Plans?

Parades, beach scenes, picnics, barbecues, family games and sports, etc. and lest us not forget why we have these three days...

"Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer."

Thanks to:
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history

Holidays... so many of us forget the true meanings to pass on to our children and the whys, they, the special days that many children only know as another day off from school, but why is that?
They should be told. From Labor Day to religious holidays for each family's personal realms, to national reasoning's etc. we have such easy access to know and so do they!

Is there a time more available for a learning moment than each time our children find themselves home with their parents?

Any-who, that's just my opinion and you all know how much that is worth!

Moving on...

Today I planted my key lime seeds, yes that tiny lime gift jewel gave me six!
It is currently in a clay pot with well fertilized potting soil, compost and a topper of coffee grounds, sitting in the sun in the sun-room. The directions called for acid soil and whenever the instructions tell us that I add the coffee grounds and they have been marvelous for our gardenia trees that are both abundant with blossoms a few times a year! And over the many years, ten, for the one in the front yard that I planted to take the place of our forty foot oak tree that Hurricane Charley took down. Our backyard one was here and overgrown, when we bought our home nearly sixteen years ago. We have contained it on the edge of the fish pond, since eleven years ago that we installed.
There is nothing as sweet as the aroma of gardenia; I love it so much, a few years back, I found that Jovan made a cologne in the scent and it has been mine ever since. I suppose it's my signature scent if I was better known in a good way, not famous or notorious just a local flavor/aroma, ha, kidding of course. But many women have that "Scent of a Woman", going for them, hmm?
I never wanted fame, and I am more than sure this has not created that for me.


Another thought...
If you have been imbibing please call Tow To Go a safe free service that helps people unable to drive due to a bit too much of the spirits! http://autoclubsouth.aaa.com/safety/tow_to_go.aspx

Tonight's blog was another thoughtful mishmash of things that came to mind.
I have been managing very little movement, although I do know that I must try to keep my circulation going without causing issues.
Again I found another wee mistake in the blood work that was taken, my white count and alt were higher than usual, in the normal range, but according to what I was able to glean, left to my own devices, without medical professional assistance that the Gabapentin has an effect on both and due to my medical need for it and it being the lesser of so many other evils, from narcotics to opiates, I shall continue with it for now. 

That's it for now and please all have a safe, fun weekend and don't forget the why, and allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages and we will too!

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

Goofed 2!

Or did he?
I have no idea, but this time I am referring to the doctor's interpretation of my brain MRI, you judge, like me as other laymen may have it all wrong, but I am not so sure and neither was Hubby.
Fourth sentence in the brain MRI Image Findings, "Several of the lesions appear slightly larger on today's exam and there may be a couple of new lesions since the previous study." Comparison of brain 2-22-13. Over a year ago from this one dated 5-6-14.


He had stated there were NO new lesions and it showed that my MS was stable, perhaps it is, but I'm no doctor and that sentence above makes me wonder. I need to have it explained in terms my wee brain will understand, ya know?
I did call this morning as I said I would, and it was forty minutes after their office opened at 9:40 A.M. and I spoke with Rhona and she said that Cheryl would speak with the doctor and get back to me, but left the when open. I suppose with it being a holiday weekend I will have a very long wait. I had also asked my other questions about my three areas, yep I was wrong, not just my cervical and thoracic regions, but my lumbar area of the spine also has stenosis. I did Google it myself to try to figure out what to do and found out that Pilates can be helpful, but in my severe case (people with stenosis) must be monitored by a doctor or physical therapist. And that was my other questions, now what, and medicine wise, more or other, less doesn't seem to be relevant to my particular case?

I could be wrong, I've been wrong before.

All I know is that like most with any chronic illness; I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!
You all get that; I am more than sure, and thanks for that!

Hubby went out this morning to pick up food items for the weekend before it gets crazy, we are hunkering down right here. I stayed home to hopefully hear back from the doctor's office, but nope, nothing, still waiting, they're more than likely gone for their long weekend...OF COURSE!
Geez, and then people wonder why so many of us with physical illness get a bit crazy!
I am, or I should say I'm not the only impatient patient on this planet? That seems highly unlikely, truly!

Any-who, having this time to chat with all of you does help the time pass a bit quicker so allow me now to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Goofed!

Have you ever done something and thought afterwards, huh?
Today I had my new neuro appointment, (my third with him, wonder when I will stop calling him the new guy?) and I don't know if the fact that I had not gotten too much sleep last night; got up at 1:43 A.M. due to my headache again and didn't fall back back to sleep until 5:51 A.M., or the fact that I was more concerned with getting my copies of my tests or my pain got in the way or me forgetting the number one cardinal  rule of being a good patient, since I did not write my questions down, shame on me!

Dr. Khalidi, my new neuro, is a pleasant soft spoken man, and has been in his field for nearly forty years.
That said, he said I have some good news for you and that was that my lesions in my brain indicating that my Multiple Sclerosis is stable and that I have no active disease showing up there or in my cervical, thoracic or lumbar regions. And  my cholesterol is good, yet my blood work was a  non-fasting one my A1c was up slightly to 6.0,  and I am still not a diabetic, but I am borderline.
Most actually, nearly all of my parathesia and other weaknesses in my legs and arms were actually being caused by my spondylosis as well as stenosis in my cervical and thoracic spinal areas and lumbar degeneration, which seems to be getting slightly worse, but my MS seems to be in check with use of my Copaxone and vitamin use of doubled up Calcium with D as well as the B complexes showing they're  helpful in my blood work and due to my results of my lumbar 3Telsa MRI's inflammation there I suspect that also with all my existing bulges in nearly every segment of my spine and that again explains why I have pain in this overgenerous derriere while sitting upright, I suspect. No PT or curbing of my Gabapentin use, which he initially was concerned with, apparently now with legit documentation of reasoning for each and every medications' need he felt that was necessary too and my Copaxone refills were taken care of without any question for need either.  
And fortunately in spite of it all my liver and kidneys are none the worse for wear; the blood work attests to that too; ten vials full.
But what I forgot to ask is, now what?
Is there anything that I could or should do more of to help myself without creating more problems with my now known delicate spine, scary that thoracic stenosis is called creeping paralysis!

I know, I should call back and speak to his people there to explain my foolish mistake and the need to ask those questions and anymore I can come up with tonight, before tomorrow's call...
I do have another appointment for four months from today, but that is a long time for this not advantageous status quo; I am living with daily. I need to find the appropriate measures to take to get out of this living lump mode, my brain is functioning in spite of that being where my MS lesions have decided to remain and not spread down my spine...which is fantastic!
That does prove some of these disease modifying MS medications do and will work, thanks TEVA Pharmaceutical, who makes my Copaxone. They are out of Israel, but my medication itself comes from Indiana, I think.

Knowing that you have been waiting weeks to try and feel better and when you get the opportunity to change things for the better, you GOOF BIG TIME, by not following through! Sort of like a sports star choking on a basketball hoop shot, or missing the hole in golf on the green or fumbling the play on the field in football, you get the idea, OOPS! Mud on this face metaphorically, of course!

 Any-who, I would like to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night, lest I forget, and also ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

"Let someone know how special they are to you." "Keep your feet on the ground even though friends flatter you."

"You will learn something knew every day." "You will discover your hidden talents."

The first two that I used for my title were mine, and so here goes... You are all very special to me and I love the fact that you read my blog nightly without me having to twist your arms!
And each and any time that I have had any at all kind words thrust in my direction have my feet never ever once, twice or thrice or more ever left the ground!

As you may have guessed the next two were Hubby's and he has promised that today  he learned that he needs a drip cap for our courtyard shed's roof, and that his hidden talent is yet to be realized... but more possibly a shed roofer?

Hubby and I chose our favorite Chinese food restaurant, China City, to have the honor of preparing our dinner tonight!
Odd as it may seem Hubby could not get through to their place of business to place our order, but after several tries and his determination to succeed and my concerns for their safety or possibly a broken phone system for their business and might I add that depends on phone orders for their livelihood, so he decided to drive over, being the good cop. (It is way past snowbird season, seasonal guests, and it is mid-week, so being too busy did not enter our thought processes)
It turned out when he got there that the phone had not been hung up properly and they were very thankful that he told them!
We have been customers of theirs since they opened several years ago.

This blog is late due to talking to Fla Blue, their abbreviation of Florida Blue Cross and Blue Shield, after I found out from a newer agent that we will probably go with this fall that my first three office visits with my GP has no co-pay at all after that only $15, and so I called to verify and they said that they credited my account with the one they did charge me for.
That was the GP's office and I also found out that due to some type of mix up I was given a three quarter charge co-pay that Fla Blue suggested that I was responsible for and of course I always pay when I believe I owe and so I had and now according to them it must be resubmitted....
As far as the exorbitant hospital bill goes for only about two hours in the ER, it was well over $18K but my responsibility was only $75, so far, not counted the PA who they said was an MD we will see where that goes! I am going to be going over this bill and all the incoming ones and make sure they are correct; I am most billing offices worst nightmares! I have found hundreds of dollars of mistakes even with insurances as well as with the IRS paying us back several hundred while still in business in NJ years ago! I goofed paying the next day on that first bill and according to Fla Blue they have not even received that bill or my cataract surgery one yet!
They did receive all my MRI's.

Exhaustion with talking to all those people, and even with their i.e. Fla Blue's answering calls in a very wonderful timely manner! Used to wait hours, literally, foolishly, two hours or more just to talk to someone who would have to hand you over to another person, talk about frustrating!
As I expressed it was like a religious experience waiting the one minute for my call to be answered is a vast understatement!

I did get one touchy grouchy guy who seemed to be talking from his own home, I at once rushed to the wrong judgment he was speaking to me from his home! I thought, yes I really thought I heard a dog barking in the background and to me that was the last straw with them, but it turned out to be a co-worker, who sounded to me like they might have a bad case of bronchitis! And that is what insulted the guy who told me he couldn't talk to me and said he would get someone else and put me on hold after less than a minute I hung up, I wasn't going to be a victim of telephone waititis ever again. I felt confident it would be safer to call back and take my chances that I might get lucky with someone else and not too long a wait time, and fortunately it was a smarter move on my part, since it did work!

Somehow I was able to glean my necessary info and how to proceed.

So that is why this is sooo late, and for that I am or should be forgiven if anyone out there cares at all?
On that note of let us all hope, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Two major corrections from our weekend festivities!

 The above woman is Kristy Moore and she works for the Animal Welfare League of Charlotte County, FL, Inc. And their motto is, "the best pets are shelter pets"! To contact the local shelter for adoptions: goto: 3519 Drance St. in Port Charlotte, FL 33980 or call to donate: time or money @ 941- 625-6720 or goto their web site of www.awlshelter.org for additional info.

This is Dennis Hale the man with quite a collection of diecast miniature vehicles, five thousand strong, to contact him call: 941-743-3113 or  goto: www.autoairspecialist.com 

These fine people had PICS in my Saturday blog, but lacked additional information, and for that I apologize!

Below is access to their original appearance in this blog, but additional info is here:
http://tobi-adayinthelife.blogspot.com/2014/05/another-hurricane-conference-and-key.html

The fact that I did not identify them is a terrible oversight and I have been guilty of this plenty of times before I am so sorry to say!

As with the influx of new news people I cannot seem to keep up.
We have a tendency to watch all the networks affiliates and that at times that can make for much confusion on who is who, but in fact, to be honest, we are more interested in what they have to say than who they are, sorry! Although, some strong personalities have endured and we do make note of that too.

Moving on...
Today I had a hair cut appointment, where I sincerely got only a trim this time from my hair stylist, Sheri.
Last time we talked so much she cut too much off, but that was the time I did say to cut all my blond off, and she definitely did!
Today, my self naturalization of highlights were snipped onto the salon floor too!
They are created with warm water and vinegar or lemon juice rinse to my all natural hair these days instead of harsh chemicals or waxy conditioners, my shampoo is the most natural one I can find that is clean and creates volume. I was told my hair is plenty thick, there was concern due to the hypothyroid issue (but my medication seems to be working) and my color seems to be unusually dark for someone my age without any help beyond nature, oh poo, I wanted Hubby's colored hair, my silver fox!

After the hair salon we went to lunch at the Cracker Barrel and today we both had their rendition of rainbow trout that was better even than my Mother's Day one!

We go over that way when we run out of pond fish food and wild bird seed, since Tractor Supply is over there, east of us, by the I75 exit, and that is where we buy that; now we are well supplied once again.

On that note of well.... that's all folks...!
Allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

Who's laughing now?

I suppose that is a bit harsh due to all of the millions of recalls of General Motors vehicles that have so many flaws that many have caused fatal accidents.
I'm not happy over any of that, it makes me very sad, but lucky too!

Just the part where so many felt that we should have traded our ancient auto in years ago, even though to date, at nearly thirteen years old, it still has just around a mere forty-one thousand original, one owner miles, that being us, on it and that we own it outright, and don't go out of our ten mile radius at all these days.

No recalls for our 2001 Chevy Blazer four-door LS, bought new in August of that year, and still wearing its silver paint well.

There are so many same colored cars as ours on the roads it's hard to tell ages with the same, apparently classic choice of paint that we made all those years ago. Electronically we can listen to AM or FM or slap in a cassette; if we could only find one, ha! Kidding, I still have more than a few, I'm embarrassed to say, nah, not really! Our computer's accuracy on the exterior temperature in either Fahrenheit or Celsius, yep, it has both, and it is still within what the true range must be! At least it seems that it should be, according to the radio, anyway.

Scary, that at several different times over the last few months we had tossed the idea around about trading in our ancient, but very capable transport machine, the frightening part is that we could have been one of the masses of millions having to take those shiny new automobiles in for a ride for their lives. Some problems were so severe that people have been told to have them towed in or put onto flatbeds!

Sometimes being careful with one's money is not too dumb after all, hmm? 
I just would like to add here that I sure hope that General Motors gets this all resolved as soon as possible so when we are ready, we can continue to purchase their brand or maybe Chrysler's ... or VW or Toyota or Honda or any of the newer ones when we are truly ready in a few years, ten or fifteen when we have perhaps one hundred thousand on the ole gal, I mean Blaze, not me, I have so much more, you betcha!

But over the last few years it is a rare motor company that hasn't seen any recalls; I do believe each that I mentioned has had them too...

OH WELL!

In a way, all these recalls can only be good if their message is heard on the dangers, here is a list of the most recent and be careful out there, ya hear!

http://www.nhtsa.gov/Vehicle+Safety/Recalls+&+Defects

On that note of check your own manufacturers lists, 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 your overages and we will too!

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

This Old House Marathon with an Ask This Old House One Hour Chaser on PBS!

A nice relaxing day to have after yesterday for me, an enjoyable day, but quite exhausting.
Although, Hubby mowed our lawn today, on his ride-on machine though, before he relaxed with me.
We have both been fans of the This Old House Show, since they begun, while we still lived in NJ, it has to be over thirty years.
But we have been DIYers longer than that, before we were married, designing, installing, homey needs and designating the space by definitions of paneling and bar by separating the eat-in kitchen, also fine tuned, and the living room etc. and flooring all in our first space, our basement apartment and since we are married over forty-three years yep, that was quite a while ago, since we were engaged for fifteen months prior to that.

And having done everything from building a home from scratch to renovations, modernizing baths with new fixtures and tiling to adding more rooms, installing ponds, decks, windows and doors upgrades, patios and swimming pools, baths too, you name it!

Ah sweet blessed rest...
Balance seems to be what anyone with a chronic disease needs to do to manage it better.
Or in life itself!
Sure we all know that to be vital.
Hard to accomplish at times.

Moving on...
I did take the time to empty the gift basket to find locations for everything.
The spaghetti and Barilla brand sauce went into the pantry for hurricane season stock, the wrapped Gharardelli chocolate went into a pretty candy dish in my glass door cabinet, on the ready for company, the Bahlsen all natural Deloba biscuits are half gone, by Hubby and myself, nibbling yesterday and today, the Starbucks instant coffee eight individual packets are also stowed for hurricane season and one of the two Good Seasons packets was turned into Italian dressing for our salads today, using the glass cruet that came with them. 
And the miniature Italian flag and ribbons went in with my gift wrapping items in the guestroom, wish my Italian friends lived closer I would give them to them!
The curly papers went in there too, great for stuffing around breakables if mailing gifts.
The wicker basket with wooden handles is now on our in-between our recliners table, with magazines in it, Harbor Style and the hurricane related ones from yesterday.

I was able to thank the woman, Diane Koby, again who was way too generous since I was able to contact her through her site. It is still overwhelming to me. I wonder what you would do if someone did that to you, gave such an unexpected generous gift? After I argued about the person still might show up, but she said no...
To be honest I have been very fortunate with many generous people over the years and so in the old days I would pay it forward.
These days I am too pooped, sadly with much guilt...
But most recently a fine man, in the last few years, Lee Stein, has given Hubby and I tickets to the Charlotte Chorale performances, twice that we had enjoyed more than he could ever know, but he offered too many times more, another lovely thing for a person to do... he has been the director for the last several years and has finally decided to retire next month, after many other careers, as well.We, Hubby and I wish him all the best sincerely.
 

On that note of with many reasons to have hope due to great people showing there are good ones still out there, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and
 ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

PS of course lest us not forget all those polite people and all the ones who open doors physically for us... nameless, decent folks all over the world!