~Whats Happening Friday (for Jan)~

Dear MO Peeps~ I know its really early, but I want to get this down and get to bed. I am beat. I will be doing the posts for Jan on the nights she works, to give her a break-so that we dont have to see her with the keyboard inprints in her forehead...LOL (from her falling asleep on her keyboard!!)  I love helping her out-or anyone for that matter, its just that tonite-I am having severe (about as bad as ever) spasms in my back and I pinched a nerve in my neck-I KNOW...I KNOW... But, whatya do? Today, I got a call from my nurse, Susan-asking if I could come on in today and see the doc for a few-no charge...HMMM, No charge? Well, so I go to Neosho...and I am getting out of the Suburban, and I trip over the seatbelt that was stuck on the side of the door-and I pull my back and my neck...Hurt like you know what. I was instantly in tears and feeling like my neck was broken. Couldnt and still cant move it without moving my whole head.  Good thing I was at the doc-huh? Poor Jon, he kept saying he was sorry and he kept kissing the side of my face AND rubbing my back asking if I was ok.... Ok...well, we (me and doc) talked about the scope-he is trying to find someone qualified and knowledgable to do the scope on a RNY pt....Must have patience....He asked if I would do an ultrasound. I did-and wont get those results bac****il tomorrow or Monday. I dont know what they were looking for-but he is VERY unhappy with MOBAR and how they have not returned any of the 3 calls they have made. Two from my nurse and one from the doc himself. Whats up with that and what IF this was an emergency? What then? I am less than impressed with this follow up and tomorrow-I am going to call up there and raise hell-and by golly, by the time I am finished chewing someone rears-they WILL have an answer for me! If I have to go all the way up there to get answers, there will be a lot of very unhappy people. I would have NEVER been allowed to run my medical office that crappy OR employ people that do! I have kept three things total down in 23 days now. Just three. I am making sure I try to do enough liquids, but there are a lot of times that I cant even do that.

Jon and I went to town today to see my ex father in law and his wife.  I have known them for 25 years and have never, ever seen them speechless, until I walked in the door today!! Jans face fell and she couldnt talk for like 5 minutes, she sat there and stared at me-and then tears ran down her face - and it made me cry. David-he stood up and said - I recognize the voice-but not the person. He got misty eyed too-and he told me that God has blessed me and that he had been praying for me and my family. WOW...What an emotional afternoon today was! They said that they want pictures to go home with and show all the rest of the family. They wont believe it and so on.  I sure felt good.  While I was there visiting with them, all 4 parents wanted to go out and grab something to eat and maybe hit a couple resale/thrift shops-so I worked for a couple of hours this afternoon to allow them all time to hang out. My parents and them are best friends and I was more than happy to be able to do that for them. I didnt let my dad pay me today-because he is going to......Are you sitting down? I DONT HAVE TO WORK MONDAY NIGHT~~ He is going to take MY hours Monday night so that I can attend the COF group and see everyone.  I told him to keep my pay for today and put it towards his hours on Monday!  YAY....I am so happy about that-and to be able to see Brenda and Tammy again and to finally meet Craig.  Its going to be great!

So, in the morning, Jan and my mom have asked Megan and I to go to breakfast with them and then hit some garage sales. I am going to go to breakfast, not sure about sales yet, will see how my back and neck are doing. I have some odds and ends to do before work tomorrow afternoon as well, as I have to get my RX filled and so on.  I cant get into the pain management do****il Nov 14th and then get an appt for the nerve burning in my back. I am getting frustrated because financially, we arent legally out of the hole yet-and all I see are the signs of me digging another one. So....I have been down about that-but I know it will all work out, and I have been looking at my blessings list every time I start to feel like that, and everything on my list is way more important than a perfect credit score or money, thats for sure. I cant put a price on how much better I feel, minus the joint pain etc-but you get the point. The children that Mel and Terry have right now-well, the 5 month baby, Adrian, he is very sick. Please pray for him. Poor little guy. They put him on breathing treatments and when they tried to get the breathing machine-medicaid turned it down saying that he needed 2 yrs of verifiable breathing problems-hello people, he is only 5 months old-where the hell are we going to get that much documentation?  So, I still have Jons machine that I had to buy when he was a baby. Its not as fancy as the new ones, but it works just the same-and Terry came by tonite and got it. Please pray that he gets better soon.  They have just been dealing with so much between their health issues, the kids, the kids' POS parents, the dad and his health and so on.  Add the car accident, Mels health problems and now the baby being sick and Clair trying to come down with something-and its just overwhelming. I am praying that everything and everyone gets better and they catch a break somehow.  I know God will bless them for doing everything they are doing for those 2 children and the dad.

I had already responded to a couple of you yesterday on the whats happening Thurs post...so this may be short. **Craig-I did respond to you yesterday. Please know we will be praying for Michael and Leta.  Also praying that you have a good visit and for travelers mercy. Cant wait to finally meet you on Monday night! **Traci-I responded to you yesterday as well.  Lilly is absolutely beautiful!!! You are so blessed! I am so glad your back on the board and we see your smiling face everyday!  Can I ask you something?  Did you go for a long time without taking your supp? I didnt have my computer for awhile and so I may have missed something, I dont know....I am a firm believer in the supplements too.  Im sorry you arent up to yourself yet-but I am praying for you that you will be good as new SOON and thanks for throwing it out there to show everyone how important AFTER care is!! It is vital to be successful AND healthy! **Brenda-Oh honey...I know EXACTLY how you are feeling today. Its not bad enough it hurts anyway-but the arthritic pain can just drive a person insane, cant it?  Add your toes and feet to it and I know your just miserable. I am so sorry. I would take it from you in a heartbeat IF I could.  Know I am praying for you, and I love you.  I cant wait to see you and Tammy and I pray for travelers mercy. Take care. See you in a couple days!!! **Bev-I am so glad your appt is finally here and over with!! I hope you get answers to the medicare questions-I know that can get so complicated.  I dont think it will take long to get an approval though, do you?  Let us know what you find out, and we will be praying for the best results for you... I started taking my vitamins 3 months prior to surgery as well, and I did notice a big difference in my energy level and how I felt as a whole.  I hope you have a good furbaby b-day party this weekend. Take care.

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and a great weekend.  Be safe!  As always, your in my thoughts and prayers. Janet

Thank you sweet thing but it was tomorrow night i need you to do the post for me. love you bunches and am so very glad that you will be coming to the meeting on Monday night. I hope the ultrasound shows something anything. Love you and take care of yourself. Jan

I don't know which one to post to, you  or Jan. LOL

I think I will post to both!! Jan - Thank you for your prayers!

My toes are still swelling if I don't keep them  elevated, but alas they did take out a piece of bone! A person doesn't get over a broken  bone in 4 weeks! I thought my Fibromyalgia would get better after the weight loss and maybe it did a little but not a lot. And then with the DDD in my  spine and the bone spurs. I had to have  surgery on my right thumb in 2005 to  remove a bone spur and they had to remove part of the joint and they did a tendon transfer. They did a tendon transfer on my toes also. I have bone spurs on my spine. They tell me  I have a pretty good size one on my  lumbar spine. If I want to have a pretty decent pain day I have  to do nothing that even resembles work. Sweeping and doing dishes causes me back pain real fast! I have never been given Amitriptyline I am  going to talk to my PCP about it because I have a very hard time with going to sleep and staying asleep, so therefore I also have CFS. Isn't Amitriptyline used for  a sleeping pill? And also used for depression? I take Flexiril  and I take Celexa for depression. Can Amitriptyline be given with these two drugs  safely? Janet - Thank you for your prayers! I am so glad you will get to go the  support meeting!!! And hoping to spend some extra time with you and Melissa. I am going to pray for you even harder!! And I do hope you can find out why you can't  keep anything down. Murphy's law really does apply to you! I think we will have to put you in that bubble  with Melissa!! To the ones having surgery today God bless you! I pray none of you were affected by the storms  today. We never did get any rain, all of it was north and  south of us. Well I have to go elevate my toes!! God Bless Everyone. Brenda

NO!  I did not go a long time without taking supplements - I just wasn't taking enough for what my body needed.  We all need supplements - there's no doubt about that, but how much we need is what varies.  It seems some of our post-op bodies are able to do better at holding on to iron, calcium and such than others - I am apparently one that doesn't hold on to these things well.  This is the exact reason why you need to get your labs done every 6 months; because you need to monitor your blood levels closely to catch them before they get too low.  I had my 1 yr post-op checkup with Dr. Richardson.  He ran labs - never gave me a copy and said all was well.  I have no clue what he checked and he told me to come back in a year, or I could go to my PCP.  Considering that at that point, Richardson was in Wentzville and me in Sullivan - I opted to go to my PCP in Sullivan.  I was assuming (at that point)  that once per year for labs was sufficient.  So I went for my 2 year labs.  Basic labs - nothing extra, no nutrients or anything, just general CBC type stuff.  Nothing notable and I was feeling fine at that point.  However, shortly thereafter I started feeling awful.  I had been taking my supplements the whole entire time - yet I was still feeling bad.  So I go in April 2007 for labs and get on the web to research what exactly we need to be checking for - compile a list and have him run those.  Eye opening results on Vitamin D, but really, everything else that we checked (we forgot ferritin - DUH!) at that point, was within normal limits.  BUT, by October 2007, iron stores were way out of whack.  B12 had dropped, and I'm still waiting on a few other results that take longer to get in.  Sooooo, even though I've been taking supplements the whole entire time, it can obviously take time for our malabsorption issues to really show up/catch up in the labs.  Thus why supplementing is such a big deal and staying on top of your labs is such a big deal.  The further out you are, the more issues with labs folks seem to have.  We just need to adjust/tweak our supplement amounts to stay on top of it.  That's all - but we need to do it to stay healthy.