Back to basics...

Life goes on after discord of any kind, and that is something we all do know.

Just like all things in life conflicts once resolved should be just a fond, well maybe not fond, but a vivid, yep that’s the ticket, a vivid memory of what was.

And so tonight I will start with expressing my latest challenge of the day… As many know since the holiday of Labor Day was last Monday, the rehab was closed as many places of that type are. To maintain my momentum of my exercise routines I had to adjust to only going there twice this week, Wednesday and today. I suppose for many they might have made up an additional day like Tuesday or Thursday, but no, not me.

I get it into my head to do something one way and that is how I will do it, although, in this still not high performance condition probably not the best idea.

Now I do believe why I had a difficult time with the arm cycle today, profuse perspiring, nausea and dizziness after only four minutes in one direction; it could have been attributed to coming from the heat of outside into the building, but our car is also air-conditioned?

Sure it had been hot all summer long, as usual, without this result before… odd, and so after those few minutes I was ready to call it quits, shame on me!

Hubby became the true coach that one could only hope for and said to "take a break and rest and then we will go over to the total gym and for you to do that, and maybe later go back to the arm cycle, okay?"

Maybe not verbatim, but something like that…

Any-who, I drank some of my cool/cold club soda, and rested in a cooler area of the gym it seemed to me, although they do keep the whole place on seventy degrees uniformly.

I know some of you northerners may think that is still too warm, but when it’s in the low nineties outside, seventy inside should feel just right.

The idea worked and I was able to complete my two sets of fifty reps on the total gym and then move over to the overhead light weighted pulls and from there I did finish my arm cycle reps totaling my usual of fifteen minutes of seven and half minutes in either direction! TA DA!

Barring any too incapacitating ills or holidays I have been able to go every week since April 9^th, 2013 there! And hopefully, I will be showing some difference in my silhouette, now looking a little too much like Alfred Hitchcock, but with hair, in the near future with the diminishing of my medications as well as the two completely gone, the Gabapentin and the Hydrochlorothiazide. My Lisinopril dose was cut in half and my Baclofen is down this week to forty MG. from seventy! At one time I did have 80MG. individual pills for the Baclofen, which I was able to take as needed and so that is why the Baclofen has not been that big a problem to wean myself off of due to that I suspect. Since the Baclofen and Gabapentin are for my spasms I suppose keeping the Baclofen with me is the best way to handle any that are too severe… it used to work and so I will go with that thought.

While at my internist, Dr Nord’s on Wednesday I was also informed that the exact dose of the Levothyroxine that I am on for my hypothyroid is maintaining my thyroid within the normal range.

The reason that the doctor was iffy about lowering my dosing on the Lisinopril and getting rid of the Hydrochlorothiazide she said that my blood pressure that has been running low normal was the way she felt it should be, but those meds help do that…and concern for my kidneys...but my blood work for them too did not indicate anything to be concerned with...

Thus the more blood work and appointment and monitoring of my blood pressure in three months, but we have had our own blood pressure machine for seven years now. Since it had been recommended for me to get one and then when Hubby acquired his own high blood pressure three years ago, we were able to monitor his too instead of going back and forth to the doctor’s or drug store one… it was less than thirty bucks at Walmart that time and has been calibrated when we’ve taken it in to the doctor’s offices when there for regular appointments.

The blood pressure machine is quite a handy thing to have, really, if you have high blood pressure that you are told to monitor, but don’t get addicted to it, ha; once a day if running a bit high or once a week just to verify.

Too high readings can also be caused by too frequent use causing unnecessary concern.

Voice of experience here, although with Hubby it did enable his medication to be regulated, since his was all over the map, i.e. blood pressure!

All in all I seem to be better than I was last month, and that is what any of us can only wish for… my tummy has been odd though lately could be the readjusting to the lack of some meds, who knows but I mentioned my need for more Pepcid to Dr. Nord; she told me with the Nexium that I should contact my gastro doc and so now I am seeing him next week…I suppose it never ends!

But that’s pretty much the way it is for everyone, true?

On that note of knowing we are not alone, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Satisfaction!

Some things are timeless, hmm?

Rolling Stones - Satisfaction (I Can't Get No) Lyrics

 “I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm watchin' my TV
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no girl reaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that
And I'm tryin' to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
'Cause you see I'm on losing streak
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no, I can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction”

Thanks to: http://www.lyriczz.com/lyrics/Rolling-Stones/9904-Satisfaction-%28I-Can%27t-Get-No%29/

Oh yes, I sure did!

Squeaky wheels and all, but if at first you don’t succeed; try HARDER!

The below addendum was added this morning to my last night’s frustrating rant…

“Update: This just in 9:02 A.M. 9-5-13: The co-pay of $2350 was actually paid yesterday afternoon and they did not have to put me through any of this! Now they will be sending out my other medications!”

When I called back Accredo this morning I was told that the $2350 had been paid yesterday in the afternoon! Now why, I wondered did they call me with that broken recording of needing to be paid that above amount before I would be sent my prescriptions in that ridiculous message after five that evening?

Stress is not good for anyone, even the healthiest can become ill, but people who already have many chronic illnesses it does seem to have a nasty immediate effect on a few of us. It has been known that prolong stress can and has caused exacerbation of Multiple Sclerosis symptoms needing IV intervention or hospitalization with additional residual lessened abilities resulting as permanent deficits!

Sadly, if they checked their own computer’s information they would have never sent that repetitive message and yes, my dear friends it was more than trying to make a point last night since that is exactly what was on that robo call, over, and over again the same message! Anyway, this time it has been resolved, for this month’s needs.

Oddly enough, I was dealing with another smaller question on our home phone and Internet bill combo and so yesterday earlier I called CenturyLink to inquire about the monthly discrepancies in the amounts charged to us each month as the consumer, when we clearly should have a flat rate that should appear identical monthly, barring tax increases, heaven forbid.

And now this sounds silly, but the woman put me on hold, and I am talking about literally pennies sometimes as much as a dollar or more and you know what?

She got back on the phone and said that there had been a mistake and they had overcharged us and each time they would balance it out the next month and that is why it was up and down, and this month on the bill I received was actually $1.18 more than it should have been and so she subtracted it from our bill! TA DA!

See now if you don’t ask you don’t know… spoken by a person who, now repeat after me HAS WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON HER HANDS! LOL!

In other news… national as well as local has been reporting for all shoppers to check their register receipts because too many businesses are making BIG mistakes at the check out, so you too should CHECK IT OUT!

Make sure you get that sale price you went in there for or they subtracted your discount or your coupons, just be a more aware and diligent shopper and you won’t wonder where did all that money go.

I think there are small wars that as consumers of anything should try to win.

No, I do not think accounting for where your money goes is being cheap I believe it is being frugal and appropriate.

Math seems to be a lost art with so many business people and the machines have taken so much of our thinking away and so this is just a reality check that even the best honed machine can still screw up, not unlike us human beings and we all need those checks and balances to make it all work right!

That’s all.

On that thought to chew on and do with what you please… allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS Most medications can be had for free or at lower cost if you go to the sources and criteria’s may surprise you, you can make anywhere from 40K to 100K and still qualify for help and many times the freebies come from the pharmaceutical companies…!

There is no shame in asking for help. It was hard at first not having to ever before, but now there is something positive with knowing it is out there… I learned during the six years I was uninsurable; experience teaches us to gain our own peace of mind, stress-less-ness and dare I say, some benign, SATISFACTION!

When you pay your $2,350 co-pay for your Copaxone then we will send you your twenty dollars worth of cholesterol and blood pressure medication...

“When you pay your $2,350 co-pay for your Copaxone then we will send you your twenty dollars worth of cholesterol and blood pressure medication

When you pay your $2,350 co-pay for your Copaxone then we will send you your twenty dollars worth of cholesterol and blood pressure medication…

When you pay your $2,350 co-pay for your Copaxone then we will send you your twenty dollars worth of cholesterol and blood pressure medication…

When you pay your $2,350 co-pay for your Copaxone then we will send you your twenty dollars worth of cholesterol and blood pressure medication…” ETC… on a robo call!

Most people without knowledge of how this works would say, “Well, girl, just pay it!”

Sadly, I cannot and will not since I have fit the criteria for years for this co-pay to be paid by a third party and in previous years before becoming a once again insured gal and even so I still meet their very tight criteria and I had never seen a bill or was asked for any money what-so-ever!

It is the co-pay for my Copaxone for the Multiple Sclerosis, which is for a three month supply only, which would be $9400 in just the co-pay for the year, the medication, is over $6K a month out of pocket if I had to pay for it. Not many people could or would or should have to pay for this stuff that has kept my MS stable for the last two MRI’s and being on it now for three years!

The issue is with the specialty drug company, Accredo, who is the one handling the medication, previously it was with Walgreen’s Specialty that handled it and I never heard a word about money! I have no idea why they put me through this since I have been with them since last January. With Walgreen’s they would call when I needed it and then when it was to be delivered and that was that; with Accredo at first they only sent a months’ supply until I protested explaining we live in a hurricane area and could possibly have to evacuate and so finally they, on these last two orders, have been for three whole month’s supply!

But now this aggravation and by the time I got a person to talk to in New Mexico with Express Scripts, Ricky, he said that I had to speak with Accredo, but they called me, Express Scripts that is, I didn’t call them. He switched me over to Sharon in Tennessee with Accredo! After I waited for over a half an hour for her, as it is I had to keep pushing buttons to speak to Ricky, a live person! Who handled my wrath very nicely I might add.

All Sharon could tell me, like Ricky, is that she understood and realized why I was so upset, but that she could let them know and send them a message to take care of it and that they should get back to me.

But no time frame was given and I am more than sure I will have to call tomorrow, again, like I have had to every month since being with them…You see, I just received my Copaxone last Thursday and with the holiday and all I believe that is why they have not yet received payment from the Assistance Fund who is my angel for this!

If I didn’t have my doctor’s appointment for today, with all the wonderful news, yep, my cholesterol total is 180 and my HDL even went up as it should do, all right, my triglycerides are still a bit too high, but I’m working on that, my A1c is down to 5.8 from 6.1 which still is considered diabetic according to the new standards, i.e. anything over 5.4 is considered one… had to change in time for me, NOT FAIR, used to be over 7.0!

But it went down and the doctor was willing to get rid of one of her prescribed meds for me and lower the dose on another, but I will have to have more blood work in three months just before that three month visit, and then this ridiculous call while eating our early dinner!

How to ruin a not too bad day!

And so that is why this doctor reordered three, for a ninety day supply of each, of my four medications that had no refills and it was just as well, since one of the three has been cut in half dosage wise… and that is how we arrived in this aggravating situation all due to a doctor who does exactly what she promised, but the drug company that I deal with screws it all up!

It has made me physically ill and in fact while writing this I had to go lie down for a bit…but I felt I couldn’t do it with me taking basically the other night off… even though it is the Jewish New Year and I also felt the need to wish a Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends and relatives out there!

And so on that note of hope for the New Year too be less stressful, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Update: This just in 9:02 A.M. 9-5-13: The co-pay of $2350 was actually paid yesterday afternoon and they did not have to put me through any of this! Now they will be sending out my other medications!

Better than...

I was last night.

I am here.

My eyes could have to do with the barometric pressure that lowers just before and during a storm.

The definitions for the barometric pressure are ridiculous, but anyone who has a barometer in their home knows when the pressure goes down that a storm is eminent and when it goes up is when we will be having sunny clear weather; as simple as that. A conversation with our local NBC affiliate’s Meteorologist on August 27^th 2013…

“Tilda Kruegel

Why is it that rarely, these days, meteorologists here in sw Fl seem to not tell us what the barometric pressure is on a daily basis? Is this a new trend? Or is it only significant, dropping, when we have an impending large weather event, such as a named tropical storm or hurricane?”

“Meteorologist Haley Webb

Well, Tilda, it is because most people don't know what it means or even care to know what it means. In fact we don't even place it on our hurricane graphics on-air and haven't for a few years now.”

I suppose she could be right, but in my opinion it does have a definite affect on many people’s health in this disabled, retirement and elderly area of the state. Everyone from migraine sufferers, arthritics and even Multiple Sclerosis too, just to mention a few of us who have to deal with weather affecting our daily lives… and the barometric pressure sure does effect us!

I was annoyed by her response at first, and then I realized that with her educational background, and with all her degrees in her field that perhaps she had just lost patience with people who weren’t as knowledgeable as her and felt that some questions are just plain stupid!

That made me more annoyed and so I tried hard to make sense of why people do what they do, you know me and that is one of my favorite pastimes...
But as you can see I waited until today to say anything about it.
And my conclusion may surprise you, she’s young and is working very hard and answering questions from her viewers is a damned if you do and damned if you don’t type of thing… and she was always previously so pleasant, and maybe now all she had was a bad day. It had to be to assume that we, her viewers were too stupid to understand the ‘barometric pressure’, you see because if you read again what she wrote that is what she appears to be saying! Or it could be just my interpretation.

Dear Ms. Meteorologist:
Did you take a survey to know that?
How do you know this is as a fact?
And what gives you the right to assume that?
Am I the only one ever to ask this question?

I feel that if she knew that we had a coalition of people willing to sign a petition to get this unfair practice changed, this little weather gal would sing a different tune!
And if not, if I am the only one who finds her lack of caring for the people in her community not having the whole weather picture… than she could continue this NO BAROMETRIC PRESSURE INFORMATION practice for her viewership! AHA!

People, people, with all that is going on in the world take the time for these small insignificant, illogical concerns to be dealt with in a civil manner, I implore you!
Logic be damned, when it comes down to people’s welfare on our home turf, by just knowing ahead of time to abate any possible negative outcome that would be brought down upon us from this low, low, where did it go, barometric pressure?
Sure if we knew, what could we actually do?
Not a thing, except… batten down the hatches of your homes with their individual climate controlled air systems?
Why not, we can always become prisoners within our walls and never venture out with knowing that soon our head will be splitting and knees will be aching and our body will feel as if an elephant has sat on it…. but wait there’s more…if we watch the weather and see that moisture is in the forecast than we will know, that is be pretty darn well sure that, that dear sweet barometer will be going so low, and how low can she actually go?
If so low, it means HURRICANE!
Sure they tell us all that in their weather predictions daily/nightly, keeping us abreast of what we should do if it really is going to be BAD!
And so, I suppose my concern, as usual, was really a GIANT NOTHING!
But it is fun to play with all of you, and I did owe you one, ya know? As promised...

PS My eyes are not usually caused to hurt due to any weather events, since my right eye is legally blind from the optic neuritis and has a massive cataract that is not worth removing due to the optic nerve no longer working. Both my eyes have severe dry eyes and I do have a lot of medication for both, from thin drops to heavy duty yucky stuff and the duct plugs never worked and were removed, and lefty still has its corrected cataract lens slowly leaving its location, which will be eventually repaired and I have low and double vision many a day from the MS, and that my friends is my eye situation to date! TA DA! 
My head has been clobbered too many times due to clumsiness and bad distance judgment on my part and consequently I have had about three concussions over the years, might be a few more undocumented, but that is what hurts my noggin weather wise, I think?

On that TMI note again, at least you know where we stand us, you and me… allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Accuracy is what our local meteorologist brag about ...

Today, we were told that we had only about a 30% chance of being rained on…GUESS WHAT???? I suppose they could have meant if we stayed indoors?

But in actuality that chance of rain outside, which I seriously believe is what they had to have meant…has been more than that all day; thrice that percentage wise! Yes, I would say at least ninety percent, since we had a small break through of sun a few times, perhaps that was the 30% they were referring to, the dry part, and got it backwards?

And it is still doing it; raining that is.

What I want to know is how any of these stations can lay claim that their meteorologists are the most accurate and that they are certified, more accurate than what; tossing a coin, certified by a certifiable insanity clause stating if it rains they are NOT to be held responsible?

Do they know that rain is when the skies open up after dark clouds appear and then wetness falls/arrives on the surrounding area below them?

I think they should go back to weather school.

The instruments that are supposed to be helping them be so very ‘accurate’ are being read WRONG!

My eye pain has made me need to use my heavy duty medication provided for that and so I will be cutting this short tonight… please forgive I will try to be more upbeat tomorrow…

Can plants tell their own metaphoric story of the world's pulse?

Our Peace Lilly was dying…

This picture is from her arrival date, way back on June 30, of 2012. Thankfully, I think that I found a bit of her still breathing enough to regain her strength and regenerate into another healthy plant! One can only hope for that to be the case. The dying, falling off of dried up leaves pics were too vulgar to take during her flailing period and so I did not take those. I couldn’t do that to her or you either too ghastly…

I had tried everything humanly possible to revive her, trimming back the not as hardy appendages, quenching her thirst when she felt too dry, positioning her with just the right amount of light and dark and air…but nothing seemed to work, including the soap bath for whatever I thought could be causing her ills… My rash action today was out of love for her and hopes to take that last step to revive her… I nearly euthanized her…but alas I saw life in the end and we both chose that! Now if only it will work, as we all know time is the deciding factor and that alone will tell…

She had not been doing well for the last few weeks and she was going down way too quickly. Her last appendages were shriveled and appeared diseased with some form of a cancerous discoloration and no matter what I did; it appeared not to help that is until I dissected her surgically today.

I roughly pulled her out of her home bed and examined her to find that she had become extremely root bound, which is as we all know is not good for any plant! Especially, one like her with special delicate needs…

So now if you all will be good enough to pray for this young gal so she may see happier more vibrant days ahead; I know that she will feel all your support and try her best to succeed… because we all need Peace now more than ever! And after all that is what she represents and we cannot let PEACE die, but we also cannot allow injustices and brutalism to prevail either!

“Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon

  Give Peace a Chance
- John Lennon

Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(C'mon)
Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Minister, Sinister, Banisters and Canisters,
Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye, Bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(Let me tell you now)
Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance”

Thanks to: http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/john_lennon/give_peace_a_chance/

Not that dated, hmm?

Although, if there was a way to change things by intervening without harming anyone except the really, really, bad guy, than we should GO FOR IT! NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND!

On that thought, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

The chances are that you will say something...

…Stupid if you open your mouth too much, and that is definitely true for someone like me…who never ever shuts up!

Even when I write it is always the same, no absence of space until my motor runs down.

Truth is that I do talk as I write and vice versa.

Never ending, silence is too harsh for me to deal with and that is my reasoning… why I do it.

To me dead quiet is frightening.

And I do often wonder why that is?

You see, even if I am all alone I must have some form of white noise, usually the TV in the background humming even if it is two rooms away, like ours is now, being in the living room, with me in the sun-room and Hubby’s outside watering the potted plants under our lanai.

That is a bald faced lie!

Right now the TV is off in the living room and the only noise, other than what my brain is telling me in my head to write is this noisy keyboard, aha! Fooled me...you too?

Although, Hubby just passed by this windowed door with our watering can and then went back to the rain barrels to refill!

He is not stealth all of the time, but on occasion he is…

Dinner is done, we had left overs, since we went down to Punta Gorda today and ate out, again, this time at the Crab House on the water there… I had points for ten dollars off any entrée of twenty-five dollars or more and so we went! Hubby had a Grouper Reuben and I had crab tomato bisque soup with a Crab Louie salad, mmm, mmm good! Coffee for him and unsweetened iced tea for me with extra lemons, but of course.

The reason for the trek down there when nothing else was actually scheduled or going on at any of those venues, how weirdly quiet too? Any-who, Hubby received one of those come on down to see if you won $25,000 or two lottery tickets or $100 from a very reputable auto dealership, in fact the one we bought our car from back in 2001. It is called, Palm Auto Mall, since they carry several different makes of brand new vehicles and used ones too and has been there for a very long time…since 1955, gosh they are almost as old as me, ha!  

http://www.palmautomall.com/

Of course we won the lottery tickets that were only scratch offs, and were losers, worthless, but we expected that!

It was something to do…

Hubby met a gentleman that was willing to show him a new Toyota Sienna mini van although Hubby explained that we might not be ready until next year to seriously look. And he was very nice and didn’t seem to mind at all…and showed Hubby all the bells and whistles although, we will be looking then for a leftover new one and you never know what’s available then, and we really would prefer a Town and Country by Chrysler, we will see… We will try saving some big bucks by then.

Not having any major things to pay off right now we have a bit more in our pockets to save and I already started this month, so who knows?

Barring any emergencies, ha, who am I kidding we always have those!

But we will have that saved for.

Our SUV now has less than 40K original miles on it, although it gets lousy gas mileage, but it was paid for years ago…and so that is why we stay pretty much always in our ten mile radius, with so much here and gas prices rising daily, not too bad, really!

*Did you see that eleven cent increase in just one day?

Thursday, Sam’s Club’s gas was 3.41.9 a gallon and the next day it was 3.52.9 a gallon, yesterday, Friday! Must be due to what’s going on in the Middle East… and the holiday weekend?

I give up trying to figure it all out.

It is what it is and that is only about gas prices; the other stuff is all tremendously frightening to me and you too I am more than sure, their annihilation of human beings!

If we don’t intervene what does that mean about us?

That we are heartless?

I think of how long it took for us to get involved in WW2! And we all know what the result with that wait was.

We have to figure the best way to stop this inhuman behavior and let those who believe otherwise to know it cannot continue!

We are definitely walking on eggshells with this; hopefully the powers that be will do the right thing.

I hate leaving you with that last thought, albeit an important one to ponder, since many feel to stop us from getting involved in another war and have launched protests to that affect today alone… Geez, you are singing to the choir here! But if there is a way to let them know that they have to stop without, as the president said, without boots on the ground; then I say let’s go for it!

And I support that decision whole heartedly!

On that note of a bit more positivity, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS if I waited for a conversation to ensue while writing this… it would NOT be a BLOG, it would be a … WHO KNOWS WHAT? HMMM?