospital two years ago.
I was taken to an ER room right away. I transferred myself from the stretcher to the bed. The lady had to stay with me until a nurse arrived. Then I was offered a PureWick, which is an external female catheter. I accepted and the nurse was so pleased that I already had a brief on. It was easier on both of us. Other people from various departments showed up to ask questions – although no one asked about flu shots. Finally Chris was allowed to come back to the room. We had time to wait and I wished I had my phone so I could communicate with the outside world. The doctor asked questions and talked to me. He called for three meds. More waiting. A nurse brought the meds and they were oral. I took them and waited for them to kick in, but there was no benefit. Then the doctor called for two shots – steroid and something else. They burned going in. 40 minutes later the nurse tried to get me out of bed, but it triggered a massive spasm and set me back quite a bit.
So they admitted me. That was a long process. I was given an IV port just because it was policy. The person who took me walked very fast and the wind made me cold. When we got to the room, I transferred myself to the bed in the room. The pushy lady left. The nurse tried to raise the head of my bed, but it would not stay up, and fell back down. I asked for food and she brought me a turkey sandwich. I ate the turkey and left the bread. Chris waited with me for awhile, then went home because it was late. The nurse gave me Percocet, but it did not reduce the pain. I read for awhile, then turned out the light and tried to sleep by tapping, which was very relaxing.
* This is the PureWick. They said the doctor who invented it is now very rich. And yes, you can buy a PureWick system for use at home. *

CBD coconut oil

We were awakened by my phone alarm. Chris gave me a massage using the CBD Coconut oil that I bought in Augusta. He used a lot and I wondered if I was absorbing the calories of it.
I got up, brushed my teeth and listened to the rest of the day 4 episode from last night. I took supplements on schedule and by 11:30 I was ready for breakfast.
After breakfast, I checked the weather, then put the plants out. I took a walk up the hill at the back of the neighborhood. I found myself walking through the woods, which are strangely deficient in undergrowth. It occurred to me that maybe some one sprayed it?
As I passed by the soccer field, I remembered that I wanted used tennis balls. So I walked over to the tennis court and searched all around. There were no balls on the court or around outside. But there were two floating in the garbage can which was full of rain water. I picked them out and carried them home. On the way, I passed a man in the field behind our duplex. He looked like he had just landed there with a parachute and was waiting for a ride. I did not see any planes.
When I got inside, Chris was on the phone with his parents. Their heater had died and was just now being fixed. I washed the tennis balls thoroughly. We looked at Chris' costume. I had ironed it and it looked ok, but I thought it needed some gold trim. He thought the belt was going to be too short. Chris called Michele for her opinion. Then we went to Joanns for trims. We saw that Earth Fare was closing. Inside the fabric store, we looked at all the gold trims. We found some 'rope' for the belt and narrow trim for the tabard. I got enough to use on the hat as well. We looked for unicorn pendants but did not see any. As we left the store, I realized I had made more work for myself.
When we got home, I played a movie about 5G, written by a journalist in Houston Texas. It was very well done. While it played, I hemmed the silk pants, and started sewing the trim by hand. I stopped to make supper. I called Dad on his cell phone because the kitchen phone was always busy. After the call, I listened to podcasts, folded laundry, and played Solitaire.
We watched two episodes of Call the Midwife. I sipped my usual magnesium water and vitamin water. Afterwards, we dressed the bed with clean sheets. I wrote my blog post, rolled out my shoulders and did a few yoga stretches before going to bed.
* This is her entry to the Make It Modern challenge. *