Creative Creations by ME!

Here is a video I've compiled of my scrapbooking creations and cards. If you are looking for something to give that hard to buy for person, think about getting them something I've made. I can almost guarantee that they do not have something I've made...yet! Feel free to contact me if you see something you would like to get for yourself or someone else! Thanks for looking! Happy Holidays ssauve7@aol.com

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Not so happy of a Thanksgiving!

I don't know why, but I haven't been able to sleep since my surgery, even though I have taken Benadryl, Nyquil and I even had a little liquor in my eggnog with Thanksgiving dinner. Don't worry, I didn't take all of these together, I waited at least 5 hours between my attempts. It's probably because my knee hurts so much. When I was in Seattle, awaiting surgery, I couldn't sleep the night before and started working on the dvd for the memorial to my brother. I've been working on it for a year and a half, and I keep having problems with the pictures, or the computer or the program. I was up again last night working on it and I thought I had it finally finished, and sent it to Facebook and my blogs. Then I tried to burn it to a disc, and I've run into problem after problem...again. I was planning on giving the dvd to my family members at Thanksgiving dinner, but I couldn't get the thing to burn on my computer! As a result we were late for dinner and that made everyone mad! They assumed we weren't coming. Imagine my dismay, when we arrived late, and then when I discussed my trouble with the dvd I found out that they had already seen it on facebook and then they reprimanded me about being late, and then they proceeded to tell me what was wrong with the one on Facebook. It made me feel awful. I sat down, to put my foot up and then was told that I should come to the table and put my foot up on a stool or something. Well, there wasn't anything high enough, so I ended up putting my foot up on my knee scooter. Earlier in the day I was having trouble with my pain pump. It was leaking and it was working a little too well, I was numb up to my butt. The anesthesiologist told me to stop the pump, but not take it out. We were hoping that it would help me get some feeling back in my leg. So, I was getting the feeling back in my leg and now my heel is starting to hurt. In order to sit at the table for dinner I had to twist onto my right hip (which still hurts from the bursitis) in order to not twist my already painful knee, and not put any pressure on the heel that was just operated on. It was quite uncomfortable and a few things were said that upset me even more. Not to mention that my ds cleared everyone's plates from the table, EXCEPT MINE. I shouldn't be surprised, she is usually upset since I can't help with the cleaning up and she does it all herself. It's not that I won't help out, it's just that under the circumstances it is a little difficult. Anyway I left, with the understanding that my dad was upset since I had posted on Facebook that I would be bringing the finished cd to dinner and I hadn't brought it. I tried to tell him that I would finish it when I got home and off my hip, but he reminded me that on Facebook I said it was done, and it really wasn't, so basically he called me a liar and he HATES liars. So, since I've gotten home, I've been working and working on this again. It's been 4 more hours and I am still having trouble burning it. It's over 25 minutes, and I have to keep recording it and trying to burn it over and over again. I'm beginning to think that maybe I shouldn't have taken on this task. Maybe my brother doesn't want me to finish it, I don't know. I just know that I'm very upset over the whole thing. Then, on top of it all, the stupid pain catheter broke off at the base of the pump! It was unfixable and so I had to pull the darn thing out completely. Now my heel is starting to hurt and my knee is killing me. The pain medicine I have isn't helping the knee at all, and I'm afraid I will be up all night, in pain, and that does not thrill me either! Boy this really sucks! Well, that's my story...oh, I forgot to mention that my family doesn't seem to hear anything I say, and so I have been having to do stuff myself since they are having selective hearing today. I was gone 2 days and we have no towels with which to dry off with, and someone peed all over the bath mats! GROSS! DH is very helpful, but he doesn't do laundry. The kids really need to help out more, but dh has been going in to work early in the mornings to do inventory, so I don't have his support while he is gone, and the kids are downstairs or asleep and unwilling to help. I probably cause my own problems, trying to keep the house in order when I'm not supposed to be doing anything but resting. Snap, life can be so difficult sometimes! I hope you had a better day than I did. Time to go and finish this video up. I'm determined to finish it today! Shellie out!

In loving memory of my brother, Steve

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thomas homes...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The latest, but not the greatest news...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I got some pain medicine for my root canal which took over 2 hours! The medicine is finally helping me sleep! I am getting more than 2 hours a night now! Woo Hoo!

Since my last post I had a cysto-hydrodialation for my interstitial cystitis. That went OK, I'm still having a lot of pain in my bladder. Probably because I can't quit caffeine which is a big NO-NO when you have IC. I'm also supposed to eliminate chocolate, spicy foods, coffee, tea...and the list goes on. I have to cut out pop, which is my only vice. Unfortunately it is also hazardous to my health, so I have to do it. So I will...tomorrow...Oh, and I found out that my bladder fell again, and I need to have it lifted, AGAIN! My surgeon made it sound like they had a new way to do this though, so maybe it will last longer this time! I'll worry about that next year!

The day after my bladder surgery, I went to Seattle for a pre-op visit for my nerve resection, which was yesterday. My doctor took x-rays of my foot, finally (it had not been x-rayed since a week after surgery in August). Good news, my bone is healing! Bad news, I now have a condition called monkey toe! My entire bone has been slowly moving to the right. My bone has moved 17 degrees to the right. I will need another surgery to correct it, otherwise I won't be able to wear shoes because it has moved so much. That just sucks! I had the nerve resection so that it would hopefully eliminate the pain in my foot so I can finally wear shoes (I have been wearing slippers for 4 years now because the pressure of the shoe caused s much pain in my entrapped nerves)! This new surgery sounds like a bunionectomy, and we all know how well that went. Once my bone has healed enough, he will go in, cut a notch out of my bone and then break it and put another screw in to hold it straight! Sounds fun doesn't it? NOT! That is how this whole mess started, with a screw! I do trust this doctor completely, he has never done anything to harm me, or steer me wrong, so I have to trust him about this, but we will have a conversation about the screw, and see if there are other options. He put new screws in my toe in August, which seem OK (except for the fact that my entire bone is moving, but not disintegrating).

So, yesterday was my nerve resection. Good news, the nurse only needed 2 tries to get in my I.V. (my veins usually collapse). Bad news, the anesthesiologist put in my pain catheter before surgery while I was awake! That procedure wasn't too bad though, and I am SO GLAD to have that in. It has been 12 hours since surgery and my lower let is still numb! Unfortunately, my knee is killing me! I did not tear the cartilage in my knee as we thought, I just have more arthritis. The day before my nerve resection, my knee doc gave me a hypo-allergenic syn-visc injection under both kneecaps. I think that during surgery, my doc had to twist my leg to get to the outside of my left foot, and that, in combo with the injection in causing a lot of pain. Ice, pain meds and elevation don't seem to be helping, but since I can't put weight on my left foot, I have to use my scooter, which forces me to put weight on that knee and push with my right leg, which just adds to the pain in my knee. I could use crutches, but then it hurts my hip, back and underarms. I'll have to determine the lesser of the two evils and go with that. I also did not get a cast on my foot, like I originally thought I would. I only have an ace bandage on my foot, so that is nice. I still can't put weight on it, or get it wet, but it is so much lighter! So that's my story for today, Thanksgiving Day 2009! I am thankful to be alive and to be home for Thanksgiving! God bless you all for reading this blog and sharing in my journey! Happy Thanksgiving!

Falling Apart and Freaking OUT!

A couple of weeks ago, I was eating a pretzel and I felt something hard in my mouth. My right back molar had started to break off! I couldn't believe it! As time went on, more and more of it broke off until now I've lost over 1/2 of the tooth! The past couple of years, my front teeth have been slowly getting worse, I am pretty sure it is a complication from my gastric bypass, since I do not absorbe calcium like I should (I've had tests done which confirm that I do not absorb it, and it just sits in my kidney until it turns into a stone. I had my upper teeth fixed about a year ago, but it cost me a fortune. I have so many doctor bills (I'm the six million dollar woman in debt) that I have to make payments on this account. I've maxed out my dental benefits already for the year, so I have to pay for everything out of pocket. My dentist refused to see me until I could pay off my bill over $500. Great! DH pulled through again and was able to borrow some money so that I could go to the dentist. The dentist took xrays of my teeth, which by now were throbbing and I was having pain up into my ear, so I knew it was infected! He looked at the xrays and then said, hey, I won't touch this, you will need at least 2 root canals and many of your canals have calcified, which means that it will take a lot of work. He gave me an antibiotic and a referral to the endodontist. I just got the endodontist paid off! Now 2 more root canals! Yikes! This is something that can't wait until next year! So I will see the endodontist tomorrow. I do like my endodontist, he is also about my age, and has good taste in music. My first root canal he loaned me his MP3 player so that I could listen to some music instead of the drilling. He is very thoughtful and understanding. Good bedside manner. I praise GOD that my specialists are all so kind. Now if I can just find a general doc with the same misdeamenor I'll be set.

That brings me to the freaking out. Last night I went to wash my face and switch my contacts to my glasses. I put my glasses on and I couldn't see out of my left eye, it was blurry. I washed, rewashed and rewashed the lenses to no avail. I thought maybe my lens had fallen out and was put in backwards (this has happened before) but dh said that he hadn't replaced the lens. I was so tired since I hadn't slept in over 50 hours that I did fall asleep (it was the Nyquil). I woke up this morning and went to switch the glasses back to contacts. Glasses off, I was still having trouble seeing out of my left eye. It almost looks like I have a film over the eye. That worries me. I put saline in my eye to wash it out. Then I go and get a new, clean left contact. I put it in and I still can't see. Everything is blurry in that eye. My eyes and heart are about the only organs working properly! I'm freaking out, what could this be? What caused it? Could it be a side effect of something? What's going on? I put an eye patch over my left eye to help with my perception, but I am still tripping and falling all over myself. 3 hours until I can call my optometrist! I'll say a prayer in the meantime. If you happen to read this, please say a prayer for me too. What is next?

My New Doctor

I saw my new doctor a couple of weeks ago and I don't think I like him. He was about my age, had pretty blue eyes, but he wasn't very friendly, not a good bedside manner. I KNOW I have a pretty big health history, so I had spent 2 hours writing cliff notes for him. When we finally met, I explained that I had written this synopsis since I knew he wouldn't have time to read through my huge file. His response was, "I've seen bigger files than yours." I knew then, that we had a problem. He spent most of our time looking at his laptop and asking me questions about my meds and all that. I HAD WRITTEN IT ALL DOWN AND HE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT IT! That irritated me some more. Then he preceded to DELETE from my file, all of the previous antibiotics I had been on, because IT WAS WASTING SPACE! I have a ton of allergies to antibiotics and other meds and he DELETES what has worked before! Now I am really not sure about him. He did spend a good 45 minutes with me, but it was out of necessity, he had to do a pre-op physical for my upcoming nerve resection. I told him that my pain doctor had put me on a Catapres patch to help with the pins and needles feeling, but that originally I had one patch and it wasn't effective enough, so my pain doc suggested I try 2 patches. Fine, except that I only got 4. Now, instead of lasting me one month, it only lasts 2 weeks and I need a refill. My new physician says that he will make sure ALL of my meds are refilled until NEXT YEAR, and he wants to see me NEXT YEAR to possibly change some meds. He just wants me to have the nerve resection and hydrodialation and deal with that first. Oh, and then I told him I had insomnia, and I was concerned that not sleeping was effecting my overall health. He said, "That's not good, but let's deal with that next year." Who is he kidding? I only get 2 hours a night on a good night! I said, "I've been taking benadryl to try and help me sleep." He said, "That's a good idea, keep doing that." Another strike against him, he expects me to go 3 more months without sleep, is he crazy? The final straw was when he said, ok I'm ordering some blood tests for you and I'll see you back in January or February. He shook my hand and left. I didn't get a blood test slip, I didn't know where to get the blood test (my previous doc had vampires right in his office). I waited a few minutes and he never returned! So I slowly made my way out to the front and asked them if I could go, and where to get the blood test. They said that it was all ordered via computer and I should just go to the lab. Then they said that they would send me a postcard about another visit next year. Great! I'm not sure if I can keep this guy as my doc...

Remember earlier I said that I was going to run out of my patch 2 weeks early? Well, it was time for a new one on Thursday last week. I called the pharmacy and they got the refill order, but the directions had not changed, and I couldn't pick it up for a week! That meant, no patch, more pins and needle feelings and even LESS SLEEP! So I called my new doc and asked them to change the RX. I called Wednesday, Thursday and FRIDAY! No response. So I went the entire weekend and had another birthday/slumber party to deal with, without the patch! Praise God I made it through the weekend and I called the pharmacy 1st thing on Monday and talked with the head pharmacist. He was unaware of the misdirections on the label. He agreed to re fax the RX to my doc and I was going to follow through and call his office AGAIN!

By this time, Virginia Mason called and scheduled my nerve resection. They still had not received my pre-op physical from my new doc. I wasn't surprised! So I had to ask the new office to send that information and while I was at it, I asked if my new doc would be my pain manager after my surgery. Previously, since my foot doc is in Seattle, he always had my previous doc take care of my pain meds because he was local and could see me more frequently. No problem, until now. I can't even get this new guy to fix a local RX with a couple of finger strokes on the keyboard, let alone help me manage my pain! I now have 2 weeks to solve this problem!

The funny thing, is that people have asked me how I liked my new doc and I've gone over the above fiasco. They immediately say that's too bad and then they suggest this new doctor at this clinic by my house! So and so loves it there they say. Well I am not so and so, and that is the clinic I went to! It must be me. You'd think that a new doctor would take me on as constant repeat business! I don' think this guy sees me like that though. I don't think he really SEES me at all.