"Back" again.

Okay, technically neck, but that is not a pun, and I loves me some puns.
My doctor mailed me the x-ray results. I guess she is waiting ntil the bloodwork comes back to call me and talk about a course of action.
And I quote:
Mild degeneration of your disks in your neck seen on x-ray, along with signs of muscle spasm.
Okay. Whatever that means treatment wise... I already take two forms of anti-inflammatories and a muscle relaxant as needed, so I don't know what she'll suggest. I'll keep y'all posted.

Uhhhh...pdate.

Okay. I'll try to cover it.
The dishwasher is still not fixed. It's been a whole ordeal worthy of an epic adventure movie, and more time wasted waiting "from 8 until 12" than you need to watch all of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
However we did find out that we probably won't have to pay any kind of tuition for Holden as the district has been accepting whatever funds they receive for SciTech students. So yay! for that, if it is, in fact, correct information. But, considering the source, it is probably correct.
Nate's car is (mostly) fixed. That was an ordeal, too, involving me playing chauffeur and faulty parts, etc., etc. He still has no AC, but that was his choice. The radiator is golden, though.
I've been working a lot in Lebanon area, so that is a lot of travel back and forth. On the other hand, that's a lot of mileage payments and travel time that counts towards my total weekly hours.
I'm getting down to the tough part of the job: catching the chronic "no answer" doors. Some people are in there and don't answer. Some people answer and jerk you around or are just plain mean. And some people are just NEVER home, no matter what time I knock. It sucks a bit. But I'll try not to get too discouraged. Which is difficult.
And, finally (for now--I've gotta hit the showers and suit up), my health.
My primary care doctor did not feel the thyroid nodule my gynecology nurse practitioner felt. My thyroid is still chronically enlarged--surprise, surprise considering the word "chronically" in the title there.
Anywho, my PCP said my recent health problems (the neuropathy, some excessive hair loss [clumps], my extreme tiredness all of the sudden, my sudden weight gain of 10 pounds despite my eating earlier in the day and being more active, my increase in pain, my slow healing wounds and my easier-than-usual-even-for-me bruising) could be due to about a dozen different things. So out came seven large tubes of blood for about 12-15 blood tests, including one where they have to keep the blood warm until it is tested, so I had to go the hospital lab instead of the lab at my PCP's office. She also x-rayed my neck from a few angles to see if my autoimmune problems were causing my cervical spine to be swollen, thus pinching nerves and causing the chronic neck and upper back pain in addition to the neuropathy. Still waiting on all of the results. She said she'd call within two weeks. I hate waiting. Hate it. They should tell you right away what's up. Because if these tests show nothing, there are further medical tests she wants to perform. She suspects my AI disease is in flare, or that I have new AIs added to my old diagnosis. Either way, treatment would involve steroids, which I don't want to do at this point unless my doctors all agree that this is the only option right now. I'm hoping it is as easy as B12 shots or adding a relatively benign (compared to steroids) drug or two. Cross your fingers for me.
That is all for now. I'm sure there is a ton of other stuff I can catch my huge throngs of readers up on, but that is what is popping up on the way to the gallows, I mean work. ;-)
P.S. Check out the last post on Bishkek Bop, and then follow my BFF to her new/old blog: Nothing Personal. Nobody deserves this happiness more than BFF and BFF's DH. MWAH, Sincoff family!!

I'm "it."

I was tagged. Instructions are:

• Link the person who tagged you (That would be Amy.)
• Mention the rules on your blog
• Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours…
• Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them… (I don't know six who haven't already done this!! Two will have to do and I don't know if they'll do it.)
• Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

So...
Hmmm....

1. I like pineapple and pepperoni on my pizza. The salty, sour, spicy and sweet flavors are tremendous, no matter how you may think it might taste.
2. I cannot ride a bike. Really. I have tried as an adult, but I have no sense of balance. Can't do a whole lot of things which require good inner ear workings.
3. Although I would have loved to have had five of my own kids and there are dear loved ones whose children I love almost as much as my own: I really, really don't like other people's children in general, with few exceptions. When my kids have their annual birthday sleepovers, I have to load up on the anxiolytics and hole up in the bedroom.
4. My cars' names have been, in order: Thumper (tan '78 VW Rabbit), Murry (blue '92 Mazda Protege), my gold '96 Mitsubishi Galant for some reason went unnamed although I loved her, and Betty (sky blue '05 Prius). (And Betty has a voice thanks to nav function, so we talk to each other a lot.)
5. I make lists of how I will spend the winnings of any lottery ticket before I purchase it, and all of the charitable giving, family and friends' gifts and endowments and patronships go at the top as a sort of "deal" with the gods to let me win, because, after all, see what a good person I am??
6. I have tried and tried, but I cannot stop picking at scabs. (Literally and figuratively.) It's calming, and it leaves that fresh, red raw skin that I both abhor and love for some reason.

TAG:

• Vicki
• Historical Wit

4h of July nonsense, literally

For about a week now, much of my spam has had some of the most nonsensical subject lines of most of the spam I've ever received. Follwing is the list of favorites for your perusal:

ballow Chuth Neewrink
Re: festape airforts-car Spes
Re: When wompire Horch race Weadmid Circh
jerks equipollent
Pyray Eraft Vidosion Squard
X-Rass teewriamid Horcase Floon Passpon
At no virginia
Fw: Plant Chuttle X-Raire Alphain
Fw: Botar shuray eraft Swimmid Tape
Re: Hamid fescope Solighwary Glow
Fw: Chilla tree-shop spon
Re: Hamond perfly guitaing cher Swort
radmid Funnis pandult Vulum rock Needo
Fw: eray Monet Tape Eleppuccity stond Sightub
Fw: Explower Elecope sight
Eard potatere Paink
Fw: Floon paser Planter Kity shuth Bato
Dridow prindow Pandwice festape
Weatherfort vamid Tella dream
Fw: tella Perot mice Instar Bibruid Cape
Re: torpes vult kity Finbow Hord
Re: Jachain torce Carpon carbet Sandult
shop tring guit wompire funnis
Wiener wiener chicken digger

A spam poem:

Feel the true holiday
Be patriot
futile
crewcut
was witness
Your Story Was Not Told
big news expected
Regret to inform you
reason
is burst
36 chambers

Lastly, a spam spam:

Health mall
need sleep?
triple your intake
Don't wait to improve the quality of your life
Take Control of Your Future and Soar to New Heights

When it rains, it pours. And whatever the opposite platitude is.

My past week...

1. The other week, when I was in Ann Arbor, training, I started having limb tingling. Not just my feet or legs or hands or arms, but everything from my elbows to my fingertips and my knees to my toes. It feels like when your body parts "fell asleep" and are "waking up." This is called neuropathy. Apparently to have it in arms AND hands AND legs AND feet on both sides is not as common as other types of neuropathy. I could have a really bad pinched nerve somewhere, probably in my cervical spine. I could have Buerger's Disease. I could have MS. I could have autoimmune peripheral neuropathy. I could have hip cancer. Other than the last one, all are plausible due to my autoimmune history. (But, of course, hypochondriac that I can be, I do remember having very bad hip pain last week, once, and a few other times in the last year.) Whatever it is, more drugs, unfortunately, will most likely be the answer. My appointment is in a few weeks.
2. Nate took his (recently paid off) Catera into the fancy dealer shop (where he bought the car) and found out his radiator needs replaced right before our vacation for $800 and to repair his long broken AC would be another $2400, not to mention his sunroof isn't working so the poor bugger is roasting to death. We said nay on the AC as that would cost more than the car is worth now. And he called the local guy to see what he could do for the radiator. $400. GREAT! But parts won't be in until next week. When we're in Rehoboth. Call to grandparents: Can we borrow a car for a week, because we need two cars to get to the beach house with all of the stuff and kids and the dog? "Yes." GREAT!
3. A week spent worrying that I am sucking horse dong at this job. Conference call today. I am WAY far ahead (like a week or so of work) of many of the new girls and even most of the old-hands. Yay! I'm a bit competitive (stop smirking!!) and am now fretting over the week I am going to lose on vacay. Almost immediately after I had my "yay!" moment, I then had my "oh NO!!" moment. Typical.
4. Our dishwasher has been not working for a while. The Sears repair guy gave me our $400 estimate and then told me it'd be cheaper to buy a new one. A) No it wouldn't, we're picky. B) I want to repair and not replace. Better for the Mother and all that. But C) $400?!?!? SUCKS! Damn Mother! We approved the estimate. Parts will be in next week, so repairs are the following week.
5. Car and dishwasher aside, we are eagerly (yeah, right) awaiting the tuition bill from Holden's high school. Since he is attending another district (the science magnate school in the next district over), we'll have to pay them. He won some money based on merit, but apparently we're now "rich" and therefore the first people from out of district to have to pay anything at this school. The rest of the kids have always received needs-based money from the science foundation to cover the whole tuition. SUCKS! (Who knew being rich sucked? We've waited 15 years to be "too rich" for something, and now I wonder why. Bills just expand to meet income somehow. Where're my mani/pedis? Where's my weekly massage? Where's my wine cellar? Where's my housecleaner? Where the HELL is my pool-slash-whirlpool-slash-patio-slash-poolhouse cum guesthouse?)
6. Tomorrow: Laundry, and then we PACK! Happy 4th of Ju-freaking-ly!!

Make no mistake, I do have my trashy novels ready for the beach!